The measure, which is quickly expected to pass the Democratic-run House, nevertheless faces Republican opposition on both sides of Capitol Hill. "Oh. My. God," was the reaction of House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, when he saw it. He complained it had too many pork-barrel projects and not enough business tax cuts.
Incoming President Barack Obama wants lawmakers to quickly pass the measure to help stop the bleeding in the economy. Even with the jobs it creates, he warned in Virginia last week, joblessness could rise to 8% this year, from 7.2% in December. Without it, he said unemployment would be in double-digit percentages.
"Things are likely to get worse before they get better," he said on Jan. 16 in Ohio.
Key features which drew union leaders\' support include more money to states to help pay for Medicaid — which cares for workers and their families who lose their jobs and health insurance — money for school rebuilding, a down payment on modernizing the health care system, and significant spending on rebuilding the nation\'s roads, bridges, highways, mass transit and airports.
That\'s the area where several union leaders, notably Steel Workers President Leo Gerard, said Obama and the Democrats aren\'t spending enough, especially since the current Bush recession, the worst since at least 1982, has already run for a year and is expected to last at least through 2009 if not afterwards.
Citing a study from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Gerard said every billion dollars of stimulus spending would not only create new construction jobs — estimates are 47,000 per billion dollars there — but 18,000 new factory jobs.
Those workers make the steel, concrete, rubber, glass "and all those other goods that go into infrastructure," Gerard said.
The report said at least 2.6 million new jobs could be created by increased spending in a "high-end" scenario of $148 billion per year. Manufacturing in particular would benefit from such an infrastructure stimulus, seeing an increase of 252,000 jobs nationally. Domestically sourcing all manufactured materials in the new infrastructure investment would increase manufacturing job creation by one-third, the study added.
Other unionists are already campaigning for the stimulus bill, including AFSCME and the American Federation of Teachers.
"The $145.7 billion proposed funding increase for education would give states an extraordinary boost they desperately need to preserve and strengthen pre-K through 12th-grade education, child care and higher education," said AFT President Randi Weingarten in a statement. She called the education dollars "significant and will help prevent any further draconian cuts at the state-level."
AFSCME President Gerald McEntee said that "with more than 11 million Americans out of work and millions more at risk of losing their jobs, Congress needs to move to jump-start the economy right now, and that must include major help for states and localities being forced to cut many of the vital public services the American people rely on in times of economic crisis. This is not the time to make service cuts that
will only make the task of recovery more difficult." Aid to state and local governments are a big part of the stimulus package.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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The measure, which is quickly expected to pass the Democratic-run House, nevertheless faces Republican opposition on both sides of Capitol Hill. "Oh. My. God," was the reaction of House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, when he saw it. He complained it had too many pork-barrel projects and not enough business tax cuts.
Incoming President Barack Obama wants lawmakers to quickly pass the measure to help stop the bleeding in the economy. Even with the jobs it creates, he warned in Virginia last week, joblessness could rise to 8% this year, from 7.2% in December. Without it, he said unemployment would be in double-digit percentages.
"Things are likely to get worse before they get better," he said on Jan. 16 in Ohio.
Key features which drew union leaders\’ support include more money to states to help pay for Medicaid — which cares for workers and their families who lose their jobs and health insurance — money for school rebuilding, a down payment on modernizing the health care system, and significant spending on rebuilding the nation\’s roads, bridges, highways, mass transit and airports.
That\’s the area where several union leaders, notably Steel Workers President Leo Gerard, said Obama and the Democrats aren\’t spending enough, especially since the current Bush recession, the worst since at least 1982, has already run for a year and is expected to last at least through 2009 if not afterwards.
Citing a study from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Gerard said every billion dollars of stimulus spending would not only create new construction jobs — estimates are 47,000 per billion dollars there — but 18,000 new factory jobs.
Those workers make the steel, concrete, rubber, glass "and all those other goods that go into infrastructure," Gerard said.
The report said at least 2.6 million new jobs could be created by increased spending in a "high-end" scenario of $148 billion per year. Manufacturing in particular would benefit from such an infrastructure stimulus, seeing an increase of 252,000 jobs nationally. Domestically sourcing all manufactured materials in the new infrastructure investment would increase manufacturing job creation by one-third, the study added.
Other unionists are already campaigning for the stimulus bill, including AFSCME and the American Federation of Teachers.
"The $145.7 billion proposed funding increase for education would give states an extraordinary boost they desperately need to preserve and strengthen pre-K through 12th-grade education, child care and higher education," said AFT President Randi Weingarten in a statement. She called the education dollars "significant and will help prevent any further draconian cuts at the state-level."
AFSCME President Gerald McEntee said that "with more than 11 million Americans out of work and millions more at risk of losing their jobs, Congress needs to move to jump-start the economy right now, and that must include major help for states and localities being forced to cut many of the vital public services the American people rely on in times of economic crisis. This is not the time to make service cuts that
will only make the task of recovery more difficult." Aid to state and local governments are a big part of the stimulus package.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.