Is it time to tell Congress to expand the Work Opportunity Tax Credit to the long term unemployed?

[ck4829]

People who have been unemployed for long periods don't exactly have a lot of things on their side:
Gaps
Low credit scores
And ads stating that applicants "must currently be employed"

We've been told by the politicians and the media for the past decade that tax cuts would create jobs and prosperity, this has not been the case. But wait, what if there was a tax credit specifically for the purpose of hiring the unemployed? That would spur the economy, right?

Well, there WAS something like this, it was called the Back to Work Tax Credit Act. It would have given employers an incentive to hire people who were unemployed for 26 weeks or longer. Sounds good.

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3953/show

Too bad it quietly languished in Congress back in 2009 and did not even have an iota of media coverage announcing this as a solution to unemployment.

Congress needs to be told to bring this back and pass it. Or they could at least tell us the reason behind "Let's just throw out tax cuts in general and that might give employers the courage they need to hire people... Yay! Let's do it!" vs "How about we give a tax credit specifically for the purpose of hiring the unemployed... Meh."

[Coyote_Bandit]

1. How do you decide

who is unemployed?

There are lots of folks who are no longer receiving any kind of uemployment benefits who would dearly love to have a flippin job. And there are lots who have given up looking for work. And lets not forget that it costs money to look for work.

[jwirr]

2. Everyone talks about the chronically unemployed but no one actually

tells us how they are surviving. What do they live on when there is no unemployment?