The council’s statement came after Jared Bernstein, top economic aide to Vice President Joseph Biden – and a former Economic Policy Institute director – addressed the council. He touted the Democratic Obama administration’s pro-labor moves and said the first stimulus is starting to work.
“One-third of the stimulus money has been spent or is in the pipeline,” AFL-CIO Policy Director Thea Lee quoted Bernstein as saying in the closed-door meeting at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md.
But when directly pushed for a second stimulus package, Bernstein replied “they’re not ready to talk about it at this point,” she added.
The Obama administration may not be ready for a second stimulus, but the AFL-CIO is. Secretary-Treasurer Richard L. Trumka has been preaching for one for months. Indeed, he said two weeks ago the fed felt Obama’s first stimulus, at $787 billion, was too small for an economy with a 9.5% jobless rate, falling industrial production, rising foreclosures and declining gross domestic product, among other ills.
The council statement went even further. Between the unemployed and the underemployed, including workers who cycle in and out of jobs, it declared one-third of U.S. workers could find themselves in those two classes of people in the next 12 months.
The statement listed several sections for a second stimulus: Another 7-weeks-or-more extension of jobless benefits, another increase in food stamp spending, more aid to state and local governments to prevent further layoffs and service cuts, more spending on infrastructure and clean energy projects – using American-made goods “to the absolute maximum extent possible” – and other “public investment-led growth to restore our country’s competitiveness.”
The fed statement took FDR’s Works Progress Administration as its model, noting that agency put 3.5 million people to work in 1935 alone.
“President Roosevelt’s strategy can be re-engineered to help revitalize the modern manufacturing sector” by putting the jobless to work renovating factories and public structures, the statement said. Meanwhile, others can develop financing and marketing plans “to support domestic production and jobs.”
“We passed this because we believe we’ve got to lay the groundwork for a second installment” of stimulus money to help the economy get back on its feet, Lee explained. The statement did not put a dollar figure on the second stimulus.
But there’s another reason the AFL-CIO wants to start the campaign for a second stimulus: Right now, such a proposal wouldn’t pass Capitol Hill.
Fed by Republican complaints and independents’ worries about the federal deficit, public poll support for the first stimulus, which Congress approved only in February, has dramatically dropped. Bernstein and others have always noted the entire first stimulus was not meant to be spent all at once, but to be parceled out over 18 months – or more, in the case of infrastructure projects.
The Republicans, save for three U.S. senators, unanimously opposed enacting any stimulus at all.
Lee, quoting Bernstein’s comments to the council, said he “frankly admitted that the economy is weak and the labor market is weak. On the other hand, the first (stimulus) package is starting to work, and we should give it credit for the coming results. Otherwise, nobody will support the second stimulus.”
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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The council’s statement came after Jared Bernstein, top economic aide to Vice President Joseph Biden – and a former Economic Policy Institute director – addressed the council. He touted the Democratic Obama administration’s pro-labor moves and said the first stimulus is starting to work.
“One-third of the stimulus money has been spent or is in the pipeline,” AFL-CIO Policy Director Thea Lee quoted Bernstein as saying in the closed-door meeting at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md.
But when directly pushed for a second stimulus package, Bernstein replied “they’re not ready to talk about it at this point,” she added.
The Obama administration may not be ready for a second stimulus, but the AFL-CIO is. Secretary-Treasurer Richard L. Trumka has been preaching for one for months. Indeed, he said two weeks ago the fed felt Obama’s first stimulus, at $787 billion, was too small for an economy with a 9.5% jobless rate, falling industrial production, rising foreclosures and declining gross domestic product, among other ills.
The council statement went even further. Between the unemployed and the underemployed, including workers who cycle in and out of jobs, it declared one-third of U.S. workers could find themselves in those two classes of people in the next 12 months.
The statement listed several sections for a second stimulus: Another 7-weeks-or-more extension of jobless benefits, another increase in food stamp spending, more aid to state and local governments to prevent further layoffs and service cuts, more spending on infrastructure and clean energy projects – using American-made goods “to the absolute maximum extent possible” – and other “public investment-led growth to restore our country’s competitiveness.”
The fed statement took FDR’s Works Progress Administration as its model, noting that agency put 3.5 million people to work in 1935 alone.
“President Roosevelt’s strategy can be re-engineered to help revitalize the modern manufacturing sector” by putting the jobless to work renovating factories and public structures, the statement said. Meanwhile, others can develop financing and marketing plans “to support domestic production and jobs.”
“We passed this because we believe we’ve got to lay the groundwork for a second installment” of stimulus money to help the economy get back on its feet, Lee explained. The statement did not put a dollar figure on the second stimulus.
But there’s another reason the AFL-CIO wants to start the campaign for a second stimulus: Right now, such a proposal wouldn’t pass Capitol Hill.
Fed by Republican complaints and independents’ worries about the federal deficit, public poll support for the first stimulus, which Congress approved only in February, has dramatically dropped. Bernstein and others have always noted the entire first stimulus was not meant to be spent all at once, but to be parceled out over 18 months – or more, in the case of infrastructure projects.
The Republicans, save for three U.S. senators, unanimously opposed enacting any stimulus at all.
Lee, quoting Bernstein’s comments to the council, said he “frankly admitted that the economy is weak and the labor market is weak. On the other hand, the first (stimulus) package is starting to work, and we should give it credit for the coming results. Otherwise, nobody will support the second stimulus.”
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.