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 The current jobs crisis is not just an economic crisis, but a moral one as well. To address this emergency, a sweeping coalition of over 60 national organizations has come together to form Jobs for America Now. As part of the coalition’s efforts to spur job creation and put America back to work, USAction supports a five-pronged approach to creating jobs in the short-term and ending the unemployment crisis.
1. Strengthen the safety net and provide relief for those directly impacted by the recession.
By strengthening and extending safety-net services such as unemployment compensation, COBRA continuation and nutrition assistance, we will not only help those impacted by the recession, but we will also boost demand and spur job creation.
2. Provide fiscal relief to the states.
Providing fiscal relief to states will help states and localities avoid jobs and service cuts, thereby preventing layoffs. Otherwise, economic recovery will be plagued by cutbacks in state spending and public employee job losses. Given the anticipated highs in state budget gaps, federal revenue sharing is especially critical.
We must enact the second round of fiscal assistance immediately as states and localities begin to plan their budgets for the coming year. Additionally, funding for health services like clinics and IT along with funding for new health care reform obligations under Medicaid need to be fully funded.
3. Progressive taxes/revenue to finance job creation and economic recovery.
In order to invest in job creation and economic recovery, we must enact tax increases on the wealthiest individuals and corporations who have reaped the benefits when the economy was healthy. For example, the expiration of the Bush tax cuts on wealthy Americans and estates should be a major revenue source for job creation and state fiscal relief. In addition, the financial transaction tax would transfer wealth from the financial sector into investments in job creation.
Progressive financing should be combined with reductions in unnecessary and counter-productive military spending.
4. Direct creation of public service jobs.
To directly create jobs in a cost-effective manner, we must invest in the direct creation of public service jobs in the public- and nonprofit-sector that benefit local communities and make productive use of human capital. To be most effective, these programs should be targeted at communities hit hardest by unemployment. These jobs should be available to every unemployed worker and pay prevailing wages. Moreover, we must guard against the displacement of public employees.
The types of work may vary, depending on the communities’ need. Examples include environmental clean-up, stream restoration, community policing, before- and after-school care of children, demolition or boarding up of abandoned houses and buildings, parks improvements, home health care and preservation of historic buildings. In addition, health care implementation will provide an opportunity for job creation in many communities.
5. Investments on infrastructure, especially school construction, maintenance, and repair.
We can and must create jobs by meeting the tremendous need for repairing our nation’s infrastructure. The nation’s schools, for example, could quickly and effectively spend $10 billion on repairs and maintenance, which would effectively provide jobs for 1.5 million construction workers along with the countless other unemployed workers in the supplier industries and those generated when the newly-employed spend their salaries. Additionally, Congress must take action on the transportation reauthorizations in the Clean Water Act which will create hundreds of thousands of jobs in construction, manufacturing, design and engineering.
Visit jobs4americanow.org for more information.
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