President Obama’s so-called jobs bill will likely be rejected today when it goes to a vote in the U.S. Senate. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the bill as it was proposed a few weeks ago would have jacked up taxes on people earning more than $200,000 a year, but the new version targets millionaires.
Grassley, a Republican, says that makes the legislation more popular with Democrats, but not enough of them. Grassley says, “I believe you’re going to find massive objections on our side and from four or five Democrats not to go along even with the change that’s been made that we’re going to tax millionaires instead of just taxing people over $200,000.”
Grassley quoted a study of tax increases over the past five decades that found for every dollar taxes were raised, $1.17 was spent. He says he won’t be backing the bill. “It might be one thing for me to vote for a tax increase if — and this is a big ‘if’ and an ‘if’ that’s not going to happen — if it went to the bottom line,” Grassley says.
“In this particular case, it is a license to spend more money because the president’s proposing spending $447-billion on another stimulus bill.” He says the stimulus bill two years ago that cost $830-billion didn’t accomplish its goal of getting the unemployment rate under 8%, so there’s no reason to think the president’s new plan would succeed either.
Grassley says, “It really doesn’t end because you can’t raise taxes high enough in this town to satisfy the willingness of people to spend money.” Supporters of the bill say it would direct nearly $500-million to Iowa, providing jobs for 6,700 construction workers, among others.
Opponents say the stimulus package in 2009 was an expensive failure and this jobs bill will be no different.