Seems like some very reasonable proposals that have the potential to make a huge impact.
support long-term unemployed workers who create their own jobs by starting their own companies
nationwide, interoperable wireless network for public safety
new science labs and Internet-ready classrooms
BusinessUSA within 90 days...one-stop online platform will provide access to information about the full range of government programs and services businesses need to compete globally
I'm happy to pay my taxes, personally I don't think there is a much better use of my money than improving the lives of the people in this country, or any country for that matter (once my basic needs are met, of course). Putting people to work is just an awesome side effect of improving our infrastructure and schools. If there is wasteful spending in the government, identify it, and get rid of it. There's no need to maintain some religious faith against ever raising taxes for anybody though. I mean look at today's tax rates compared to the early 80s: http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/fed_individual_rate_histo... [PDF]
It will be interesting to see if the Republicans are willing to compromise on increasing revenue, and the Democrats on entitlement programs, in order to meet the goal Obama has set for the deficit reductions, which is what will ultimately determine if The American Jobs Act will come to fruition.
There's no need to maintain some religious faith against ever raising taxes for anybody though. I mean look at today's tax rates compared to the early 80s:
Instead of focusing on one particular tax rate (marginal individual rates) and ignoring all the others, why not just look at tax revenues?
They've been more or less flat (at 18.1% of GDP) for the past 50 years.
Its exciting to watch this proposal start to come to fruition. I worked in the government, and attended an Access to Capital Summit in the Dept of Treasury back in March, where I saw this proposal take bloom.
At the Summit, Jessica Jackley of Profounder and Kiva vocally voiced concern for the Reg A and Reg D restrictions on "accredited investors". Sec Geithner was in the room as well. A month afterwards, the idea had organically permeated other conversations in the White House, and meetings in the OSTP would often bring up the issue. Now it seems its finally made its way into legislative proposal.
Comes to show I think, that even though government is slow, byzantine, and sometimes impossible to access, often all it takes to get something done is to just show up and say something really provocative. Someone may listen!
How can you spend "$25 billion in K-12 school infrastructure" and "$1 billion to support NextGen air traffic modernization" "all without adding a dime to the deficit"? I think the programs should go ahead deficit or no, but it does seem like something's being left out.
Often its by just shuffling funds from certain programs to another. I believe in this particular case, they'll also use revenue-generating measures like closing tax loopholes to fund the new programs, thereby not adding to the deficit.
I wish the president had used this opportunity to support real patent reform. That could've been a huge step toward supporting startups and job creation.
Unfortunately, any such proposal would for sure bring about heavy flak fire from the Republican party (and probably from the more big-corporations-interest-sensitive Democratic representatives too) as a socialistic, un-American attitude, with the risk of stopping the whole show.
Protect IP Act passed today, I believe, which is a real bummer for actual patent reform that will promote innovation, since the system was just shifted from a 'first to invent' to a 'first to file,' supporting patent farming/fencing and litigation. Bummer :(
In a way, I kind of wished they had linked to something a little more relevant with the Kickstarter link. There was some strong talk about transportation infrastructure and technology leading that in the president's speech tonight
I realize it's reaching, but I think maybe using the revolights project page to suggestively highlight transportation/infrastructure is an important theme as a part of the Jobs Bill.
The regulations regarding funding for private firms stems from a time when it was much harder to do qualification. With the changes in technology and the emerging reputation economy, the risks of such investing have diminished. Especially if it's capped, opening up investment to the average person would cause an explosion in innovation and job creation that would offset the harm cause by fraud. I'm extremely excited by this!
This is the kind of worthless comment I hoped would never become commonplace on Hacker News. There's no argument here. There's no point. It's just an snide jab with an information content of zero. If you disagree with the article, say specifically why. If you agree, say specifically why.
From the outside looking in, I really don't understand why Obama's approval ratings are at an all time low. I wish the UK were as elegantly pragmatic as this.
Because it is lip service only. This plan will be muddled by congress as to benefit primarily the large institutions that are their donors, rather than the intended swath of USians. When that happens, don't expect Obama to be outraged. The exact same thing happened with health care, tax rates, debt cap, etc.
The U.S. economy is stalled because of a wave of government legislative activism (health care, finance, bailouts, energy, labor) unseen here since the New Deal.
[+] [-] fletchowns|14 years ago|reply
support long-term unemployed workers who create their own jobs by starting their own companies
nationwide, interoperable wireless network for public safety
new science labs and Internet-ready classrooms
BusinessUSA within 90 days...one-stop online platform will provide access to information about the full range of government programs and services businesses need to compete globally
I'm happy to pay my taxes, personally I don't think there is a much better use of my money than improving the lives of the people in this country, or any country for that matter (once my basic needs are met, of course). Putting people to work is just an awesome side effect of improving our infrastructure and schools. If there is wasteful spending in the government, identify it, and get rid of it. There's no need to maintain some religious faith against ever raising taxes for anybody though. I mean look at today's tax rates compared to the early 80s: http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/fed_individual_rate_histo... [PDF]
It will be interesting to see if the Republicans are willing to compromise on increasing revenue, and the Democrats on entitlement programs, in order to meet the goal Obama has set for the deficit reductions, which is what will ultimately determine if The American Jobs Act will come to fruition.
[+] [-] yummyfajitas|14 years ago|reply
Instead of focusing on one particular tax rate (marginal individual rates) and ignoring all the others, why not just look at tax revenues?
They've been more or less flat (at 18.1% of GDP) for the past 50 years.
http://www.businessinsider.com/federal-government-budget-ove...
[+] [-] bmahmood|14 years ago|reply
At the Summit, Jessica Jackley of Profounder and Kiva vocally voiced concern for the Reg A and Reg D restrictions on "accredited investors". Sec Geithner was in the room as well. A month afterwards, the idea had organically permeated other conversations in the White House, and meetings in the OSTP would often bring up the issue. Now it seems its finally made its way into legislative proposal.
Comes to show I think, that even though government is slow, byzantine, and sometimes impossible to access, often all it takes to get something done is to just show up and say something really provocative. Someone may listen!
[+] [-] Zakharov|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bmahmood|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] teyc|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] learc83|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ig1|14 years ago|reply
I'm not saying patent reform isn't important, but it's probably not even in the top-100 problems the average startup faces.
[+] [-] danmaz74|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] HistoryInAction|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iamdave|14 years ago|reply
I realize it's reaching, but I think maybe using the revolights project page to suggestively highlight transportation/infrastructure is an important theme as a part of the Jobs Bill.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/revolights/revolights-jo...
[+] [-] auston|14 years ago|reply
This sounds like a good plan, at least on the surface!
[+] [-] david927|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mathgladiator|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robot|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] david927|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wavephorm|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Locke1689|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tomelders|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thisuser|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] watchandwait|14 years ago|reply