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July 16, 2009 Volume 5, Number 27 | ||
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In This
Issue .
Goodwill and
Senior Jobs .
Cynthia in the
News .
A Little Bit
of Humor. E-Mail
cynthia.davis@house.mo.gov Find me
on
Committees Special
Committee on Children and Families Chair Chair Special Committee on State
Parks and Waterways Official Homepage for Official Government Homepage for your
Look up Missouri House Bills - View Entire Text, Summary, and Last Action Look up Consumer Complaints & Fraudulent Activity, No-Call List Federal
Links Congressman Blaine
Luetkemeyer |
Goodwill
and Senior Jobs
Representative
Davis with former House colleague, Margaret Donnelly, staff and volunteers
of Goodwill Industries at the Goodwill store in
O'Fallon. Our district was
recently honored by a visit from the governor's office. Margaret
Donnelly, head of the Health and Senior Services Department, came to announce the additional
government spending authorized for the Senior Jobs Program.
This funding is made available through the federal stimulus package.
Officials with the Senior Jobs Program and participants who
have acquired jobs through the program were in attendance for the
announcement. I am an
economic-stimulus-fund skeptic. The studies show all this "extra
money" is not accomplishing much in the way of creating new
jobs. With the unemployment rate increasing,
trying to teach people over the age of 55 new skills will add to the
supply of workers, but not
the demand for
workers. This could create more unintended consequences because the
taxpayers are paying these wages, not the businesses. This government
program is another way to redistribute the wealth. While all of this
seems "nice", we could have accomplished even more for our senior citizens
if it were not for federal government interference with our free markets.
The information from
the governor's office estimates this will create about 300 new jobs for
people over 55 years old. However, since the government is paying
their salaries, it is hard to imagine this being on par with a new private
sector job. When the stimulus money goes away, it is likely the jobs
will also go away. If there were true demand for them, they would
have appeared spontaneously without governmental intervention.
It seems like the
policies coming from our national government are devoid of an elementary
understanding of economics and are designed to tear apart our country
rather than make us strong. The last time we had a recession, we had
a much different philosophy in place. Frank Donatelli advisor to
former President Regan said the plan in the 1980's was to "cut taxes for
everyone to give them the incentive to work harder, invest and make better
lives for their families. In turn, Americans launched the longest
peacetime economic expansion to that point in our nation's history; we led
the world out of a global economic recession; we created more than 18.5
million new jobs; we doubled the amount of products we exported overseas;
we saw a one-third increase in our GDP, we dramatically reduced inflation;
all the while, low and middle income Americans saw the most economic
gains of all." If I were giving
advice to the President, I would tell him the best way to stimulate the
economy is to have an income tax holiday. Can you imagine what would
happen to our economy if even
for one week
people could receive the full reward of their earned
wages? Some people may even want to work overtime! Imagine
what they could do with their extra wages. Some could give more to
their churches, help their struggling neighbors, eat out more often, pay down their
mortgages or pay off credit cards; they might even boost tourism by going
on a vacation. All of the above would benefit the overall business
economy and therefore support and strengthen the national economic health.
I don't expect anyone
from Washington D.C. to call me asking for advice, but
isn't it sad that most of the common sense people, (for example, those
cutting hair and driving trucks) seem to know how their money should be
spent better than congress? Deep down inside, most of us know
it is wrong for us to be spending so much money. I remain hopeful that the pendulum will swing back
the other way. If anyone from Your
thoughts are important to me, so please let me know what you think about
ways to stimulate the
economy. You can send me your opinion by clicking
here: Cynthia Davis Cynthia
In the News
A
legislative success: Last week the
Governor signed into law House Bill 253 sponsored by Representative
Davis. The bill allows motorcyclists to put modulators on their
headlamps. This is a safety issue, a freedom issue and a benefit to
everyone who rides motorcycles or operates motor
vehicles. A Little
Bit of Humor An insurance sales
rep, an administration clerk and their manager are walking to lunch when
they find an antique oil lamp.
This
Capitol Report is a weekly column by Representative Cynthia
Davis, from the
19th District, covering events in the Missouri Legislature and
district-wide issues. ? If you know
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