The Senate leadership appears to be on the verge of proposing a jobs package significantly smaller than the $154B bill that has cleared the House, even though everybody agrees even the House bill is not big enough to reverse the 7 million jobs already lost in the recession.
It is urgent that your Senators hear the call for a real jobs bill. Click here to tell the Senate: JOBS NOW!
The Washington Post reports that timidity is reigning in the Senate: "The House passed a $154 billion jobs bill ... but with ballooning budget deficits much in the news, Senate Democrats are wary of moving anything that large."
Apparently, too many Senators have failed to grasp that our long-run fiscal picture will be greatly improved if people have jobs that allow them to pay taxes.
And after a devastating recession, that requires making up-front investments to create jobs.
Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson is scratching his head why even the House bill is too small, despite the fact that everyone knows it's too small. But his remedy is on target: "it would probably take a mass movement of labor, community groups and whatever is left of Obama's scattered legions all demanding jobs and economic equity for such a bill to garner even a chance of passage."
Because our political media is dominated by know-nothing punditry, few citizens hear how investing in job growth can pay off in fiscal health tomorrow. Deficits become short-hand for government incompetence, when in fact you can have bad deficits because of misguided priorities, and good deficits from investing in our future.
That makes voting for a big jobs bill harder than it should be.
Changing that dynamic requires people to speak up. Click here to tell the Senate: JOBS NOW!
Originally posted at OurFuture.org