I'll be the first to admit that President Obama gives a great speech. It's amazing how he somehow manages to juggle competing ideas without really landing on either side. Last week, he announced a troop surge in Afghanistan, but also promised not to stay too long. This week it's job creation, and how we need to spend to get it, but not too much - - we NOW need to show restraint. He's talking ABOUT the important issues, but it looks as though it will just remain talk for the time being. I'd like him to use his obvious oratory skills to get others to take ACTION NOW.
Most of the points in my blog post last week still hold true, and the ideas I've proposed still need to be enacted. The Obama Administration may have caught wind of them, though, since they did mention a capital gains tax relief for investments in small businesses (though only for a year), but it probably just dawned on them as a commonsensical solution. The other ideas the President put forth aren't all that impressive. The tax credits will accomplish next to nothing (as I've already explained); the infrastructure spending (as much as it may be needed) is only a temporary “band-aid” fix that does nothing for long-term job creation; and continuing to aid the unemployed without requiring them to be accountable for new job training or job searching is ridiculous . . . it's just buying their vote without making them “earn” their benefits.
Again, my primary beef with ALL of this is this: it's just TALK. Doing anything to actually fix the economy and help small businesses will require the ACTION of Congress, and they're already taking the position that they “don't have time” to devote to these actions. Right now, they have their hands full with health care and proposing legislation for a collegiate football playoff (no matter how much it may make sense, NOW is NOT the time to be drafting that sort of legislation). And no, I'm not kidding about that last thing - - go Google it and you'll see.
No one in Washington is taking this Crisis as seriously as they ought to be (the Crisis being the destruction of many of America's small businesses and with them, their job engines . . . all wrought by the Great Recession). The President is talking about helping small businesses about 10 months too late, and Congress is “too busy” to be bothered with it. It'll be interesting to see how the 27 million small business people in America feel about Congress' priorities come November 2010. Maybe they"ll all be “too busy” to read the record of their incumbent, and just vote for “anybody but.”
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