Obama's Last Stand?

Image via WikipediaPresident Barack Obama, aware that his own job is at stake, recently announced a program that would bring employment back to Americans to the tune of $450 billion.  Thus far, though, Congress and most of the public have been skeptical of the plan, given the President's pleas to "pass it right away".  If the recent past is any indication, "right away" means several minutes before the deadline.

Now we come to how the American Jobs Act will be paid for.  According to the White House, $1.5 trillion would come from the wealthiest individuals and corporations, $1.1 trillion from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and over $580 billion from entitlement programs such as Medicaid and Medicare.  That adds up to over $3 trillion.  It won't make a dent in the federal budget, but it won't add to it either.

The part about taxing the rich has been dubbed "The Buffett Rule" in honor of Omaha's own Warren Buffett, who claimed that he paid less in taxes than his secretary.  Well, other billionaires can say the same thing, but that doesn't mean they have a real problem with it.

As you might expect, the Republicans who control the House aren't crazy about this plan, and have substituted more tax cuts for the rich in its proposal.  Some Democrats don't care for it, either, preferring instead to break the plan up into easily-digestible pieces.

While there has been overwhelming support among ordinary folks who may never see a million dollars in their lifetimes, there are two possible ways that the so-called "Buffett Rule" can be circumvented by the wealthy and the corporations, even without help from their GOP servants:  (1)  Tax increases will simply be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, so we'll all be paying for this one way or another, and (2) the increases will become an excuse for the wealthy and the corporations to skip the country and move to tax-free havens with their money.

There's no mystery as to why Obama is throwing this Hail Mary pass.  His presidency is floundering, with poll numbers sinking to its lowest since he took office.  Republicans have so far succeeded in making the President resemble some of those emasculated men on TV sitcoms, putting the odds of getting re-elected as a tossup.  Liberals and independents are deserting him.  And whatever happened to the Democratic party?

Congress has been faring worse in the public's eyes, generating a favorable rating of only 12 percent.  Not that it matters, particularly to Republicans, because they don't really care what the public thinks.  The way elections are currently set up, many of the same people now serving in Congress will probably return in 2013.  And beyond.

Unemployment is at around nine percent, and no new jobs were added last month.  If President Obama's jobs bill is defeated or altered in any way, he could be looking for work himself come next November.