A Bold New Plan

A hidden provision in the President’s “jobs” bill would make it illegal for companies to discriminate against the unemployed:

President Obama’s American Jobs Act, which he presented to Congress on Monday, would make it illegal for employers to run advertisements saying that they will not consider unemployed workers, or to refuse to consider or hire people because they are unemployed.

The proposed language is found in a section of the bill titled “Prohibition of Discrimination in Employment on the Basis of an Individual’s Status as Unemployed.” That section would also make it illegal for employers to request that employment agencies take into account a person’s unemployed status.

The problem here is, the bill doesn’t go far enough. Why not make it illegal to refuse to hire any qualified candidate? We could shave three or four points off the unemployment rate virtually overnight, simply by requiring businesses to hire people who can do the job.

Imagine the stimulative effects of those millions of new paychecks in the hands of hungry workers. Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid coffers would fill back up. Millions of uninsured would be insured again. Discouraged workers would flood back into the labor force and eroded skillsets would be restored. Best of all, our anemic economy would come roaring back, ending the trillion-dollar deficits and putting us instantly back on the path to fiscal sanity.

What? You say the federal government doesn’t have the power to require businesses to hire people? If they can make us buy government-approved private insurance plans, why can’t they take one simple, forceful action against greedy corporations and fat cats? Especially when it would benefit the whole nation — the whole world!