OP-ED: GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT JOBS

Getting Serious about JobsBy Lee Harrison, Chairman, Berkshire Brigades, the County Democratic OrganizationTo begin with, Republicans aren’t really serious about solving America’sproblems. There is no doubt whatever about that. Whether we’re talkinglegislation to reform health care and banking or to renew the economy and createbadly needed jobs, the Know-Nothing Party has the same answer: “No, Nothing.”At a time in our history when we need serious people to engage in new, expansive,and visionary thinking to solve America’s many problems, the Republicanconservative minority in Congress offers nothing. Indeed, they have dedicatedthemselves solely to preventing President Obama and the Democratic majority inCongress from accomplishing anything in an attempt to enhance their own narrowpolitical and corporate interests, the public be damned. It’s power politics. Pure.Simple. And reprehensible.Remember the teabaggers and town hall crazies of last summer and fall? Theywere largely the creation of former conservative Republican congressman DickArmey and his FreedomWorks group. They weren’t able to kill the health reformbill outright in 2009 – or to persuade Americans that President Obama was Hitler –but with congressional elections looming, rest assured they will be back in 2010.This time they’ll be pulling out all the stops to block a desperately needed jobs bill,really Round Two of the much-maligned stimulus.The 2009 stimulus bill did in fact pump lots of money to the states, ours included,which kept lots of teachers, police, and firemen working throughout the year, but itwasn’t big enough to stop the hemorraging of private sector jobs, let alone to turnthe economy around – or even for most Americans to feel its positive impact.Berkshire Brigades was among those pushing for a larger stimulus, but the limitedsize of the final bill may have been due to the President’s realization that he had toplay “small ball” to get anything through our dysfunctional 18th Century-styleHouse of Lords, aka the U.S. Senate.So, forgetting for a moment Republican unwillingness to help improve oureconomy before next fall’s elections, what would it take to return the U.S. to precrisisunemployment levels in, say, two years? According to Nobel Laureate PaulKrugman, we’d have to add 580,000 jobs a month. “That’s not going to happen,”adds Krugman, who notes that even to return to more or less full employment infive years, we would need to add 300,000 jobs a month. No matter how you cut it,“we’re looking at a prolonged period of suffering – a huge cost from the GreatRecession,” he notes. “So [300,000 jobs a month is] kind of a minimal definitionof success. Anything less than that, and it’s bad news.”Clearly, achieving even “minimal” success, will be a tall order, given Republicanstonewalling. But a properly drafted 2010 jobs bill could do more than create jobs:It could prepare the United States to compete in the 21st Century. Further, it wouldpresent an opportunity to make up for the past, lost decade in which George W.Bush cut taxes for the rich while waging an unnecessary war, exploding thenational debt, and ignoring America’s infrastructure, which is now in criticalcondition. To succeed, however, we need to get serious and focus on all aspects ofour infrastructure – education and energy as well as transportation. Of course,Republican conservatives will fight this tooth and nail, and the peculiar rules of theU.S. Senate give them an institutional leg up. But this is nothing new. In the 1995movie, “The American President,” Democratic President Andrew Shepherd, playedby Michael Douglas, delivers a speech that President Obama could make today:“We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious men to solve them,” saysShepherd. “And whatever your particular problem is, friend, I promise you,[Republican Senator] Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He isinterested in two things and two things only: Making you afraid of it and tellingyou who’s to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections.”Not if we can help it! Throughout 2010 Berkshire Brigades will be supportingprogressive candidates WHO SUPPORT A JOBS BILL, starting with the Jan. 19election of Martha Coakley for U.S. Senate. If you, too, are serious aboutAmerica’s future, please join us.###