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Tag Archives: United States
a message from Alan Grayson … unemployment
I recently happened to be at an event where billionaire George Soros was being interviewed. The right wing hates Soros because he is: (a) liberal, (b) rich, and (c) fearless. [I could also make a case that they hate Soros because he is (d) Jewish, but I leave that up to you.]
Soros said a lot of things, but he said two sentences that I wish that everyone could hear. This is what he said:
“You can’t cut your way out of a recession. You have to grow your way out of a recession.”
The simple truth in those nineteen words seems to have eluded our policymakers, both Democratic and Republican, for the past four years. Here is a chart that proves it:
The chart has been featured regularly at Daily Kos, but it comes from the Calculated Risk Blog. It graphs job losses during and following each post-WWII recession, month by month, as a percentage of total employment.
As you can see, the job losses in America since 2008 are not only the worst in postwar history, but also feature the weakest “recovery.” In every single other recession, employment returned to peak levels in less than four years. (In fact, leaving aside the Bush Recession of 2001, employment returned to peak levels in less than three years.) Yet here we are, four years after the Great Recession started, still almost four percentage points under peak employment.
Which is five million jobs. Five million people who can’t find work. Five million people with no income.
So, as Soros and I might ask on Passover, “why is this recession different from all other recessions?” There is a simple answer: the austerity fetish. The bizarre notion that cutting is healing.
The Wall Street Journal recently confessed that without local government layoffs – police officers, firefighters, teachers and others – unemployment would be a full percentage point lower. I think that that’s an underestimate. If those police officers and firefighters and teachers still had jobs, we would be safer, and our children smarter. But beyond that, as those public employees spent their earnings, a lot of carpenters and waiters and real estate agents and cashiers would be able to get back to work.
And we have no one to blame but the cut-cut-cut policymakers, in whichever party. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman put it three weeks ago:
Consider, if you will, the current state of our nation. Despite hints of economic progress, we’re still in the midst of an immense disaster, in which unemployment and underemployment are devastating millions of American lives. And none of this need be happening! There has been no plague of locusts; we have not lost our technological know-how. Americans should be richer, not poorer, than they were five years ago. Yet economic policy across the board has become almost passive, has essentially accepted this disaster instead of trying to end it.
Soros and Krugman are right. It’s time to end this man-made economic disaster. It’s time to stop slashing our own economic wrists. It’s time for jobs.
Courage,
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Weekly Address: Congress Must Act on “To-Do List”
May 12, 2012 by whitehouse
President Obama calls on Democrats and Republicans to come together and act on his Congressional “to-do list,” which will create jobs and help restore middle class security.
| Good afternoon –Most Americans are concerned that all we’ll see from Congress this year is inaction. Count me as one of those Americans.
But the fact is we need Congress. President Obama is doing everything in his power to move our economy forward. Not surprisingly though, the proposals with the biggest impact require legislation. So at this make-or-break moment for the middle class, the President has called on Congress to move forward with a concrete plan that creates jobs and helps restore middle class security. It’s so simple, we’ve boiled it down into a five item to-do list. Learn more about these ideas and share them. It matters when Americans stand up and make their voices heard. Last year, when you spoke out about extending the payroll tax cut, we changed the debate here in Washington. Over the past few weeks, you answered the President’s call to speak up about stopping student loan interest rates from doubling, and now we’re starting to see the gears turning in the House and Senate. The members of Congress who refuse to act are betting that Americans across the country won’t pay attention. So we’ve got to stay focused on the work at hand, and that starts with President Obama, who will be raising awareness across the country. You can join him by speaking out and sharing the list with your networks. These five ideas will help create jobs and protect the middle class. There are homeowners throughout the country who have done everything right, made their mortgage payments on time month after month, but when they look for relief, they get the runaround. With interest rates as low as they are right now, Congress should cut red tape for responsible homeowners to refinance and keep a little more money in their pocket each month. There are a set of tax credits that are helping American companies put people to work developing clean energy and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Unless Congress takes action, those credits will expire. That’s an unforced error, both for our economy and our environment. Small business owners play a central role in our economy. Congress should provide firms that create new jobs or increase wages with a 10 percent income tax credit. Lawmakers need to do more to help the men and women who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan find jobs once they come home. President Obama is asking Congress to create a Veterans Jobs Corps that will help them find work as police officers, firefighters, or as employees at our national parks. We need to stop rewarding companies for sending jobs overseas. Congress needs to eliminate the loophole that allows corporations to deduct their expenses from outsourcing jobs and use that money to give a tax credit on moving expenses to companies that bring jobs back. That’s it. It’s straightforward and entirely within Congress’s power to pass and send to the President for his signature. So take a minute to learn more, then share this email and the list with folks in your network. http://www.whitehouse.gov/todolist Thanks, David David Plouffe P.S. — President Obama talked about why this plan is so important yesterday. Check out what he had to say.
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Refinancing for Responsible Homeowners
| Good afternoon —
Right now, refinancing a home mortgage can be confusing and costly — but it doesn’t have to be that way. And that’s why President Obama is asking Congress to make things simpler for responsible homeowners as part of his To-Do List for lawmakers. All over the country, there are Americans who bought houses before the financial crisis, and they’re locked in at high interest rates. Despite staying current with payments, they can’t refinance at today’s rates, which are historically low. This issue affects you, even if you have a good rate, or don’t have a mortgage at all. Lower monthly payments mean lower foreclosure rates, helping property values in your community. And more money in people’s pockets helps to move our economy forward and create jobs. By improving this process, responsible folks who work hard will be able to feel a little more secure in their finances and a little more secure in their homes. Watch one of President Obama’s economic advisers explain how in this quick video:
Lowering the interest rate on your mortgage should be an idea that makes sense for both Republicans and Democrats. Outside the halls of Congress, paying a mortgage isn’t a partisan, political issue. President Obama has done what he can to make refinancing simpler, but unless Congress acts, there’s a limit to how much we can help responsible homeowners. Nothing will help to change the debate more than Americans across the country joining the conversation. We saw your impact a few months ago when Congress finally extended the payroll tax cut, keeping an average of $40 in everyone’s paycheck. Now it’s time to for more action – this time to help homeowners all over America. So I’m asking you to talk to people about this refinance proposal and the other ideas on the To-Do List. You can find more info about them on WhiteHouse.gov: http://www.whitehouse.gov/todolist Thank you, David Plouffe P.S. — If you’re on Facebook or Twitter, consider posting the video. I bet you’ll get a surprising response from your network. Most people don’t track the day-to-day in Washington closely, but all of us know people who would love to refinance their mortgages.
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Tell Congress that sustainable agriculture is the right investment – repost
Today the Backyard, Tomorrow the Farm!
Most gardeners will be planting bulbs for next spring and taking steps to protect perennials from harsh winter weather over the next few weeks. But did you know that actions you take now can also help in the fight against global warming?
The following advice from a gardening expert offers a simple step you can take this fall to be a climate-friendly gardener by increasing your soil’s ability to store carbon—a key component in the leading cause of global warming. After you read the tip, take action to call for the same kind of actions on our nation’s farms.
Tracey Payton, a horticulture educator from Norman, Oklahoma, offers this tip on how to be a climate-friendly gardener.
“Mulch is a great way to protect bare soil, and most importantly for the climate-friendly gardener, it can help prevent carbon loss. Uncovered soil is vulnerable to releasing more carbon than it stores. Mulch also has other benefits, such as protecting against temperature fluctuations that can damage plants, suppressing weeds, and reducing moisture loss and soil erosion. Using mulch can be as easy as an additional 2-3 inch layer of compost or straw in the garden; in the flower bed, cotton seed hulls, bark mulch, or wood mulch can be used. Do only keep mulch about 2-3″ deep and away from perennial plant stems to prevent rot and other moisture problems.”
More information about how healthy soil can lock up carbon may be found in The Climate-Friendly Gardener. This guide also contains more valuable tips and information on how to fight global warming in your own backyard. http://action.ucsusa.org/site/R?i=CbQwBKQYI1GwQMSDdIzNGA
On the Farm…
If gardeners can adopt practices to combat global warming on a small scale, think what could be accomplished if similar steps were taken on the millions of acres of farmland across the country!
Similar to mulching, one of the most effective farm practices to store carbon in the soil on a large scale—while building soil health and preventing erosion—is widespread planting of “cover crops” in the winter. A sort of living mulch, cover crops protect farm fields when other crops aren’t growing. They also have the benefit of releasing nitrogen—one of the main ingredients in fertilizers into the soil just in time for spring-planted crops, which can reduce the need for added fertilizer (another source of global warming emissions).
We can help expand the adoption of this practice by making sure that the next Farm Bill rewards farmers who plant cover crops. Voted on every five years, the Farm Bill helps determines what food farmers will grow and what practices they will employ. This bill includes programs to help farmers successfully adopt a wide array of sustainable agriculture practices, including the planting of cover crops.
Write to your members of Congress and demand farm policies that help farmers protect our water, air, and land while producing the food we need!
Take Action Today! www.ucsusa.org
Sincerely,
Jenn Yates
National Field Organizer
UCS Food & Environment Program
Be a Seed for Change 
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