Super Committee, Job Creation, and the CEI Podcast

Super Committee

The deadline for the Super Committee’s proposals is coming up quickly.

Warren Brookes Fellow Matt Patterson comments.

“If the super committee cannot agree on cuts by their November 23 deadline, well, CNN sums up the possible consequences: ‘A failure to pass any agreement would result in $1.2 trillion in automatic across-the-board spending cuts starting in 2013, evenly divided between defense and non-defense spending.’ Proposing $1.2 trillion in cuts over 10 years as our national debt tops $15 trillion is a joke. Failing to even agree on that (which at this point looks quite likely) is a sick joke. What the super committee is having a hard time agreeing to would amount to less than a Dixie Cup full of water to fight our economic fire — it would be a thimbleful, if that.”

Job Creation

Lawmakers in Washington are fond of saying their favorite pet projects will create jobs.

Fellow in Regulatory Studies Ryan Young pokes fun at lawmakers concept of “job creation” in The American Spectator.

“I say we ban snowplows and hand out some shovels. Think about it for a minute. In Michigan alone, nearly 520,000 people are looking for a job and can’t find one. Tens of thousands of miles of roads zig and zag across the state. If this winter lives up to lofty Midwestern standards, it’s possible that every last one of those 520,000 could work at least part time clearing the way for their fellow citizens. And all because of regulation!”

CEI Podcast

In the new CEI Podcast, CEI President Fred Smith talks about the controversy over Gibson guitars.

Listen here.