Rep. Conyers a reality-based legislator

Here's a press release from Congressman Conyer's office:

Washington DC- Representative John Conyers (D-Mich.) today introduced H.R. 870, the “Humphrey-Hawkins 21^st Century Full Employment & Training Act,” a comprehensive and innovative federal and local government job creation and training bill that would create millions of new jobs for the nation’s unemployed. Local jobs would be created through a partnership between the Department of Labor, state, and local governments, non-profit community organizations, and small businesses. Under the Act, jobs would be created in the fields of construction, infrastructure repairs, green jobs, education, health care, and neighborhood renovation. The Act’s Full Employment Trust Fund would provide federal funding for local community-based job creation and training initiatives until full employment is reached in the United States. The Act is deficit neutral and fully funded through a modest tax on Wall Street stock and bond transactions.

“Today, there are millions of Americans who want a job, but can’t find one,” said Conyers. “The inability to find meaningful and sustainable work strips our fellow citizens of their basic right to have access to food, housing, health care, freedom of movement, and perhaps, most importantly, the ability to pursue life with a sense of dignity and meaning. High levels of unemployment are unacceptable and immoral in the wealthiest nation in the world. Thus, I believe it is critical that the federal government empower states, local governments, non-profits, and small businesses to create jobs during an economic downturn.

My “Humphrey-Hawkins 21^st Century Full Employment and Training Act” would allow local government officials to work with community leaders to come up with an effective job creation program, based on each community’s respective needs—be it improvements in infrastructure, housing, energy efficiency, education, or health care. The private sector will also benefit if millions of new jobs are created through improvements in our nation’s aging and crumbling infrastructure. New orders for brick, concrete, steel, aluminum, and plastics mean new jobs in America’s plants and factories and a rebirth of American manufacturing.

Lastly, because we exist in a period when concerns about government debt loom large in many minds, my legislation will be fully funded by a tax on Wall Street speculation and will not add a dime to the federal debt. Wall Street was responsible for the financial crisis that began in 2008 and continues to affect us today. Having already received significant assistance from the federal government, it is only fair that Wall Street now pay Main Street back by helping put America back to work.”

Here is that rare thing of beauty-- a perfectly sensible idea proposed in Congress that is not tarnished by any pandering to special interests. Because the American people are the only beneficiaries, it doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of getting passed. And yet it could be tremendously useful to the progressive cause. We need to ask all of the Republicans and Democrats in D.C. when they plan to pass this great legislation. After they come up with some lame excuse, we need to demand they come up with an equally effective alternative or stop pretending to "represent" the people in their district.

The pace of layoffs has slowed down a bit in recent months. That is good news. Yet new hiring is still anemic, and what little hiring is taking place is mostly in the form of low-wage jobs. The kind of action proposed by Rep. Conyers, is the only way we could prime the pump enough to stimulate sufficient demand to get our Main Street economy back on track.

Jobs in the U.S.?

From today's Washington Post:

Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a Democratic plan to encourage companies to bring jobs back from overseas, as a united GOP caucus voted against a motion to debate the measure on the Senate floor.

The motion failed 53 to 45.

The legislation would have raised taxes on corporations that shift operations overseas, costing U.S. jobs. It also would have awarded companies that bring jobs back from abroad by offering a two-year hiatus from payroll taxes for those positions.

I wish I could say with confidence that the Democrats will run with this in a big way. The vast majority of voters, as opposed to big corporate donors, will resent the Republican vote against allowing this measure to come to the floor. Sadly, I suspect that too many Democratic candidates will allow fear of offending their corporate masters to keep them from jumping on this issue. The GOP will only pitch so many softballs over the middle of the plate. It's time to hit the easy home run, or just go home.

Recovery!?!

Paul Krugman wants policy makers to face reality:

The small sliver of truth in claims of continuing recovery is the fact that G.D.P. is still rising: we’re not in a classic recession, in which everything goes down. But so what?

The important question is whether growth is fast enough to bring down sky-high unemployment. We need about 2.5 percent growth just to keep unemployment from rising, and much faster growth to bring it significantly down. Yet growth is currently running somewhere between 1 and 2 percent, with a good chance that it will slow even further in the months ahead. Will the economy actually enter a double dip, with G.D.P. shrinking? Who cares? If unemployment rises for the rest of this year, which seems likely, it won’t matter whether the G.D.P. numbers are slightly positive or slightly negative.

All of this is obvious. Yet policy makers are in denial.

Not only is Krugman right, the consequences of this denial may be catastrophic politically for the Democrats. Working people and the white collar unemployed have lost patience with the happy-talk from the Obama administration. Talking about being disappointed with the slow pace of the recovery won't cut it. Only by laying out a bold plan for putting millions back to work can the President regain the confidence of American voters. It may be time to propose a huge W.P.A. style jobs program.

Kuttner argues that exaggerated fear of deficits blocks economic recovery

Robert Kuttner has an interesting piece in which he criticizes the timidity of President Obama and Erskine Bowles on the issue of government spending.

This fall, Congress will either follow the conventional wisdom and prematurely cut government outlay before an economic recovery arrives, or it will increase public spending, put jobless Americans back to work, and reduce the deficit in a less painful fashion thanks to increasing economic tailwinds. The road that Congress takes depends on presidential leadership.

Kuttner goes on to quote approvingly from Yale economist Robert Shiller who asks the Obama administration to consider direct government job creation, W.P.A. style. While most of what Kuttner says makes a lot of sense, I don't feel Democrats need to do what Republicans under Reagan and the Bushes did for so long, and ignore the deficit. Kuttner is right that recovery will require some government spending. Yet there is a better alternative than deficit spending.

Bite the bullet, and end huge subsidies to the oil industry and other corporate interests that contribute so much to Congressional campaign coffers. Admit the fact that the wealthiest Americans caught a huge break with the Bush tax cuts, and that these cuts for them should expire as scheduled in 2011. Make it less financially attractive to ship jobs overseas. Begin enforcing our nation's labor laws, so that working and middle class people might have a little money to spend and thus stimulate the economy.

President Clinton was also criticized for being too concerned with the deficit. Yet the economy was quite healthy after his tax increases were adopted, and the deficit reduced. We may not be able to match Clinton's feat of actually producing a surplus, yet we shouldn't abandon the goal of striving towards a balanced budget.