Two parts of Mr. Obama’s weak sauce jobs bill have passed the Senate. The first part is a tax credit to hire unemployed veterans. While I think this is largely symbolic and won’t have an impact on the state of the economy, it’s certainly less symbolic if you’re an unemployed veteran. Unemployment amongst veterans is about two percent higher than in the general population, so I’m not going to complain too much about this.
The other provision that passed repeals a requirement that federal, state, and local governments begin withholding 3 percent of payments to contractors starting in 2013. The 3% withholding was instituted in 2006 and designed to combat tax evasion by federal contractors. Not only will it make it easier for these contractors to commit fraud, but it will syphon $11 billion out of the treasury over the next ten years. The White House intends to make up that lost revenue by tweaking the requirements for Medicaid to make it harder for poor people to get access to the program.
So, “progress” in the Obama era is a largely symbolic tax cut to help veterans find work and some rules changes to get more payments to federal contractors while depriving poor people from getting health care.
