Friday, September 2, 2011

• A hidden jobs-killer. ObamaCare passed, employment tanked – Grace Marie Turner, New York Post
• Panel supports Marcellus Shale development – Steve Snyder, Lebanon Daily News
• Toomey’s town hall meeting tame . Senator is holding three public forums this week, including one at Penn’s Peak– Colby Itkowitz, Morning Call
• Marino: Job growth area’s biggest issue. Congressman also says the U.S. needs to cut spending and revise the tax code. – Matt Hughes, Wilkes Barre Times Leader
• Legislation proposed to increase coal, produce jobs in Schuylkill County – John Usalis, Republican Herald

Tweetable:

• RT @RNCResearch: They Said It! Labor Secretary Hilda Solis says @BarackObama ‘s done everything he can on jobs. bit.ly/nutUEY

The Rundown

• A hidden jobs-killer. ObamaCare passed, employment tanked – Grace Marie Turner, New York Post

In the early months of 2010, the economy was starting to show signs of life after the recession. Then Congress passed the president’s health-overhaul law.

Debate over the ObamaCare law’s potential impact on hiring and the economy has been fierce from the start. The president promised it would be a boon to both; then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the law would create 400,000 jobs “almost immediately.” Others argued the law would make businesses much less likely to hire new workers.

That debate should now be over

The Heritage Foundation’s James Sherk recently released a paper comparing the rate of net job growth before and after the passage of ObamaCare in March 2010. The findings show that job creation came to a screeching halt at the time ObamaCare was enacted.

The low point of the recession came in January 2009, when US employers shed 841,000 jobs in just that one month. But the economy slowly started to recover over the next 15 months; private employers began hiring workers at an average rate of 67,600 per month (net of layoffs). The economy’s high point came with the April 2010 report, when 229,000 jobs were added.

But ObamaCare was signed into law in late March, and the hiring freeze began. In the following months, the economy added an average of just 6,500 jobs per month (net of layoffs) — less than a tenth the pre-ObamaCare average.

This doesn’t prove that the health law is a major cause of the problem. But there is no question that the jobs recovery stalled after ObamaCare passed.

• Panel supports Marcellus Shale development – Steve Snyder, Lebanon Daily News

Marcellus Shale natural gas is a bridge to a sustainable-energy future for the United States and can continue to stimulate Pennsylvania’s economy for decades, three Penn State professors told a local audience of about 100 Wednesday afternoon.

The professors spoke at the invitation of state Sen. Mike Folmer, who organized a forum that lasted close to three hours in the municipal building’s auditorium.

Terry Engelder, a professor of geoscience, said that Marcellus Shale represents an opportunity for the U.S. to decrease its dependence on foreign oil.

• Toomey’s town hall meeting tame . Senator is holding three public forums this week, including one at Penn’s Peak– Colby Itkowitz, Morning Call

Toomey said the current tax code drives businesses overseas. Changing the code is a priority of his while serving on the debt supercommittee. During an organizational meeting this week with the six GOP members on the committee, Toomey said, he brought up reforming the tax code.

“I hope we will not fail to address the opportunity to generate economic growth and jobs through reforming the tax code,” he said. “The jury is still out on whether or not we’ll be able to do that but it’s part of what I hope we’ll be able to accomplish.”

Another man from neighboring Tioga County asked Toomey to raise taxes on the rich: “Are you willing to consider a modest tax hike upon the very wealthy who right now spend it all in the Hamptons on Long Island and on yachts and overseas travel and fur and things like this … to share in the cost of the excesses of the 90s and the 2000s?”

Toomey, after bringing out a chart on federal spending increases, essentially answered no.

“If we keep going down this path where we say we’re going to keep raising taxes on some Americans to make them pay for this ever-growing share of government, we’re going to have slower economic growth,” Toomey said. “The secret to the great success of the American economy and our society has been the growth in the private sector.”

• Marino: Job growth area’s biggest issue. Congressman also says the U.S. needs to cut spending and revise the tax code. – Matt Hughes, Wilkes Barre Times Leader

WILKES-BARRE – In spite of the economic uncertainty the debt ceiling crisis created earlier in the summer and the destruction Tropical Storm Irene caused, U.S. Rep. Tom Marino said sluggish job growth remains the most imperative issue for Northeastern Pennsylvania.

To see video, scan this QR code into your smartphone or visit www.timesleader.com

“The first three things are: jobs, job jobs,” Marino said of his meeting with his constituents in the 10th District of Pennsylvania. “It’s very clear.”

But Marino, R-Lycoming Township, said the federal government has not produced an atmosphere to create those jobs. The freshman congressman outlined his plan to create jobs by trimming government spending and streamlining the tax code in a meeting with The Times Leader’s editorial board Wednesday.

Marino said the federal government is only 50 percent efficient at best, and he favors adding a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution to curb the nation’s debt.

Though he voted to raise the debt ceiling in early August to prevent the country from defaulting on its debts, Marino said he had reservations about doing so right up until the time to vote came, and that he voted for the legislation because it mandated that Congress must at least vote on a balanced-budget amendment.

Congress must look to trim waste from all areas of government, Marino said.

• Legislation proposed to increase coal, produce jobs in Schuylkill County – John Usalis, Republican Herald

DELANO – Strengthening the anthracite coal industry to help create jobs, increasing coal production and reclaiming the scarred areas damaged by former strip mining operations is the goal of proposed legislation supported by the three state House legislators from Schuylkill County.

Using a reclaimed mining area between Mahanoy City and Delano as a backdrop, the legislation was unveiled at a press conference Wednesday at the mining operation of Blaschak Coal Corp. Attending were state Rep. Mike Tobash, R-125, Rep. Neal P. Goodman, D-123, Rep. Jerry Knowles, R-124, Dan Blaschak, vice president of Blaschak Coal, and Duane C. Feagley, Pennsylvania Anthracite Council executive director.

The legislation, House Bill 1813, was sponsored by Tobash in the House and was referred to the Committee on Environmental Resources and Energy. Goodman and Knowles are co-sponsors.\

“We’re here today to talk about the bright future of the mining industry in the five-county anthracite area, including right here in Schuylkill County,” Tobash said. “That’s right, I said the ‘bright future.’ Many people think that mining is a dying industry and that coal is becoming obsolete because of other forms of energy like natural gas, wind power and solar. Anthracite mining helped to fuel the Industrial Revolution and support the energy production demands of two world wars. Many people believe those days are behind us and the demand for coal just isn’t there anymore, but that’s just not true.”