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By Nulwee for Anti-Capitalist Chat Thu Aug 11, 2011
Jan Schakowsky, a high-profile Progressive Caucus congresswoman from Illinois, has released a jobs bill. In her statement, she announced to America that the "worst deficit this country faces isn’t the budget deficit. It’s the jobs deficit. We need to get our people and our economy moving again.”
And her bill does precisely that in a very noble and brave step forward.
Schakowsky scathingly rebuked Washington corporatist policies in her statement.
"If we want to create jobs, then create jobs. I’m not talking about 'incentivizing' companies in the hopes they’ll hire someone, or cutting taxes for the so-called job creators who have done nothing of the sort. My plan creates actual new jobs."
Her proposal would lower unemployment by over a percentage and, even better, match expenses to revenues by raising taxes on two different groups, millionaires and billionaires. She was wise, it seems to me, to avoid more Beltway silliness over the $250,000 tax bracket. It's much harder to advocate for the rich having to use the words millionaires and billionaires.
According to the Huffington Post:
The School Improvement Corps would create 400,000 construction and 250,000 maintenance jobs by funding positions created by public school districts to do needed school rehabilitation improvements.The Park Improvement Corps would create 100,000 jobs for youth between the ages of 16 and 25 through new funding to the Department of the Interior and the USDA Forest Service’s Public Lands Corps Act. Young people would work on conservation projects on public lands including the restoration and rehabilitation of natural, cultural, and historic resources.
The Student Jobs Corps would create 250,000 more part-time work study jobs for eligible college students through new funding for the Federal Work Study Program.
The Neighborhood Heroes Corps would hire 300,000 new teachers, 40,000 new police officers and 12,000 new firefighters.
The Health Corps would hire at least 40,000 health care providers, including physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, and health care workers to expand access in underserved rural and urban areas.
The Child Care Corps would create 100,000 jobs in early childhood care and education through additional funding for Early Head Start.
The Community Corps would hire 750,000 individuals to do needed work in communities, including housing rehab, weatherization, recycling, and rural conservation.
In addition, the bill would give priority to the longterm unemployed -- the so-called "99ers" who have exhausted both their state and federal unemployment benefits. Federally extended unemployment benefits are set to expire this year, even though nearly 14 million Americans remain out of work and it takes the average worker nine months to find a new job.
It would be very difficult for me to disagree with the items in the proposal in any meaningful way. Public lands spending is severely restrained in a nation of our size. We have multi-billion dollar losses from invasive weeds, from wildfires, from poor water and soil conservation. This is subsumed under green energy interests even in the best of times. Many of the items clearly focus on young people, who are most likely to be unemployment and, what's more, from being suppressed economically, cannot restore the broken housing market or raise national consumer spending.
Beyond that, Federal Work Study (FWS) is lifeblood for students who struggle to pay for college. Without it, many students cannot stay in, or will graduate with a ton of debt and far less experience than they could have in their fields.
It's so nice to see actual proposed legislation that incorporates elements of things suggested by myself and other kossacks for some years now.
99ers will need new skills (1+ / 0-)
As I understand it, a lot of the 99ers have job skills for which there is no longer any demand--because industries have vanished, etc. Many of these people will require job training--the stuff the Pres. has been talking about for years. But overall, the positions discussed in this bill (save some education positions) are attainable with only moderate training. Getting 99ers back in the market no matter what is the right priority.by bigkens on Thu Aug 11, 2011 at 07:31:48 AM PDT
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