Creating Jobs Is Not "Wasteful"

This week the Senate is debating whether to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a bill we absolutely need to help arrest our economic freefall. Economic policies championed by the Bush Administration largely focused on tax cuts for the big corporations and the wealthiest among us. Not only did these policies fail, they helped create the crisis we now find ourselves in. Yet many in Congress believe we should go down that road yet again in hopes that this time it will be different. Even worse, they are obstructing a recovery package focused on creating jobs, investing in our future economic competitiveness, and providing middle-class tax relief. Indeed, provisions aimed at working Americans are now characterized as "wasteful spending."

It is as if the Bush team set a house on fire and then blocked the fire trucks trying to put that fire out.

On Monday, Republican leaders in the House put out a list of items in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act they deemed to be "wasteful spending." Many of the projects they demonize create jobs, invest in our children and protect our citizens.

One project they're attacking hit close to home. They're calling funding to restore forest health and prevent wildfires in National Forests wasteful. Coming from Southern Oregon, I can tell you firsthand they are dead wrong.

I grew up in Southern Oregon. My father was a sawmill worker and a logger and his job put food on the table. Right now Douglas County, where I was born, has an unemployment rate of 12.8 percent. That's the highest it's been in decades and well above the current national average. Douglas County is home to many of Oregon's timber workers and they need the stability of a good paying job. The money that would be allocated to counties like Douglas to restore forest health and prevent forest fires would put these folks back to work.

Let me explain. Due to federal mismanagement, there are millions of acres of choked and overgrown second-growth forests. These forests are a complete menace. They are diseased and are very little use for strong ecosystems. Moreover, they are a huge fire hazard. Thinning these neglected forests is essential for restoring forest health and generating thousands of rural jobs.

Let me emphasize this: this provision will create thousands of rural jobs. This is a win-win for our rural economies and our ecosystems.

Preventing wildfires is something that desperately needs to be done in any economic condition and now has the added benefit of providing jobs in areas that need them most. How Republicans can call job creation for hardworking millworkers like my dad "wasteful spending" is a mystery to me. To the contrary, like school or bridge repairs or broadband internet access, thinning overgrown forests is the best kind of economic recovery investment: it creates jobs in the short-term while addressing a critical and long-neglected priority. The funding would improve the health of dangerously overgrown second-growth forests, helping protect our forests from disease and preventing wildfires that are devastating to rural communities and enormous sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

Funding the protection of our forests isn't the only thing critics are calling wasteful spending. They are attacking funding for Amtrak, which is underfunded, has recently increased ridership, and is a major economic engine of the East Coast in particular. They are attacking funding for public computer centers at community colleges, programs which create jobs now and provide workers with the skills they need to compete in a technology-driven economy. They are even attacking funding for flood reduction projects off of the Mississippi River - just three and a half years after Hurricane Katrina and inadequate levees led to devastation in New Orleans.

Whether motivated by a knee-jerk opposition to anything the government does or a desire to play politics and try to give the new Obama Administration a black eye, the opponents of this bill are opposing job creation and repeating the mistakes that led to the Great Depression. Economists across the political spectrum recognize that government spending is vital to create economic activity in a recession, and many even say the price tag is too low. Whether it's logging to reduce wildfire hazards, teaching children, laying new light rail tracks, or preventing floods along the Mississippi, people will be paid to do these jobs - that's not wasteful spending, that's the whole point.

For eight years, we weren't investing in our economy. We were running up record debt but we weren't creating jobs or bringing families into the middle class. Some in Congress see the past eight years and think we were on the right track, all current evidence to the contrary. I vehemently disagree.

I believe the key to putting our economy back on track is to put Americans back to work by investing in infrastructure and green energy jobs and building a pathway for our children and economy to compete and innovate through education. We can address the short-term crisis and re-build our economic foundation for the future. America voted for a change of direction last November, not more of the same. Republicans should listen to the American people and work in a bi-partisan fashion to help get our country on the road to recovery.

Comments

[swkidder]

"For eight years, we weren't investing in our economy. We were running up record debt but we weren't creating jobs or bringing families into the middle class. Some in Congress see the past eight years and think we were on the right track, all current evidence to the contrary. I vehemently disagree." ...
And so did the voters on November 4th. Could you please tell the rest of the Senate to let go of "Bi-Partisanship" and just get a good bill passed? You should be able to either persuade and/or "hog tie and lock in the closet" at least 1 or 2 Republican/Blue Dog Democrat Senators and get a good bill passed. It would be nice to have some co-operation from Republicans and Bi-Partisanship is a worthy goal. However, Bi-Partisan participation is a "nice to have" and passing a good bill is a "must have." If you have to choose, choose wisely Grasshopper.
This is what we sent you to do, and you clearly are a great example of the intelligence and the value system we chose to replace the insanity of the last 8 years. Go Get Em.

[tbmmoe]

The problem with the republican party today is that many of those who think tax cuts alone can solve all our probelms are soooo glued to ideological purity that then are systemically unable to compromise. This is why the word 'compromise' is such a dirty word to those on the extreme right. The same can be said of extremists of any stripe, The fact is if we don't find REAL compromise, we all go down the tubes. Most people do not listen to Rush Limbaugh, but those who do are rabid in their ideological devotion no matter how uninformed it is. Since he has already staed that he wants Obama to fail, it shouldn't be difficult to shove him and his followers into the margins where they really belong. Those who care about the country rather than their ideologies need to decisively overwhelm them. The last two elections were obviously not enough.

[kimleehan]

What does the word bi-partisan mean anyhow? I thought it ment the congresspeope could swing both ways, but all I hear is the republicans calling for tax cuts and the democrates saying spend. spend, spend, nothing bi there. Texas and probibly a few other states don't even have a state tax, how are they doing it? Lets find out what works and what don't.

[bonkin]

Creating jobs is against the Republican's adgenda. Working people spend money buying books and reading and not listening to Rush and Bill O. They send their kids to college. This is also the main reason to cut education, from head start to college, to counseling about family planning at federally funded clinics. Keep everyone barefoot and pregnant. Unemployed people are desperate. Desperate people do as they are told. Educated people think, thinking people question, questioning people don't vote Republican.

[moongal6]

You forgot the part about how uneducated people are more likely to commit a (street) crime. So, since the Republican's don't like education, then, of course more crimes are committed so we have to build more prisons, not institutions of education. It seems so difficult for them to see the whole picture. You can't just treat the symptoms, you have to treat the illness.
The "illness" being ignorance.

[bayside]

Republicans and wanna be republicans do want obama to fail ,so will give him false information, lies, and fight him on every front..They are fighting to keep their way of govt. and that is where we step in to get back our govt.. We thought we had a voice again in obama until we saw his cabinet..Its up to him what happens next , he cant do it alone.. We are the only ones paying the piper and it has to stop.

[bigmaddy]

The problem is that the Republicans are hoping President Obama will fail . They don't seem to get it! They are self serving and that will be their down fall in the next election Their tax cuts for the top 1 or 2 % didn't work and they can't owe up to it. They own this depression just like they did back in Hoover's day

[andyg]

SO the dems didn't want bush to fail, I think the term is "blowback".

[LeftRight]

No we wanted bush to be stopped in his lawbreaking activity. On the other hand, we also recognized that if he failed then WE failed!

[emmacop]

Exactly how does the government spending $189,000 for every unemployed person in the US create wealth? Would it not be cheaper to just buy them each an unoccupied house (we have enough), fill their cupboards, and provide them four years of education?

[SpiritHorse]

Thank you, Senator Merkley. I'm glad I had the opportunity to vote for you last November.

As a native Oregonian, who has seen the results of our forestry policies since the heydey, and eventual abuses, of clear cut logging methods and practices, forest thinning and restoration is long overdue. The work that was once done by nature-created wildfires, plus the controlled burns of Native or First Nations peoples in centuries past, must now be done by judicious thinning and logging as well as judicious, continued use of controlled burns. And I say that as "a confirmed tree hugger". Many workers and state economies can greatly benefit from such policies and programs, especially in the western U.S.

As to the larger issue of choosing spending over tax cuts to prevent another Great Depression, our nations's economic history of 1929 through the "stimulus package" that was WWII stares us in the face ...........for those who have eyes to see. And "we ain't seen nothin' yet" as to what will most likely be required in the realm of "stimulus" spending to prevent a re-occurence of what happened then.

And thank you, also, Senator Merkley for being courageous enough to use the 'GD' words - Great Depression.

To paraphrase: "What we learn from history is that some people never learn from history." I.E., Some folks just aren't even willing to be teachable, even in such a teachable moment as the present one.

[CAPTAINSKIPPY]

After the massive disasters inflicted on this country's economy, Republicans keep saying that more tax cuts will eventually create "trickle down" jobs; what they neglect to state is how many millions may starve during the long wait.

[Ganapati]

Dear Senator,
Could we at least consider redefining the language
that the republican machinery has so successfully dominated?
Spending is wrong, is repeated as a mantra, and believed, and followed.
A Democratic campaign, on the media about the benefits of spending
in the right things would do wonders.
Let the Republicans and neocons continue dominating how we speak
and they dominate how we think.
We need more emphasis on the necessity of this "spending".
Not too far fetched,

[dobberdoss]

Creating 'debt IS wasteful Jeff, as those jobs you think are coming are funded on exactly that more 'debt' then I can see their point! Tell me Jeff, when your credit card is maxed out and your into your overdraft is that a time to spend more money you dont have?

[TheGreatPumpkin]

Then what is your solution? Tax cuts? Hard to spend the money you saved from a tax cut.... WHEN YOU DONT HAVE A JOB FOR THEM TO TAKE THE TAXES OUT OF IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Next....

[Lee2320]

Your comment sounds like what a typical rich Republican would say. I however am not rich. I work for one of those State governments that is in serious financial trouble right now, that would have been helped by the money the Republicans just cut from the stimulus bill to stabilize it's budget and avoid layoffs

Tell me friend, how will I be able to take advantage of the 5 thousand back the Republican party wants to give me on buying a new car, or the 15 thousand back on buying a new house if I don't have a job anymore?!!!! It's too late to worry about the national debt anymore smart guy.

The Republican party spent the last 8 years setting our ship of state on fire, and if all you want to is sit around and worry about how much the water is going to cost to put out the fire, you are sentencing millions of us out here to go up in flames with it.

[Emerald1943]

Senator Merkley, I am not from your state, but I have to agree with you on the Stimulus Bill. I am from North Carolina and we have been hard hit here from a loss of jobs in furniture and textiles. These jobs have been sent overseas and our unemployment rate is now over 8%.

The Republicans are insisting on tax cuts (which do not create jobs) instead of the infrastructure spending that we need. I believe that more Democrats should write columns and make TV appearances to let the American people know how the bill is being decimated to appease the proponents of old worn-out ideologies. President Obama needs everyone's help!

The cuts that have been made in the Senate are not in the best interest of the country. Why does it seem that anything that would benefit women, children and the poorest are the first things to be taken away? I would encourage you to fight to replace the monies for education and food stamps if nothing else. The people know that these programs will generate jobs and help the less fortunate among us.

Thank you for posting this article and I look forward to hearing good news from you and your colleagues in Washington DC.

[SpiritHorse]

You might want to consider how the American economy got it's jump start in the 1790s with the implementation of Alexander Hamilton's ideas and policies in President George Washington's administration, the effects of the Depression(s) / "crashes" in the 1800s, the worldwide economic sinkhole of 1929 to about 1940 - and, finally, the economic policies and programs put in place by FDR and The New Deal.

Most especially, notice what happened when unemployment dropped to "only" about 13% (from 1932's 25%) by 1936 and FDR accomodated to the desires of the Republicans of his day for a "balanced" federal budget, without all the deficit spending from 1933 to 1936!. Oops! Bummer, dude. That (premature) 1 year attempt didn't work then and it won't work now.

New wealth is created by production and innovative ideas - people at work producing goods and services. When capitalism becomes corrupted and begins eating itself and everything around it, as it has periodically done throughout U.S. history (see above), it is no longer capable of stasis or growth through it's own resources - sufficient preservati­on/retenti­on of capital and the continued gerneration of new wealth through sufficient employment/jobs. That's when government spending is required and lots of it - to avoid falling into the abyss. The end of the Great Depression didn't come until the massive "stimulus" spending required by WWII - evidently about 25%! of our GDP at one point during the war.

[SpiritHorse]

Oops! My apologies to Emerald1943. SpiritHorses reply was meant for Inthon's posting "We don't have the money.........."

I, both as an Oregonian that voted for Senator Merkley anda U.S. citizen, agree with your thoughts, Emerald1943.

[Inthon]

We don't have the money to fund all these projects. All of our "wealth" is borrowed money from China and Japan buying our debt.

This stimulus bill isn't going to change that and if we continue on this path we will devalue the dollar.

Until we realize we are charging everything on our nation's credit card, our problems will not be solved.

A devalued dollar means the cost of everything dramatically increases and the cost of living increases.

[exhale09]

Well duh!

And WHO exactly borrowed all that money from CHINA? GW Bush and Republicans increased the deficit by $4 Trillion dollars in the last eight years!

and...excuse me, but the dollar is already "devaluated" thanks to republican leadership.

NEXT!

[desertman]

You ain't seen devaluation. Surprisingly ithe dollar is stronger than other currencies but this will change when China doesn't want any more of our debt. Then inflation will take off.

Flame throwing at the Republicans does not change anything. It is what it is.

[desertman]

Simplistic and incorrect.

[MotherKnowsBest]

Congratulations Senator Merkley. I am one of your constituents from NorthEastern Oregon. I see that the State of Oregon is planning to provide citizens here its own economic stimulus package of $175 million with $53.5 million headed toward community colleges. The community college in this district will be receiving $2,550,500 for maintenance, renovation and construction projects. These upgrades will provide jobs to help the local economy and a more efficient HVAC to save fuel costs. This is what should have been happening the past eight years on the national level instead of costly wars and offshoring American manufacturing through upper level tax breaks. I'm glad we have started electing responsible people like you to help expand recovery on the national level.

[Jenoah2008]

Well said,Senator! One major problem is our endless sessions of sabotaging the majority will. Republicans are no less aware of socio-economic facts than democrats. Misguided loyalties continue to drag us blindly into a dangerous socio-economic imbalance bringing in techno-feu­dalism--gl­obal financial nobility sustained by a faceless techno-rob­otized-hum­ans. It is easy to understand removal of spending on education from the Recovery package. People educated appropriately will think critically. Critical thinking is a threat to those who f must always be right and in charge. Proof that education has declined in this country is in our refusal to popularize analytical and critical thinking. Our children's minds suffer. Opportunism, mediocrity and greed dominate our lives. The endless mixing of facts and opinion in problem-solving sadly has spilled into a media constitutionally free to speak . The Union cannot be perfected by continuous half-truths. Despite their human frailties, the Founding Fathers as thinkers, could not have imagined the continued trampling on basic human rights or economic and social infrastructure erosion promoted by unending electioneering by governing representatives. There is a time to campaign and a time to govern. Government is administration on behalf of the people as they, "the people, "demonstrate collective will in the majority vote. If America cannot demonstrate the difference between political cycles of "electioneering and governing,'" what democracy are we selling to the world? Are we modeling sophisticated suppression of majority as we refuse to separate electioneering governing cycles?

[dgscol]

the crazy thing is, that jobs are not created. The money is just being handed over to people, to do with it, anything they will. Will it create jobs?

Think about all the government programs and educational systems that are locked into a nepotistic stupor. They will just garbage up the money - they are professionals at doing that. It will all look okay on paper. New jobs? What new jobs? They will be partying like the bankers - although somewhat more modestly. What is needed is something to separate the wheat from the chaff. That takes time. What's the rush? Its a huge waste of money - with no direction to it - no intelligence.

[desertman]

amen

[idest]

LOL, you really have no idea how the government works, do you? You think they're just handing a truckload of cash to someone in a government office somewhere? No! This makes money AVAILABLE for funding requests that previously could not get the funding they required.

Disappearing truckloads of money only happens in Iraq, under a Republican's watch.