What’s Not to Like About Obama's Jobs Act?

Loop 21 weighs the pros and cons of Obama's jobs jumpoff

The American Jobs Act has plenty of details and a little something for everybody. It's not as comprehensive and wide sweeping as past legislation proposals, such as the healthcare reform act and the climate and energy bill from his first two years. But there's a reason for that: The climate bill went kaput in the Senate, and the healthcare bill limped out of Congress only to continue to take more slugs by lawsuits and judges nullifying various parts of it. It's safe to say that Obama intentionally went safe. He needed a proposal that he thought Democrats and Republicans could live with, and that could millions of Americans start living again, instead of surviving on unemployment benefits and depleted savings accounts. That said, there's enough in here to warm hearts. However, it's still just a proposal, and the real work begins when it makes its way through Congress. With that in mind there are reasons to curb your enthusiasm:

    •    The American Jobs Act has to pass Congress. And too many Republican insiders are saying that passing jobs legislation is not a big deal right now.

    •    A lot of this money, like funds for modernizing schools, is prioritized for rural schools. Urban metros are dying right now, but the reality is that many rural areas are already in the grave. Reconcile that cities will have to share this money with the country.

    •    This thing has to be paid for. It costs $450 billion and the deficit supercommittee already facing a difficult task of finding $1.5 trillion in cuts now is looking at $2 trillion. If they don’t get it by Thanksgiving, there will be sweeping cuts mostly to Department of Defense. But that’s no consolation, because there will also still be no jobs bill.

But once you get past that, what’s to like about it? Let’s break it down by groups: