Franklin County Democrats

Despite the GOP’s claims that they and they alone are the arbiters of small-government, free-market capitalism, the facts tell a different story. Private sector employment has moved into net positive territory for the first time in a long time under President Obama, while the stock market is up and public sector jobs are down. Exactly the opposite was true under Bush.

To recap, under Obama:

• Private sector jobs: Up by 35 thousand
• Public sector jobs: Down 608 thousand
• Stock market: Up by 64%

And under Bush:

• Private sector jobs: Down by 646 thousand
• Public sector jobs: Up by 1.7 million
• Stock market: Down 24%

Sure, a net gain of 35,000 is not much to brag about but it’s a heck of a lot better than 646,000 job losses. And Obama still has four more years to go !

From Otto Fajen’s report:

GOOD JOBS FIRST ACT
The House Economic Development Committee will hear HB 1571 (Jeanette Mott Oxford D-59) on April 24. The bill establishes the Good Jobs First Act which substantially increases the accountability and reporting requirements for all state development subsidies to corporations. The bill limits development subsidies to those creating jobs with good salaries within the state at a cost to the state of no more than $35,000 per job. The Association supports the bill.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Date: Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Time: 5:00 PM
Location: House Hearing Room 3
You can find information about HB1571 at:
http://www.house.mo.gov/billsummary.aspx?bill=HB1571&year=2012&code=R

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Some highlights of what Obama’s American Jobs Act could mean for Missouri if passed:

• In Missouri, 120,000 firms will receive a payroll tax cut under the American Jobs Act.
• About 24,000 jobs to rebuild and modernize the state would be supported
• The President’s plan will expand the payroll tax cut passed last December by cutting workers payroll taxes in half next year. A typical household in Missouri, with a median income of around $49,000, will receive a tax cut of around $1,520.
• Sweeping reforms to the unemployment insurance (UI) system could could help put the 109,000 long-term unemployed workers in Missouri back to work.

For the full impact report for Missouri click here (PDF). Full press release from the White House below.

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Eugene Robinson:

President Obama’s promised jobs plan needs to be unrealistic and unreasonable, at the very least. If he can crank it all the way up to unimaginable, that would be even better.

This is a moment for the president to suppress his reflex for preemptive compromise. The unemployment crisis is so deep and self-perpetuating that only a big, surprising, over-the-top jobs initiative could have real impact. Boldness will serve the nation well — and, coincidentally, boost Obama’s reelection prospects.

In related news, Daily Kos/SEIU State of the Nation Poll: Obama job approval hits third record low in as many weeks

Not only is this President Obama’s third-straight record low showing in terms of job approvals, but he hasn’t had positive numbers on that score since the middle of May, when he was coming off the tail-end of the temporary bounce he got after Osama bin Laden’s death. And setting aside that three-week stretch, the last time more voters approved of Obama’s job performance than disapproved was in early April, when he managed a 48-47 showing.

What’s that old saw? Go big or go home? I think that applies here.

It’s not like Democrats don’t have popular progressive ideas at the ready. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill), a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, put forth the “Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act” on Wednesday.

Under her plan, the following policies would be implemented:

• 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.

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From the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute:

The unemployment rate, currently above 9 percent, is projected to remain high for a long time. For example, the current Blue Chip Economic Indicators consensus forecast puts the average unemployment rate for 2012 at 8.3 percent. The agreement to raise the debt ceiling just announced by policymakers in Washington not only erodes funding for public investments and safety-net spending, but also misses an important opportunity to address the lack of jobs.  The spending cuts in 2012 and the failure to continue two key supports to the economy (the payroll tax holiday and emergency unemployment benefits for the long term unemployed) could lead to roughly 1.8 million fewer jobs in 2012, relative to current budget policy.

Remember how job creation was central to the GOP’s campaign efforts in 2010? It’s all they could talk about. How any level-headed American could have fallen for that line after the excruciating Bush economy that took surpluses and turned them into record deficits and netted the worst track record on jobs is beyond me. But what the manufactured debt ceiling “crisis” shows is that Republicans were never serious about job creation (they’ve not proposed a single jobs bill since taking back the House); but more importantly, the policy ideas that they were willing to blow up the nation over may actually cost jobs.

With the release of the May Jobs Report the issue of job creation has become the subject of the day, displacing the over-hyped budget deficit problem, at least temporarily.  Jobs have been the number one issue in polls for quite a while but Washington D.C.  and in particular the Republican majority in the House of Representatives has chosen to focus on social issues and the deficit.  Christopher Hayes, Why Washington Doesn’t Care About Jobs analyzes this disconnect and comes to the conclusion that coincides with many Franklin Countians – our elected leaders are so well taken care of that  they forget what it’s like here at home.

Several years ago, a letter of mine in the Missourian proposed that our elected officials should receive the median pay of the area they represent.  For example,  The per capita income in Missouri last year was $36,979.    My proposal is that statewide Missouri officials should receive this as their base pay.  Of course, their travel expenses and per diem for days away from home should in addition to this figure.  The idea is that they would be kept in touch with how most Missourians financially live their lives.  They would also be encouraged to pursue policies that promote wage growth as their paycheck would be directly affected.  It would be interesting to see how this would affect our representatives postion on wage-lowering trade agreements, minimum wage legislation, and allowing the rich to shift their tax burden onto the middle class.

Of course, we could always opt for the realtiy TV approach.  Something along the lines of the show Undercover Boss .  The show in which  CEO’s go “undercover” at their own company, supposedly learn how their employees actually live and work, then usually offer some promotion for the specific individual they worked with.  This show irritates my “hollow symbolism” pet peeve as any real solution would involve giving all employees a voice/recognition/respect for their efforts and not just the one you were with on national television.  Who knows, maybe Undercover Senator would actually show our elected representatives what it is like to live and work like a Missourian.  The ratings may not be very good but the policies and legislation would probably improve.

Sweet and Sour.  That’s how I feel about Russ Carnahan’s visit to Forest Park Community College yesterday and the coverage in local media. 

Unfortunately, Jo Mannies of the Beacon chose to gloss over the substance in order to restate the obvious – that Russ Carnahan is looking for a new job.  Considering the legislative redistricting map has been signed into law and Russ’s current district no longer exists this is hardly news. Sour.

Luckily, she did manage to mention that Russ brought the second ranking Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives to St. Louis to discuss their “Make it in America” jobs agenda.  The Post-Dispatch featured this op/ed by Representatives Carnahan and Hoyer.   The tragic thing is that the Democratic House of Representatives passed most of this agenda in 2010 only to have it join the long line of good legislation that couldn’t get 60 votes in the Senate.  Specifically, Russ Carnahan supported these issues to encourage domestic job creation.

This effort is music to the ears of a country suffering record trade deficits and debilitating unemployment leading to reduced opportunitites for Americans and budget stress at all levels while many elected leaders refuse to do anything about the number one issue in every poll – jobs.   Sweet.

The unemployment data leaves no doubt that those with college degrees have a much lower unemployment rate than those that don’t.  This interesting video interview features Money Manager Jamers Altucher explaining that it is very likely sending your kids to college is a waste of your resources and their time.  He does provide the eight alternatives he believes would be more beneficial.  Do you agree?

More recently, a report based on the book Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses found that after two years of college, 45% of students learned little to nothing. After four years, 36% of students learned almost nothing. (See: Brain Drain: Most College Students Learn Next to Nothing, New Study Says.)

Meanwhile, the cost of college keeps rising — 20 times the rate of inflation and much faster than say healthcare costs — and student loan debt keeps growing. As of mid-2010, U.S. student loan debt totaled $850 billion vs. $828 billion for credit card debt, according to the Federal Reserve.

As we are all aware Congress spent the better part of 2010 bogged down in petty partisanship and was gridlocked for the better part of the year.  However during the last session of the year, our legislators did accomplish several things and 2010 actually became a historic year for Veterans.

Legislative wins include:

• Passage of the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act
• New GI Bill Upgrades
• Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
• Addressing Mismanagement at Arlington Cemetery
• Extended Preferential Hiring 0f Veterans for Jobs on Capitol Hill
• Passage of the Zadroga 9/11 First Responders Bill

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