Dec 16 Ellison's Jobs Plan Typical DFL Thinking

After reading Keith Ellison's latest e-letter, the first thing that popped into my head was that it was typical of DFL economics 101. Here's part of Rep. Ellison's e-letter update:

One of the top priorities I have in the Congress is building lasting prosperity for families in the Fifth Congressional District of Minnesota. Creating new jobs and assisting those who are looking for work is critical to this plan. I've brought together a broad coalition of groups including the AFL-CIO, SEIU, the Leadership Conference for Civil Rights, the Center for Community Change, and the Economic Policy Institute to formulate a plan to create one million new jobs. This coalition represents the best of America's economic minds coming together with the goal to create one million well-paying jobs that rebuild our infrastructure, serve our communities, and make America competitive again.

What do the AFL-CIO or SEIU know about creating jobs? Before asking that question about LCCR, I checked their About Us page. Here's what I found:

Current Priorities

• Ensuring equal opportunity
• Protecting civil rights, civil liberties, worker protections, and equal opportunity
• Promoting civic engagement
• Building stronger communities and families
• Reforming the nation's criminal justice system
• Guarding the crossroads of civil rights and civil liberties

Again, what does LCCR know about creating jobs?

When I went to EPI's page, I noticed this link:

Fiscal relief to states creates jobs

Fiscal relief to struggling state and local governments is critical to prevent many public sector layoffs and create jobs in the private sector, EPI's American Jobs Plan shows.

Here's the heart of the American Jobs Plan:

The Economic Policy Institute recommends a five-point American Jobs Plan to create jobs and stem the unemployment crisis. The plan calls for the nation to strengthen the safety net (including unemployment compensation, COBRA health coverage, and nutrition assistance); provide fiscal relief to state and local governments; make renewed investments in transportation and schools; support direct creation of public service jobs; and establish a new job creation tax credit.

Strengthening the safety net won't create private sector jobs. Providing fiscal relief to state and local governments won't create private sector jobs either. Updating our transportation infrastructure will create jobs but ARRA was supposed to accomplish that. Creating public sector jobs certainly won't create private sector jobs but it will explode the already historic deficits even further.

Here's the 'other gem' in the American Jobs Plan:

The American Jobs Plan is an efficient and effective way to create jobs. We estimate that the plan will create at least 4.6 million jobs in the first year, at a total first-year gross cost of roughly $400 billion. This entire cost can be recouped within 10 years by enacting a financial transactions tax (FTT), which would take effect three years after enactment. An FTT is a highly progressive way to raise revenue by imposing a small tax on the sale of stocks and other financial products.

TRANSLATION: Spend billions of dollars on public sector unionized jobs, tax the rich, then pray that nobody minds the tax increases or notices that the plan was a failure on the same magnitude as the stimulus.

I'd highlight the fact that President Obama keeps saying that we have to put our financial house in order. I'd hope that that'd be Rep. Ellison's priority, too. Unfortunately, it appears as though President Obama and Rep. Ellison put a higher priority on irresponsibly spending the taxpayers' money than they put on exercising a little bit of fiscal responsibility.

This isn't a jobs plan. It's another 'Pay off the Democrats' cronies' bill.

Comments welcome at LFR.