Time Running Out to Rebuild the U.S Economy
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The unwillingness of political leaders to act boldly for the nation’s economic future has put our prosperity in danger, and it’s past time to do something about it, union leaders and lawmakers said today.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) told the closing session of the Building the New Economy conference in Washington, D.C., that other nations, especially India and China, have made a huge commitment to rev up development of efficient energy sources and threaten to leave the United States in the dust. Said Rendell:
Time is running out. The science and technology are there, but do we have the will? The time of American economic dominance is fast disappearing. If we have an America that doesn’t make anything, then we become a second- or third-rate power.
Rendell, United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard and Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) made up the final panel for the conference.
Government Grows the Economy
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Economist Jeff Madrick, director of policy research at The New School’s Bernard Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, is among several key speakers at next week’s Building the New Economy conference here in Washington, D.C. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard also are among keynote speakers. Here, Madrick shares with us why government involvement in the economy is essential to ensure a robust, successful nation.
America had been living a free-market myth for a generation until the credit crisis of 2008 and 2009 descended on the nation—and the world. One expression of that myth, found frequently on the editorial pages of the popular media, was that government does not grow economies, business does. In other words, government, don’t meddle where you’re not needed. Politicians are even easier to belittle than government itself.
Workers’ Rights Good for Business
The union movement wants the Obama administration to develop a coherent trade policy that advances key domestic priorities and makes our nation more competitive in a global economy.
That means rebuilding our infrastructure, investing in education, cleaning up the environment, creating green jobs and providing affordable health care, AFL-CIO Policy Director Thea Lee told a group of business leaders today in Washington.
Speaking at a forum on “Labor and the American Trade Agenda” sponsored by the Global Business Dialogue, Lee said the economic strategies of the past two administrations relied on privatization and global deregulation, ending up with a failed economy based on “asset bubbles, debt and borrowed money.”
Memo to Leaders Meeting with China: Time for U.S. Policy that Aids Our Economy
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Here in Washington, D.C., President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are taking part in a big-time summit with China. Let’s hope they have substantive discussions on economic policies that aid U.S. workers. Over the past few days, several great pieces on trade and manufacturing have been published that should feed into the discussions of U.S. participants in what is officially called the “sixth Strategic and Economic Dialogue with China.” Here’s a summary.
**U.S. “protectionism” is a myth. There’s an “untold story of protectionism,” say United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard and Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. That is, the set of barriers other governments erect to block American goods and the mercantilist measures they utilize to gain market share in the United States.
These practices range from China’s currency misalignment and massive industrial subsidies to non-tariff barriers in Korea and Japan. All these impediments have been well documented by U.S. trade officials, but the mere act of identifying these practices is now viewed as protectionism, even though taking action to eliminate them would expand world trade, reduce global imbalances and preserve the free market.
Ayers on Green Jobs: An Opportunity to Restore American Dream
Investing in our national physical infrastructure and moving to a greener economy present tremendous opportunities for the government and business, union and community groups to develop a new economic strategy that could restore the American Dream to millions of workers, the president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) said.
With as many as 100 million people living in families that earn less in real terms than their parents did at the same age, the American Dream is in trouble, BCTD President Mark Ayers told the America’s Future Now conference earlier this week.
If the situation persists where the vast majority of economic gains go to those at the very top and where most people are removed from upward mobility, then we are at risk of destabilizing our economic and social structures.
So, it is clear that this is a watershed moment in American history.
Obama Unveils Budget for America’s Working Families
President Obama’s first budget proposal is a 180-degree turn from the past eight years. It’s aimed at rebuilding the middle class, reforming the nation’s health care system and helping working families educate their children, while asking the nation’s wealthiest to begin paying more of their fair share and ending tax breaks for corporations that ship U.S. jobs overseas.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says the fiscal year 2010 budget shows Obama is “serious” about repairing the economic damage of the past eight years and correcting the incredible imbalance between those very few at the top and the rest of us.
President Obama’s proposed budget takes us in the right direction toward creating an economy that works for everyone. The budget sets out ambitious—but achievable—proposals for bold new reforms in energy, health care, education and infrastructure, while also laying out a concrete plan to fund these programs over the next decade.
Obama Puts Jobs, Health Care at Top of National Agenda
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Last night, as the doors opened into the halls of Congress, America’s working families breathed a sigh of relief as we heard these words:
“Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States!”
What a difference a year makes. Although our economic condition is dire, hearing those words about our new president instills confidence that our leaders are listening to our deep concerns and are up to the task of putting us back on track. Ninety-two percent of those polled who watched President Barack Obama’s first address to Congress last night approved of the speech, in which he was both realistic in the assessment of the challenges we face and optimistic about the solutions to those problems.
As he acknowledged often during the campaign, Obama noted that the problems in our economy didn’t start with the housing crisis or the stock market collapse last year; for too many of America’s working families, the economy hasn’t been working for much longer than that.
Economic Recovery Package: Jobs, Jobs and More Jobs
Now that President Obama’s economic recovery package has been enacted, workers and political leaders are poring over the details of the plan to figure out the potential impact on workers and their unions.
Jeff Rickert, director of the AFL-CIO’s Center for Green Jobs, says the package will create millions of new jobs and open up opportunities for workers to gain long-term, quality jobs in areas of the economy where unions are strong—manufacturing, construction and others.
Case in point: Nearly $7 billion will be spent in Illinois alone on projects ranging from $1.6 billion for transportation infrastructure, nearly $1 billion for highways and $154 million in job training.
State Aid, School Construction Must Be Restored in Recovery Package
Reports today indicate that House and Senate negotiators are close to reaching agreement on an economic recovery package. The tentative deal, according to the Associated Press, is pegged at about $790 billion, and talks are continuing on how the money would be allocated.
The Senate yesterday passed its version of the bill that reduced or eliminated several job-creating provisions in the House-passed bill, including aid for fiscally strapped states, infrastructure projects and education. The conference to iron out the differences is under way.
In letters to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), AFL-CIO Government Affairs Director Bill Samuel urges that the state aid be restored, along with funds for school construction, among other provisions.
Senate-Passed Recovery Bill Would Create Jobs; Republicans Bent on Killing It
The Senate this afternoon approved (61-37) an $838 billion economic recovery package that reflects much of what President Obama sought in legislation to get the nation’s economy moving again. But it eliminates more than $40 billion in aid to fiscally strapped states and other job-creating provisions that are part of the House-passed version of the bill.
The Senate bill is somewhat of a compromise to win the votes of three moderate Republicans—Arlen Specter (Penn.), Susan Collins (Maine) and Olympia Snowe (Maine)—and prevent a filibuster by Republican leaders. The filibuster threat was turned back last night.
The bill now goes to a House-Senate conference, where House leaders say they will attempt to focus on restoring the jobs provisions, while maintaining 61-vote filibuster-proof support in the Senate.
