Don’t Let Obama ‘Solyndra’ Us With $300 Billion Stimulus

As the president is set to propose a new $300 billion stimulus plan—euphemistically categorized as a “jobs” package—you probably won’t hear the word “Solyndra” but it’s one you musn’t forget.

(UPDATE: Solyndra offices have been raided by FBI agents)

Solyndra is the California solar-cell company that received the president at their facilities and was more than happy to take in more than $525 million in federal loans to build a costly new plant. Now, they have declared bankruptcy and, as the Washington Examiner has reported, “not only has Solyndra failed to create the 4,000 jobs that Energy Secretary Steven Chu promised when he gave the company the very first Energy Department stimulus award of its kind, but the 1,100 employees that Solyndra had employed are now jobless as well.”

So before the president goes spending another $300 billion, it’s worth examining whether his (reported) plan will do much good.

1) Continuation of an employee payroll-tax reduction: It’s certainly good to allow people to keep more of their money, and raising the tax back to its previous levels will not be helpful, but it’s hard to argue that a simple extension of the current payroll-tax level for employees will boost jobs.

2) A reduction in employer-paid payroll tax: This is actually the only idea in the president’s plan as currently reported that has the potential for spurring private-sector job growth. The job-creating benefit comes from the simple truth that “if you want less of something, tax it.” That’s true for people and their jobs, which are made more expensive through the payroll tax. Lowering that burden makes hiring a new employee more attractive.

3) Throwing money at the states: Here’s the political payoff for the president, and it’s a big one. While some money would go to capital improvements such as bridges, roads, and school construction, expect a steady flow of cash to head to stopping layoffs of public employees at the city, county, and state levels—heavily unionized public employees that are a key financier of the president’s re-election.

All told, the president’s “jobs” plan is really just a recipe for more spending and more debt. And, as you might expect, “Obama will call on Congress to offset the cost of the short-term jobs measures by raising tax revenue in later years.” We will end up paying for unsustainable, Solyndra-like jobs that disappear as the private-sector shifts needs and spending and the public coffers are finally too bare to borrow against.

Throw in the administration’s war on domestic manufacturing jobs (see: Boeing and Gibson Guitars), and the looming threat of a strike against Ford, the one major U.S. automaker that wasn’t taken over by Big Government and Big Labor, and it’s unlikely employers will be bailing out the government by creating new jobs in a world of punitive regulation and uncertainty.

So as the president says “jobs” think “Solyndra.” And let’s ask Washington to think of better—real—ways to create jobs and get our economy moving.