Speakout for Good Jobs Tour comes to NYC June 30

Download June 30 NYC Event Flyer

The Speakout for Good Jobs Now tour will feature stops in numerous cities across America giving Americans the chance to speak out about how the economy is affecting them. Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus will listen to what everyday Americans have to say and take that back to Washington with them as they continue to fight to reinvigorate the American Dream — the ability to put in a day’s hard work for good wages and benefits so we can provide our children with a better future.

Learn more about tour stops, visit our Events Page
 
Speakout for Good Jobs Now

When: Jun 30, 2011
Where: Hostos Community College
500 Grand Concourse
Bronx NY 10451
Description: 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Speakout for Good Jobs
A Congressional Listening Tour—Speakout for Good Jobs Now

Join ...   Rep. Charlie Rangel, member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus
Rep. Yvette Clark, member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus
for this important Town Hall meeting.

More Americans are falling out of the middle class than are joining it. These Representatives want to hear the priorities of everyday Americans as a first step towards building America's greatest asset—its middle class.

It's time this country worked again for people who work for a living. Watch this video.

This event is sponsored by ProgressiveCongress.org and endorsed by Progressive Democrats of America. For more information, go to SpeakoutTour.com.
Doors open 6:30 p.m. Please check back for possible time change.
Text NYC to 228466 to get New York City event reminders.

Download June 30 Event Flyer

Posted by Chuck Bell at 4:58 AM    

comments (0)

Speakout for Good Jobs - National Tour

Attend one of our Speakout for Good Jobs Now Tour events in cities around the US. Share your stories of how the economy is affecting your life and your ideas for how we can rebuild the American Dream.

Can't attend an event?  Speak out by sending a personal story or uploading a video.

More info on events at: http://speakouttour.com/?page_id=8

June 27:  Detroit, MI 6 p.m. – 8 p.m., Historic King Solomon Baptist Church 6100 14th Street, Detroit, MI 48208
Join Representatives Keith Ellison (MN- CPC Co-Chair), John Conyers (MI) and Hansen Clarke (MI) at the Historic King Solomon Baptist Church for your opportunity to share your stories and ideas.
Text DET to 228466 to get Detroit Event Reminders

June 29:  Milwaukee, WI 6p.m. – 8 p.m. Vincent High School 7501 N Granville Rd, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Join Representatives Gwen Moore (WI), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Jan Schakowsky (IL) and Barbara Lee (CA) at Vincent High School for your opportunity to share your stories and ideas.
Text MKE to 228466 to get Milwaukee Event Reminders

June 30:  New York City, NY 5:30 p.m. -7:30 p.m. Hostos Community College, 500 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY, 10451

Join Representatives Charlie Rangel (NY), Jerrold Nadler (NY) and Barbara Lee (CA) at Hostos Community College for your opportunity to share your stories and ideas.
Text NYC to 228466 to get New York City Event Reminders

July 2011
Check back for July locations and Special Guests

July 16:  Miami, FL Location information coming soon

Join Representatives Raul Grijalva (AZ-CPC Co-Chair), Lynn Woolsey (CA) and Frederica Wilson (FL) for your opportunity to share your stories and ideas.
Text MIA to 228466 to get Miami Event Updates and Reminders

July 18:  Pittsburgh, PA 6p.m. – 8p.m. The Kinsley Association 645 Frankstown Ave, Pittsburgh PA 15206

Join Representatives Raul Grijalva (AZ- CPC Co-Chair), John Conyers (MI) and Mike Doyle (PA) for your opportunity to share your stories and ideas.
Text PITT to 228466 to get Pittsburgh Event Updates and Reminders

July 19:  Philadephia, PA Location information coming soon

Join Representatives Raul Grijalva (AZ-CPC Co-Chair), Bob Brady (PA) and Chaka Fattah (PA) for your opportunity to share your stories and ideas.
Text PHILLY to 228466 to get Philadelphia Event Updates and Reminders

July 20:  Boston, MA Location information coming soon

Join Representative Jim McGovern (MA) for your opportunity to share your stories and ideas.
Text BOS to 228466 to get Boston Event Updates and Reminders

July 21:  Houston, TX Location information coming soon

Join Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee for your opportunity to share your stories and ideas.
Text HOU to 228466 to get Houston Event Updates and Reminders

July 22:  Portland, OR

Text PDX to 228466 to get Portland Event Updates and Reminders

July 23:  Seattle, WA 12p.m. – 2p.m. The Brockey Conference Center at the South Seattle Community College, 6000 16th Ave. SW , Seattle, WA 98106-1499 (click for map)
Text SEA to 228466 to get Seattle Event Updates and Reminders

August 2011

Check back for August locations and Special Guests

August 16:  Oakland, CA
Text OAK to 228466 to get Oakland Event Updates and Reminders

Posted by Chuck Bell at 4:51 AM    

comments (0)

Against Learned Helplessness

Expanded public investment for job creation consumes 97 times its weight in excess political realism.

The high priests of financial austerity and tax cuts for the wealthy prefer private opulence and public squalor. They would rather let families languish in protracted unemployment while schools crumble, levees fail and bridges collapse.

Be realistic, demand the impossible -- living wage jobs for all!

"...5 million green jobs, national infrastructure bank, hybrid cars, solar panels, mass transit, energy-efficient housing, new Civilian Conservation Corps, universal broadband, pre-K, reading tutors, afterschool and home care for all."

Against Learned Helplessness - NYTimes.com

By Paul Krugman, 5/29/11

"...In pointing out that we could be doing much more about unemployment, I recognize, of course, the political obstacles to actually pursuing any of the policies that might work. In the United States, in particular, any effort to tackle unemployment will run into a stone wall of Republican opposition. Yet that’s not a reason to stop talking about the issue. In fact, looking back at my own writings over the past year or so, it’s clear that I too have sinned: political realism is all very well, but I have said far too little about what we really should be doing to deal with our most important problem."

"As I see it, policy makers are sinking into a condition of learned helplessness on the jobs issue: the more they fail to do anything about the problem, the more they convince themselves that there’s nothing they could do. And those of us who know better should be doing all we can to break that vicious circle."

Read Paul Krugman's op-ed

Posted by Chuck Bell at 7:02 AM    

comments (0)

"How to Create a Job" Misses the Mark

I am generally a fan of Ira Glass and "This American Life," but the recent piece they aired ("How to Create a Job"), that purported to answer whether government can create jobs, was pathetic and sad.   And the reason seems to be that the NPR reporters seem so bracketed in by their oh-so-practical, centrist, neo-liberal Zeitgeist, they have drunk the Kool-Aid along with everyone else.  They can't look outside the box, because they're in the box.

The teaser for the show says, "It seems like every politician has a plan for putting people back to work.  But we and the Planet Money team couldn't help but wonder... how do you create a job?  Can politicians truly create many jobs?  Is it possible the whole thing is just well-intentioned hot air?"

Glass opens the piece by blowing off the idea of public investment in infrastructure -- without any analysis of whether it works or not.

“One of the big ways that politicians used to create jobs, the way FDR did it back in the 1930s, [was to] put more people on the payroll, build dams, build roads, spend and spend and spend – nobody, nobody with any power anyway, is talking about doing that..."

In the first segment, "Can Government Move My Cheese?" a Planet Money reporter examines the questionable claims of Gov. Scott Walker, who claims to be creating 250,000 jobs in the private sector.   

This angle might be worthwhile, but the poor listener is left with the feeling that "government's" hands are tied when it comes to creating jobs.  Reporter Chana Joffe-Walt winds up her piece by suggesting that there is little a governor can do to create jobs:

"...So in the meantime, politicians with a jobs number to achieve focus on the short-term. Republicans and Democrats hand out tax incentives to seduce employers into hiring.  And of course, those goodies cost something.  In Wisconsin, they account for $117 million in taxes, that will not be collected over Walker's first two year, and this in a state where they are fighting over every dollar.  This leaves the government with less money to... spend on education so employers can hire smart people, to build good roads and infrastructure so businesses can transport goods, and innovate."

"If you go with tax cuts, you might seduce some employers to hire now, but you'll hurt future employers who needed you to spend on schools, so they can find educated workers to come up with great new ideas.  If you go with long-term spending -- schools and Internet -- you have to increase taxes to pay for it, which can mean that businesses on that job-creation fence will be pushed to anti-job creating territory.  In both cases, you've zeroed out your efforts.  You've had some effect on the one side, but canceled it out with what you did on the other side."

"But that's the choice you have -- long-term or short-term.  Whether the governor is Democrat or Republican, someone you love or someone you hate, politicians don't have a lot of options.  At best, they'll get some jobs for the somersaults it took to get there.  At worst, they had some impact, did something, but had no idea how to measure exactly what."

What's the problem here?  Joffe-Walt isn't wrong to suggest that there are short-term vs. long-term tradeoffs, or that the value of public investment might take some time to be realized, such as she suggests, in the end of the governors' second term, or even later.  But within the range of tax breaks, incentives and investments that are made by states in job creation, there is a wide variation in what actually works, and a lot of that actually could be measured -- something NPR might have learned about by talking to groups like Good Jobs First.   

But an even bigger problem is that the overall piece is looking at the wrong end of the horse.  With Glass' glib dismissal of the feasibility of infrastructure investment, Planet Money lets the Congress and the President off the hook for what the federal government actually can do to create jobs.  

Within the spending choices that are made by Congress, there are direct tradeoffs made by deciding whether to fund military spending vs. education, or subsidies for oil companies vs. investments in clean energy.  Those choices really could move the dial on whether we have jobs or not.   For every $1 billion spent on the military, $1 billion spent on mass transit or education would create twice as many jobs.  Spending $100 billion on clean energy and conservation investments would create 2 million jobs, and twice as many jobs as spending on investments in oil and fossil fuels.  (Not to mention, the tradeoffs involved in granting tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires, vs. making targeted infrastructure and social investments in a deep recession!)  So that is point #1.

Second, the federal American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) did save and create many jobs, showing that expanded public investment in job creation does make a difference. A November 2010 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that as of the third quarter of 2010, the stimulus lowered the unemployment rate "by between 0.8 percentage points and 2.0 percentage points," and "[i]ncreased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.6 million.   The stimulus bill has been criticized from the right as wasteful, but the truth is that broke the free fall of the economy and demonstrated that government can in fact save and create jobs.  

Third, the problem for states right now is that because the state fiscal stabilization and Medicaid assistance funds in the ARRA are ending, they are collectively shouldering huge fiscal gaps that are actually leading to thousands of layoffs.  The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities reports that 44 states and the District of Columbia are projecting budget shortfalls totaling $112 billion for fiscal year 2012.   One of the most important things that politicians could do to protect and grow jobs in this severe recession would be to extend financial aid to the states, to keep them from making deep cuts in education, health care and assistance for the unemployed.  (You would think Planet Money might want to take note of this context, because the same governor they are reporting on, Scott Walker, who claims to be interested in creating jobs, is seeking to fire thousands of workers in the public sector.)

Fourth, direct public job creation by the federal government would likely be much more cost-effective than granting tax breaks or incentives to private companies.   1 million direct jobs a year could be created for a direct federal investment of $46 billion, according to Prof. Philip Harvey, author of Back to Work: A Public Jobs Proposal for Economic Recovery, published by Demos.  

Fifth, why not interview Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, who are supporting Make It in America legislation to restore American manufacturing; or Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who has introduced a bill to create a federal infrastructure bank, or Rep. John Conyers, who has proposed establishing a national Full Employment Trust Fund by imposing a financial transactions tax on Wall Street; or Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who has proposed establishing a 21st Century Civilian Conservation Corps.   I guess they don't have any power... they're just members of Congress.   

Or reach out to the Blue-Green Alliance, a coalition of obscure environmental and labor organizations like the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the United Steelworkers, and the United Auto Workers, which supports a ten-year program of federal investment in green energy and green manufacturing to create 5 million jobs.  This is a program that would actually pay for itself through reduced costs for imported oil.

No, we'd rather look at the wrong end of the horse...   and leave people with a sense that that there's nothing left for us but a fiscal crumb fight in the states, vague and unmeasurable statements by governors, and "well-intentioned hot air."  

I like This American Life and think this report is worth listening to -- for all its flaws -- but it tells us something about how mainstream media is missing the boat about jobs.  (Maybe, perhaps, because the reporters who work for NPR are in fact, not leftists.)  And we're left with the implicit assumption that the role of government can only be to support the role of the private sector in job creation.  It's all about education and human capital formation, never mind all the middle-aged, well-educated workers who have been spit out and left to twist in the wind by corporate America, and now -- public sector employers.  

Almost comically, early on in this piece, Glass accuses Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research of engaging in "trope" by suggesting that job creation is more important that obsessing about the deficit.

"I mean, to my mind, it really is unconscionable just sit back and have people go, oh, we‘re worried about the deficit 10, 15, 20 years unite when we have 25 million people unemployed, underemployed or out of the labor force altogether... So, getting jobs in the economy really should be front and center."

Exactly right.  Why not let Baker, or some other knowledgable economist like Joseph Stiglitz, make a full-throated defense of how public investment actually does create jobs?  And how job creation actually is much more important than obsessing about the deficit?   

Jobless recovery is an oxymoron, and at the current slow pace of job growth, we're unlikely to get out of it without some major initiative by government, -- yet this piece (which claims "we have answers") provides few ideas on how that could even conceivably take place.  

Full disclosure:   The writer of this post, Charles Bell, serves as vice chair for the National Jobs for All Coalition, which advocates a New Deal, FDR-style federal jobs program of exactly the type that Ira Glass thinks no one -- or at least no one with any power -- is willing to talk about.

Posted by Chuck Bell at 6:13 AM    

comments (0)

Unemployment: A Jobs Deficit or a Skills Deficit?

Unemployment: A Jobs Deficit or a Skills Deficit? | Dollars and Sense


Politicians and economists are trying to reframe a severe jobs crunch as a problem of workers’ inadequate skills.

By John Miller and Jeannette Wicks-Lim

Dollars and Sense

"...The only problem is that this [skills mismatch] explanation is basically wrong. The weight of the evidence shows that it is not a mismatch of skills but a lack of demand that lies at the heart of today’s severe unemployment problem."

Read rest of article

Posted by Chuck Bell at 4:42 AM    

comments (0)

Government should put unemployed back to work

Government should put unemployed back to work

Editorial - The Daily Star, Oneonta, NY

July 23, 2010

State unemployment agencies are set to resume sending unemployment checks to millions of people after Congress voted this week to restore lapsed federal benefits.

Almost 5 million people who have been out of work for six months or more have seen their benefits lapse. Under best-case scenarios, people can expect retroactive payments starting next week. For others, it will take longer.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke characterized the job market Wednesday as showing continued weakness.

In particular, the 100,000 or so private jobs being created each month so far in 2010 is 'a pace insufficient to reduce the unemployment rate materially,' he said.

With a brutal job market and fears of a double-dip recession, these millions of people are in dire need of unemployment benefits. Many rely on these payments to put food on the table for their families.

With the economy in the tank, the Obama administration should take a lesson from the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration and create a government-run jobs program.

During the Great Depression, Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of April 1935, with the purpose of creating public jobs for the unemployed.

During the WPA's tenure, workers constructed 651,087 miles of roads, streets and highways; and built, repaired or refurbished 124,031 bridges, 125,110 public buildings, 8,192 parks, and 853 landing fields, according to u-s-history.com. Workers also cleaned slums, revived forests and extended electrical power to rural locations.

If this worked in the 1930s, it can work now. Obviously, some modifications would need to be made but there is plenty of work that could be done through a government program.

Many of our nation's bridges are in dire need of repair. Roads, streets and highways could be repaired; and public buildings and parks could be cleaned and refurbished.

Also, broadband Internet access could be extended to rural locations.

The WPA employed more than 8.5 million people on 1.41 million projects. The agency was terminated in 1943 because it became difficult to justify with wartime prosperity rising in the 1940s.

A 21st century version of the Works Progress Administration could put millions of people back to work.

Let's stop paying bailout money to large corporations and put that money where it belongs, in the pockets of the American people.

When people have money to spend, it provides a real shot in the arm to the economy.

Posted by Chuck Bell at 12:08 AM    

comments (0)

It's a one-and-a-half dip recession, for sure

By ROBERT REICH, www.SALON.COM

WEDNESDAY, JUL 21, 2010 18:15 ET

This post originally appeared on Robert Reich's blog

"...We're not in a double-dip recession yet. We're in a one-and-a-half-dip recession.

Consumer confidence is down. Retail sales are down. Home sales are down. Permits for single-family starts are down. The average workweek is down. The only things not down are inventories — unsold stuff is piling up in warehouses, and inventories of unsold homes are rising — and defaults on loans.

The 1.5-dip recession should be causing alarm bells to ring all over official Washington. It should cause deficit hawks to stop squawking about future debt, Blue Dog Democrats to stop acting like Republicans, and mainstream Democrats to get some backbone.

The 1.5-dip recession should cause the president to demand a large-scale national jobs program, including a new WPA that gets millions of Americans back to work even if government has to pay their wages directly. Included would be zero-interest loans to strapped states and locales, so they didn't have to cut vital services and raise taxes. They could repay when the economy picked up and revenues came in. The national jobs program would also include a one-year payroll tax holiday on the first $20,000 of income.

The president should stop talking and acting on anything else — not the deficit, not energy, not the environment, not immigration, not implementing the healthcare law, not education. He should make the whole upcoming midterm election a national referendum on putting Americans back to work, and his jobs bill. Are you for it or against it?

But none of this is happening. The hawks and Blue Dogs are still commanding the attention. Herbert Hoover's ghost seems to have captured the nation's capital. We're back to 1932 (or 1937), and the prevailing sentiment is that government can't and mustn't do anything but aim to reduce the deficit, even though the economy is going down..."

Read rest of post

Posted by Chuck Bell at 12:02 AM    

comments (0)

Is Long-Term Unemployment America’s Future?

Nice piece by Terrence Heath, cross-posted from AlterNet, on the folly of "jobless recovery."

Is Long-Term Unemployment America’s Future? SpeakEasy:

"Like tea party activists and some of their fellow conservatives, Congress’ reckless inattention to the deficit makes me concerned for my children’s future and the kind of economy they will inherit if indifference continues. It’s not because Congress is spending too much. It’s because Congress is investing far too little where it’s needed most, to do what the private sector can’t right now — create jobs. The alternative is long-term unemployment, for a long, long time — and all its attendant consequences.

When I look at the current reality of long-term unemployment and the appalling failure of our elected officials to do anything about it — despite having ready options that might begin to offer some relief — I fear I’m looking at my children’s’ future, and that of millions of our children. As parent who’s already doing all I can, I’m asking: Why doesn’t somebody do something?"

Read rest of post

See also The Jobs Deficit and the Breaking Point Part 1 and Part 2

Posted by Chuck Bell at 7:19 AM    

comments (0)

NYT:> How Democrats Fell Short in Job Creation

Economic Scene - How Democrats Fell Short in Job Creation - NYTimes.com:

By DAVID LEONHARDT

Published: June 8, 2010

"One of the political mysteries of the last year is why the White House and Congress have not been even more aggressive about trying to put people back to work.

"It is true that President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress favor more stimulus and have been stymied by Republicans and, more recently, conservative Blue Dog Democrats worried about the deficit. But it’s also true that Mr. Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have done less than they could have.

The president has not wrapped his arms around teachers, firefighters and other government workers facing layoffs and dared Republicans to oppose him, much as he did with financial reregulation. He has not pushed for a big new round of tax cuts, which could also put Republicans in a bind. And the White House has been slow to fill vacancies at the Federal Reserve that could go to officials who favor the Fed’s doing more to lift economic growth."

Read rest of article

Posted by Chuck Bell at 6:57 AM    

comments (0)

Calls for Stimulus Yield to Deficit Concerns - NYTimes.com

If you're looking for a righteous cause where you can be a gadfly, instigator and inveterate underdog, arguing for jobs in the face of deficit hawkery should prove to be a great choice.

It will be right up there, apparently, with the idea that America should have a responsible energy policy that reliably reduces carbon emissions.

And maybe the equally ridiculous ideas that we can prevent a double-dip recession and avoid catastrophic cuts in state and local government budgets, and oh yes, solve the foreclosure crisis.

As Mark Twain once said, "What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, it's what we know for sure that just ain't so..."

Calls for Stimulus Yield to Deficit Concerns - NYTimes.com

By DAVID E. SANGER and SEWELL CHAN

Published: June 8, 2010

WASHINGTON — At a moment when many economists warn that the American economic recovery is likely to be imperiled by prolonged high unemployment and slow growth, President Obama is discovering that the tools available to him last year — a big economic stimulus and action by the Federal Reserve — are both now politically untenable.

The mood in both parties of Congress has turned decidedly anti-deficit, meaning that the job-creation programs once favored by the White House and Democratic leaders in Congress have been cut back, then cut again. It is a measure of the mood that Mr. Obama on Tuesday hailed an initiative by his administration to cut the budgets of most major government agencies by 5 percent, at a time when conventional theory would call for more government spending to lift the economy.

Read rest of article

Posted by Chuck Bell at 6:36 AM    

comments (0)

The Disappointing Senate Jobs Bill That's All Too Easy to Forget

If you've already forgotten about the small Senate jobs bill that was approved in February, here's a refresher on what the bill included, and how disappointed progressive groups are in its small size and lack of ambition, in the face of a ferocious unemployment crisis.

Maybe the only thing that can be said was at the time, the Republicans were seeking to lard the bill up with even more tax breaks for business, so as a tactical matter, Reid may have been smart to cut his losses.

Now that health care reform is done -- why not hammer, hammer, hammer on the Senate to pass a much larger jobs bill. This could include the Jobs for Main Street Act passed by the House in December, with a margin of one vote and no Republican help. It could also include the Local Jobs for America Act (HR 4812) proposed by Rep. George Miller, and the Put America to Work Act bill (HR 4268) proposed by Rep. Keith Ellison. It could include the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act (HR 2269) proposed by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, and the Public Lands Restoration and Job Creation Act proposed by Rep. Linda Sanchez (HR 4291), among others. And finally, the Congress should cough up more help and support for ailing state economies.

With unemployment at sky-high levels, the key problem we ought to be worried right now -- as Richard Trumka and others have wisely pointed out -- is CREATING JOBS AND PUTTING PEOPLE BACK TO WORK, not reducing the deficit. Leaving workers and the states to twist in the wind for months or years ought to be completely unacceptable to policymakers and voters across the board.

Senate approves $15 billion jobs bill

By Tami Luhby, senior writer
February 24, 2010: 11:42 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Senate on Wednesday approved a $15 billion job-creation bill that would give businesses tax breaks for hiring the unemployed and states more money for infrastructure projects.

The four-prong bill would:

Exempt employers from Social Security payroll taxes on new hires who were unemployed;
Fund highway and transit programs through 2010;
Extend a tax break for business that spend money on capital investments, such as equipment purchases;
Expand the use of the Build America Bonds program, which helps states and municipalities fund capital construction projects.

The legislation, approved by a 70-28 vote, is a scaled-down version of an $85 billion bipartisan draft bill that was crafted by Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.
Some 13 Republicans, including newly elected Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., voted for the measure Wednesday.

"Today's progress is a small step forward but an important one," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who surprised many lawmakers last week when he announced the slimmed-down measure. "This morning's vote is a victory for hard-working Americans, especially those trying to find work. This will help our economy grow."

It now moves to the House, which may take it up as soon as Friday, said a Democratic aide at the House, which passed a more comprehensive $154 billion bill in December.
However, the bill does not extend the deadline to apply for unemployment benefits or the Cobra health insurance subsidy. Some 1.2 million people will run out of benefits after Feb. 28 if the deadline is not extended. Lawmakers are looking to pass a separate, shorter extension by the end of the week in order to give them time to enact a longer fix.

Also, unlike the House's bill, the Senate's jobs measure does not provide additional assistance for states. Many governors want the Obama administration to send more federal dollars so they can cope with yawning budget gaps.

The administration said on Monday that it strongly supports the $15 billion jobs measure but indicated it is only one step in the job-creation effort. The president wants lawmakers to take up a bill that would increase small businesses' access to credit.

Reid said the Senate will vote on extending tax provisions and small business job measures in the near future. The majority leader also said lawmakers will consider providing additional Medicaid money for states, which governors have been requesting.

"We have other things in mind," Reid said. "Remember, we don't have a jobs bill, we have a jobs agenda."

Still, labor leaders and left-leaning think tanks say the Senate must do more to spur job creation.
"We need to create 11 million jobs to get back to the level of unemployment we had before the recession began," said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute. "Yet the Senate jobs bill would create no more than a couple hundred thousand jobs."

CNN Radio Correspondent Lisa Desjardins contributed to this report.


Unions and liberal groups blast Reid’s $15 billion jobs legislation as 'puny'

By Walter Alarkon - 02/22/10 07:00 AM ET

Unions and liberal groups have dismissed Sen. Harry Reid’s $15 billion jobs bill as "puny" while calling for larger stimulus measures.More than two dozen organizations, including the AFL-CIO,

National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP) and National Council of La Raza, warned Democratic leaders in Congress to avoid tackling the troubled economy through incremental action.

They urged the Senate to pass the $15 billion jobs measure, which features a hiring tax cut for small businesses, but called for much more legislation to bring down an unemployment rate the White House projects to average 10 percent this year, more than 9 percent next year and over 8 percent in 2012.

"If this $15 billion was the only thing [that passed], that would be like having an amputated arm and sticking a Band-Aid on the end of it," said Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, on a conference call Friday.Lawrence Mishel, head of the union-backed Economic Policy Institute think tank, described the $15 billion bill being pushed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) as "small, puny.

"In addition to the $13 billion hiring tax credit, Reid's bill includes money to extend the federal trust fund for highway and other transportation projects, a tax break allowing businesses to write off losses from depreciating equipment and bonds for state and local government infrastructure projects. Reid has set up a Monday procedural vote to bring the bill up for debate, and Democrats hope to pass it later next week.

The left-leaning coalition is proposing its own jobs package that goes beyond the House Democrats' $154 billion jobs bill, which passed without House Republican votes in December.In a letter to Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the coalition called for an extension of increased unemployment and COBRA healthcare benefits for the rest of the year. The House bill provides $63 billion for a three-month extension of those benefits, which are set to expire in February.

The liberal groups' jobs package also calls for $40 billion for public works and job training programs, $70 billion for school construction, $10 billion in loans for low-income homeowners facing foreclosure and other provisions making it easier for distressed homeowners to keep their property. The coalition's criticism of the Senate bill echoes that of liberal Democrats.Pelosi said last week that House members want the pieces of their jobs bill, which features infrastructure spending and fiscal aid to state and local governments hoping to stave off public worker layoffs, in the legislative package that Congress sends to President Barack Obama.

"The House looks forward to reviewing the Senate proposal and working together on legislation that creates jobs and helps our families, small businesses and workers," Pelosi said in a statement.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said job-creation measures should include fewer tax breaks and more spending to directly create jobs. Brown spokeswoman Meghan Dubyak said the senator will back the bill but wants it to be part of a series of job measures this year.

"He wants to see legislation that helps unfreeze the credit market for businesses, helps manufacturers retool for the clean-energy economy, extends unemployment insurance and COBRA assistance and provides increased support to states so that programs essential to Ohioans can continue," Dubyak said.

Posted by Chuck Bell at 8:32 AM    

comments (0)

White House urges passage of summer jobs legislation

White House urges passage of summer jobs legislation
By Russell Berman - 04/07/10 04:30 PM ET
http://www.thehill.com/

The White House is pushing for Senate passage of summer jobs legislation, sending a signal to African-American leaders that it would lend its support to one of their top legislative priorities.

An economic adviser to the president, Cecilia Rouse, joined the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), on a conference call Wednesday to tout House passage of the $600 million bill, which advocates say could create as many as 300,000 jobs this summer. The CBC has pressed for the bill as a way of addressing the soaring unemployment rate among minority teenagers, which reaches as high as 39% for blacks and 30% for Latinos, Lee said.

The White House engagement came a day after black religious met with President Barack Obama in a gathering aimed at defusing tensions between the administration and the black community over concerns that Obama has not focused enough on the struggles of African Americans during the economic downturn.

“We have to do more,” Lee said. She praised the administration’s efforts to boost the economy and citing last month’s positive jobs report, but she joined the prevailing White House message that a 9.7% national unemployment rate was “not good enough.”Rouse said the administration was focused “like a laser-beam” on job creation and on making sure that its economic policies were “inclusive.”

The funding would go to cities and non-profits for summer jobs programs, and would build on money that was included in last year’s economic stimulus package. Rouse urged quick action by the Senate.

“It’s really important that we get the resources to the communities as soon as possible,” she said. As for the Senate, Lee said she was “confident that Sen. Reid is going to have the votes to pass it.”

Posted by Chuck Bell at 8:29 AM    

comments (0)

Unemployment rate for young vets hit 21.1%

Unemployment rate for young vets hit 21.1%
By Kimberly Hefling - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Mar 12, 2010 16:09:52 EST

WASHINGTON — The unemployment rate last year for young Iraq and Afghanistan veterans hit 21.1 percent, the Labor Department said Friday, reflecting a tough obstacle combat veterans face as they make the transition home from war.

The number was well above the 16.6 percent jobless rate for non-veterans of the same ages, 18 to 24. As of last year, 1.9 million had deployed for the wars since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some have struggled with mental health problems, addictions, and homelessness as they return home. Difficulty finding work can make the adjustment harder.

The just-released rate for young veterans was significantly higher than the unemployment rate of young veterans in that age group (14.1 percent) in 2008.

Many of the unemployed are members of the Guard and Reserves who have deployed multiple times, said Joseph Sharpe, director of the economic division at the American Legion. Sharpe said some come home to find their jobs have been eliminated because the company has downsized. Other companies may not want to hire someone who could deploy again or will have medical appointments because of war-related health problems, he said.

Read rest of article

Posted by Chuck Bell at 11:53 AM    

comments (0)

Mayors Want Jobs Program Like in New Deal - WSJ.com

Works Progress Administration construction workers in Pennsylvania in 1936. The Roosevelt program was one of several that employed millions during the Great Depression.

Mayors Want Jobs Program Like in New Deal - WSJ.com
By LOUISE RADNOFSKY

Wall Street Journal, March 8, 2010

The specter of a long period of high unemployment is reviving interest in an old idea: The Works Progress Administration, which put millions to work during the Great Depression.

The United States Conference of Mayors is citing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs as its members push for more infrastructure money to go directly to local governments. They are pointing to the legacy of programs like the WPA to bolster their case that such direct public-sector job efforts can work when mayors run them.

"A lot of the infrastructure in Schenectady was funded with WPA funds in the 1930s and you can still see the WPA stamp in the sidewalks, in the parks, in the pools," said Brian Stratton, mayor of the city in central New York state during a recent visit to Washington to lobby lawmakers. "That is what we need to come back to America's cities, that's what Schenectady needs, that's what all of our cities need."

Read rest of article

Posted by Chuck Bell at 10:27 AM    

comments (0)