Chamber Poll Makes Case for Stimulus Over Deficit Reduction
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s so-called Jobs Summit yesterday in Washington, D.C., produced little in the way of real solutions to our economic crisis. Instead, there were the usual complaints about regulation and taxes—it opposes both.
But the real news came from outside the summit, where a new poll commissioned by the Chamber unintentionally showed that its own members agree with the AFL-CIO and most progressives that the federal government should spend more money stimulating the economy rather than reducing the deficit—the direct opposite of the Chamber’s position.
Writing in the New Republic, Jonathan Chait points out that in a poll conducted for the Chamber that only 45 percent of small business owners believe the government could improve the economy by spending less and reducing deficits. Chait writes:
Interesting! Small business owners are more conservative than the average American, but they’re also more economically literate than the average American. In this instance, the economic literacy is overwhelming the conservatism to make small business owners more pro-stimulus than the public as a whole. [The Heritage Foundation, which released the poll] concludes, “Small business is the backbone of the U.S. economy, and those who keep those businesses running know better than anyone what they need to stay afloat.” So I guess that means we need to spend more and increase deficits, then.
Trumka Tells Deficit Commission Job Growth Best Answer to Debt
Social Security is not the cause of the nation’s budget deficit, and stronger economic and job growth spurred by stimulus spending now is the best path to reducing and stabilizing the national debt, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told the federal budget deficit commission today.
We must have a job-centered approach to stabilizing the national debt, which would bring us closer to our goal of sustainable, broadly shared prosperity.
To a great extent, the size of the deficit depends on employment and growth. When employment and growth are weak, tax revenues are low and social assistance expenditures are high. When employment and growth are strong, the reverse is true.
Tax Bite Not as Sharp This Year with Recovery Act’s Tax Cuts
Julius Cesar got his on the Ides of March and many Americans think they get stuck every April 15. But this tax day is actually leaving most working family taxpayers with more money in their refunds and pockets because of the tax cuts in the economic stimulus bill passed last year.
One-third of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was made up of tax cuts, and taxpayers are seeing those cuts reflected in their returns this year. The average tax refund is up by nearly 10 percent this year, largely due to the stimulus bill, according to figures from the IRS and the White House.
More Jobs but Workers Spend More Time Jobless
Here are a few items worth noting today.
* Kudos to union members in West Virginia who successfully pushed the state’s legislature to adopt a resolution creating Labor History week following Labor Day. Just last month, Wisconsin union activists succeeded in their years-long effort to get the state legislature to make labor history part of the state’s public education standards.
* From the Campaign for America’s Future: Huffington Post’s Art Delaney highlights expiring stimulus program that could cost 100,00 jobs: “…more than 100,000 people…will lose their jobs by September unless Congress extends a stimulus bill provision that gives states funding to create jobs programs for low-income parents and young adults….”
* A laid-off worker now spends nearly five months unemployed, longer than any other time on record, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
* In the “here’s how hard up we are for good news about jobs” category: The ratio of job seekers per job opening dropped from six to one in December to 5.4 in January. How sad is it that this is good news?
Big Bankers Howl—and Other Tidbits
Finally, some good news on the jobs front. The Council of Economic Advisers announced that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has now created or saved between 1.5 million and 2 million jobs. The economic recovery package also added several percentage points to the growth of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). Other tidbits:
• President Obama yesterday announced his intention to propose a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee that would require the largest and most highly levered Wall Street firms to pay back taxpayers for the extraordinary assistance provided so that the TARP program does not add to the deficit. Even before the announcement, Big Bankers were squealing like stuck pigs. From Think Progress:
Edward Yingling, president and chief executive, American Bankers Association: “To impose yet another burden on the industry would obviously decrease their ability to lend.”
Unemployment Reaches 26-Year High of 9.7 Percent
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Some 216,000 U.S. jobs were cut in August, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data out today. That worsens the unofficial unemployment rate to 9.7 percent, the highest rate since June 1983. The rate was 9.4 percent in July.
If underemployed workers or those who want a job but have given up looking are counted, the broader U.S. unemployment rate stands at 16.8 percent, up from 16.3 percent last month. That means more than 25 million Americans need jobs or full-time work but cannot find it. Worse yet, there now are 5 million long-term unemployed workers, the worst such figure in any recent recession. That means there were nearly six workers looking for every job available.
The 216,000 job loss is the smallest monthly decline since last year. Employers cut 276,000 jobs in July, compared with an average of 691,000 per month in the first quarter.
There is some good news: The economic recovery package has created about 1.2 million jobs, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Without the stimulus package, the monthly job loss would have been double what it was just six months ago.
247,000 Jobs Lost in July; Without Recovery Package, Would Be Far Worse
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U.S. jobs lost in July totaled 247,000, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data out today, with the unofficial unemployment rate now at 9.4 percent compared with 9.5 percent in June, the first improvement in the pace of job loss since June 2008.
The July jobless rate, while much better than economists predicted, still means 14.5 million U.S. workers are without jobs. And if the underemployed or those who want a job but have given up looking are counted, the broader U.S. unemployment rate stands at 16.3 percent, more than 25 million Americans who need jobs or full-time work but cannot find it. Jobs were lost in all sectors, except for education, health care, leisure and government, which all experienced small gains.
More frightening, the July job figures would have been far worse without the economic recovery package, which has helped to slow the pace of job loss to less than half of what it was just six months ago. From May to July, job losses averaged 331,000 per month, compared with losses averaging 645,000 per month from November to April.
Get Economic Recovery Information at the Working for America Institute
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With billions in federal economic recovery funds available for job training and education, the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute is the go-to place for union leaders seeking the latest information on training and workforce development opportunities. Through a series of Web announcements, webinars and conference calls, the institute is keeping the union movement abreast of the opportunities to better educate the nation’s workforce and rebuild the middle class.
The institute offers a practical new guide to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. For example, the latest posting announces some $220 million in new training grants for health care and high-growth industries. The U.S. Labor Department defines high growth and emerging industries—in addition to health care—as fields such as information technology, advanced manufacturing, wireless and broadband deployment, transportation and warehousing and biotechnology.
