Pieces of Obama jobs plan win bipartisan approval

[ellisonz]

Source: LA Times

Pieces of Obama jobs plan win bipartisan approval
The House, like the Senate, passes a bill to repeal a never-enacted tax on government contractors, boost job training for veterans and offer tax credits for companies hiring out-of-work veterans.

By Kathleen Hennessey and Lisa Mascaro, Washington Bureau
November 16, 2011, 7:39 p.m.
Reporting from Washington—

House Republicans and Democrats joined to pass the first pieces of President Obama's jobs package, sending to the president a slim slice of common ground while the bulk of the legislation remains stalled in a divided Congress.

The legislation passed Wednesday will repeal a tax on government contractors, boost job training for veterans and offer tax credits to companies that hire unemployed veterans. The House passed the measure without dissent, and Obama has said he would sign it. The Senate overwhelmingly approved it last week.

Though both parties hailed the move as a step toward job creation, it was widely viewed as a small step. Advocates for repealing the 3% withholding tax on federal contractors, which was signed into law in 2005 but never enacted, argued that it could prevent further job losses, but gave no estimate of how many new jobs might be created.

The tax credit program is not expected to affect enough of the 850,000 unemployed veterans to make a significant dent in the nation's 14 million unemployed. Supporters estimated the job training program could reach 100,000 veterans.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-congress-jobs-20111117,0,2191560.story

[bloomington-lib]

1. They'll "compromise" if it involves cutting taxes

[limpyhobbler]

2. Sign this petition to the government to revive the WPA .

Sign this petition to the government to revive the WPA .

At least get them to start talking about it.

There is a petition on the Whitehouse petition site.
shortlink - http://wh.gov/jja

long link - https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/%21/petition/crea...

If a petition on there gets 25 thousand signatures in 30 days, the Whitehouse will have to respond.

[No Elephants]

3. What prevents the government contractors from simply passing the

cost of the new tax right back to the government by folding it into the bid price? (LOL, do we even still take bids on government jobs these days, or do we just call Halliburton?)]

Job training for veterans, and tax credits to companies that hire veterans.

I am guessing the Brown turd voted for these because (a) veterans were his big specialty in the Massachusetts legislature and (b) he'd want to bolster his undeserved reputation for being bipartisan and independent for use in his campaign against Elizabeth Warren.

You cannot imagine how much I don't want this man re-elected.