From our partners at the Half in Ten project:
Tell the Senate to Create Over 2 Million Jobs in Low-Income Communities
The Senate is considering legislation to spur job creation, but it isn’t clear if the bill will include policies to create jobs for the communities that have been hit the hardest in this recession. There are three provisions that can create or save over 2 million jobs in low-income and minority communities while helping the economy overall and lifting up all Americans.
Call your senator today at (202) 224-3121 and ask them to support a jobs package that includes:
* extension of unemployment benefits and the COBRA health insurance subsidy through the end of 2010 by February 19.
* investment in direct job creation that addresses long-neglected needs in communities.
* aid to states and localities to prevent further job losses and service cuts.
In the 2003 economic recovery, poverty rates rose and median incomes fell, even as productivity and profits returned. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen this time around. The Senate can make sure that the upcoming recovery works for all Americans with these three provisions:
Extending unemployment benefits and COBRA: Federal funds to states for extended unemployment benefits and COBRA subsidies that pay for 65 percent of unemployed workers’ health insurance are scheduled to expire on February 28, 2010. These programs are many Americans’ only means of surviving the current economic crisis. Congress must pass an extension of these programs by February 19 to ensure that benefits are extended without disruption. If it fails to act before that date, it could take up to four months for states to get their programs up and running again once they’ve been shut down.
Congress has a moral imperative to help these families, but also an economic one. Unemployment benefits spur economic demand that keeps small businesses humming and avoids exacerbating the recession. In fact, the Economic Policy Institute has found that if these families cut back their spending due to losing their benefits, our economy would lose up to 800,000 jobs.
Direct job creation: Neighborhoods around the country face pressing needs across a wide range of fields-staffing hospitals, providing childcare, fixing sidewalks, weatherizing homes, and more. Congress can address these needs with direct job creation, national service programs, and summer jobs programs-especially in communities that have been hit the hardest by the recession. Proposals for this kind of job creation show that the federal government can create as many as 1 million jobs.
Aid to states and localities: States and localities across the country are looking at tight budgets this year, because the recession has lowered tax revenues. they need immediate aid from the federal government to keep providing services to all communities, and to avoid laying off workers. Without this aid, as many as 900,000 workers could lose their jobs.
Call your senator today at (202) 224-3121 and ask them to support a jobs package that includes:
* extension of unemployment benefits and the COBRA health insurance subsidy through the end of 2010 by February 19.
* investment in direct job creation that addresses long-neglected needs in communities.
* aid to states and localities to prevent further job losses and service cuts.