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.
