Stimulus Question

While the details of President-Elect Obama's proposed stimulus plan have not been released, tidbits s are trickling out, along with the expected and all too familiar criticisms. In what should be no surprise, Republicans are against increased spending while the Democrats are opposed to tax cuts. That is the beauty of politics - some things never change.

From a business perspective, I found the criticisms rather intriguing. Within this article from the Huffington Post, there is an interesting quote from Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) regarding a proposed $3,000 tax credit for companies that hire or retrain employees. As the Senator noted:

"If I'm a business person, it's unlikely if you give me a several-thousand-dollar credit that I'm going to hire people if I can't sell the products they're producing," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., a member of the committee. "That to me is just misdirected," Conrad said. Apparently, the Senator doesn't quite grasp the reason people aren't buying products - they don't have jobs!

Not to be outdone, our own Senator Kerry stated "I'd rather spend the money on the infrastructure, on direct investment, on energy conversion, on other kinds of things that much more directly, much more rapidly and much more certainly create a real job." Not to criticize the need for long-term invesntment, but it would seem to me that getting people hired is a "direct investment" and that helping existing companies hire will certainly create a real job faster than a long-term investment in infrastructure or "energy conversion".

With that being said, Senator Conrad, who has no experience as a "business person" poses an interesting question for all of us who happen to be a business person. Here it is: "as a business owner, would you take advantage of a tax credit that allows you to hire or retrain an employee?" What do you think?