Is this a joke? I'm not laughing

Senators Charles Schumer and Orrin Hatch take to the op-ed pages of the New York Times today with their "bold proposal" to spur job creation. It is a short-term payroll tax holiday for new hires, but only if the new hire spent 60 days unemployed.

I guess I should be pleased that, more than two years into the Great Recession, finally some politicians have a proposal that is related to incentives for private sector jobs. This could have been a bit useful a year ago, but the economy is much, much worse off now.

Let's say that I'm an employer with new projects and I need staff. Most employers are using free lancers these days—will the payroll tax holiday be enough to encourage a full-time hire instead? Obviously not. The existence of this trivial program would have zero effect on staffing decisions.

Now let's say that I've decided I do need to add an employee. I've interviewed two great candidates. One is underemployed, the other unemployed. Does the existence of the payroll tax holiday affect my choice between the candidates? Should it? Why?

Remember the stimulus bill last year, the one that would hold unemployment below 8%? That one cost $787 billion. The Schumer-Hatch proposal costs $7.6 billion. I am not kidding, it's less than 1% of the effort made last year, obviously very weak tea.

The phrase I see more and more on the internet seems apt: "The country is in the very best of hands."