Richard Epstein: Read Obama’s Jobs Bill and Weep
by PubliusRichard Epstein in Hoover’s Defining Ideas:
What is so striking about Obama’s shopworn rhetoric is its juvenile intellectual quality. His explanation for how the AJA will create jobs is a non-starter because he does not explain how we get from here to there. As in so many other cases, the president thinks that waving a wand over a problem will make his most ardent wishes come true, even when similar earlier efforts have proved to be dismal failures. This dreadful hodgepodge of a bill will likely be dead-on-arrival in Congress, but it remains a patriotic duty to explicate some of its worst provisions.
The most evident feature of the AJA is that it is a combination of ill-conceived, disparate measures. The wandering quality of the bill makes it impossible to cover all of its silliness, but it is possible to focus on some of the core job provisions, all of which kill the very jobs that the AJA is supposed to create.
One does not have to dip very far into the bill to find trouble. Section 4 of the AJA imposes “Buy American” restrictions on the use of funds appropriated under this statute for work on public buildings. “[A]ll the iron, steel and manufactured goods” used on such projects are to be fabricated in the United States. There are obvious administrative difficulties in deciding what counts as a “manufactured good” for the purposes of the act. But don’t sweat the small stuff.
The fatal problem with this form of jingoism is that, in the name of economic efficiency, it forces American taxpayers to pay more for less. That upside down logic may seem sensible to a die-hard Keynesian, but not to ordinary people who realize that deliberate overpayment for inferior goods makes no more sense in the public sector than in the private one.
Obama’s latest economic fix will kill the very jobs it’s meant to create.
The universal statutory command to “Buy American” is not capable of rigorous enforcement, which brings us to another problem with the bill: It allows its legislative mandates to be waived when the head of the relevant federal agency finds that its enforcement is against the “public interest,” including in hard to calculate cases where such deliberations increase project costs by 25 percent. The basic structure of the AJA thus uses large doses of administrative discretion to defang some of its most unrealistic commands. In so doing, it introduces what I have termed elsewhere the vice of government by waiver, where unbridled discretion creates uncertainty and breeds favoritism.
This process only adds to the cost of legislative enforcement. The real jobs created are for government bureaucrats who determine, under rules to be promulgated later, whether the rule or exception applies. The provision has it exactly backwards. The correct piece of legislation should provide that no recipient of funds (assuming there are any) should be allowed to impose “Buy American” preferences—ever.
Read the whole thing here.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Got a Tip?
38 Comments
ssssssiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh………………it's gonna be a loooooong 14 months….
Why cry when you can laugh? it wont pass anyways.
F'ing pitiful excuse for a President, an American and as a man.
Testicular challenged, girl-bike riding, Communist and epic fraud.
and stop complainin’ and grumblin’ while we are at it.
Barack H. Obama's jobs bill is just another of his bury America drive by shootings.
In future generations, crap like this will come to be known as Obamadoggles.
This "president" has progressed from the ridiculous to the sublime, and is now a parody of a parody of himself.
Junta Uuhhhbama "giveth" (mostly money borrowed from the People's Republic of China) with one hand, while Junta Uuhhhbama taketh away with the other. As MRM points out above, the really frightening thing is we've got 16 more months of this nonsense until the "corpse men" forcibly evict the Miserable Failure in Chief from the people's house.
How soon before he just loses it and goes off an an unscripted super rant? You reckon a few more small pushes from the conservative/tea party republicans can will make it happen? Nothing like a public meltdown for a pre-election impression…
The more I see from this administration, the more I worry that the only way this will be settled is at the business end of a colt .45
It's not meant to make any sense, and it's not meant to pass. It's simply meant to make Republicans look like meanies when they refuse to pass it so that it can be used as a legislative talking point for Obama's reelection campaign.
I wonder what Nazi drafted this legislative turd? Obamugabe is too lazy to do it himself.
"the president thinks that waving a wand over a problem will make his most ardent wishes come true…".
It worked up until he got elected, didn't it?
I don't need to read it. I'm already weeping…for our children.
Funny how it's working out that it's his own party that keeps shelving it right?
Dont forget his mom jeans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE06Uzwk7mQ&fe...
This is funny too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfaQgrMKYQo&fe...
But look at how many new jobs he's creating. My gosh – The EPA needs 230,000 new regulators to enforce all of their new regulations that they themselves say are not enforceable. They will keep regulating and passing new laws to regulate everything – that's how they create jobs – because then they need thousands of new government regulators. Get it? And the more they regulate, the more eroded our privacy and personal rights become. And who does this benefit???? Only the political elitists at the top of the power chain.
Blaming the prince of fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The public can survive a Barack Obama who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.
Obama Sounds Like Sad Boyfriend Trying to Save Relationship, trying!
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/...
"The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves."
George Washington
I expect him to declare Marshall Law by mid summer.
This is only a small indication of what is wrong with the entire mindset of the idiots currently in charge:
The real jobs created are for government bureaucrats who determine, under rules to be promulgated later, whether the rule or exception applies."
Where there is no stable, predictable and legitimate rule of law there can be no progress…
Obama is an aspiring dictator:
405 days until the eviction…
Pass Obama's Gas! Pass Obama's Gas Now!
What a frigging joke this fool is.
MTV Turns Down Obama
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/bummer_mtv_...
"The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves."
George Washington
Maybe we can create real jobs by simply applying the buy American mandate to energy.
"What is so striking about Obama’s shopworn rhetoric is its juvenile intellectual quality."
Of course it is.. It has to be vague, fuzzy and especially simple so that the typical Obamorons can at least pretend to understand it.
"the president thinks that waving a wand over a problem will make his most ardent wishes come true"
Does that make him Fairy Barry?
If done, martial law will be declared much closer to the election, say about 10/15/12.
And they'll still find a way to blame it on the Republicans, just like they blamed the Republicans for "obstructing" things when in fact it had no ability to do so during the first 18 months of his Presidency as the Democrats held all the cards.
That's what I was thinking. Especially if it looks like he will lose the election.
= "What is so striking about Obama’s shopworn rhetoric is its juvenile intellectual quality." — Richard Epstein =
But juvenile intellectual quality is what liberals relate to.
Gentle Readers,
Mr. Epstein and Publius are misinformed, and have misinformed the readers here. Whatever critiques you may have with the AJA, the ARRA, or the BUY AMERICAN ACT, none of them require overpayment for any goods or acceptance of substandard goods or materials.
http://www.portlandonline.com/index.cfm?c=50617&a...
In fact, ordinary audit and contracting procedures should prevent overpayment or substandard materials.
However, if U.S. made materials and products meet standards and are competetively priced, they are to be used instead of foreign made goods.
Personally, I favor the BUY AMERICAN ACT but oppose AJA & ARRA. It makes sense to buy quality, competetively priced American made products. The economic stimulus simply hasn't worked.
Sincerely,
John Lepant Brighton CO
Zero's knowledge of Economics is amazing! Or is it, his knowledge is economically disturbing?
Don't forget that if the bill is passed, an army of new bureaucrats will be needed to write the new regulations for the regulators to enforce.
Yeah but, what do you think of the bill, Petro?
Thanks John. I don't care who I get my information from, whenever I can, I try to confirm that information. As should we all!
I don't know who would be stupid enough to ding your comment but, I put it back.
Jobs will was merely another tax increase –
Every one knows it – including BO
It will never pass and not worth the time of day.
It was a trojan horse – let it die on its own
He knew it would never pass so who cares what he says? Words are totally irelevant, especially from the marxist-in-chief!
Dear Nick,
Thank you – you're very kind.
Sincerely,
John
"His explanation for how the AJA will create jobs is a non-starter because he does not explain how we get from here to there."
Like the underpants gnomes from South Park :
Step 1: Get underwear
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit!
Obama doesn't have a step 2… or at least one that makes any sense.
You must be logged in to post a comment.