Finally! The economy has made its way to the top of the list, unfortunately, the response is way off!

Good Tuesday morning on this February 2, 2010. I am really thankful that Washington is finally zeroing in on the greatest need we have as a country. Well, at least as it relates to the current crisis we face. The real issue for every person and every nation is to recognize and respond to the Sovereign God, Creator of all things, but that’s not on the current agenda. Instead of chasing polar ice caps and making huge investments based on questionable science, our President has awakened to the fact that it is not a good thing to have up to 20% of our citizenry either unemployed or under employed. Even though the cry of folks everywhere has been loud and long, it took the entire first year for the new administration to come down from their ivory tower long enough to decipher what was being said. Folks need jobs.

Now, having recognized this, the question has to do with how it will be responded to. I work in a small business. President Obama said that small businesses are the primary engine for job growth. That is true. So what does he recommend? He is proposing a $3,000 tax credit for every new employee that a small business hires. Sounds fair enough, right? WRONG! We who help to operate a small business know very well how to hire people and put them to work. Folks, that is not the problem. It’s the demand side that must be addressed so there will be a need, a business reason, to add staff. Say for instance you pay an entry-level person $25,000 per year in salary. You then must add to this the overhead required to maintain that person on the payroll. That person is currently not required because there is not enough work coming in to justify hiring them. How in the name of any common sense whatsoever will a $3,000 incentive to hire a person who is not needed do any good at all?

The other recommendations he mentioned might help some where investments will be encouraged and capital gains taxes waived, but, sadly, the administration who lacks any practical business experience, is really banking on this $3,000 credit to get people off the unemployment rolls. That’s pretty scary from where I sit but I am sure they have plenty of paid experts who have blessed his ambitious plan. As I sit here this morning I can tell you without any equivocation, that, we, as a small business, stand ready to hire as many folks as the workload demands. Therefore, I humbly recommend we forgo the gimmickry and focus on stimulating the production side of the equation. If and when this is done, through whatever means and incentives, the rest will begin to take care of itself. I actually wrote this assessment without any assistance from the folks who were paid handsomely but missed the last one million warning signs that we were headed for big trouble. One should hope to ever find a job like that where you typically always get if 100% right, that is, but only after the fact! Am I missing something, or what? Have a blessed day and may God bless you and yours, and may God bless America. Amen. ……More later.