SOUL e-Newsletter
September 12, 2011
American Jobs Act
On Thursday, September 8, President Obama unveiled his American Jobs Act to a joint session of Congress. As we all know many Americans need not just jobs, but good paying jobs that can allow a person to support and provide for their family. So how will the American Jobs Act create good jobs and stimulate the economy? The White House provided a Fact Sheet that breaks down the American Jobs Act. The following is taken directly from the Fact Sheet:
1. Tax Cuts to Help America's Small Businesses Hire and Grow
- Cutting payroll tax in half for 98% of businesses: The President's plan will cut in half the taxes paid by businesses on their first $5 million in payroll, targeting the benefit to the 98% of firms that have payroll below this threshold.
- A complete payroll tax holiday for added workers or increased wages: The President's plan will completely eliminate payroll taxes that increase their payroll by adding new workers or increasing wages of their current workers (the benefit is capped at the first $50 million in payroll increases).
- Extending 100% expensing in 2012: This continues an effective incentive for new investments.
- Reforms and regulatory reductions to help entrepreneurs and small businesses access capital.
2. Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America
- A "Returning Heroes" hiring tax credit for veterans: This provides tax credits from $5,600 to $9,600 to encourage the hiring of unemployed veterans.
- Preventing up to 280,000 teacher layoffs, while keeping cops and firefighters on the job.
- Modernizing at lease 35,000 public schools across the country, supporting new science labs, Internet-ready classrooms and renovations at schools across the country, in rural and urban areas.
- Immediate investments in infrastructure and a bipartisan National Infrastructure Bank, modernizing our roads, rail, airports and waterways while putting hundreds of thousands of workers back on the job.
- A New "Project Rebuild", which would put people to work rehabilitating homes, businesses and communities, leveraging private capital and scaling land banks and other public-private collaborations.
- Expanding access to high-speed wireless as part of a plan for freeing up the nation's spectrum.
3. Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs
- The most innovative reform to the unemployment insurance program in 40 years: As part of an extension of unemployment insurance to prevent 5 million Americans looking for work from losing their benefits, the President's plan includes innovative work-based reforms to prevent layoffs and give states greater flexibility to use UI funds to best support job-seekers including
- Work-Sharing: UI for workers whose employers choose work sharing over layoffs.
- A new "Bridge to Work" program: The plan builds on and improves innovative state programs where those displaced take temporary, voluntary work or pursue on-the-job training.
- Innovative entrepreneurship and wage insurance programs: States will also be empowered to implement wage insurance to help reemploy older workers and programs that make it easier for unemployed workers to start their own businesses.
- A $4,000 tax credit to employers for hiring long-term unemployed workers.
- Prohibiting employers from discriminating against unemployed workers when hiring.
- Expanding job opportunities for low-income youth and adults through a fund for successful approaches for subsidized employment, innovative training programs and summer/year-round jobs for youth.
4. A Tax Relief for every American Worker and Family
- Cutting payroll taxes in half for 160 million workers next year: The President's plan will expand the payroll tax cut passed last year to cut workers taxes in half in 2012--providing a $1,500 tax cut to the typical American family, without negatively impacting the Social Security Trust Fund.
- Allowing more Americans to refinance their mortgages at today's near 4% interest rates, which can put more than $2,000 a year in a family's pocket.
5. Fully Paid for as Part of the President's Long-Term Deficit Reduction Plan. To ensure that the American Jobs Act is fully paid for, the President will call on a joint Committee to come up with additional deficit reduction necessary to pay for the act and still meet its deficit target. The President will, in the coming days, release a detailed plan that will show how we can do that while achieving the additional deficit reductions necessary to meet the President's broader goal of stabilizing our debt as a share of the economy.
SOUL Updates
Ladies of Local 231, prepare yourself--a charter is coming your way! With all the interest flyers that come in daily, it has been decided that your Local will be the next to charter. Once a date is set, we will send out a letter with the details. Congratulations!
Sincerely,
Megan Hardy
Researcher
Midwest Region LECET
(402) 305-3305 CELL
(402) 734-0132 FAX
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