More of the Same from Obama

President Obama unveiled his new $447 billion government spending package, falsely labeled as a "jobs" program. In Obama-world there is no problem that can't be fixed by more government spending. It doesn't matter that it didn't work before, we need more of the same. Here are the actual proposals.

1. Cutting the 6.2% payroll tax paid by both employees and employers to 3.1% next year. Wow, a temporary payroll tax cut. I'm sure that will do a whole lot.

2. Spending $140 billion to save the jobs of state and local teachers and first responders, repair deteriorating schools and rebuild roads, railways and airports. If federal money is required to "save" these jobs because the states are unwilling or unable to pay for them, then maybe those jobs aren't really that necessary. The infrastructure spending will most likely be political payouts to buy votes in various areas.

3. Extending jobless benefits to the unemployed, with special emphasis on those out of work at least six months and those in low-income neighborhoods. Let's see if I have this straight. As part of a supposed jobs package, we are going to pay people who don't have jobs. Yeah, that makes sense.

In summary, for our $447 billion in new spending we get a temporary payroll tax cut, money for some government jobs, money to repair some government buildings, some work on various infrastructure projects, and a bunch more money paid to the long-term unemployed.

UPDATE

Here is a good summary of the actual speech.