Schakowsky proposes $227 billion jobs program
BY KAREN BERKOWITZ kberkowitz@pioneerlocal.com August 10, 2011 4:46PM
At a time when a debt-weary president and Congress are showing little appetite for a new round of stimulus spending, U.S. Rep. Janice Schakowsky, D-9th, proved the maverick once again Wednesday as she outlined a $227 billion jobs program she plans to introduce in September.
“I am trying to change the conversation with this legislation,” Schakowsky told a crowd of enthusiastic supporters outside Goudy School on Chicago’s North Side. “I am trying to bring to their senses, some of my colleagues who would actually like to do the right thing, but right now are being held hostage by a minority of Tea Partyers in Congress.”
Schakowsky’s Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act would put two million people to work in temporary jobs for two years “to get the economy back up and running,” she said.
“Boy, do I need a job,” said Janet Edburg, who was laid off from her manufacturing job and is approaching the 99-week cutoff for unemployment benefits. “It’s getting to the point that the money I got from my unemployment is going to end. That means I am going to be homeless.”
While the federal stimulus of 2009 was financed by federal borrowing, Schakowsky believes her jobs bill can be paid for without adding to the nation’s deficit. As an example, she points to her Fairness in Taxation Act, which would create new tax brackets on millionaires and billionaires. She also proposes eliminating subsidies for Big Oil, and closing tax loopholes for corporations that send U.S. jobs overseas.
She estimates her jobs bill would cost $113.5 billion for each of two years. The largest chunk of money, about $100 billion, would be used to create 400,000 construction and 100,000 maintenance positions in public school districts to make needed school rehabilitation improvements.
A new Community Corps would provide 750,000 jobs for workers who would perform energy audits, maintain and beautify public lands, reclaim recyclable materials and rehabilitate and construct new housing in a program modeled after Habitat for Humanity. That program, estimated at $60 billion, would address blight resulting from foreclosures and disasters.
About $40 billion would go to states to hire, rehire and prevent layoffs of 300,000 public school teachers. Another $10 billion would be used to hire 40,000 police officers, while $2.4 billion would create 12,000 firefighter jobs. The bill would set aside $6 billion for 100,000 jobs in Early Head Start. Some 40,000 medical doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners and other health care workers would be hired to serve in rural and urban areas where access to health services is limited. The health corps is estimated to cost $8 billion.
Evanston school teacher Ina Allen lauded the efforts to keep teachers in the classroom and modernize and rehabilitate the nation’s public schools.
“Making schools greener, cleaner, safer and healthier will improve the learning environment for students,” said Allen, a music teacher at Chute Middle School and an organizer for the Illinois Education Association. “This legislation creates an environment where children succeed; therefore, we not only create more jobs, but it is an investment in our future.”
The bill also would create a Park Improvement Corps for teens and young adults between 16 and 25, a group particularly hard hit by high unemployment. At a cost of $400 million, the corps would work on restoring the nation’s natural, cultural, historic, archaeological, recreational and scenic resources.
“This bill will provide much-needed resources to leverage against our current workforce investment dollars,” said Julio Rodriguez, director of program services at the state’s Office of Employment and Training, part of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. “That is really what we need in this country: To leverage the investments we have already made against new investments.”
Rodriguez noted the jobs bills comes at a time when the first stimulus, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is ending and funding is being cut in state and federal programs.
Schakowsky noted that polls show the American people believe jobs are more important than deficit reduction.
“Because the American people, two to one, believe the real issue is jobs, I am relying on the voice of the American people to make the difference, to make this legislation a reality,” she said. “We cannot simply cut our way out of the deficit,” said Schakowsky, noting that it’s imperative “we grow our economy.”
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