Side by Side
House Republicans' first priority is to pass job-creating
legislation. As of January 27, the House has approved 27 bipartisan jobs
bills that are awaiting action in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Regulations
The Obama administration has publicly listed a total of 219 new
regulatory actions under consideration for the upcoming year, each of
which would have an estimated cost to our economy of $100 million or
more.
| The President's Plan | The President has ordered a review of all government regulations. In his address to Congress, he stated that they "identified over 500 reforms, which will save billions of dollars over the next few years." |
| House Republicans' Plan | House Republicans are supportive of President Obama's intent to review Federal regulations. Our regulatory relief agenda includes repeal of specific regulations, stopping rules like Cement MACT, expediting the permitting process for construction projects, and making structural reforms to the rule-making system. The House has approved more than 27 pro-growth measures to address the jobs crisis and we urge the Senate to approve these measures. |
Payroll Tax Holiday
In the past, the Obama administration said that the payroll tax
was "a one-year, temporary tax break intended to help working families
in these tough economic times and to help generate growth and jobs.
After the temporary provision expires, payroll tax rates will return to
what they were before." When the payroll tax reduction was first enacted
in December 2010, the unemployment rate stood at 9.4%. Today, more than
13 million Americans are still unemployed.
| The President's Plan | Cuts payroll taxes by 50% next year. |
| House Republicans' Plan | In addition to keeping payroll taxes low for another year, House Republicans are focusing on reforming the tax code to make it easier to create jobs while making it fairer, flatter, and simpler for all workers. |
Unemployment Insurance
For 34 consecutive months the unemployment rate has been at or
above 8% — the level the president said unemployment would never reach
if the "stimulus" was approved. Prior to the enactment of the
"stimulus," unemployment had not been above 8% for two and a half years
consecutively since the Great Depression.
| The President's Plan | Extends Unemployment Insurance for another year. |
| House Republicans' Plan | House Republicans want to ensure that those who truly need unemployment insurance can rely upon it but also reform the program to ensure it focuses on helping get people back to work – like instituting basic work requirements, allowing states to test innovative state-based solutions, and permitting states to perform drug screening and testing to improve prospects for future employment. We are also ensuring that our children and grandchildren are not paying for today’s job crisis by adding to the deficit. |
Stimulus Infastructure Spending
Stimulus Spending has failed. In 2009, the Obama administration
promised that unemployment would not go above 8% if the $1 trillion
"stimulus" became law, but unemployment has averaged 9.4%. In May 2011, a
new study was released by economists from Ohio State that said the
actual impact of the $1.2 trillion "stimulus" was a net job loss of
550,000.
| The President's Plan | Proposes the infastructure improvement of 35,000 schools, the rehabilitiation of homes and businesses in locations with a high rate of foreclosure, and the creation of thousands of transportation projects nationwide. |
| House Republicans' Plan | House Republicans want to use infrastructure funds more effectively to support economic growth without borrowing more money. This can be done simply by removing artificial funding barriers which set aside 10% of state infrastructure funds for items such as transportation museums and the acquisition of scenic easements. This would allow states to devote more funding to the types of infrastructure the president has advocated and that House Republicans support, without requiring new spending. |
Infastructure Bank
In 2009, the Democrat majority first proposed the development of
a federal Infrastructure Bank, a wholly owned government corporation
controlled by a five-member board of directors with the ability to issue
bonds and to use the proceeds to provide loans and loan guarantees for
state and local construction. Like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, most
infrastructure bank proposals would exposes taxpayers to the risk of
default.
| The President's Plan | Sets up an independent fund to attract investments and issue loans based on two criteria: project need and economic benefit. |
| House Republicans' Plan | House Republicans want to use infrastructure funds more effectively to support economic growth without borrowing more money or creating additional bureacracy. As stated above, this can be done simply by removing artificial funding barriers which set aside 10% of state infrastructure funds for items such as transportation museums and the acquisition of scenic easements. This allows states to devote more funding to the types of infrastructure that would be provided through the president's proposal while preventing additional spending and shielding taxpayers from risky investments. |
Tax Credit for Hiring the Unemployed
In March 2010 Congress passed the HIRE Act (H.R. 2847), which
suspended employers’ requirement to pay payroll taxes for certain new
employees and provided a tax credit of $1,000 to an employer if they
retained an employee for 52 weeks. Once again, the temporary tax credit
program failed to make a significant and sustained dent in
unemployment, which was 9.7% the month before the bill was passed and
averaged 9.6% since then.
| The President's Plan | Provides companies a $4,000 tax credit if they hire anyone who has spent more than six months looking for a job. |
| House Republicans' Plan | The House Republican Plan for America’s Job Creators includes truly pro-growth, long-term tax reform to provide American job creators with the certainty that they need to hire and expand, rather than a short-term tax subsidy for temporary hiring. House Republicans put fundamental tax reform in our budget to make the tax code fairer, flatter, simpler and more competitive to create jobs, and it’s our hope that the president would support that effort. |
Stimulus Education Spending
The original stimulus included $53.6 billion for the "State
Fiscal Stabilization Fund," which was generally used to subsidize
states' public education costs and supplement state budgets, rather than
hire a substantial number of new employees. In a number of areas,
cash-strapped state and local governments used the money to give
employees raises instead.
| The President's Plan | "Thousands of teachers in every state will go back to work." |
| House Republicans' Plan | House Republicans agree with the 222 economists from across the country who stated in December 2009 that "The 2009 near-term 'stimulus' has proven to be an inefficient spur to job creation and does not merit repeating," and concluded that "the country's economic future depends on Congress’ ability to rein in the growth of federal spending." |
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