Show I The Tie Voice of Business Lets Let's rec recycle I the I Jobs bill I i I I nn i Ih By I. I basher Chamber of Com ont onti i of or he the United Sia Slates The late Jack Benny Denny used to todo todo todo do a 8 routine In which he was accosted fed by a robber who demanded Your money or your life A long pause would follow rollow Finally the exasperated thief thid would repeat repeal I said your mone money or your our life lire And Benny Denny would reply Im thinking Im I'm thinking Congress often orten passes legislation which presents the President with comparably painful choices The most recent example is the so-called so Jobs Bill Dill to which President Ford applied a veto that Congress was unable to override If II the bill in question had really been a jobs bill bill bill- billand and only a jobs bill I dont don't think the the President would have had any objection to it and neither would I. I But Dut is was much more than that Less than half of the total 53 billion cost of oC the bill would have gone for Cor the creation of oC temporary public service jobs and youth summer employment The bulk of oC the rest 25 rest 25 billion would billion would have been allocated for Cor public works projects Pork Barrel Bill Dill is isa isa isa a more honest description I THINK most Americans would agree that we must take care of oC the involuntarily unemployed until the economy recovers and they can find work again But it is essential to do n a way that doesn't sow the seeds of oC another bust boom-bust cycle which would throw even more people out of oC work The country can stand a moderate amount of oC deficit spending now to stimulate the economy provided it doesn't linger on after recovery gets under way If the red ink does linger into the next boom well we'll have a new round of oC inflation even worse than the last one So any anything thing we do now to ease the pain of oC the recession had bett better have the ability to self self- IC- IC des when the need for it tt has passed Public works projects flunk on two grounds First they take a long time to start and tend to drag on Cormany for Cor many years a major dam say cant can't be built buill overnight or abandoned when its it's half built And second unlike public service jobs public works projects have a high to capital-to- cc r e S. S h rM P L L. president U. U S. S Chamber of Commerce labor ratio That is isit it costs more to put fewer people to work ON 0 Tim THE other hand public service jobs which often orten consist of aiding state or local government employees in the performance of their duties can be created quickly at low cost and can be ended just as quickly when better opportunities opportunities opportunities op op- op- op open up in the private sector They can also provide valuable training There are arc some potential pitfalls of course even with public service jobs Since the object of oC such a program is to create new jobs it will fail if states and localities merely transfer to the federal pay account jobs already in existence Nor or does docs it make much sense to have people quitting jobs they already have to apply for public service employment so the public jobs cant can't be he too generous And finally the total cost of the program cannot be so great that it interferes with the fiscal and monetary measures measures necessary to revive the economy BUT nUT ALL that said I believe the jobs part of the Jobs Bill was about the right siz size Congress Congress' t should f pass p pass something something of that nature nature without an unnecessary undesirable undesirable undesirable un un- un- un desirable 25 billion pork- pork barrel addition The degree of moderation Congress exercises in appropriating appropriating appropriating ap ap- ap- ap our money over the next six months or so will have havea a lot to do with the quality of our life in the future I hope they think it over carefully |