Sen. Warner and Rep. Wolf Propose More Corporate Welfare
By Ken Falkenstein | Sunday, June 12th, 2011 | Policy
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA)
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA)
Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) have introduced legislation to create a new $100 million corporate welfare program that would give companies in economically distressed areas $5,000 for every new employee hired. The scheme works like this:
Each new facility would have to employ at least 50 people full time.
The loans would not have to be paid back if the employer keeps the jobs in place for at least five years. Qualifying companies would get a low-interest loan of $5,000 per job with $1,000 of the loan forgiven every year that the jobs stay in place.
Workers also would be paid hourly wages that are higher than the average hourly pay in the county that is getting the new positions.
The bill is purportedly meant to lure jobs back from overseas. Wolf called it “a real jobs bill.”
I call it the latest example of politicians trying to micromanage businesses by bribing them with money stolen from my kids. Or, to put it more succinctly: corporate welfare.
Maybe these two supposed “fiscal conservatives” haven’t heard, but we are $15 TRILLION in debt and headed toward an economic collapse if we don’t cut spending now.
Messrs. Warner and Wolf think the reason that unemployment is high is that the government isn’t giving away enough money to businesses. We’ve been trying that approach for the past 2 1/2 years, stealing trillions of dollars from our kids in the process, and unemployment remains high with no relief in sight. Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
If we really want to help businesses create jobs (and truly stimulate the economy), the answer is to cut regulations, cut bureaucratic paperwork, and cut corporate and capital gains taxes – and then get the government the hell out of the way. The last thing we need is yet another $100 million corporate welfare wealth-redistribution program funded by stealing the money from our kids.
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About the author
Ken Falkenstein has been a staffer in the United States Senate and the Virginia House of Delegates. He has managed political campaigns. He was a military intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army in West Germany during the Cold War. He is currently a civil litigation attorney with Poole Mahoney, P.C. in Virginia Beach. But his concern for his kids' future is what most informs his writing.
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2 Responses to "Sen. Warner and Rep. Wolf Propose More Corporate Welfare"
KF says : If we really want to help businesses create jobs (and truly stimulate the economy), the answer is to cut regulations, cut bureaucratic paperwork, and cut corporate and capital gains taxes – and then get the government the hell out of the way.
“If” is the biggest little word. Do you really think that is a question that they torment themselves with and an answer that doesn’t strike fear in their hearts?
To the public I think “getting the government out of the way” is different than getting government out of running the business. If I were a leftist I would be happy to debate you on getting government out of the way because I could demagogue the occasional abuses and panics that occur from “deregulation”. Once people are dependent they will cling to the govt. Look at Greece. Conservatives need to realize that a large chunk (maybe 40%) of the population now hold beliefs congruent with Fabian socialism and another 20-30% are situational socialists. (The Ryan plan is as unpopular as Obamacare because both mess with the entitlements.) Also, due in large part to the agitprop of academia and the media the antipathy of many people to corporations is at the “kneejerk” level.
Conservatives need to adjust the mantra in other words to something that can resonate better with these voters while trying to restore economic commonsense in the longterm. It seems to me that people are more on board with the govt not running the business. The executive branch needs to be more like the referee or umpire, not the rules committee (the legislature), the manager and the players. But if people get the feeling that basic rules are not going to be enforced they will turn to the demagogues.
I kind of like this idea, and it is even bipartisan.
I’ve never been a big fan of Rep Wolf (too unfriendly to the trucking industry) but I believe this is the second time his name has come up in ways that have impressed me. Perhaps I need to keep a more open mind about him.
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