Bob Friedman thinks it could revive America's entrepreneurs:
Among the very good provisions of the American Jobs Act (AJA) are some that recognize the real job creators of the American economy: the self-employed, and even the unemployed, who often realize the only way they‘ll become employed is to create jobs for themselves. AJA includes pathbreaking provisions for a Self Employment Tax Credit, extends the Self Employment Assistance program to unemployed people in all 50 states, and adds self-employment training and support to re-employment programs. The likely result if passed: hundreds of thousands of new jobs, targeted to those who need them most. The bill would be a first step towards addressing one of the great ironies of public economic policy in the United States—that at this time when the need for jobs and enterprise tops the national agenda, we not only ignore one of the major sources of new jobs and businesses in the economy, but we actually penalize their creation.
Steve Benen blasts the mindset causing Democrats to help block such popular job creation measures:
Fearing that supporting a wildly popular idea might cause them electoral trouble, some “centrist” Democrats are preparing to balk, too. This doesn’t make any sense. I realize that in some circles, there’s a reflexive tendency to blame President Obama for, well, nearly everything. But this serves as a helpful reminder — the White House is pushing a sensible plan to address a brutal jobs crisis. Instead of acting, extremist congressional Republicans are still rejecting literally every idea of any value, and center-right Dems are still more comfortable cowering under the table in a fetal position, hoping the GOP isn’t too mean to them.
The Dish 