Jobs bill?

Brent Budowsky says the Democrats' only chance to avoid catastrophe in the November elections is a jobs bill. Specifically,

1. The president and Congress should enact a substantial tax credit for new job creation that would become effective immediately and expire Oct. 31, 2010.

2. For new hires that increase net company jobs, the tax credit should be $10,000 per new employee hired in May or June, $7,500 for those hired in July or August and $5,000 for those hired in September or October.

3. The tax cut should be financed by a tax on bank profits, speculative trading and/or Wall Street bonuses at bailed-out firms. It should replace the program in the financial bill that would transition failing firms, which would be removed in my plan. The $50 billion raised in the current bill would be applied instead to the jobs tax credit along with any additional bank levies needed to pay for the jobs bill.

4. The jobs bill would be passed on a fast track at the same time as the financial bill. Republicans would be asked to give bipartisan support for the jobs bill in return for removing the provision they oppose on the financial bill.

The plan would be a good idea on political grounds. But Congress toyed with this idea last year and couldn't get over all of the logistical problems (how many firms would fire their current workforce and hire them all back as new employees to collect the credit?). Furthermore, I'm guessing that with jobs growth in the 250,000 to 300,000 range beginning this month and lasting through the year, the economic rationale (and a big part of the political rationale) will fade away. My prediction is that the Democrats will do better than expected because the economy will do better than expected, and Democrats will justifiably take credit.