With President Barack Obama preparing to address a joint session of Congress about our unemployment crisis tonight, our message to him -- as his reliable supporters and political allies -- is simple: Think big and act boldly.
Americans expect and deserve nothing less.
Millions of people are waking up every morning without a job and with dwindling hopes of finding one. Their faith in the American Dream is flagging. Their aspirations for a middle class life are being dashed.
This is a national emergency. Unemployment is unacceptably high, more than 9 percent, with more and more Americans slipping into poverty. The number of children in poverty has climbed to nearly 15 million, a moral outrage that must be remedied. Economic despair is afflicting Americans of all stripes -- urban and rural, blue and white collar, those with advanced degrees, high school diplomas and GED.'s alike. They haven't failed; their leaders have failed them.
For communities of color, the pain is even more acute - a 15.9 percent unemployment rate for African-Americans and 11.3 percent for Latinos. Youth joblessness is also persistent (a staggering 25 percent unemployment rate for those age 16 to 19), as qualified young people move into a job market that has nothing to offer them but rejection letters and crushed hopes.
The size of the federal budget deficit is not keeping the American people up at night ; they're worried about how to pay for groceries. That's what members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus found when we traveled across the country on a jobs tour this summer, listening to struggling Americans and seeking to elevate their voices over the misleading noise from Washington. Members regularly heard from families struggling to stay afloat, losing their homes, and emptying their savings just to pay the bills.
It's time for their challenges to become the nation's challenges. Republicans have proven uninterested in real job-creation efforts. An early glimpse at their so-called jobs agenda reveals little more than additional tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations, a rollback of environmental regulations and continued attacks on labor rights.
It's up to the president to offer an ambitious proposal designed to have an immediate and lasting impact. All members of Congress should support a plan that can create good jobs -- putting money in people's pockets that they can pump back into the economy.
We urge our colleagues to support the president in the restoration of the American Dream.
What should such a plan look like?
First, we must have an emergency jobs legislation that puts America back to work now. We need to create at least 3 million jobs in 2012, which will prevent a double-dip recession and strengthen the economy right away.
For our long-term success, it should include a strategy to revive our manufacturing base -- so that the words "Made in America" mean something again. Any jobs package should advance the green industrial revolution that will likely define the economy of tomorrow, and make major investments in U.S. infrastructure.
We have projects that are ready to go but need funding. We can put people to work by rebuilding roads, bridges and schools, and laying the fiber optic cable that is to the 21st century what railroads were to the 19th century.
A serious jobs plan should extend unemployment benefits -- particularly for the long-term jobless whose benefits have expired after 99 weeks. It should also expand the Earned Income Tax Credit.
To achieve significant economic recovery that produces jobs, investments at the level of hundreds of billions will be required. Many in Washington are likely to argue that we don't have the money. But these same critics want to hand out more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
As outlined in The People's Budget, by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, we can afford to improve our economy and solve our long-term deficits. Tax reform that eliminates corporate loopholes and asks everyone to pay their fair share is the right move.
In addition, by spurring job growth, we create the taxpayers who can close the deficit. It's an article of faith among most economists that a recession calls not for belt-tightening but for an increase in federal investment to stimulate consumer demand and give the economy the jolt it needs.
We speak for many members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus when we say this is not a moment for incremental steps or timid half-measures. We cannot afford to play small ball when American families are hurting this much.
America is in the throes of a national crisis. The country is demanding a big, bold, brave jobs plan. It's up to the president to deliver. We - and, more important, the American people - will support him as he does the right thing.
Reps. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) are members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Grijalva and Ellison are the co-chairmen, Woolsey and Lee are the immediate past chairwomen.
Published 9/8/2011 on Politico.com.
Follow Rep. Lynn Woolsey on Twitter: www.twitter.com/replynnwoolsey
With the Republicans on track to nominate the Social Security hating Perry it will be a great year for gaining the seniors and independents demographics and picking up seats in both houses.
The Republicans are going to squat and fall back on it. It will be a cinch to take back the House and we can target a dozen Senate seats where the Tea Party (sic, they are only rebranded right-wing Repubs) will nominate way crazies to make this more than competitive.
Look to the House to stall out Obama's plan and set all this up nicely.
No more weapons systems that don't work for people incapable of using them. The biggest threat to this country isn't Al Qaida, the Taliban, or other terrorist. It's failing to spend money on our own people to help them become productive again. It's sending the best jobs abroad.
He has an $8.00/hr federal transistion job. Companies won't hire people who have beeb out of work for a while. So the Govt. hires them, then, after a while they get real jobs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/warren-mosler/speech-that-president-oba_b_946716.html
What is your plan?
"Far from being a rarity, virtually every bill, every nominee for Senate confirmation and every routine procedural motion is now subject to a Republican filibuster. Under the circumstances, it is no wonder that Washington is gridlocked: legislating has now become war minus the shooting, something one could have observed 80 years ago in the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. As Hannah Arendt observed, a disciplined minority of totalitarians can use the instruments of democratic government to undermine democracy itself."
http://www.truth-out.org/goodbye-all-reflections-gop-operative-who-left-cult/1314907779
The Republicans are obstructing, any legislation that would improve the state of the economy and lower the unemployment.
So, Really. It's all the Republicans fault. Really!
Banks borrow from the FED and buy US treasuries.
Corporations with money, don't spend their money on internal growth because they don't see demand.
Corporations and funds with money don't invest in start up businesses because the risk of success for the start up are unpredictable.
Start up business are job creating machines, more than any other source of job creation.
Some solution:
Eliminate the risk of equity investment in start ups by guaranteeing it against loss, while taxing gains in such investments at a rate equal to income tax.
Equalize the interest charged by the FED on any money borrowed to buy US treasuries.
These two actions will free up money free up about two trillion dollars almost immediately to flow to the economy almost immediately.
I think Progressives within the Democratic Party are in a tough position. The Democratic Party is not a Progressive Party. Though some factions within it are most definitely Progressive, the direction of the Party is decided by New Democrats, like this President. New Democrats, in the DLC model, are most definitely not Progressives. In short, Progressive aspirations are stifled within the Democratic Party as currently constituted. What to do?
I would like to believe that this President would do what was necessary and present a bold Progressive plan to address our current crisis, but that is unlikely. What I wonder is how long Progressives are going to be happy as second class citizens within a Conservative Democratic Party, for that is most definitely the current status quo, and the nation does not benefit from that.
And pay for it without increasing the debt ?
What you need to understand is that we are suffering under debt and deficits primarily because the economy is moribund and people aren't spending or paying taxes through their payroll checks. If you add millions of workers to the economy you are also adding millions of consumers. In addition to the direct benefit of workers on infrastructure, you add to the employment rolls of venders supplying projects. You include an "America First" provision that requires materials manufactured domestically to supply the projects you grow and enhance employment even further. All those workers spending in the economy brings in incomes to business that translates as revenue to the government which reduces the deficit and debt. So, and initial $2 trillion investment has a multiplier effect on the domestic economy in both revenue for the government and demand for business.
It's a win/win ... and it has been the logical choice to address our economic crisis since 2008, but remains untapped.
If your objective is to move people off of unemployment insurance, and onto the ranks of the employed, how does unemployment insurance factor into that? It's not as if unemployment pays for anything more than the necessities, so the whole "demand pull" argument is essentially moot.
If you only have $1 to spend, and your goal is to increase employment, would you hand that dollar to someone who could hire somebody, or would you hand it to the unemployed?
This is the nonsense that made the last three "stimulus" packages a joke. There's no logic, just handouts.
If the unemployed were all in ten states and could twist every election for the next ten years we would not have been drawn out and still be waiting for a plan. The absolute threat of losing their jobs would have forced the Senators and Representatives to act and their party would have worked hard to make sure they kept their seats, meaning money and jobs would have been created. As the unemployed do not have the power to upset but two or three districts this has become a favorite football to toss around but never reach a goal with.
So we will hear about less taxes, more money into big firms, research into the problem perhaps a stimulus to make sure school and Christmas is good for you and China, building roads and rails but little as far as in your home town.
50 billion a year for five years to each state by a private non-political group to rebuild stores and manufacturing. Free trade to equal trade. Education in the new military. Getting to the moon and the stars.
I have a feeling we will still be waiting next year, and the year after... but it would be nice to be surprised. Maybe we could recycle the aluminum for the new sculpture (turn it into an airplane or something).
Like the authors I suggest a bold plan - have the Fish and Wildlife Service declare humans an endangered species. Then government regulations that affect us will have to go thru EPA approval to see if they affect us, before any more choice restricting laws or higher taxes (making us slaves to government) go into effect.
That way, the next time we have an opportunity to put someone into the White House, like we did in 2008, we can draw from a great 'farm team' of committed folks who have proven they've got what it takes to resist big corporate money and entrenched anti-American interests.
Mr. Obama was unproven, and it turned out he was just a Republican-oriented corporate operative. In hindsight, we guessed who he would be based on what he looked like, as much as anything else. Sure, he talked the talk, but he didn't have the record behind it.
If we had a broad-based range of liberal folks in office, we could support someone with a solid track record when the chance comes again, and know they're good for it when they reach high office.