Ever hear the old proverb, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime?" It is wise in its simplicity and valuable in its accuracy. It's also a very apt analogy for the difference between President Barack Obama's approach to the current unemployment crisis and that of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

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The president's American Jobs Act affirms his fundamental belief that government creates jobs by proposing $447 billion be spent on things like temporary tax cuts, extremely targeted tax credits and employment subsidies to be paid for with tax increases. He continues to cling to the idea that spending hundreds of billions of tax dollars on short term projects and gimmicks will somehow undo the damage caused by spending hundreds of billions of tax dollars on short term projects and gimmicks.

His $800 billion stimulus bill already failed to keep the unemployment rate below the promised 8% and drove the nation deeper into unsustainable debt. His trillion dollar Obamacare has paralyzed employers with the uncertainty of future hiring costs. His hundreds of proposed new regulations will increase the already unbearable burden on job creators. Yet he still says the solution to the job crisis is more government spending, more government borrowing and more government regulating.

Meanwhile Speaker Boehner has just delivered a speech calling on Washington to "liberate" the economy from over-regulation, anti-growth tax policies and deficit spending. Referring to the details in the American Jobs Act, Mr. Boehner said, "The House will consider them, as the American people expect. Some of the president's proposals offer an opportunity for common ground. But let's be honest with ourselves. The president's proposals are a poor substitute for the pro-growth policies that are needed to remove barriers to job creation in America."

Unlike the president's numerous recent speeches, Mr. Boehner's comments did not come with a volume of new legislative ideas or demands to pass them now because House Republicans have already drafted and passed numerous bills as part of their Plan for America's Job Creators. The vast majority of those bills which would encourage economic growth, reform the tax code and pay down the national debt are currently languishing in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

Speaker Boehner's plan is about government fostering an economic environment in which American companies and workers can prosper. President Obama's plan is about government handing out tiny bits of temporary relief to a select few while the overall situation gets even worse.

Mr. Boehner wants to give the American people the chance to take to the open sea and fill their nets once again. Mr. Obama wants to keep them tied to the dock and dole out one fish at a time...and they aren't even his fish.