Federal plan for Jobs
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Dec 9, 2009 Posted by Judy Ferro
Information from a HuffingPost article by Robert L. Borosage
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-l-borosage/size-matters----particula_b_385431.html
President Obama's new intuitive--new infrastructure spending. weatherizing homes, aid to cities, states and the unemployed. ($200 billion has been recouped from the banks in the TARP program.)
"We've lost over 7 million jobs; 15 million are unemployed. States and localities are facing staggering deficits over the next year, with an estimated 900,000 jobs at risk. Foreclosures continue. Consumers and businesses are cutting back. In fact, for all the talk of deficits, the nation actually experienced no increase in total debt over the last year, as the rising federal deficit was more than matched by the reduced borrowing of consumers and businesses."
It takes over 125,000 new jobs a month simply to keep up with population growth. Economist Jamie Galbraith says that to generate rising incomes, we'll need 250,000 new jobs a month for five years.
Paul Krugman suggests a several hundred billion dollar program over two years.
If you want to get the deficit down, the first priority is to get people working, earning money, paying taxes, and not drawing on government aid.
Republicans will howl about deficits whether Democrats spend $7 million or $700 billion. People chose jobs programs over deficit reduction.
Progressives in the Congress should push hard for direct public service jobs like AmericaCorps and a new Urban and Green Corps to take down or fix up abandoned houses, turning empty lots into mini-parks, etc.
The President has said we can't go back to the old economy based on booms and busts, with finance capturing 40% of the profits, and people and the nation living beyond their means.
Americans will be given a choice in the elections next year. Go back to the old policies that drove us into this mess, or stay on the course Obama has charted to dig out of it.