Obama Needs Policies, Not Promises, for Job Growth

Policies have more impact on job creation than pronouncements. President Barack Obama promised over the weekend to be "unrelenting" in putting Americans back to work, a pledge that should have encouraged the 10 percent of the country's workers who are unemployed. But the policies of his administration often work against that goal.

Two days before the president used his radio address to assure that jobs are his top domestic priority, Lisa Jackson, chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, outlined new smog reduction rules that will place up to an estimated $90 billion burden on private job creators.

The money will go to retool factories and power plants with new technology and equipment just two years after they had to do the same thing to meet the mandates of the Bush administration.

Those billions of dollars won't be available for investment in job-creating endeavors. Neither will the money needed to meet the EPA carbon dioxide reduction requirements Jackson threatened to impose last month absent action from Congress.

Both these EPA mandates will have a negative effect on the economic recovery and might be better suited for more prosperous times.

Given the depth of the recession that the nation is trying to climb back from, every policymaker and regulator must weigh every action against its impact on employment.

That's not happening in Obama's Washington.

One reason cited by business leaders for the stalled job recovery is that the tighter restrictions placed on lenders discourage small business and start-up loans, which tend to carry more risk, but are the engine of job creation.

Saddling the private sector with additional regulatory costs and limiting its ability to grow is not an effective economic strategy during a recession.

If Obama is going to fulfill his pledge to put Americans back to work, he'll have to give businesses both encouragement and room to grow. The strategy of fueling job creation with government spending isn't working. The Associated Press reported Monday that stimulus spending on infrastructure projects, such as road building and repair, have not resulted in net employment gains.

Businesses also face this year the probability of higher capital gains and income taxes, as well as new taxes to help fund Obama's social agenda.

It's hard to see how higher taxes on job creators fits into the strategy of job growth.

The president must look to policies that reward small businesses for risk taking and investment. He must provide them with a certain business climate and concentrate on restoring confidence in the economy. And he must ensure that they won't be penalized by future tax policy for the jobs they create today.

The president has rightly identified jobs as the nation's top priority at home. Now he must make his policies match that commitment.

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