So let's talk about jobs, jobs, jobs.
Here is what I thought Barack Obama should have said in his inaugural address.
My fellow Americans, We are enduring a financial crisis that has created a great economic recession with much suffering for many, and with more to come. And there is an even deeper problem we face: For decades we have neglected the foundational infrastructures of this nation, both physical and moral. Our roads, bridges, schools, transportations systems, energy grids, and even the structures of our families and communities are all in disrepair. So, let us use the painful reality of this economic crisis as the opportunity to rebuild America, to repair our economic and social life for our children and their children. From the renovation of our educational buildings, classrooms, and systems to the building of a new grid for a future of clean energy, to rebuilding the fundamentally important role of fatherhood in our families, we will strengthen our foundations as a nation. We are going to put America back to work with the good work that that we must now do. It won't be easy or quick. But, as your president, I will focus my primary energy on putting Americans back to work in constructing America's future. And I will report to you on our progress every month.After two years in office, President Obama has finally begun to clearly say and do that. His jobs bill, including a national infrastructure bank, is the right course now. And while it should have come much sooner and be much bigger, it is an important step in the right direction.
These laws respected private property, but still required a portion to be set aside in a way that would allow other people to provide for themselves.
What would it look like if we applied such principles today?
I like Obama's American Jobs Act. It is a plan that could prevent up to 280,000 teacher lay-offs and modernize 35,000 schools. It would expand high-speed Internet access to build and broaden our technological infrastructure as well as invest in our current infrastructure that is crumbling. It also would give tax incentives to businesses for hiring veterans and the long-term unemployed, provide job opportunities for low-income youth and adults, and extend unemployment insurance for those who still can't find work. These are all good ideas.
Obama's jobs bill would help those who want to work get to work, and investing in our children's future and basic infrastructure would pay back dividends for years to come.
That's exactly the right direction at a time of economic crisis.
Estimates for job creation vary substantially, but some independent economists estimate the bill would create between 1.3 and 1.8 million jobs. Others at least say it would increase economic growth and forestall further recession at a still dangerous time.
The scriptures also speak to the importance of people benefitting from their own work. Three-quarters of those living under the poverty line in our country already have jobs. They just aren't jobs that allow them to meet all of their own and their family's needs.
People are working and yet are still going hungry.
This is why nutrition assistance programs are so important, as are work supplements such as the earned income tax credit.
While God cannot be said to support a particular piece of legislation, it is imperative that we ask how our moral values influence policy decisions and priorities. The country's major religious traditions have significant areas of disagreement, but one area that unites them all is concern about inequality.
A survey released this week by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that majorities in every major religious category -- as well as the religiously unaffiliated -- all believe that the country would be better off if the distribution of wealth was more equal.
Putting Americans back to work is essential to reducing poverty and addressing inequality, and it's a top concern among people of faith in our country.
The president has put forward a plan. The Republicans have offered no alternative except for their standard mantra about cutting taxes and regulations, which independent analysts say will not create jobs in the near term. It is simply not enough to just repeat ideology at a critical time like this.
Obstructionism may work politically, but it won't put Americans back to work. Concrete action must be taken, and we need to call for our political leaders to find common-ground solutions to create jobs.
No plan is perfect, but inaction is no longer acceptable. Work and dignity are Christian values for the common good, and it is time for both political parties to support them.
Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery, and CEO of Sojourners. He blogs at www.godspolitics.com. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.
Follow Jim Wallis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jimwallis
Getting this nation to build on that foundation will bring jobs, homes, food and clothes to wiling and able workers, where it say "provide for the general welfare". As Christians practice calling everyone brother and sister the "more perfect union" provides that provision eliminating classes. Providing for the "defense" of our nation by the military will ensure our "freedom" it provides for. Then Article 1. section 8 provides for controlling commerce preventing this nation from having a capitalistic nature for national mindedness.
The reason Obama didn't provide for jobs earlier is because he had to follow the dictate of his Capitalistic String Pulling 1% allowing their continued widening their margin separating them from the other 99% of us. That is how it is when the government is interested only in the 1% financing group rather than the whole 100% of the nation's citizens.
STOP THE PRESSES!
That's a great line. The OWSers are protesting for jobs, decent jobs, economic fairness and affordable health care for all. The christian conservatives have lost the message of the new testiment and gone off on a narrow minded, anti-liberal tangent. The creation of good jobs helps to create more good jobs. Unfortunately, the wealthy and well connected have control over our lawmakers and we can't get anything done for the good of our nation. We are headed toward a nation of haves and have nots, lords and serfs. The middle class is the backbone of the economy and it is diminishing. We are experiencing the consequences of that now. Obama, after two years of trying to compromise with the repugs is finally getting in stride. If he is elected for another term, he won't have to worry about getting re-elected and will be able to move forward with a progressive agenda that can save the greatness of this nation. That is my hope, anyway.
We spend much more today on education, per student, than ever before. We have a higher percentage of students attending college than ever before. We have a higher amount of government spending, per citizen, than ever before. We give more in government "assistance" of every kind than ever before. And yet, the distribution of wealth has worsened.
Liberals have succeeded in selling a connection between poverty and tax rates that is a false leap of logic. But it does sell well to a desperate people looking for someone to blame. Rather than face the reality that a growing government does not serve them in the long run and that "the rich" are neither the source or the solution to our problems, people can easily be motivated through envy.
We have a deficit, as the right wing endlessly moans. Yet their only solution to it is to punish the old, sick, poor and the children - the very parties who did NOT cause the market collapse. Never do they propose stopping tax subsidies to the wealthiest and most powerful as a solution.
Government assistance to the poor is high right now in large part because of the market crash that created mass unemployment. The way to shrink it is to get people back to work. Taxing the rich and eliminating their subsidies would provide the cash needed to put people to work - because yes, indeed government can create jobs. Jobs like cops, firemen, teachers and the armies of construction workers that could be used to repair our infrastructure.
While the already outdated teabag rhetoric about government wasting more money if taxes are raised is a comforting sop to ideologues, it is in effect nothing but a roadblock to solving our problems and recreating a semblance of a free, fair democracy.
Again, you avoid the question: how does raising federal taxes help wealth distribution? Cops, firemen and teachers should all be paid by local and state governments. The Democrats are trying desperately to make the states dependent on the federal government, but that is a different issue. The previous "stimulus" was much larger and it created a very small army of construction jobs.
What evidence it there that more taxes, and more spending, by the federal government will improve our economy?
Supply-side economics including cutting taxes on wealth Americans has NEVER succeeding in "lifting all boats" nor in raising the over-all standard of living. And, red-herring/provocative talking-points aside, no one is "against the rich" or demonizing the wealthy. Rather many Americans are tired of the extremely wealthy (and powerful) minority getting their way at all levels of government and, not content to be wealthy, contributing money and using influence to "rig the game" to make them wealthier still. It is not about envoy or hatred or jealousy or "class warfare." Rather it is about fairness, equalty of opportunity and an approach to governance that insures that all have a "seat at the table" and have their voices heard.
And Democrats, you aren't safe either when you receive huge amounts of money from the same contributors as the Republicans, and then excuse it, you will also be under close scrutiny. Times are changing, this is a new dawn, take fair warning politicians, your past action will no longer be tolerated. The disorganized OWS protesters will be nothing in comparison to the next tidal wave that will hit this nation.
Fix the existing problems with the system or deal with the outcome. And no, I am not talking about people running around in the streets with guns, I’m talking about the tidal wave that will cover this nation with a new attitude and it will be felt at every poll in the nation.
Don’t feel safe just because you are a Republican/Democrat, you are not guaranteed a vote from any of us, we will vote Independently regardless as to the affiliation.
Ummm...
There is no "Conservative party." (Outside of small "third" state parties such as that in New York.)
Are you implying that those in the White House right now (the Obama administration) are members of the non-existent party?
And are you arguing that the best solution to the MANY and COMPLICATED problems in the United States is some form of off-with-their heads/pox on both their houses/nihlist approach in which any and all politicians are simply voted out regardless of whether or not they are doing a good job, serving their constituents, and are free of corruption?!? Sounds to me like that "solution" for an issue with a personal computer. Bang on it until the problem goes away or you destroy the device.
Thanks, but not thanks.
About the “Conservative†thing. I guess I’m like some others who mistakenly use that word.
I believe that politicians on both sides of the isle are responsible for the polices that effect us in such a negative way. And voting for one who does nothing but tell lies before they’re elected, and then does the opposite afterwards, is very discouraging. It’s like our vote means nothing.
And I don’t believe that heads should roll, I think they should work together or hear from the people. ~ And they will
Income..........................or steal it in the first place !
Yes, I would like a better distribution of Income also, however, I do not Trust anyone to actually
accomplish such a idealistic Goal !
Both Ethics and the Law prohibit such Fantasy ! Stealing is a Sin.
remember the third
Just expecting godless people to respond with morality and responsibility is foolishness when the recipient has learned to just expect that producers must share with them just because they exist. The so called "poverty" in this country is obscenely generous by comparison to other countries.
Distribution of wealth is not a Christian concept because it it does not demand a response to Gods grace. And those who receive from the government become servants of government rather than God.
I, for one, am happy that is NOT seventeenth-century Massachusetts, where mouthing slogans about religious persecution and the opportunity for religious freedom, church and state are intermingled with the "elect"/"insiders" enjoying full "citizenship" and benefits thereof. That sounds like what you are describing. In fact, you underscore that point by comparing the early church and its sharing among members and then going on to assert that government is trying to displace the church. Pretty sure that we don't have an established church in the United States -- the one truly original aspect of our Constitution -- meaning that the government is there to represent and "promote the general welfare" of all citizens.
And, while denigrating those that might receive assistance (a "handout" in your terminology) you seem fixated on the "least among us" with no mention of the truly "blessed" (wealthy and privileged) who get more than their share of "handouts" courtesy of their influence over government.
So please spare us your "orthodox Christianity" filtered through Adam Smith, Mies, Hayek, et al. It just doesn't fly.
Truly Blessed are the wealthy because they receive from the government? You made my case! thanks