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Boehner's jobs summit takes aim at Obama
House Republican Leader John Boehner's (Ohio) jobs summit Thursday is taking aim squarely at President Barack Obama's top legislative priorities and economic policies.
A group of right-leaning economists will meet at the Capitol on Thursday for a jobs summit hosted by the House GOP leader, meant as a counter to the White House's jobs summit, where a group of business leaders and economists will huddle with the Obama administration to discuss job growth.
Obama's plans for regulation, climate change legislation and healthcare reform would only do harm to the economy, the economists at Boehner's event will say.
"It is no surprise that such a mix of policies would lead to the collapse in business confidence that occurred after President Obama’s election," the American Enterprise Institute's Director of Economic Policy Studies Kevin Hassett will say. "If the president enacts more of the same types of policies, you can be sure that he will have many more jobs summits.”
The White House event Thursday will feature panel discussions with Cabinet secretaries and other administration officials, and meetings with business and labor leaders. Some have noted, though, that business groups who have opposed key Obama initiatives, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), were excluded from the White House discussion.
Read the entirety of the excerpts of economists at Boehner's meeting after the jump.
Doug Holtz-Eakin, President of DHE Consulting
“The freedom for American entrepreneurs to pursue a better future for their families has been at the heart of the greatest economic engine this world has ever seen. In addition, a reduction in payroll taxes — offset by elimination of future spending in the broken TARP and stimulus programs — would have the greatest additional impact on the ability of small businesses to expand, grow, and fuel the futures of America’s workers.”
Kevin Hassett, Senior Fellow and Director of Economic Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute“President Obama came to Washington with a lengthy and historically unprecedented wish list of job-destroying policies. Since taking office, he and his allies have pursued a drastic restructuring of the health care sector, card check legislation that would lead to a significant increase in unionization and labor costs for firms, tax increases on the “wealthy,” tax increases on our most successful multinational firms, and a costly cap-and-trade system. While pursuing these objectives, he has ratcheted up government spending and deficits in the name of Keynesian stimulus, and raised the specter of large future tax increases. It is no surprise that such a mix of policies would lead to the collapse in business confidence that occurred after President Obama’s election. It is no surprise that the human damage from such harmful and ill conceived government action is so severe that President Obama now feels compelled to hold a jobs summit even as the ink on his stimulus bill is still drying. If the President enacts more of the same types of policies, you can be sure that he will have many more jobs summits.”
James C. Capretta, Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center“Both the House and the Senate health-care bills would make it much more expensive for employers to hire and keep their workers with new mandates to provide one-size-fits-all insurance, or pay a tax. Study after study shows that these kinds of mandates destroy jobs, especially in low-wage occupations. That's the last thing we should be doing at this moment in our history.”
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute“It’s tragic that while American workers desperately need jobs, the major legislation at the top of the congressional agenda would reduce hiring. Consider this: the trillion-dollar health “reform” bills would impose tax hikes and health insurance premium increases on consumers and businesses, leaving them with fewer resources to spend, invest, and create jobs. The $800 billion cap and trade bills do the same by sending energy prices higher. The Employee Free Choice Act, by taking away the secret ballot and imposing mandatory contracts by politically-appointed arbitrators, would give unions the power to intimidate workers, encouraging firms to move business offshore. The swelling budget deficit is mortgaging our children’s and grandchildren’s future and sending the dollar down. The bottom line: Congress is suffocating the goose that used to lay its economic golden eggs.”
Alex Brill, Research Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute“The U.S. consumer, the U.S. worker and the global investor look forward at the policy trajectory from Washington before making significant decisions. If the Democrat's agenda prevails, that is a future that will include higher tax rates, less labor-market flexibility, high regulatory burdens, higher national healthcare spending, and a bigger federal government all around. In the near term, the uncertainty created by the Democrat's healthcare, financial services, and energy policy agenda pushes the economy to hesitate further and as a result the unemployment rate continues to rise. In the long term, the expected rise in the debt burden and higher costs for workers and businesses creates a cloud on the prospects for future growth.”
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