The Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature called a special “jobs” session, then proceeded to rush through numerous bills having nothing to do with jobs.
Meanwhile, you can now carry concealed firearms into the Capitol, but you can’t carry a camera or wear a t-shirt with your Constitutional rights emblazoned on it.
Speaking of jobs, just for the record, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that while Wisconsin did not have a statistically significant change in employment numbers from September 2010 to September 2011, it did have a significant change from August to September. We lost 12,400 jobs. Heckuva job, Scotty! Where do some letter writers get their information?
Meanwhile nationally, private sector jobs are increasing slightly as public sector (government) jobs are still being lost. If the Republicans in Washington and in Madison would allow for more revenue, we wouldn’t be losing those public sector jobs.
A new report indicates that while corporations are supposed to pay taxes of 35 percent of their incomes, the effective tax rate for the 280 big companies examined over three years averaged less than half that amount: 17.3 percent. It found 67 of those companies paid a less than 10 percent rate over that period and 30 paid less than zero. Research indicates creative accounting costs the federal government in lost revenue, by most estimates, over $50 billion a year. Targeted tax preferences, which Congress created to intentionally benefit specific companies or industries, cost an estimated $100 billion more a year.
In 2010, corporate taxes accounted for about 1.3 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Most industrial countries collect more from companies, about 2.5 percent of output. The U.S. is not overburdening business with taxes.
And for those screaming about oppressive regulations, the independent “Doing Business” survey, which focuses on the regulatory environment, ranks the U.S. as No. 4 for the ease of doing business in 2011, behind Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand. China is ranked No. 91, Brazil No. 126, and India No. 132. News flash to Republicans thinking they are creating jobs with deregulation: That’s not the problem, and you are not creating jobs!
History shows you don’t create jobs by cutting government spending or deregulating. You create private sector jobs by creating demand for goods and services. You have to put money into the hands of consumers. The only way to do that is for the government to create good jobs, such as in building (or rebuilding) infrastructure and providing services that benefit society. Maybe the best thing the state legislature could do, is demand that their colleagues in Washington send some money back to the states to start rebuilding this country.