The Jobs Solution
By Leo Hindery Jr. & Donald W. Riegle Jr.
April 2, 2009
The Nation
Leo Hindery Jr., chair of the Smart Globalization Initiative at the New America Foundation and an investor in media companies, is the former CEO of AT&T Broadband and its predecessors, Tele-Communications and Liberty Media. more...
Former Michigan Senator Donald W. Riegle Jr., a member of the Smart Globalization Initiative and chair of government relations at a global advisory company, was chair of the Senate Banking Committee from 1989 to 1994.
.... what is most immediately alarming about the bailouts and the $787 billion stimulus package are the daily indications that they still fall woefully short--in dollars and particularly in focus--of what is needed to confront the emergency economic conditions we face. And emergency conditions they are, with the US economy having contracted at an almost unbelievable annualized rate of 6.3 percent in the last three months of 2008, a terrible quarterly performance rivaled only four times since the Great Depression.
The nation is fairly resigned to the costly bailouts, but the stimulus plan is still not close to right: too small by at least half, not nearly timely enough in some of its spend-out rates and too under performing against the only measure that really counts.
The plan's composition drastically overemphasizes small one-time individual tax cuts ($233 billion) and non-jobs-related spending ($261 billion). But causing most concern is that the 3.6 million jobs the plan is supposed to create or, mostly, just save over the next two years are not nearly as many as they seem to be. This number is less than the 4 million or so additional jobs expected to be lost in the next year (which will only go up if GM and Chrysler are forced into bankruptcy), and it doesn't even equal the number of jobs America needs to create just to stay even with population growth.
The right way to earn our way back to long-term prosperity is through stimulus efforts that will help develop, broadly deploy, fairly compensate and, especially, fully employ our human capital, which will always be our greatest source of national wealth. Only then will we have refired the commercial engines needed to recover from this dismal recession. And only then will we have addressed Americans' belief that unemployment is by far, with no close second, the most important economic issue facing the country.
In his first inaugural address, President Franklin Roosevelt said that the nation's greatest task was "to put people to work." This same task falls on the shoulders of President Obama and this Congress. We believe that in the inevitable second round of economic stimulus, Obama and Congress should put nearly 100 percent of the monies toward creating immediately identifiable long-term, high-value, future-oriented jobs.
This emphasis should have dominated the just-enacted stimulus plan, but it didn't, and now even more millions of Americans urgently need jobs with wages and salaries that can support their basic needs and those of their families.
Please read the complete article at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090420/hindery_riegle?rel=hp_picks----------------------------
Bold actions are obviously required. Timid, half-way measures will not stop a full-scale economic collapse and depression. If the Obama administration doesn't act soon in a bold and dramatic way, the only thing that can be assured is a Republican take over of Congress and the White House in 2012 with an even more reactionary right-wing ticket than McCain/Palin in 2008!
And don't worry about getting 60 votes in the Senate for passage. It just won't happen with any stimulus legislation that is bold and effective. The Obama administration and Democratic leaders in the Senate will have to challenge the Republicans to engage in real filibusters (not the fake "call-in" type they presently use) until 60 votes are obtained for cloture or Democrats can simply change Senate rules in accordance with the U.S. Constitution that will enable them easily to bypass any Republican filibuster (the so-called nuclear option) whereby only 51 votes will be required to pass authentic stimulus legislation.
The following two economic recovery plans would go a long way toward quickly creating many of the useful job creating projects the nation urgently needs.
The first is: "America's Mayors Report to the Nation on Projects to Strengthen Metro Economies and Create Jobs Now".
This "Ready to Go" Public Works Plan Will Cost 149 Billion And Create 1.6 Million useful public works Jobs in 2 Years
The Republican and Democratic mayors released a report on January 17, 2009. It lists 18,750 local infrastructure projects in 779 cities costing 149 billion dollars that will create 1.6 million jobs. All of these projects can be quickly started and be completed by the end of 2010!
Find out exactly what "shovel ready" stimulus projects are ready to be built in your city, how many jobs would be created and how much they would cost under this plan.
It's in PDF format.
Go here:
http://www.usmayors.org/mainstreeteconomicrecovery /
And click on:
Option 1: Download a PDF version of the full report, including the executive summary, list of participating cities and then projects, sorted by project type or by city.
+ Click to download the report (5 MB)
The second plan Is: "The American Institute of Architects Plan For Restoring Our Economy and Greening Our Communities"
As the global financial crisis continues to threaten the livelihood of American businesses and workers, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) strongly urges Congress to support policies that will stimulate and restore confidence in the U.S. economy.
Rebuild & Renew: The AIA Plan
America’s architects believe that this economic crisis presents an opportunity not only to build, but to build better.
Read the Complete AIA Plan at this link:
http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/aia/documents/pdf/aia ...
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