Labor Day is an important time to take stock of the state of working America. From my vantage point, the picture is bleak.
Our nation is experiencing a jobs crisis, and on two fronts. First, millions of Americans who could and want to be working are not. And for those who still have their jobs, their rights at work are under attack. These two facts threaten America's economic strength.
Jobs first and jobs now - that's what Americans need most. And it is what economists agree is necessary for our economy to recover.
Increasing employment is the lynchpin to nearly all of our economic troubles. It will help reduce budget deficits by driving up consumer demand, spurring private sector productivity and more hiring, resulting in more revenue to the Treasury. It will help homeowners avoid foreclosure. And it will reduce demand for costly unemployment benefits and food stamps.
There's a lot we can do to get Americans working now.
For example, we could put Americans back to work tomorrow repairing and building roads, bridges and schools. We could get more police, firefighters and teachers working again who lost their jobs because of state and local budget cuts. We could commit now that public and private aviation workers will not be laid off again, like they were in July because of a special interest agenda.
Congress should start now, with the 'Make it in America' agenda, or with my 'Local Jobs for America Act.' By directly supporting jobs in local communities, we can stimulate consumer demand, save or create a million jobs, and ensure essential services like transit and public safety. The money we spend up front will result in lower deficits down the road.
Those are just a few of the things we should do right now.
But politics is getting in the way, and the American people are sick of it. The Republican-led House of Representatives opposes these jobs efforts. Congress has done nothing to create jobs all year long. Instead, under pressure from radical political forces, it has starved the economic recovery, betting that a weak economy will help them win the next election.
Economic growth, not austerity, will rescue the American economy. We have tried shrinking the economy and sowing economic uncertainty for 8 months now, and it has failed. It's time for job creation and economic growth as our first order of business to strengthen our middle class.
Middle class Americans are the backbone of our economy. When working people do well, America does well. But when those at the top do extremely well compared to the larger population, America suffers greatly, as we see today.
And, a strong middle class depends on strong unions and the protection of rights for all workers, whether they are union members or not. That's why the assault on the rights of working people this year is so dangerous to our overall economic health.
Corporate special interests and their political allies have sought every opportunity to dismantle bedrock labor rights that made our nation great.
They have repeatedly attempted to repeal or limit protections of workers' wages and to close the agency that protects their rights. And there are more attacks on the way.
Republicans are pushing to make it easier to ship jobs overseas. They're willing to furlough thousands of aviation workers to force workers to give up key workplace rights. And their highway and mass transit bill would cut 600,000 construction and related jobs. They are fast making their mark as the 'Pink Slip Congress.'
On Labor Day, let's remember those who work so hard for their families and for our country. And let's be clear that America's strength depends on creating jobs as the first order of business and defending the rights of all Americans at work, whether they are members of a union or not.
Congressman George Miller (D-CA) is the ranking member on the House Education and the Workforce Committee and the Chairman of the House Democratic Policy Committee. Crossposted at EdWorkforce Journal.
Follow Rep. George Miller on Twitter: www.twitter.com/askgeorge
What a joke . . .
Democrats have been pushing free trade deals even more so than Republicans in the past 25 years . . . Obama has 3-4 more on the table now.
You left one word out of your pep talk: China. There has been no action on either side of the aisle to slow the bleeding of jobs that has resulted from globalism. In fact, the lone voice in the country seems to be that of former Reagan Democrat Buddy Roemer, who has entered the presidential race as a Republican. As a fan of free trade, I hate to admit it, but free trade is a myth. So it's time we practiced a little of the protectionism everyone else is practicing on us, and pursue fair trade.
Your beloved jobs have left the country, Mr. Miller. Care to help bring them back?
A great post, but you are being far too generous with the above statement. Given the waste and fraud and abuse and inefficiency and incompetence that occurs (in any area using other people's money, but even more so in government)... I would guess to create a job that pays $50,000 it would take closer to $100,000 in confiscated wealth!
There is no good explanation for the Healthcare strategy - it did not resolve any core healthcare problems (no reform in cost, quality of care or truly "affordable" access) nor did it advance any key expectations from the folks who actually wanted healthcare reform. It turned out to be a bailout for the health insurance industry and an extended bailout to Pharma (following the Medicare B mess we inherited from Bush). It was clearly something that should have been addressed in a second term after the economy had stabilized.
It made no sense whatsoever and as we've seen Obama has backtracked on dozens of other promises so why did he hold on to healthcare? Who knows.
I expected to find that using a U.S. government loan for a construction project required the hiring of U.S. citizens. Au contraire, the SBA specifically encourages the hiring of illegal aliens: http://www.numbersusa.com/content/learn/illegal-immigration/rewards-illegal-immigration.html
In addition, recent actions by the current President will give worker rights to 300,000 illegal aliens currently in the U.S. Reference: http://www.limitstogrowth.org/articles/2011/08/31/obama-protects-illegal-workers-in-america/
What kind of Jobs Bill is our government if current government money is used to hire illegal aliens?
It is a crisis of capitalism, and our so-called 'representative' democracy is bought and sold by corporate interests. The answer isn't coming form the political process.
Having 60-61 Senators would go a long way to fix many problems we have. One of which is clear obstruction at any price, that is practiced with impunity.
This is EXACTLY what is supposed to happen given the circumstances.
Rather juvenile for you to equate "like" with "correctness."
Obama had wide support and majorities in both the house and senate in 2008, the governing style of punting didn't work, the far right filled a power vacume which still to this date largely goes un-questioned by the democrats. Do you think people follow weak leaders? This weak leadership is undermining the values and ideas you write about more than the republicans do on their own. Unfortunately, it is probably too late. The lack of growth will increase the deficit problems and threatens SS and Medicare and frankly I do not think the democrats are up to the job in protecting the programs. Obama certainly isn't.
The Congressman will push to fast-track the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, with all it's promised new, high-paying Union jobs.
Will he attend the ground-breaking ceremony??
If 1 million people were hired every month, it would take 2 years to just hire the people who were fired due to the crisis .... not including all the students joining the work force.
If 500,000 people were hired it would take 4 years. 250,000/mo would take 8 years.
Now let's look at the millions of jobs we can create now ... many of them can be paid from here but done overseas as well!
Build millions of miles of bike and horse paths
Replant diversified forests, grasslands and hedgerows
Tear down derelict buildings and parking lots and plant urban farms
Retrofit all buildings
Build light rail and high speed, trollies
Clean up every creek, stream, river, lake, beach
Put solar hot water on all buildings or micro wind
Develop clean energy
Put water catchment on all buildings
Modernize water, sewage systems
Put all power lines under ground
R&D to create bio-materials to replace one-off-usage plastics
Time for a Great Renewal