Congress & Obama to Pass Phony JOBS Act

It is called the “Jump-Start Our Business Startup Act”, and according to Joseph Kishore of wsws the awkward terminology to form the acronym J-O-B-S “was the only nod the framers gave toward actual job creation. In reality, it is simply another corporate handout.” It reduces regulations on new businesses, which should inspire massive distrust in our citizen-betrayed hearts!

Is there no end to the shamelessness of our pimped out politicians?

Tuesday the House OVERWHELMINGLY passed it (380-41). The Senate already substantially passed it (73-26). Obama will soon sign off on it. Of course he will. And he will SPIN SPIN SPIN what a gift it is to the drowning American worker.

He should be executive-ordering a WPA-type jobs bill. But once again he is amorally and pragmatically talking the pro-citizenry talk and walking the pro-corporatists’ walk! I mean, if Congress is bi-partisanly and easily behind it, as well as Obama, and the echo-chamber media is cheerleading it onward, we all should know damn well enough by this time to look for the lobbyists’ Guccis beneath the curtain!

This “Trojan horse” jobs bill is more “trickle down” economics bullshit, another huge gift to the FAT CATS, and, again, we should know what exactly will be trickling down from them upon us. Not jobs nor opportunities.

Kishore explains:

Millions of people have been out of work for months and even years. Whatever jobs are available pay poverty-level wages. Thanks to the Obama administration, the profits of US corporations are at record highs. And behind the thin smokescreen of its “jobs” measures, the American political establishment is preparing the more serious task of launching a renewed assault on health care, pensions and social programs.

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The JOBS Act is ostensibly targeted at small businesses, but it will in fact eliminate Securities and Exchange Commission reporting requirements for new companies with up to $1 billion in annual revenues. Consumer advocacy groups and some investor organizations warned that the main impact of the bill will be to facilitate financial fraud.

Another measure would make it easier for new companies to release ads to solicit investors, which consumer groups warned was an invitation to fraud and deceit.

Consider who is against the bill:

The North American Securities Administrators Association, which represents securities regulators at the state level, warned of the potential consequences. “In 2004, the Bush Administration preempted numerous state consumer financial protection laws in order to facilitate greater ‘financial innovation,’ especially in mortgage lending,” said NASAA president Jack Herstein. “Most of us remember how that experiment ended, but it seems that Congress has already forgotten.”

Herstein added that the bill creates “new jobs for promoters of Internet investment scams.”

The AARP released a statement warning about the impact on retirees and pensions. “We do not believe that weakening investor protections and opening the door to fraud is the best way to create jobs,” commented senior vice president Joyce Rogers.

As for the vulture venture capitalists, THEY ARE THRILLED! Kishore:

The bill has, on the other hand, won plaudits from venture capital corporations and groups. “The JOBS Act will help revitalize an IPO market that has suffered in recent years under the weight of market volatility and one-size-fits-all regulation,” said Paul Maeder, chair of the National Venture Capital Association. “The passage of this legislation sends a strong and welcome signal to our most promising companies that the US capital market system is open for business.”

The Deal Pipeline, a pro-industry web site, commented that “there is finally some good news from Washington for the private equity industry and in particular its portfolio companies.” Private equity portfolio companies—Carlyle, Blackstone, and Mitt Romney’s former firm Bain Capital, among others—are those that specialize in making billions through the insider dealing and skullduggery that goes by the name of the “capital market.”

Remember that Orwellian group of CEOs Obama organized and anointed his jobs council last year? Kishore explains:

The act is in fact modeled off of proposals from Obama’s equally misnamed “jobs council,” and follows lines laid out in the president’s State of the Union address earlier this year.

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Even according data gathered by supporters, the bill “might” lead to an increase of about 100,000 jobs over 8 years or so. This compares to a jobs deficit of about 5 million relative to the number of jobs in the US in December 2007, before the official start of the recession.

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That such a bill can be packaged as a “jobs” measure is testament to the putrefaction of the American media and political system.

Yeah, community-organizer Obama who likes to boast of bringing everything to the table. Everything and anything that comes from the privileged 1%!