Second Stimulus Package Needed Now for America’s Working Families

by Mike Hall, Sep 9, 2008

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), who acknowledges he is known for his sometimes salty language, says there is a four-letter word that needs to be at the heart of any new economic stimulus package to help right the staggering Bush economy.

We’ve got to get on a “Build America” program for infrastructure, from roads and bridges and schools to broadband. I’ve got a four-letter word for that, J-O-B-S…create jobs here at home so people can have a good middle class life.

In a conference call this morning sponsored by Americans United For Change, Emanuel, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, Mark Ayers, president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), and other coalition members outlined what they hope to see in a stimulus package that could make it to the House floor late this week or early next.

Yesterday, pointing to a five-year high in the unemployment rate and other bleak economic news, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called on Congress to quickly pass a stimulus package to “spur and stabilize our nation’s entire sinking economy” that includes:

• Fiscal relief for states and cities.
• Extended unemployment benefits.
• Expanded funding for food stamps.
• Job creation by funding for ready-to-go infrastructure projects, including repairing schools, roads and bridges.

States are facing tremendous budget shortfalls as jobs disappear and revenues decline in the Bush recession, and many are cutting or are planning to cut funds for education, health care, police, firefighters and other public services. Said McEntee:

States are in the middle of a fiscal crisis—29 states report a combined deficit of close to $50 billion as this economy continues to slide downward….When the economy goes south, the demand for services goes up. This a time when families need help the most.

State Medicaid programs that provide health coverage for low-income families and workers face some of the biggest cuts as more families lose jobs and turn to Medicaid for help, said McEntee.

In addition, the nation’s growing unemployment rate is draining states’ unemployment insurance benefits funds. USA Today reports that states with high unemployment rates, including Michigan, Ohio, New York and California, could deplete their trust finds this year or in early 2009.

A stimulus package, Ayers said, that included money for ready-to-go infrastructure projects would

not only provide immediate help but stimulate our long-term economic growth.

USAction President William McNary said whatever funding is included for rebuilding schools and repairing roads and bridges should be considered as a

down payment on a bigger agenda for America, creating jobs that can’t leave the country….You can’t repair a Minnesota bridge in China.

The House is likely to pass an economic stimulus package, but Senate Republicans are expected to use the same stall and filibuster tactics they used to cut back and battle the first economic recovery bill earlier this year. Also, the White House is opposed to aiding working families with a new stimulus package.

During the fight over the first stimulus bill, Senate Republicans killed a House version that included an extension of unemployment benefits. While Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) voted to end the Republican filibuster that killed the bill, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he supported the effort to strip the unemployment benefits from the package—but stayed on the campaign trail to avoid a vote on the record.

Despite the worsening jobless figures and other slumping economic numbers, a Bush administration spokesman said there is no need for a second stimulus package because the first stimulus plan was having the intended impact.

That first stimulus package was passed in February and the economy has continued its downward slide, including eight straight months of job loss, falling home sales, rising foreclosures, soaring gas prices and nose diving stocks. Sure seems like a booster shot is needed.

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