Media Matters' recent attack of the American Solutions "Jobs Here, Jobs Now, Jobs First" plan is short on facts and full of tired talking points. The attack conveniently leaves out a key component of the plan that is crucial to understanding how it will put money into the pockets of every American.

Their misleading report only addresses 3 out of the 4 aspects of American Solutions' proposal: abolishing capital gains, reducing the corporate income tax, and eliminating the estate tax. They leave out the call for a 50% reduction in the payroll tax for two years. This reduction would mean that the average American employee who makes $35,000 a year would bring home an extra $200 a month.

Under the "Jobs Here, Jobs Now, Jobs First" plan, all Americans would see an increase in their take home pay at a critical time where many have watched their monthly budgets for food and living expenses shrink. At American Solutions, you can enter in your own income and calculate how much you would save.

More troubling, Media Matters mischaracterized the goal of the proposal as being only for the "wealthy" a fallback critique for those who are less sophisticated in economic theory.

Empirical economic research has consistently shown that tax cuts can have a significant boost for economic growth. In fact, Christina Romer, Obama's very own Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, published a paper indicating that tax cuts have a significant and positive effect on the economy. In a 2007 paper that she published with her husband, Romer and Romer note "In short, tax increases appear to have a very large, sustained, and highly significant negative impact on output." In contrast, Romer and Romer go on to point out that "tax cuts have very large and persistent positive output effects."

Moreover, America has one of the highest corporate income taxes in the world. Media Matters downplays this tax cut by noting that not all American businesses pay income taxes. This does not, however, cancel out the positive effect a corporate income tax would have on those companies that pay this tax. In 2008, the Federal government collected over $300 billion in corporate income tax receipts. This is nearly half the value of Obama's $787 billion stimulus. Why wait for the government to divvy out stimulus money one penny at a time when we could instead give businesses an immediate increase in liquidity so that they can hire more employees, invest in more capital equipment, and rejuvenate America's economy?

Likewise, a corporate income tax cut will have a secondary effect on America's economic competiveness. After Ireland cut its corporate income tax, the country's wealth almost doubled and companies all over Europe fled into Ireland bringing jobs and revenue.

To compete in the 21st century economy, companies are looking to cut costs anywhere they can. More and more companies are comparing the tax advantages of operating in lower-tax countries like Singapore or China where the income tax is a fraction of the tax in the U.S. The US's corporate income tax burden is now 50% higher than the non- OECD average. In order to attract the most competitive, dynamic corporations in the World, the U.S. cannot afford to have such a burdensome corporate income tax rate. 

American Solutions' plan to eliminate the capital gains tax will also have a meaningful impact on economic growth. In fact, reducing capital gains will help bring more businesses to the U.S. while increasing asset values and investor confidence. If the Obama team did not think that capital gains could have a positive income on growth, why would they have included a capital gains tax cut for small business in the 2010 Presidential Budget? 

We are at a turning point in America's competitiveness in the global economy. This time requires bold ideas--ideas with substance that do not run counter to proven economic reforms. Increasing taxes to pay for expensive health care reform and whimsical energy policies will not bring America closer to competing with double digit growth in China. Shelling out $787 billion in money that--at this rate will not be spent for another 4 years--will not help Americans keep their jobs, their homes, and their retirement.

The "Jobs Here, Jobs Now, Jobs First" plan is the right solution at the right time.