White House plans $28B expansion of its 'displaced worker program'

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WH plans $28B expansion of its 'displaced worker program'

Florida Congressman Allen West weighs in

This is a rush transcript from "Your World," March 13, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST OF "YOUR WORLD": Well, it may not guarantee you land a job, but the White House says another $28 million will go a long way toward helping you look for one. It called the Universal Displaced Worker Program.

The unemployed will get $4,000 a year for job training, up to $300 a week for child care and transportation, $1,250 for relocation expenses.

Republican Congressman Allen West says he has a better idea. Just get them a job.

Congressman that makes way, way too much sense. Good to have you back. How you doing?

REP. ALLEN WEST, R-FLA.: Always good to be with you, Neil.

I think there are a couple of quotes that I would like to -- short quotes I can read to you that sums up the Universal Displaced Workers Program.

"The American republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money. A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by dictatorship."

And that is the exact road that we are on right here because all President Obama is doing, instead of coming up with a viable solution for job creation in the United States, he is just seeking to bribe the American public.

CAVUTO: It does seem to be -- whether you look at it is a bribe in so many ways or just postponing the agony, it does seem to be a lot of effort to retrain, retool, what have you, sort of push people into the work force, without just maybe saving a lot of money by providing the environment that would get you into the work force.

WEST: That's right.

CAVUTO: There are serious concerns that that just is not happening at the pace it should and that the job gains certainly have been encouraging but not enough to get us back there.

So, you could cynically ask a question, whether we need this at all. Do you let the private market, now; continue its own ongoing improving trend? In other words, to take the president’s accolades at face value that let it continue.

WEST: Well, I think that good leadership takes responsibility and not credit. So we have to look at the right type of tax and regulatory policies that can spur on great private sector growth.

If you look at last year and fiscal year 2011, you saw a 0.4 percent and a 1.0 percent and a 1.3 percent and I believe about a 3 percent GDP growth in those four quarters. When you go back and you look at where Ronald Reagan had us at the same time coming out of a recession, we were at about 6 percent or 7 percent of GDP growth.

And so we have to look at those pro-growth policies. We have to look at how we reform our tax code. There are trillions of dollars of capital that are sitting on the sidelines. And if the president would just allow that to be repatriated back to the United States, we could get production and manufacturing going again.

If we look at reforming our personal income tax code, which is what our small business owners use, and how we can spur on capital formation for them to use to use to grow their businesses and expand and hire more Americans, we would be on the right track.

But, instead, we have a health care law which is crushing the American people and small business owners. And we have Dodd-Frank, which is absolutely crushing especially our small community banks, many of them driving them out of business.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: You mentioned banks. They were all surging today. They're optimistic that when we get this so-called stress test report, that they are all doing peachy and ducky. Who knows, but there is this feeling here with the run-up in the Dow today and the Nasdaq at 11-year highs, you know the old saw, Congressman -- you and I have gotten into this -- that the markets are a predictor or ahead of this curve and seeing that improvement, much to disagree with what you were just saying.

What do you think of that, that the markets say you are wrong, that the pickup is alive and well?

WEST: Well, I would think maybe the markets are looking five to six months down the road, when we have a change in leadership in this country.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Wait a minute. You think that this is built on a Republican either capturing the White House or Republicans capturing the Senate?

WEST: Well, it depends on how far -- it depends on how far the futures are looking down the road.

I think one of the great things having the House taken back by the GOP was we did slow this down this change. Think about if cap and trade had gone through the legislative process and what would be happening in the energy sector. Think about if card check had gone through what would be happening in the labor sector.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: That's interesting. I don't want to jump on that, but I heard a couple posit that today, that maybe this is reflective of the polls that show the president under more duress here, that it's not such a shoo- in for reelection. That might or might not be a stretch, but it is out there as a factor.

You think that that is a genuine factor? You think that the markets are getting bubbly in anticipation of a Republican taking the White House?

WEST: Oh, absolutely.

Well, I think that there is a new kind of hope that might be out there is that we can get a person that has practical -- practical, viable solutions for job creation here in the United States of America, which doesn't involve an expansion and invasive growth of the federal government, but instead, with the right type of policies, that we can spur on job creation from the private sector, as opposed to growing the public sector.

I think that is the most important thing we have to have happen. And I am still very concerned about the monetary policy that we see coming out of the Fed. As long as you see those interest rates being kept artificially low down to zero, we’re printing more money, our debt is still continuing to grow.

CAVUTO: That's right.

WEST: You know, $4 billion a day is what we are spending; and our $1.3 trillion deficit, which is also forecast for this year, so we have to have a change in the policies.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: By the way, Congressman, you alluded to the Federal Reserve.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: I'm sorry, sir.

But the Federal Reserve did put out a statement today, kept rates where they were, said policy is not changing any time soon, interest rates stay as low as they are. Some say that is the next big bubble that the rates are weirdly low, and that in the face of the rising gas and food prices, that they are "riskily" low, if there is such a word.

But what do you make of that? Do you think that is true?

WEST: I think you are absolutely right, because, as I said, it lends itself to almost an artificial economy.

So, Ben Bernanke is doing everything he possibly can to try to manipulate the situation, but it’s not working. I think we're going on quantitative easing part three. One and two did not work. We know that Japan tried stimulus packages and things of that nature from the government side, and that doesn’t work.

We have to get back to the basics, which is right type of tax and regulatory policies, fiscal and monetary policies that provide that encouragement and incentive to entrepreneurs to turn this economy around and grow these jobs.

CAVUTO: All right, Congressman, thank you very much. Always good seeing you.

WEST: Thanks so much, Neil.

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