Economic Outlook: Fix trade, then taxes

President Barack Obama turned the tables on Republicans, asking the quick-to-criticize party to come up with a jobs bill of its own.

That said, the president should come up with a strategy that isn't as lame as the one he has offered.

With the U.S. Federal Reserve's economics tool belt all but played out and Republicans in charge of the House -- and the Tea Party in charge of the Republicans -- there is not is not so much as a spare dime in Washington left for economic stimulus.

To spend in Washington is to borrow and the last debt-ceiling debate dragged on for months and turned into an ideological arm-wrestling match. That pushed credit rating company Standard & Poor's to downgrade U.S. credit from Triple A to AA-plus, which in turn threw stock markets into a near free-fall. Nobody wants to go there again.

The president then proposed a $447 billion jobs bill the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, refused to put up to a vote.

There is nothing wrong with the plan, except for the disruptive point that it wasn't going to go anywhere.

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell then complained, "They've designed their own bill to fail in the hope that anyone who votes against it will look bad."

There is only one answer to that: Mr. McConnell, try making it harder for the Democrats to make the Republicans look bad. If it is this easy, it reflects poorly on everyone.

Nevertheless, without a dime available on the political front, policymakers and politicians are looking around for the next wad of available funding and here is what they see:

1 -- Corporations are sitting on a ton of cash right now.

2 -- China seems to be prospering; maybe if we play our cards right, China will bail us out. (The Wall Street Journal reported recently that the Obama administration is setting its sights on $1 trillion in new foreign investment over the next five years.

3 -- Rich people.

With timing that couldn't be better if Steven Spielberg were directing the show, billionaire investor Warren Buffett raised his hand to say that he and his "ultra-wealthy" friends would accept higher taxes rates. Democrats cheered. Republicans jeered.

One of the skeptics, Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., has unwisely challenged Buffett to a public relations duel that Huelskamp will surely lose. This set up a visit to Huelskamp's Web page, where a terrific surprise awaits, a link that is titled, off in the right corner of the home page, "Creating Jobs."

That's exactly what President Obama was pursuing, is it not?

But above the title "Creating Jobs," in smaller print, is a second title that says, "American Job Creators -- share your stories."

Share your stories? What is this? That's right, After years of high unemployment, with the housing market crumbling and millions out of work, the Republican party has come up with a plan that is -- in its entirety -- a survey.

Good grief.

The president's job plan is fine, but it is not nearly enough to turn things around. Maybe a million people would have found work if the program was permitted to flourish and the rich could have covered the bills. But that still leaves 14 million unemployed. To solve that, the president needs to level the playing field, not just pick up the chips that fall on the floor.

The Commerce Department on Thursday said the U.S. trade deficit in August came to $45.6 billion, which means the United States as a country is not running a profit on the world stage. That means forever -- literally forever -- no amount of taxes one way or another is going to straighten out the country's economic problems.

On page 2 of the report's summary, there's a notice that says how the country fared in trades with China, with Korea, Japan, Canada, and a host of other entities.

In that list is Ireland. It says the trade deficit with Ireland increased from $2.7 billion in August to $2.9 billion.

The U.S. is running a trade deficit with Ireland?

Yes. That means with all the diversity in goods and services the United States has to offer from paper clips to pillow cases to insurance to computers to cars, the country is not competitive -- no disrespect intended -- with Ireland at the moment.

A jobs bill makes sense, but much more help is needed than that. A survey? That's just pathetic.

In international markets Friday, the Nikkei 225 index in Japan fell 0.85 percent and the Shanghai composite index in China lost 0.3 percent. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong lost 1.36 percent and the Sensex in India gained 1.18 percent.

In Australia, the S&P?ASX 200 fell 0.92 percent.

In midday trading in Europe, the FTSE 100 index in Britain added 1.27 percent while the DAX 30 in Germany gained 1.45 percent. The CAC 40 in France rose 1.45 percent and the Stoxx Europe 600 rose 1.29 percent.