I support deficit spending to create more jobs: people need jobs and the stimulus it will provide to the economy will work long-term to repay the debt. Still, this report from the Wall Street Journal’s Neil King, Jr. and Naftali Bendavid was pretty funny:

Democrats have begun to hash out how to pay for a mix of unemployment benefits, state aid, tax credits and other incentives they hope will turn around the country’s surging unemployment rate.

Funding for the initiatives would come from two sources. For job creation, the principal target would be a pot of more than $150 billion that was set aside last year to bail out the tottering financial system. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she would like to tap the Troubled Asset Relief Program fund to pay for any “investments that we have in jobs.”

Spending to shore up the federal safety net, including extending unemployment and health-care benefits, would be declared emergency spending and would be added to the budget deficit, congressional aides said. That alone is expected to cost about $100 billion next year.

So, no they haven’t “hashed out” a way to pay for shoring up the federal safety net! It’s “emergency spending,” which, unfortunately, is the same term George W. Bush used to wage the Iraq War without increasing taxes or cutting spending elsewhere.

And, again, that’s fine: U.S. unemployment is more of a federal government emergency than the state of Iraq’s police force. But options do exist make job creation “deficit neutral” like a new tax on financial transactions or a tax on U.S. corporation’s overseas profits.  Such taxes might have a minor adverse effect on the overall economy. But it would mainly hurt people who already have well-paying jobs.  Meanwhile, Tim Geithner wants to use remaining TARP money to repay the debt, essentially neglecting the fifteen million Americans without jobs. In other words, “emergency spending” isn’t great policy, but, if you’re unemployed, it’s better than the status quo.

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