JOHN BOEHNER

With families across the country asking “where are the jobs,” House Democrats are meeting this morning with the same economists who pushed for the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ that isn’t working. Also on the agenda for Speaker Pelosi is figuring out how to spend and borrow away her party’s disastrous economic record through a “stealth stimulus.” While Democrats pursue the same shopworn ideas that are failing out-of-work families struggling to make ends meet, House Republicans have already proposed a “bipartisan jobs plan” to help small businesses, assembled a “kitchen cabinet” of economic experts, and convened a working group of lawmakers to review additional job creation proposals.

THREE AGENDA ITEMS FOR HOUSE DEMOCRATS’ MEETING WITH ‘STIMULUS’ ECONOMISTS:

Where are the jobs? The Vice President’s chief economist yesterday put it best when he said, “Absent robust job growth, it is not a true economic recovery.” The American people were promised the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ would create jobs immediately and keep unemployment below 8 percent. To date, roughly three million private sector jobs have been lost and unemployment is now nearing 10 percent. According to a survey conducted by Bloomberg News, economists say joblessness will reach 10 percent by the end of the year. Higher jobless rates could become the “new normal,” according to economists on the left, including Heidi Shierholz of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, who told the AP, “I think we will likely see elevated unemployment at least until 2014.”

How much spending – and borrowing – will Democrats propose as part of their “stealth stimulus?” “Like it or not, here comes more stimulus” as “there’s a good chance lawmakers will decide to extend some of the stimulus measures included in the” trillion-dollar stimulus” and “possibly create some new ones as well.” The price tag for all these items is $100 billion and counting. In fact, one Democratic governor, David Paterson of New York, already has a hand out: “I think that in order to facilitate a revenue enhancement from the production that they could give us, we’re going to need a second stimulus package.”

Deficits now, deficits later? The Obama Administration, which has piled up “the most red ink ever,” compiling a budget deficit more than triple the size of the previous high. Senior Obama Administration officials say fiscal responsibility will remain a lesser priority until recovery, which may be years away. The American people aren’t content to let red ink as the eye can see to become the status quo. An editorial in today’s Washington Post says “pundits who favor additional stimulus spending have been pooh-poohing the whole trillion-dollar deficit thing,” but “today’s deficits …may be more difficult to unwind.” As House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) wrote in today’s USA Today, House Republicans have better solutions to hold the line on spending and put the nation on a path to fiscal sanity.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS’ SOLUTIONS TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES CREATE JOBS INCLUDE:

• Allow small businesses to take a tax deduction equal to 20 percent of their income.

• Let small businesses join together to purchase health insurance for their workers the way large businesses and labor unions do.

• Enact genuine legal reform and policies that incentivize wellness to reduce health care costs for small businesses.

• Lower taxes for all taxpayers by reducing the current 15 percent rate to 10 percent and reducing the current 10 percent rate to 5 percent. This will provide an immediate increase in income to every taxpaying family in America and free up capital to help small businesses hire more workers.

• Expand health savings accounts (HSAs) to provide additional flexibility to small businesses in providing health care to their employees.

• Increase the net operating loss carry back from 2 to 5 years to provide struggling employers with additional resources to keep their doors open.

NOTE: These proposals, some of which were presented to President Obama as early as his first week in office, were developed by House Republicans’ Economic Recovery and Health Care solutions groups. The Economic Recovery Solutions Group, led by Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), is developing additional proposals to spur job creation.