Tax reform, job growth needed

Tax reform, job growth needed

The recent State of the Union rhetoric missed the hard cold facts about jobs. What the president did propose was a higher minimum wage which will have a negative effect on our youths which is supported by the vast majority of minimum wage studies.

The U.S. Labor market peaked at 139.1 million jobs in November, 2007. We have dropped 6.4 million jobs to 132.7 million now with the teen jobless rate still at 23.4 percent. While employers added 157,000 jobs in January, what was underreported was 2.8 million jobs disappeared in January. In total we have 12.3 million out of work. At the depth of the Depression in 1933 there were 12.8 million unemployed.

Recognizing the 10 million who stopped looking for work and the 8 million reduced to part time, the unemployed and underemployed is actually 14.5 percent of the workforce.

We need to get a lot more people to work, “earning” taxable income and off the government dole. During the last 30 years of the 20th century 7.9 percent of the population was on food stamps. Would you believe a whopping 15 percent or 48 million are now on food stamps?

In addition to food stamps, 11 million are on disability compared to half that number four years ago. Surely, the workplace hasn’t become that dangerous in the span of four years. If it has, that means another government program, OSHA, is broken.

The State of the Union only offered lip service to the nation’s need for jobs. Hopefully Congress will turn a deaf ear to the president’s words, change their ways and show some real leadership that certainly is not coming from the White House.

Tax reform that spurs economic growth and jobs is what is needed.

Mike Tennis

Sleepy Hollow