Good to see comments on the New Jobs Tax Credit from two authors of papers on the subject, Timothy J. Bartik of the Upjohn Institute and John H. Bishop of Cornell. In response to my criticism of Barack Obama’s call for an employer credit to encourage hiring, both argue that the Carter-era version of this idea—the 1977-78 New Jobs Tax Credit—succeeded in creating as many as 700,000 new jobs in the first year.

Emil Sunley was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis at Jimmy Carter's Treasury in 1977. In a 1980 Brookings volume, he recounted the history of this credit, which had morphed into a very complicated and largely ineffective subsidy as it worked its way through the legislative process. It is a cautionary tale for the Obama team and its allies in Congress.