NYT: Democrats Call for New Aid Package as 80,000 Jobs Are Cut

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/business/05econ.html?ex=1208059200&en=d5c0c3e5c56eac4f&ei=5043&partner=EXCITE


Isaac Brekken for The New York Times

Al Goldschmidt, 56, formerly of Queens and now living in Las Vegas, filled out an application at a job fair Friday.
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Published: April 5, 2008

The nation’s employers eliminated tens of thousands of jobs for the third month in a row, the government reported Friday, and top Democrats immediately called for new measures to help suffering American workers.

After the early-morning report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that 80,000 jobs had disappeared in March, the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, said she would propose a second economic stimulus package. Hers would supplement the $150 billion in tax rebates scheduled to be mailed to millions of Americans beginning next month.

The presidential candidates, already divided over how to alleviate the mortgage and housing crisis, divided again over how to generate jobs and help the unemployed.

In separate statements Friday morning, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama supported another stimulus package and an extension of unemployment benefits, among other measures. In contrast, John McCain, acknowledging that “many Americans are hurting,” said that lower taxes and less regulation would generate jobs.

“People have been focused on the housing crisis, and rightly so,” said Andrew Stettner, a policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project, “but now the deterioration in the job market should be demanding much more attention from policy makers.”

The job losses this year are roughly equal to those that disappeared in the early months of the last recession, in 2001. Recognizing that employment was weakening, Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, testified on Wednesday that “a recession is possible,” but not necessarily upon us.

FULL story and video at link.