Long-term jobless rate at new high. Time for a New Deal style jobs program?

[Karmadillo]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/07/BUEL1CR3UG.DTL

Nearly 23 percent of the unemployed, or 3.4 million Americans, have been out of work for more than a year, the highest such percentage of long-term joblessness since such records were started after World War II, according to an analysis by the Pew Economic Policy Group.

The report by the nonpartisan study group comes as Congress debates whether to continue extending unemployment benefits beyond the traditional 26 weeks to the new, temporary maximum of 99 weeks put into effect by the Obama stimulus package and two subsequent stopgap bills, the latest of which expired Monday.

Lawmakers are divided over whether the extensions - which Pew estimates could cost $87 billion this fiscal year if the 99-week maximum is extended through the end of September - should be offset by spending reductions elsewhere.

Democrats argue that this is an emergency measure and an effective stimulus, while Republicans want to prevent any growth in the federal deficit.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/07/BUEL1CR3UG.DTL#ixzz0kWQmDdOR

[SomeGuyInEagan]

1. Past time ... this should have been a Day One initiative for Obama ...

... which would have paved the ground for an easier passage of HCR (such as it is). To paraphrase Clinton, it's ALWAYS the economy, stupid.

Oh, to have FDR in office.

[Ignis]

23. Agreed. How could they drop the ball on this one?

I can drive in a 50-mile radius and find literally HUNDREDS of bridges, roads, buildings, parks, levees, etc. that need either routine maintenance (that hasn't been performed properly over the past decade) or complete rework/overhaul.

Deficit spending be damned: Job creation was the key to fixing our economy from January 1, 2009, and it remains so.

:banghead:

[Greyhound]

26. Or maybe they are playing an entirely different game.

The basic assumption to all of this is that "our" reps are ours.

All the evidence points in a different direction.

[Ignis]

27. I remain optimistic, albeit discouraged.

We still have a few (D) reps with good hearts, but it's discouraging to see them (and liberal/progressive values in general) so often made the scapegoat here at DU recently.

But FFS, can't we at least hold our (D) politicians to the Democratic party platform?

:banghead:

[Greyhound]

28. Apparently not.

In MM's "Capitalism", Representative Marcy Kaptur (D - OH) stood no the steps of Congress and stated straight out that she and the rest of the liberals are powerless, that Congress is wholly owned and anybody that fights it is out.

Still, few seem to think that is significant.

[Ignis]

29. Probably (almost undeniably) true, and yet...

I won't give up on the whole grand experiment until they drag DK kicking and screaming from DC. :D

[ck4829]

2. This is the only real solution, giving more tax cuts has failed time and time again

[John Q. Citizen]

3. A New Deal style jobs program won't be coming from this corporate friendly administration.

[Peregrine Took]

5. Absolutely never. MORE tax cuts - that's the way to do it!~~~ NOT.

[whattheidonot]

11. true.

Surprisly or something Obama is not reading the economy problems right. even people working are hurting. Their has been little done and the monetary policy still favors the big whigs. Stock market no longer correlates with the economy. Local governments are cutting back on services? Nobody is paying taxes. The big changes needed to correct this just have not happened yet. if they do not happen Obama is history. Countries in Europe do just fine in the global economy without totally loading the corporate deck. Lots of these corporations care about one thing, profits. Communities be damned.

[John Q. Citizen]

16. By law, corporations are required to only care about profits. It's their fidutiary responsibility

to their stock holders.

Which is why we need to severely limit the powers of corporations.

[whattheidonot]

19. incentives

Have to give them incentives to get involved so that gains circulate. There are good corporations and they do very well on the stock market and with communities. They are a minority for sure. Most now push a right wing agenda of carelessness.

[Karmadillo]

12. They worship the private market (at least when it comes to the needs of the serfs).

nt

[flyarm]

4. so much for all the people here earlier in the week telling everyone how great the economy is eh?

ahhh yeah the bullshit was running rampant here just early in the week,..but those of us who have eyes, friends and family know damn well otherwise!

I don't know who the propagandists think they are fooling..but it sure isn't me!

[Peregrine Took]

6. I heard Gerald Celeste say the only thing propping it up is the stimulus money

and after its gone - back in the toilet- and he's been right about a lot of things in the past.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

7. YES: "Triangle unemployment hits 9.4%"

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2010/04/05/daily26.html?surround=lfn

The Raleigh-Durham combined statistical area – the federally defined grouping of Wake, Durham, Orange, Chatham, Franklin, Harnett, Johnston and Person counties – posted a February unemployment rate of 9.4 percent, up from 8.7 percent in February 2009 and a full 5 percentage points higher than the 4.3 percent of February 2008.

....

For example, while the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for North Carolina in February was 11.3 percent, the unadjusted rate was 11.8 percent.

....

While the Triangle has bled jobs over the past year, the hemorrhaging here has not been nearly as severe as in other areas of the state. The jobless rate in the Greensboro-High Point-Winston-Salem Triad hit 12.3 percent in February, while Charlotte-area unemployment was at 13.4 percent. Only Asheville, at 10.3 percent, is even within 1 percentage point of the Triangle’s jobless standard.

~~~~

WE NEED JOBS CREATION, not yet another band-aid extension of benefits with "spending reductions elsewhere." And if we don't get jobs, it doesn't matter who *caused* this, the Dems are going to feel it in November (as will Team Obama if things don't improve by November 2012).

[Greyhound]

24. No, no, no, you don't understand, you simpleton. The only thing that went wrong is that we haven't

given enough $$ to the ruling parasites. Once they have it all, you'll see how wonderful the world will be.
_{just in case}:sarcasm:

[amborin]

8. ny times: "time for a new W.P.A.?" article:

The Works Progress Administration was established 75 years ago on April 8, 1935. The job-creation program left many happy memories among fans of big government, as well as some physical reminders of its accomplishments, including post office murals and 650,000 miles of roads. Over the last year, long-term unemployment in the United States has doubled, to 6.5 million people. Is it time for W.P.A. II?

The first W.P.A. absorbed 2.1 percent of the nation’s G.D.P. from 1935 to 1941. The money went to pay workers who had been unemployed for years to work on a variety of projects. Nearly half was spent on infrastructure of long-term value, including unglamorous sewers as well as Connecticut’s elegant Merritt Parkway.

The program scratched more or less where the United States itched. Not only was the unemployment rate 20 percent, much higher than today, but the federal government could borrow responsibly. The deficit during the W.P.A.’s life averaged 3.2 percent of gross domestic product, hardly alarming by current standards. Besides, bank failures meant that private investment financing was scarce.

[amborin]

9. very high unemployment for many:

"for African Americans, it's shaping up as a long and very scary ride downhill. Official labor statistics show Black unemployment rose to 16.5 percent in March, up from 15.8 percent the month before, while white joblessness remained steady at 8.8 percent. The figures are in line with the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute's prediction that Black unemployment will hit 17.2 percent by the third quarter of this year -- the highest level in a quarter century. Not only is the Great Recession nowhere near over for Black America, there are indications that the contorted economy is finding a new "bottom" for African Americans to inhabit.

When the previous bottom fell out, Blacks fell farther and faster than whites, Asians and Latinos, and from an even more precarious economic position. As Dedrick Muhammad, of United for a Fair Economy reported in February 2009, "African Americans never emerged from the 2001 recession." Black households lost additional ground to whites and Latinos between 2000 and 2005 and were plummeting in real and relative terms even before the economy "officially" went off the cliff in December, 2007. When the crash came, the "Black" economy entered unknown territory, where previous patterns of relative Black-white employment prospects -- as bad as they were -- may no longer apply.

The sheer speed with which Black joblessness soared into the deep double digits since the official beginning of the recession indicates how tenuous is the Black connection to an economy stripped of all pretense of fairness and reciprocity. If national Black unemployment reaches 17.2 percent in the late summer, as the Economic Policy Institute predicts, that will represent an exact doubling of Black joblessness since December, 2007. ....

common dreams. org

[leftstreet]

10. K&R

[protocol rv]

13. Maybe the solution is to encourage illegal aliens to go home?

That should open up jobs for legal immigrants and citizens?

[branders seine]

14. Obama will come up with some more tax credits for "small" businesses

saving the middle class is antithetical to the plan, don't you know

[MisterP]

15. I doubt that the Dem faction that's been redbaiting anyone left of Franco since 1928

will do anything "New Deal"...

[amborin]

17. LOL! that just about sums it up

[leftstreet]

20. +1

:spray:

[Ignis]

22. Ouch.

:thumbsup:

[NNN0LHI]

18. This New Deal style jobs program is called the Army

They are always hiring.

Don

[Greyhound]

21. It's a bit of a mystery how when President Obama does exactly the same thing Raygun did,

pouring a trillion borrowed dollars into propping up the failed system, it suddenly becomes "necessary".

[Kat45]

25. Absolutely! It's well past time. n/t

[tmyers09]

30. You didn't get the memo? It's all about TAX CREDITS AND PRIVATE COMPANIES!

Why, that's the only way to go!

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: