By a 68-29 vote, the Senate gave final approval to the HIRE Act, an $18 billion dollar measure that also includes $20 billion dollars of replenishing for the highway trust fund, the money for which is recovered through an accounting maneuver. So call it a $38 billion dollar jobs bill, fully paid for with offsets around foreign tax collection.

The centerpiece of the bill is a job creation tax credit which would:

It would exempt businesses that hire the unemployed from paying the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax through December and give employers an additional $1,000 credit if new workers stay on the job a full year. Taxpayers would reimburse Social Security for the lost revenue.

CBO estimated that this could create 250,000 jobs. With that money from the Treasury paid for, essentially, by stopping tax cheats from hiding money abroad, I don’t see anything wrong with this bill, though its provisions are minor in scope.

However, combined with the $154 billion dollar extenders bill passed by the Senate, and the $100 billion dollar “Local Jobs for America” Act now in the House, you’re talking about a $300 billion dollar jobs package, most of which will raise aggregate demand, as the latter two are not fully offset.

That’s closer to what’s needed.