Monday, February 18, 2008

AP > Obama proposes $210 billion for new jobs

Obama proposes $210 billion for new jobs
Ten year plan focuses on construction, environmental employment
Associated Press - Wed., Feb. 13, 2008

WASHINGTON - Democrat Barack Obama said Wednesday that as president he would spend $210 billion to create jobs in construction and environmental industries, as he tried to win over economically struggling voters.

Obama's investment would be over 10 years as part of two programs. The larger is $150 billion to create 5 million so-called "green collar" jobs to develop more environmentally friendly energy sources.

Sixty billion would go to a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to rebuild highways, bridges, airports and other public projects. Obama estimated that could generate nearly 2 million jobs, many of them in the construction industry that's been hit by the housing crisis.

"This agenda is paid for," Obama said as the Republican National Committee promoted an "Obama Spend-O-Meter" online to track his proposals and portray him as a tax-and-spend liberal. Obama explained that the money for his spending proposals will come from ending the Iraq war, cutting tax breaks for corporations, taxing carbon pollution and raising taxes on high income earners.

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College Education No Silver Bullet for Lagging Pay

Here's an interesting editorial from the Treasure Coast Palm, a Florida newspaper, questioning whether college education is really the jobs panacea that it's cracked up to be. Other public policies to increase job opportunities for educated workers, and to boost the lagging incomes of service sector workers.

For all the talk about college being crucial to gainful employment in today’s society, the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that bachelor’s degrees are no antidote to outsourcing, underemployment and lagging pay. Among 40 occupations on the BLS’ watch list for likely outsourcing are computer programmers, aerospace engineers and microbiologists. Meantime, blue-collar trades people — from truck drivers to plumbers to electricians — are perpetually in demand. And none of these fields requires post-secondary degrees.

Even the education sector itself reflects this dichotomy. Indian River County School district, for example, hired an audio-visual coordinator fresh out of high school and paid him $15,000 more than a beginning teacher with a master’s degree.

None of this is to suggest that higher education isn’t important for the knowledge it imparts. A college degree can enrich life and, in some fields, ensure upward mobility.

But Paul Barton, a senior associate at the Educational Testing Service, poses a provocative question in the title of his report: “How many college graduates does the U.S. labor force really need?”

Barton turns statistical conventions on their head by counting the number of college-educated workers in jobs that do not require such degrees. He found that 60 percent of people in existing jobs have “some college” or post-secondary credential — yet only one in three jobs requires that level of education.

This phenomenon is pervasive in Florida, where service-industry jobs abound. In an article last year, the Orlando Sentinel reported that “a rise in college attendance coupled with downsizing, outsourcing and a shortage of high-paying jobs is bolstering the ranks of the educated poor — people with college degrees who don’t earn above the national poverty line."

Read more at: Bachelor’s degrees not always key to success as outsourcing and lagging pay take their toll - Treasure Coast Palm, Vero Beach/Ft. Pierce Florida, 2/6/08

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Sunday, February 3, 2008

NJFAC Open Letter to Members of the Congress

January 27, 2008

As the U.S. economy continues to struggle in the wake of the mortgage crisis, the National Jobs for All Coalition strongly urges you to support measures that:

1) create jobs that at the same time increase public investment in our neglected infrastructure and services, thereby creating the basis for future prosperity and a fair economy. A number of such proposals are before the Congress already, and should be enacted either as part of a comprehensive stimulus package, or as standalone legislation.
2) directly assist unemployed and underemployed workers with unemployment compensation and food stamps, which are more likely to be spent immediately than tax rebates;
3) provide financial support for state and local government, whose tax receipts will decline with an economic downturn.

Even when unemployment is relatively low, America has a huge chronic deficit of decent work. In 2006, 7 million people on average were officially unemployed at any given time. Another 4.2 million wanted full time work but were forced to work part-time. Millions more were working at wages that are grossly inadequate.

At the same time, the U.S. faces a chronic deficit of investment in vital human and physical resources, including roads, bridges, dams, drinking water systems and schools, and health, child and elder care.

In addition to short-term economic stimulus measures, the U.S. needs additional federal legislation of various kinds to correct our serious twin deficit of good jobs and public investment. The stimulus package enacted by Congress should ideally link short-term actions to stop the economic pain to long-term policies that create decent jobs for all, and that simultaneously reinvest in our infrastructure and public services. The National Jobs for All Coalition's program, Shared Prosperty and the Drive for Decent Work (available at: http://www.njfac.org/ ), links job creation to public investment. It cites pending legislation in Congress and other proposals that achieve these twin goals. Most of the jobs created through our plan are likely to stay in America.

Here is an outline of our program:

Address Unmet Public Needs for Infrastructure and Services: We urge Congress to increase federal funding for rebuilding the ailing U.S. infrastructure, constructing affordable housing, and investing in clean energy and in essential public services. Such investments would both create good jobs and improve the quality of life for all of us. Many of these ideas are drawn from The Drive for Decent Work.

1) Expand federal investment in roads, bridges, dams, drinking water and sanitation systems, and schools. There are vast unmet needs in each area. Congress should hold hearings and enact an initial package as a first step in closing the gap in infrastructure investment. Accelerating targeted investments could quickly assist unemployed workers in particular sectors.

2) Expand affordable housing opportunities and boost residential construction by passing the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act (HR 2895) in the Senate.

3) Promote conservation, develop renewable energy, and expand funding for research toward greater efficiency and new energy sources. As proposed by the Center for American Progress, such initiatives could include:

· Weatherization assistance to the level authorized by the Energy Independence and Security Act.
· Extending and increasing for 2008 three tax credits that were included in the 2007 energy tax bill: toward residential energy efficiency, solar energy and fuel cell investment. and efficiency improvements to existing homes.
· Increasing the availability of funds for worker training in green sectors under the Workforce Investment Act.
· Promoting community-based partnerships for job training and pathways out of poverty by expanding Green Jobs, recently enacted in the Energy Independence and Security Act.
· Closing the gap in Youthbuild funding in FY 2008 ($40 million below its immediate need) with funds to support green job training, for example, in the construction industry.

4) Increase federal funding for critically needed community services such as Head Start, the Child Care and Development Block Grant, after school programs, and grants for library construction and modernization. Such investments will create jobs, improve educational opportunities for youth, and greatly enhance the quality of life in local communities.

Unemployment Insurance Benefits: Many workers receive inadequate assistance or are not covered by the current system. In particular, low wage workers are about half as likely as higher wage workers to collect benefits. Targeting benefits to these workers will directly help those most affected by a slowing economy, while injecting funds back into essential goods and services, such as housing, food, transportation, and the retail sector.

· Replace the Extended Benefits (EB) program with a new 100% federally funded program. The Economic Policy Institute’s proposal would extend benefits by 13 weeks when unemployment hits 5.5%, and another 13 weeks if it reaches 6.0%. The current system creates unrealistic pressures on state budgets to fund unemployment compensation in times of economic hardship, when tax receipts are down and states face other urgent demands.

· The Senate should enact the proposed Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act, part of the bill already passed by the House of Representatives (HR 3920). This Act would broaden coverage for part-time workers, women with families, and the long-term jobless.

Food Stamps and Home Energy Assistance: Increasing benefits and eligibility for the federal Food Stamp program and Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) would help those who are hit by the economic slowdown and at risk of unemployment, hunger, and economic hardship. These measures are easy to put in place and effectively target those who are in need.

Increase Federal Aid to States: When economic activity slows, state tax receipts fall. As a result, state spending is constricted even as spending needs rise. Tightened state spending further reduces private-sector employment. Federal fiscal relief via grants and funding matches can cushion these effects, helping to sustain state spending in such areas as health care, affordable housing, and education.

We recognize that this is an ambitious program in the current political environment, but it is also one that can fire the public imagination. We urge you to speak out on these issues, and discuss them with your colleagues in Congress. We believe this is an excellent time for a public debate about smart strategies to address unmet needs for good jobs and infrastructure investment that will promote shared prosperity for all.

Sincerely,


Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg
President

Charles Bell
Vice President
Chair, Legislative Committee


P.S. We are also very interested in YOUR thoughts and ideas for job creation and public investment. If you have pending legislative or policy proposals that we can help support through our outreach and public education efforts, please let us know.

National Jobs for All Coalition c/o Council on International & Public Affairs [CIPA]777 United Nations Plaza, Suite 3C, NY, NY 10017 http://www.njfac.org/

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Herbert Calls for Expanded Infrastructure Investment

Among national writers, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert is in the forefront of those calling for a major national program to rebuild America and create good jobs that will stay in America.

In his January 19 column, entitled "Good Jobs Are Where the Money Is," Herbert says:

I’d start with a broad program to rebuild the American infrastructure. This would have the dual benefit of putting large numbers of people to work and answering a crying need. The infrastructure is in sorry shape. New Orleans comes to mind, and the tragic bridge collapse in Minneapolis.

The country that gave us the Marshall Plan to rebuild postwar Europe ought to be able, 60 years later, to reconstitute its own sagging infrastructure.There are also untold numbers of jobs and myriad societal benefits to be reaped from a sustained, good-faith effort to achieve energy self-sufficiency.

Think Manhattan Project. The possibilities are limitless. We could create an entire generation of new jobs and build a bigger and fairer economy for the 21st century. If only we were serious.
Then, on January 29, in "Investing in America," Herbert discussed the little-noticed proposal from Senators Hagel and Dodd to create a national infrastructure bank, which they announced to little fanfare last August. Herbert notes that the American Society of Civil Engineers has estimated that the U.S. needs a trillion and a half in investment over a five year period to modernize its physical infrastructure, including roads, bridges, dams and water systems. This level of investment would bring the infrastructure into "reasonably decent" shape.

Senator Dodd comments that:
“At a time when we’re worried about rising unemployment rates and declining confidence in this country, infrastructure projects have the dual effect of putting people to work — and usually at pretty good salaries and wages — while also creating a sense of optimism, of investing in the future.”

“The basic infrastructure of a country will determine that country’s future,” he said, “and we are far behind," says Sen. Hagel, a Republican.

A national infrastructure bank could have the important benefit of creating a national, transparent mechanism for both increasing investment and addressing priority physical infrastructure needs in a coherent, accountable way. The National Jobs for All Coalition (NJFAC) supports this proposal, but we also call for public job creation in many other fields such as renewable energy and conservation, housing, child care, after school programs, youth conservation, and elder care. Such jobs would not only address our nation's myriad unmet needs, they would also offer a broader range of opportunities to women, minorities and rural workers, not all of whom could obtain jobs fixing roads and bridges.

Reinvesting in American communities to create jobs and improve the quality of life for workers makes enormous sense. A balanced program will begin to address the huge backlog of needs, and create the essential foundation for long-term economic renewal.

For more information, please see the NJFAC's publication, Shared Prosperity and the Drive for Decent Work, available at http://www.njfac.org/

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