FACTS: The American Jobs Act

Here are the key portions of the American Jobs Act:

First, it gives a tax cut to small businesses, not large corporations, that expand and hire more employees now, and it provides a tax cut to small businesses that decide to raise salaries for current workers.

Second, it gets Americans back to work, including our nation’s first responders, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, up to 280,000 teachers who were laid off due to state budget cuts, and hundreds of thousands of construction workers who will repair our crumbling infrastructure and make badly needed renovations to more than 35,000 public schools.

Third, it aids Americans who are out of work, by extending unemployment benefits that provide families a lifeline as they seek new employment and prevents companies from discriminating against out-of-work Americans in hiring. Also, it offers a tax credit to companies who hire those who have been unemployed for more than 6 months.

Fourth, it helps everyday Americans keep more of their hard-earned money, by slashing in half the payroll tax that is taken out of every employee’s paycheck – this will save working families $1,500 per year, on average.  It also eliminates existing barriers in the current federal refinancing program to allow more Americans to refinance their mortgages and keep their homes.

Finally, the plan won’t increase the deficit and is fully paid for, as the President has instructed the Congressional Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction to do additional deficit reduction to cover the cost of the bill.

If the committee fails to do so, the bill will be paid for by a range of offsets, including:

Eliminating subsidies and special tax breaks to Big Oil.  Even oil and gas company executives have admitted that there is little genuine need for these breaks, with high gas prices already driving the industry’s succe

Limiting tax benefits for high-income Americans – households making over $250,000 and individuals making over $200,000 – to 28% of their income.  This ensures that our tax code is fair for all Americans, not just our nation’s wealthiest individuals.

Abolishing the carried interest loophole.  This ensures that some hedge fund and other investment managers who had been paying a lower tax rate due to a loophole will now pay an ordinary tax on their income, just like other middle and working class Americans.

Eliminating the corporate jet loophole.  This closes the special loophole that currently allows corporate jets to be depreciated 2 years faster than standard commercial airliners, moving it back from 5 years to 7 years.
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The Jobs Act includes a $25 billion dollar investment in the modernization of our public school system, which will provide up-to-date resources for the next generation while providing jobs for over a million unemployed construction workers.