We Need a Jobs Package, Not a Stimulus Package

This seems like Framing and Political Strategy 101 to me, but since few other people are talking in this way, let me just lay out a basic idea: all this talk about doing a stimulus package versus not doing a stimulus package is fundamentally besides the point. What we need is a comprehensive policy package that is very simply focused on one thing and one thing only: jobs.

I know the policy wonks on Capitol Hill may be confused by that paragraph because, they would say, well, a stimulus program would create jobs. Well, yeah, that is the idea of stimulus. But my point is this: the politics of a second stimulus package are a dead end. The politics of having a debate about a policy package that will create jobs is a helpful thing. Announcing a second stimulus package gets Democrats into a defensive crouch about why the first one failed, and gets us into that same "can we get to 60" dance with Ben Nelson, Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins that caused the first stimulus bill to be pared back and rendered less effective.

Voters don't know what it means to say you are going to stimulate the economy, but they do know what a job is. And right now, what we need is jobs sooner rather than later. My point here is not to just rename the stimulus bill the jobs bill. In fact, there are quite a few things the White House and Congress can do to focus on jobs that don't involve just spending more, although more money will certainly need to be spent. Here is what I would include in a comprehensive package:

1. Take on, far more aggressively than now, the currency manipulation going on in China. Our balance of trade problem and big losses in our manufacturing sector will not be solved without aggressively dealing with the country that we have by far and away our biggest trade deficit with, and China's policy of currency manipulation is a huge part of the problem.

2. A serious industrial policy that helps emerging industries grow. Every other industrialized country in the world has an industrial policy that helps emerging industries quickly grow and create new jobs. Yes, it does mean picking winners and losers, but we need to get over our reticence about doing that so that we can help the industries with the most potential for producing big numbers of good jobs.

3. Force every big bank that was propped up during the financial collapse -- which is pretty much all of them when you include the Federal Reserve dollars sloshing around the system -- to actually make loans to businesses so that they can create jobs. This "money for nothing and your kicks for free" philosophy has to end. The big banks need to understand very clearly that we expect something more from them, after all they have been given, than merging with other banks and giving record bonuses to their executives.

4. Direct the Justice Department to actually use existing antitrust law (and then beef it up where necessary) to break up the big banks and other mega-corporations stifling small business and competition. Promoting real competition in these industries will produce real jobs.

5. Fundamentally restructure the corporate tax system to incentivize American job creation and dis-incentivize the outsourcing of jobs.

6. Consistent with what every other industrialized country in the world, and consistent with existing WTO rules, have our federal purchases (20% plus of the economy right now) buy from companies producing goods in America. Big business and media elites will scream protectionism, but it would just be doing what every other economic power does.

7. And yes, spend some more money -- on infrastructure, on green jobs, on state revenue sharing. On all those things that were foolishly cut in the last stimulus package by the Nelson/Specter/Collins/Snowe cabal. But this time, just add the money into the federal budget so the job-killing Senators can't screw things up with a filibuster.

I've said it before and will likely say it again: this economy will not recover, and Barack Obama will not have a successful presidency, without a laser beam focus on creating good jobs. Resuscitating the big banks, whether you believe that needed to be done or not, did not create any new jobs (although it did save a few bank executives' jobs, and I'm sure their record bonuses will someday trickle down to the rest of us. Or maybe not). What we need is not another short-term stimulus package, what we need is a real plan, a comprehensive plan, to create good jobs ASAP over the short and long term.

Comments

[reverence]

A jobs only creation package is exactly what we need. Their need to be boundries with that package that clearly state that the funding can not be used or manipulated for anything else, outside of creating jobs and putting the jobless to work. It can not be used to pay down state debt, it can not be used to maintain current jobs.

If the Federal Government is going to do business with the States then it needs to be just that. Business. The Federal Government and the State Government need to sign business contracts that must be honored.

Specific business contracts will keep the people informed and will expose those politicians that dare to continue to deni their constituants jobs, and their lack of concern for their fellow man.

[WritusMaximus]

Mr. Lux, you fail to appreciate the fact that Obama has embraced the Cheney/Bush Jr./Reagan doctrines. Obama believes that deficits don't matter---thanks to the invention of the printing press---and Trickle Down Economics floats all boats.

[mikekc]

Our government is incapable of rational decision-making that benefits the lower 90% in a meaningful way. I don't think it's sunk in with enough legislators yet that this isn't like 2001 or 2004 where an asset bubble is going to re-inflate the unhealthy economy and make things look good numerically.

We are going to need many more months of rising unemployment and declining politician poll numbers for things to move in a different direction. Obama has not really been able to accomplish anything except succeed in his aggressive push to help the banks immediately after being elected. I voted for him but I think he's part of the problem now.

The legislators who control the policy making agenda are using this crisis to help continue their pro-corporate and pro-banking oligarchy bias. They seem to think we are all so easily fooled and somehow the economy is going to turnaround without jobs and income growth. I just hope they don't start manipulating the economic numbers to hide the truth of what is happening.

[WritusMaximus]

It's called Jobless Recovery---a true oxyMORON.

[RoloTomassi]

"Our government is incapable of rational decision-making that benefits the lower 90% in a meaningful way."

Excellent point; if it's not about or beneficial to corporatist fat cats, it's not given any serious consideration.

Mike Lux has listed some great ideas, but they have no chance with our completely dysfunctional government.

[sixyfivepercentwater]

While it's true that if everything changed it would all be different, and while I agree that a lot of the changes you suggest would be a massive step in the right direction, for the most part these ideas are all pie in the sky. Any freshman student of economics can sit down for a few hours and put together a plan to fix the world. Without exception these plans are impossible to implement, because we live in the real world.

The world we live in is run by special interest groups who have no intention at all of letting any of these changes happen. While I was as overjoyed as anyone when Obama won the election, to a certain degree Jesus Christ himself could not make the big changes that are needed to turn this economy around - not in the present political system, at any rate, and not in a democratic republic.

If only benevolent dictators weren't in such short supply. Sigh.

[therealredstateblues]

Obama will not enjoy the support of labor and the industrial midwest that he had in 08 if he continues to ignore the mfg sector, it could end up being his downfall

I am already hearing talk awithin the mfg community that they feal as sold out by Obama as they did by Clinton and Nafta

[therealredstateblues]

recent polling in OH and MI shows support for Obama dipping below 50% as the mfg depression continues to deepen and umployment continues to grow

[Vinca]

I watched a story on the History Channel about our aging infrastructure. We need to ramp it up on infrastructure repair. That could make lots of jobs. I NEVER hear about RESULTS of the stimulus money.

[dobberdoss]

WE just need to get real and face it, there is no real quick way out of this. Jobs rely on there being a market where people have money to spend and a need or want to satisfy. Well what if there is no market? because that market was actually fake based on fake money and fake jobs? The only thing that was real was the "debts". For the last 8 years we called bigger tolerence to "debt" GROWTH! Now what?

[therealredstateblues]

We need more of a demand side model aka the Henry Ford model, that in order to create demand for products and services people need to earn enough money to afford those products and services

[DuganS1]

Henry Ford began to outsource production and fought militantly against unions. He only increased wages to reduce turnover, which was running at 300% in his factories. Car prices back then were trending down, which made them more affordable for everybody. It wasn't a wage issue.

[Leatherhelmet]

Forget the green jobs. It is an illusion. Boone Pickens has a few billion dollars worth of windmills piled up in his garage because it takes too long to put green jobs into place. Not to mention all the coal miners green jobs put out of jobs.

I like the idea of breaking up big banks. They should never have allowed into other businesses like investments to begin with.

The problem is the first stimulus package should have been about jobs. Instead the Dems voted through the biggest porkulus ever. The public will not tolerate more debt. The best thing to do is to cancel much of the first package -- throwing out the waste - and redo it into nothing but highways, bridges and other concrete infracture.

[therealredstateblues]

unfortunately a lot of the so called green jobs are really green washing.

what is going on is companies for example outsource their production , then tout to the world they are saving all this energy, when in reality they just sent the production to someplace esle where they don't have stringent environmental regulation

[brooklynpsu]

What about providing tax incentives to promote people? Say have all payroll increases (capped at a per person max) be offset by a tax deduction? The potential losted corporate tax revenue would be off set by the increased income tax revenue. The incrased buying power may be limited (probably as affective as 20 dollars more a paycheck we are getting now) but the mental effects would be expotentially stimulating

[therealredstateblues]

Great article and full of real deal common sense things to do to help jobs

mfg can be helped at a much lower cost than wall street.

even in its sadly diminished state mfg still employs more than the finacial sector

putting mfg workers back to work gets a lot more bang for the buck

[BocaMom]

Finally, a column with a little common sense. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[StoicRep]

Yes, but the powers that be are not really concerned about what is good for the country. What we need is a way to get them to care. Meanwhile, this stimulus stuff is just ripping off the public.

[Vinca]

I would say HALAluah, but I don't know how to spell it.Anyone should know JOBS are the backbone of our economy. I want to thank Chuck Schumer for tell it like it is, on our illegal s and E-Vetify.

[jumperpin]

Not that we need another good cry:

Senate Dems, led by John Kerry, are gutting fair carbon taxes on imports from the House's Cab-n-Trade Bill.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f91e0ff4-6bf2-11de-9320-00144feabdc0.html

CHORUS: "it could start a trade war".

It's like 1944 allies canceling Normandy invasion because "it could start a war".

[therealredstateblues]

we are already in a trade war and losing it

[DuganS1]

That's because Americans have over-consumed for the past 15 years. If Americans spent according to their means, the trade deficit would be dramatically smaller. You also should put blame on Americans who prefer foreign products (like me). Upper middle class and upper middle class Americans tend not to buy American products, whether it's cars or furniture or other larger ticket items.

[WritusMaximus]

It's like democracies letting Hitler have his way in order to stop a war.

[therealredstateblues]

Hitler once said he would win the war if he could bomb Detroit

[therealredstateblues]

funny how years of bad trade and economic policy had succeded in gutting our mfg sector where Hitler failed militarily

as Pogo used to say - we have met the enemy and he is us

[Aslanspal]

I agree with 5 and 7 strongly..­..Yes, we need a Jobs bill even Obama/Biden missed the our unemployment number 9.5 % they had it at 8% not all their fault extreme mess handed to them but they need quit reaching out to those who don't care if they are elected to a next term or not...we got the numbers it is time to act.

[mbaty]

I like some of these ideas, but isn't it a bit silly to say that we want jobs when we really want a stable flow of currency? I'd be happy to recieve a stimulus every month for the rest of my life without working--just like the bankers. And even if we have more jobs, what about the economy has changed then? We are still not dealing with the basic problems that created this "mess" in the first place. It is our underlying thoughts about money that determine our economy. And, first of all, we are just making it all up. If there were no more debt, there would be no money, because of the way we borrow money from the Fed at interest. It doesn't have to make sense for it to still be "the way we have been doing things." If we really want the old economy to continue to function, those at the bottom of the consumption engine have to have something to consume with. Provide that and, theoretically at least, the economy would continue as it has. Fail to provide that, and the economy will continue to crumble.

[NicoloM]

The only person I've heard of who doesn't want her job in this economy is Sara Palin.
For working people jobs are a source of independence and pride. I don't want to be at the bottom of the consumption engine, the consumption economy propped up by debt is collapsing as you suggest. So maybe the fed shouldn't be creating debt and the government should be responsible for issuing money instead.
We need a production economy-- which I gather was one of Mr. Lux's key points.
Sooner or later we have to ask ourselves the fundamental question, are we here to make a few people, (not necessarily from this country) obscenely rich so they can squander decadent wealth frivilously, or do we want to work at jobs that are rewarding to us and give our lives meaning and make our country better and stronger?
The great religions, including the teachings of Jesus, recognize the futility of naked soulless wealth which has been accumulating in the very few for the past thirty years and especially the past eight.

[therealredstateblues]

And even the pope recently came out in agreement with what you are saying

[WritusMaximus]

Those on survival mode will just purchase the essentials. No jobs, no recovery.

[Alexander Hamilton]

If you think your driving costs are too high now, get ready to really pay through the nose. Plans are under way to charge you by the mile driven, a scheme which necessarily involves tracking your every move.

The details are laid out in a report by the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission released earlier this year, entitled "Paying Our Way / A New Framework for Transportation Finance."

Therefore, the commission recommends "more direct forms of 'user pay' charges, in the form of a charge for each mile driven (commonly referred to as a vehicle miles traveled, or VMT fee system)... as the consensus choice for the future." Furthermore, this VMT system should provide "a foundation for state and local governments that choose to use it to develop their own mileage-based systems that piggyback on the Federal system in order to raise their share of needed revenues in ways that spur more efficient use of the system." The technology deployed should be designed "in anticipation of the potential for state, local, and private toll roads [!] to piggyback on the national system," the report added. The commission also recommends "actions to facilitate and encourage private-sector financial participation," as "private capital can help deliver more projects and thus play a role in helping to address the investment gap." It also recommends that all such fees be indexed to inflation, so that they will rise automatically.

[jumperpin]

This is going-nowh­ere-tin-ha­t stuff nourished by a commission with too much time on its hands.

[blood1]

Now before everyone gets all in an uproar about the "Stimulus is NOT WORKING", consider the following:

1. The Stimulus was approved 5 months ago and after all the haggling by some States, that acceptance deadline has come and gone.
2. Each STATE is responsible for spending the money on projects..­.so we need to look at State Legislators about how the money is being spend, not President Obama. In TX, there are huge lists of contracts awarded...­and they need to be completed (?) by the end of the year.
3. Our society as a whole has become based on instant gratificat­ion...so for something to actually take time is unacceptable.

One should remember that the Tenn Valley Authority Project...­which is considered by some to be an "INSTANT" project...­had been in prepared 2 years prior to FDR decided to go forward with that project..w­hich he actually was against before he became POTUS.

[CrzyRussell]

The stimulous was for the government not the people.

A jobs bill would have helped PEOPLE by putting them to work and thus stimulating the economy. Give people shovels and rakes like they did in the 30's and pay them to make this country better and cleaner.

Thats creating jobs for the unemployed. What we have now is a bill to keep already employed government workers and contractors working.

You don't hire people off the street for infrastructure jobs...

[justthefacts17]

Progressives have to understand (but they won't) you must have
entrepeneurs to hire people and they must have free reign
to create markets so jobs can exist. Gov't jobs of leaning on
a shovel won't work. Get it!