ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES

The "Give It Back for Jobs" website ( http://giveitbackforjobs.org/ ) encourages people to donate to charity the amount of money they will save by the extension of the Bush tax cuts for 2011 and 2012. According to the website: Calculate, Pledge, and Donate Your Tax Cut Americans who've benefited from the extension of the Bush tax cuts should give what they can afford - in large amounts or small - back to the public, by supporting organizations that promote fairness and economic growth. The government has, by extending the cuts, deprived itself of the resources required to support the policies that will secure a vibrant middle class. But joint action by visitors to this site will begin to replicate good government policy, outside the government and free from the grip of obstructionists within it.

In the January 3, 2010 article " Will latest jobs bill really produce jobs? ," Associated Press writer Jim Abrams outlines opposing sides in the Congressional battle over U.S. government efforts to increase employment: WASHINGTON – When the Senate takes up a jobs bill later this month or early in February, the debate will center on whether it really will create jobs and be worth plunging the government tens of billions of dollars further into debt. Republicans scoff at the "Jobs for Main Street Act" title that House Democrats put on their $174 billion package last month. They refer to it as "son of the stimulus," the $787 billion economic recovery plan of nearly a year ago that they say was ineffective at producing jobs. In its last vote of 2009, the House narrowly passed the bill, 217-212, without a single Republican supporter. Democrats tick off the job prospects from the House bill's $75 billion in infrastructure and public sector spending: tens of ...