Many economists believe that president Obama's $447 billion jobs bill will help stimulate the economy—albeit not quite as much as the administration is predicting—by bolstering the GDP and creating or keeping at least 275,000 jobs. To pay for the plan, the president has asked the wealthy to dig under their manatee-leather couch cushions and be taxed as much as middle class folk. New York Senator Chuck Schumer thinks this is a bad idea. "The main hangup is not the jobs bill itself," Schumer tells the Daily News, "[Obama] proposed ways of paying for it that are probably not the best way to garner the votes. We're looking for better ways." Schumer then began furiously scratching a stack of Instant Take 5s.
What's more worthy of full-throated support other than the jobs bill? A glove-slapping measure that would impose economic sanctions on China for devaluing their currency. "There's no longer any question that China's unfair trade policies are having a detrimental effect on our economy," Schumer tells Politico. This is true!
However, the bill has little chance at even seeing a vote in the Republican-controlled House, and Obama has stayed mum to avoid straining relations with China. But Schumer seems content to waste political capital on the issue, while the jobs bill would create a projected 38,800 jobs and save the jobs of another 18,000 teachers and first responders. In related news, Congress will not care about what you think until it gets closer to election day.
