What Republicans Did Instead Of Creating Jobs This Summer

By Bill Scher | August 4, 2013

The August congressional recess is here, and many members of Congress will head home and touch base with their constituents. Some will have town halls. Others might conclude: better not.

Especially if you're a House Republican. Because then you might have to answer: What have you been doing instead of trying to create jobs?

Two months ago, MSNBC's Ari Melber tallied up all 183 bills the House Republican leadership put on the floor, and found only one had anything to do with creating jobs. And that was a bill to force the President to approve a single oil pipeline project that would create a few thousand jobs.

What's happened since?

No jobs bills have been voted on that were serious attempts at reaching the president's desk.

The most significant "jobs" bill was another attack at the President's energy policies, this one challenging the President's temerity to have tighter regulations on coastal oil drilling since the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill. House Republicans claimed their bill expanding coastal drilling would create 1.2 million jobs … over an unspecified time period. And that flimsy statistic came from an oil industry-backed "institute."

So House Republicans yet again didn't try very hard to create any jobs. Surely they must have been busy with more pressing matters, right?

Judge for yourself. Which of these was more important than working with Democrats to create jobs?

* Voting for the 40th time to repeal ObamaCare.

* Voting to ban nearly all abortions after 20 weeks following conception, an explicitly unconstitutional standard that punishes women who need abortions for medical reasons.

* After failing to pass legislation to cut food stamp funding by $20 billion – five times greater than in the Senate version – proposing new legislation to cut food stamps by $40 billion.

* Voting to send major regulations – which are issued when the executive branch implements laws enacted by Congress – back to Congress for another vote, effectively nullifying the power of the executive branch to implement laws as designed by our nation's founders.

Yes, those are the kind of junk bills that made it out of the House, only to be properly ignored by the Senate. That's why we now have the  "least productive Congress ever" despite the lingering jobs crisis. That's what your Republican leadership has been spending its time on, instead of trying to find a middle ground with Democrats on how to create more jobs.

To those Republicans who dare hold a town hall this month to explain this sorry record to their constitutions: Good luck with that.

http://blog.ourfuture.org/20130804/what-republicans-did-instead-of-creating-jobs-this-summer

Jobs Fix Economy, Cuts Cut Economy

http://blog.ourfuture.org/20130729/jobs-fix-economy-cuts-cut-economy

By Dave Johnson | July 29, 2013

The President is pushing a jobs agenda to grow the economy "from the midddle out." Insider DC is mocking him because the ideas — infrastructure, American manufacturing, fund our schools — are not "new." Here is what else isn't new: budget cuts take money out of the economy, costing millions of jobs and harming our country's future competitiveness.

The President's Jobs Campaign

The President has launched a series of weekly campaign-style speeches pushing jobs instead of austerity. He is again trying to break the DC logjam. But this time he is starting to name the problem so the public can bring pressure to bear where it is needed. The idea is to pressure Republicans to back off their insistence on cutting government and start supporting programs that will bring jobs, higher wages and some degree of security to American workers.

But before we can move forward we have to stop backing up. That means we have to stop cutting back.

Cuts That Cut

In a democracy government spending is, by definition, things that We the People decide to do to make our lives better. But instead of supporting doing things that make our lives better Republicans have been forcing cuts in government so taxes can be lower for the wealthy few. They have even been using hostage tactics to force those cuts. They keep losing elections but are using their ability to block and obstruct things to keep the country from moving forrward.

The "Sequester" in particular is damaging the country. The Sequester is that DC "debt-ceiling" deal that got the Republicans to back off their threat to force the government to default on its obligations, thereby ruining our credit rating and risking the takedown of the world's economy. The Sequester cuts $1.2 trillion more (on top of trillions already cut through other deals) from the economy over the next decade. It cuts Meals on Wheels, cancer clinics, medical research, housing assistance and all kinds of other important things We the People do to make our lives better.

(Note that cutting things like Meals on Wheels actually increases costs by forcing elderly people into nursing homes, hospitals, etc…)

How hard is the Sequester hitting? The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just released a study showing that as many as 1.6 million jobs are being cut from the economy by the sequester.

Instead of cutting the economy, let's rebuild our country's competitiveness starting with modernizing our infrastructure.

Infrastructure Repair Is Jobs

The President's plan begins with a push to start modernizing our country's infrastructure. In Jacksonville last week the President made his pitch, saying,

"We know strong infrastructure is a key ingredient to a thriving economy," Obama said, citing the need, for instance, to prepare ports like Jacksonville's for oncoming "supertanker" shipments. "Unfortunately, over the past few years, too many folks have been cutting these investments in Washington."

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) "2013 Infrastructure Report Card" rates our country's infrrastrcuture at D+ and calculates we need to spend $3.6 trillion by 2020 to bring it up to par.

Do the math: if we spent the needed $3.6 trillion to fix the infrastructure how many jobs would that create between now and 2020? How many people would be hired for the construction and retrofitting? How about people hired for the design and engineering? Don't forget to add in jobs created at supplier companies, with the "Buy America" requirements on procurement of the supplies used in this effort — and the companies that supply them.

These are good jobs, with good wages and benefits. So while you are at it add in the jobs created at all the places where all of those workers with good jobs that pay good wages and provide good benefits will spend their earnings. And then add in the jobs created when those workers rejoin the economy, too.

So do that math: it's a lot of jobs. In fact it would hire up everyone who wants work which would bring pressure to increase the pay of everyone already working.

And, of course, after that work is done, the economy is moving forward on its shiny, new, modern infrastructure, propelled by all those people with good jobs and good wages.

Republicans want cuts in government so the wealthy can have tax cuts. Here's the thing. After the cuts and the tax cuts all you have to show for it is a ruined economy and debt — which is what we see around us today. But after you modernize the infrastructure what you have to show for it is full employment and a moden economy humming along on its modern infrastructure.

Old Ideas

Yes, this is an "old idea." There is a reason it keeps coming up over and over again. A good reason.

So I say good for the Prsident for this campaign to bring jobs and modernization to our economy. It's a start.

Actions on TN teachers' pay reflect only contempt for job

I have been proudly teaching for 20 years in Tennessee. While it has never been an easy job, I have generally felt appreciated. In return, I have tried to earn that appreciation. Professionally and personally, I need to say that I did my best to help my students, who now number more than 3,000 kids over my career. I am not alone; Tennessee is blessed with many teachers who truly take pride in what they do.

I know that those teachers must truly care for their students, because in recent years, they have had to put up with Tennessee legislators who have taken steps to “improve” education that have been nothing but masked animosity for teachers. The two most recent steps taken by state Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman concerning teacher salary continue this antipathy.

When I completed my master’s degree, it was one of the most important professional revitalization actions I could have ever taken. After my years in the classroom, I felt I needed to “stir my brain.” Graduate school was just what I needed. In my cohort at Middle Tennessee State University, we all worked toward toward our administration certification so we could help other teachers grow. I brought back new knowledge and insight to my classroom and I KNOW that it was a benefit to my students. I could see it in their improved performance.

The bump in pay for earning my master’s helped me pay for my degree, since I received no help from Metro to get it. It also gives me the chance to go after other professional opportunities that will enable me to help even more kids than the ones in my classroom, like being a principal.

This past spring, I filled in for my assistant principal while she was on maternity leave. I loved nearly all aspects of the job; I tried my best to be helpful to the entire school. I also am a member of my school’s leadership team. Because I now have more professional knowledge, more is expected of me. I embrace that.

The raises that teachers currently earn for advanced degrees enable them to be better professionals. That’s a small price for any school system to pay.

For Commissioner Huffman to cite studies showing no benefit from teachers earning advanced degrees is disingenuous. There are just as many studies that find the opposite. Furthermore, he sends the message that education is not valued. Is that what Tennessee stands for?

As for limiting the number of step increases a teacher receives, that’s just ridiculous. About half of all new teachers quit within the first three years — just as Huffman did when he was a teacher. Those first three years are where you really learn how to be a teacher. When teachers have taught as many years as I have, that experience pays off in student growth.

One of the few benefits that I had earlier in my career is the step increase. I knew that for the first 18 years, I would get a small bump each year. This helped with cost of living, and I always felt it was a reward for doing a good job.

Like many of my colleagues, I still seek to be the best teacher every year; I don’t sit on my laurels. I’ve topped out my salary schedule: no more raises until I hit 25 years. I’m not complaining; I knew the deal when I entered teaching. Yes, I could try for another degree, but it’d cost me family time and money to get it. And if I hope to get a bonus based on my students’ achievement, I am out of luck: There is no achievement test for my subject. That applies to about 60 percent of Tennessee teachers.

If I were a younger teacher, I would seriously consider teaching elsewhere. Why teach here when you can earn more money, and more respect, for doing the same job in a neighboring state?

Teachers are not driven by money. They know the salary when they start. But like you, they feel that their hard work and effort should be rewarded. If advanced degrees and salary scales aren’t honored in Tennessee, it will only be harder to find and hold on to teachers who will add to schools.

Chuck Cardona is the chairman of foreign languages at Nashville School of the Arts, Metro’s only magnet school dedicated to the integration of arts and academics.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130724/OPINION03/307240090/

Bernanke to Congress: Stop Killing Jobs and Growth

By Robert Borosage

In his congressional testimony yesterday, Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke called out the Congress, telling them to stop the reckless and mindless spending cuts that are killing jobs and growth.  Their stupidity, he suggested, poses the biggest threat to Americans going back to work.

Of course, he didn't phrase it quite like that.  His testimony was purposefully vanilla, designed not to cause indigestion on Wall Street.  But that didn't stop him from calling out the Congress. In his first sentence he stated: 

"The economic recovery has continued at a moderate pace in recent quarters despite the strong headwinds created by federal fiscal policy."

Translated: If you idiots abandoned your destructive austerity fetish, we might be able to put people back to work.

The Congressional Budget Office reports that the deficit has come down, as percentage of the economy, by about 60 percent since 2009.  It's dropping at a faster drop than any time since the demobilization after World War II, far exceeding any prudent speed limit.

Washington is celebrating economic growth, with job production averaging about 200,000 a month this year.  But the Fed Chair is more sober:

"[T] he jobs situation is far from satisfactory, as the unemployment rate remains well above its longer-run normal level, and rates of underemployment and long-term unemployment are still much too high."

In fact, the economy barely has a pulse.  The Fed "Beige book" projects second quarter growth from April to June at 1 percent or less, the third straight quarter under 2 percent.  We are closer to a return to recession than a return to health.

And, inflation is at the lowest pace on record – about 1 percent over the past year.  Bernanke felt it necessary to warn explicitly about the risk of deflation – of prices falling, which devastates debtors and homeowners and would torpedo any recovery.

"[V]ery low inflation poses risks to economic performance – for example, by raising the real cost of capital investment – and increases the risk of outright deflation."

So Bernanke reassured markets that despite the pressure from conservatives in the Congress and ideologues in economic departments, the Fed would continue its extraordinary measures – short-term interest rates near zero, and the purchase of $85 billion a month in mortgage-backed securities and treasuries until things get better.

The Fed does anticipate that things will get better.  The biggest risk:  That the Congress will screw things up.  Or in Bernanke language:

"The risks remain that tight federal fiscal policy will restrain economic growth over the next few quarters by more than we currently expect, or that the debate concerning other fiscal policy issues, such as the status of the debt ceiling, will evolve in a way that could hamper the recovery,"

Bernanke's testimony received little coverage since it did not shake the markets. His warnings also had little effect on the Congress.

Republicans in the Congress are gearing up for another fight this fall on the budget, the sequester cuts and the debt ceiling.  They are insisting on more cuts from domestic programs – education, child nutrition, research and development, more sequester cuts (only from domestic services) and plotting a face-off over the debt ceiling to exact deep cuts in basic security guarantees  – Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

If nothing changes, Congress will continue to sabotage the economy, cost jobs and put the weak recovery at risk.  Warnings by the conservative head of the International Monetary Fund and the conservative Republican head of the Federal Reserve fall on deaf ears.  Republicans are intent on laying waste to government.  The White House seems unable or unwilling to make the case clearly for jobs.

The Federal Reserve, as Bernanke noted, will continue to do what it can to keep the economy from sinking.  But he sure wishes that Congress would stop punching holes in the bottom of the boat.

http://blog.ourfuture.org/20130718/bernanke-to-congress-stop-killing-jobs-and-growth

GOP passes K-12 education bill on party lines, less funding for public schools

House Republicans passed a bill Friday to reduce the federal role in public education and cede back to states decisions about how to deal with failing schools, how and whether to evaluate teachers, and how to spend much of the money sent by Washington to educate poor, disabled and non-English speaking students.

Read more at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/house-gop-passes-education-bill-to-reverse-no-child-left-behind/2013/07/19/a36d6620-f07f-11e2-9008-61e94a7ea20d_story.html

Here’s How To Get In Touch With The Senators Who Voted Against Lowering Student Loan Rates

http://ow.ly/n3P3q

Twitter/Facebook contact information of every senator who voted "nay" on the measure to lower student loan rates. (Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) also voted "nay," but did so for procedural reasons, so that he could enter a motion to reconsider the vote at a later point)

	Senator	Party	State	Vote
	Lisa Murkowski	R	AK	Nay
	Jeff Sessions	R	AL	Nay
	Richard C. Shelby	R	AL	Nay
	John Boozman	R	AR	Nay
	Jeff Flake	R	AZ	Nay
	John McCain	R	AZ	Nay
	Marco Rubio	R	FL	Nay
	Saxby Chambliss	R	GA	Nay
	Johnny Isakson	R	GA	Nay
	Chuck Grassley	R	IA	Nay
	James E. Risch	R	ID	Nay
	Mike Crapo	R	ID	Nay
	Mark Kirk	R	IL	Nay
	Daniel Coats	R	IN	Nay
	Jerry Moran	R	KS	Nay
	Pat Roberts	R	KS	Nay
	Mitch McConnell	R	KY	Nay
	Rand Paul	R	KY	Nay
	David Vitter	R	LA	Nay
	Angus S. King, Jr.	I	ME	Nay
	Susan M. Collins	R	ME	Nay
	Roy Blunt	R	MO	Nay
	Thad Cochran	R	MS	Nay
	Roger F. Wicker	R	MS	Nay
	Richard Burr	R	NC	Nay
	John Hoeven	R	ND	Nay
	Deb Fischer	R	NE	Nay
	Mike Johanns	R	NE	Nay
	Kelly Ayotte	R	NH	Nay
	Jeffrey Chiesa	R	NJ	Nay
	Dean Heller	R	NV	Nay
	Rob Portman	R	OH	Nay
	Tom Coburn	R	OK	Nay
	James M. Inhofe	R	OK	Nay
	Patrick J. Toomey	R	PA	Nay
	Tim Scott	R	SC	Nay
	Lindsey Graham	R	SC	Nay
	John Thune	R	SD	Nay
	Bob Corker	R	TN	Nay
	Lamar Alexander	R	TN	Nay
	John Cornyn	R	TX	Nay
	Ted Cruz	R	TX	Nay
	Mike Lee	R	UT	Nay
	Orrin G. Hatch	R	UT	Nay
	Ron Johnson	R	WI	Nay
	Joe Manchin, III	D	WV	Nay
	John Barrasso	R	WY	Nay
	Michael B. Enzi	R	WY	Nay