Just had a chance to view the new Republican plan for "job creators" at the website of the House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor (R-VA). The plan doesn't seem to have much by way of job creation. Instead, it offers the same boilerplate GOP ideology of tax cuts, deregulation, and free trade agreements. Perhaps most shocking, the plan would take Executive Branch authority away and require "congressional review and approval" of any regulation that might "have a significant impact on the economy or burden small businesses."
Here's the Leader's video introducing the plan:
The top sheet on the plan is as follows:
Empower Small Business Owners and Reduce Regulatory Burdens:
•Require congressional review and approval of any government regulations that have a significant impact on the economy or burden small businesses.
•Audit existing and pending regulations to identify and address those that hinder economic growth.
Fix the Tax Code to Help Job Creators:
•Increase American competitiveness to spur investment and create more American jobs by streamlining the tax code and lowering the tax rate for businesses and individuals including small business owners to no more than 25%.
•Reform the tax code to allow American businesses to bring back their overseas profits without having to pay a tax penalty so they can invest in our economy and create American jobs.
Increase Competitiveness for American Manufacturers:
•Pass the three pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea to create up to 250,000 jobs.
•Continue to open new markets to American made products.
Encourage Entrepreneurship and Growth:
•Modernize our patent system to protect our nation’s innovators, discourage frivolous lawsuits, and expedite patent reviews.
•Re-Authorize and improve federal programs and approval processes to streamline development of new products. Remove barriers to building a first class workforce so that the United States can compete in the global marketplace and lead the way in technological development and growth.
Maximize Domestic Energy Production to Ensure an Energy Policy for the 21st Century:
•Promote lower energy prices through increased domestic production. Encourage all forms of energy production.
Pay Down America's Unsustainable Debt Burden and Start Living Within our Means:
•Build upon the House Republicans’ Budget by enacting significant spending cuts.
It's ironic, given the fact that the White House has already undertaken a massive overhaul and review of our regulatory framework. The White House is already doing what Cantor wants Congress to do - except Congress would have to "review and approve" any new regulations. And given the environment in Congress at this time, and the willingness of the Republicans to block legislation, appointees, and progress in general, this is an especially troubling proposal.
Not only does this plan overreach into the Executive authority of the President, but it also gives tax breaks to those who ship jobs overseas. Trying to incentivize domestic job creation is one thing - but rewarding tax evaders? That's just not smart. It's like negotiating with pirates.
The simple fact is that the Republican plan to enact massive spending cuts would do more to kill jobs than any deregulation might create. And free trade agreements, without protections for American workers or efforts to address our massive international trade imbalance, would hurt domestic job creation instead of helping it.
In short, this is 40-year-old Republican ideology that's been regurgitated and repackaged as a jobs plan.
Fri May 27, 2011 at 5:29 AM PT: Salon.com wrote about a similar proposal in 2009, calling it a "Magic Pony Jobs Plan" - http://www.salon.com/... Not much different in this version from Cantor, except it's more brazen in its corporate welfare.