Obama to Roll Out $50 Billion Jobs Proposal

There is no question that job stimulus is needed. Millions of America's unemployed workers want and need to return to working jobs just as they were doing before their life was abruptly disrupted by layoff and the shock of not being able to find work. But, it seems that almost all of this job creation proposal relates to manual labor and very little that could benefit many of the long-term unemployed, many of whom are women who are over the age of 50. Road construction jobs and working on the railroad will not get these hard hit workers who are accustomed to performing office tasks back to work. There seems to be nothing geared towards aiding this large group in finding job reinstatement. I would like to see serious incentives for business owners - incentives that would make it near impossible to choose using profits or tax breaks to reward CEO's with large raises instead of reinstating the hundreds of thousands of lost office jobs. How about no tax breaks for any business who does not reinstate (and retain for no less than 1 years) 10-20% of the positions cut by their firm? Or what about a sliding scale of tax breaks - larger breaks for greater percentages of jobs reinstated. People forget that this is not about creating jobs that were never there - this is about reinstating jobs that have existed for decades. There are simple ways to accomplish this but political resentment must be set aside for the good of the country. Without a commitment on the part of all politicians to act in a cooperative manner in the best interest of the citizens of the United States of America I don't see how it is possible for any President or political party to succeed in any policy for economic recovery. Now is a time for unity and our political leaders - particularly Republicans who have become so engrossed in a selfish "me" agenda have come to blame and punish the unemployed for this recession and forgotten the need to repair the economy. They have forgotten that united we stand, divided we fall. A nation divided by political civil war - Republican vs Democrat - will surely cause our nation to fall into depression. That is the only economic certainty in these times - If politicians cannot cooperate for the good of the nation they will cause another Great Depression.

Deborah Brown of ME 11:59PM September 13, 2010