Thou Shalt Not Fund Infrastructure, Says the White House

Final Congressional passage came March 16 in the Senate, for the $18 billion so-called "jobs bill" initially put forward by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The pitiful-to-vanishing size and character of this tax-break bill masquerading as a White House "jobs, jobs, jobs" offensive, triggered great anger from the Congressional Black Caucus and other representatives of most-affected constituencies, in February when it was filed by Reid. Now it goes to Obama for signature.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of this legislation finds that it is supposed to create 234,000 jobs with a Federal expenditure — in the form of payroll tax breaks to businesses that hire — of $13 billion. Assuming it's true, that's 18,000 jobs, of whatever kind — from making steel to answering phones at a hedge fund — per $1 billion in Federal revenue expended. Compare that to 45,000 productive jobs per $1 billion of expenditure, in the Federal infrastructure investment bills Harry Reid used to talk about five years ago.