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Story Archives: Solid case for tax cuts


Solid case for tax cuts
posted Thursday, August 12th, 2010 @ 8:34 amE-mail Story E-mail Story | Print Story Print Story 
The jobs report the government released late last week confirmed what we suspected for a spell. That is the economy remains very weak, and it is danger of slipping into what economists call a double-dip recession.

According to the Labor Department, the nation's unemployment rate held steady at 9.5 percent in July. We should note that the government's tracking of the unemployed does not count jobless individuals who have quit looking for work. It also does not count part-time workers who formerly held full-time positions or individuals who are working in jobs they're more qualified to hold, better known as the underemployed.

In July, private employers added a measly 71,000 jobs nationwide. That figure was dwarfed by the loss of 202,000 government jobs, including 143,000 temporary jobs related to the Census count.

In Louisiana, July unemployment figures had not been released by the state as of earlier this week. In June, though, the unemployment rate in Louisiana stood at 8.3 percent.

While Louisiana's unemployment figures fair better than the nation as a whole, those of us who live and work here know well that our economy is struggling. It will get worse if the Obama administration does not lift a moratorium on deepwater offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which it imposed following the Deepwater Horizon incident. At least 8,000 people have lost their jobs because of the moratorium.

Each time the Labor Department releases a less than rosy unemployment report, President Obama and the leadership in the Congress tell us to be patient. They say the economy will rebound soon, and the unemployed will find jobs. While we appreciate the president's and the congressional leadership's optimistic attitude, we fear they do not realize that it is because of the policies they have implemented and continue to pursue that's causing the nation's economy to limp along, showing few signs of rebounding soon.

Borrowing money from foreign nations (namely China) and casting it into the wind under the guise of an economic stimulus package did not yield the results Obama promised. Sadly, we fear he does not realize where he went wrong.

We knew the $1 trillion economic stimulus bill the Congress approved many months ago would not work. We knew it because we know well that you cannot borrow your way to prosperity.

The business community -- as a whole -- was leery of it, too, evidenced by its apprehension to hire workers. And the business community remains reluctant to add employees out of fear of the unknown. The unknown concerns taxes, or if and when they will rise.

Let us not forget that the tax cuts the Congress approved in 2001 and in 2003 are scheduled to expire Jan. 31. Unless the Congress extends the '01 and '03 tax cuts in some form or fashion, taxes will rise for all taxpayers beginning Jan. 1, 2011.

With unemployment hovering at 9.5 percent and the economy showing few signs of heating up anytime soon, let us hope that the Congress will set aside election-year politics and vote to make the '01 and '03 tax cuts permanent, allowing millions of Americans to keep more of their money to spend as they see fit.
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