Schakowsky, Conyers, Kucinich-- and how to create ten million jobs...

Hi all...

I'm running a strong, populist, progressive Main Street Not Wall Street campaign for Congress-- and calling for these 4 ways to rejuvenate our economy (not speculators) to create 10 million+ jobs now:

[it's only too late to wake up Dem power structure on these key issues if you all say it's too late...it's not!]

1. Sign my http://www.PetitionOnline.com/JobsNow effort-- in support of Rep. Jan Schakowsky's Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act-- to create 2.2 million needed jobs-- police officers, firefighters, rebuilding infrastructure, in our schools, parks, hospitals, clinics, child care centers, weatherization, and recycling-- paid for through progressive taxation of wealthy, ending oil subsidies.
[ http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/08/11-10 ]

2. We're also pushing for Rep. John Conyers' Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment & Training Act-- for a new trust fund for job creation that would be paid for through a proposed Wall Street tax-- for millions of new jobs for the nation's unemployed in the fields of construction, infrastructure repairs, green jobs, education, health care and neighborhood renovation. It would be funded by a new Wall Street speculation tax of a quarter of one percent on the value of every stock and bond transaction. The tax would bring in about $150 billion a year to fund the new employment trust fund.
[ http://conyers.house.gov/_files/DetnewsarticleonHH.pdf ]

3. We're promoting as well for Rep. Dennis Kucinich's National Emergency Employment Defense (NEED) Act of 2011 to create 7 million jobs by allowing "the federal government to directly fund badly-needed infrastructure repairs and fund education systems nationwide by spending money into circulation without increasing the national debt or causing inflation. The ability to coin money is an inherent power under Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution. The NEED Act would control inflation because it will enable the government to invest in America by creating infrastructure, which is real wealth. Inflation is caused when new money is created without the creation of new wealth. The proposal would also establish fiscal integrity, reassert Congressional sovereignty and regain control of monetary policy from private banks."
[ http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/09/21-7 ]

4. I've also endorsed the national NewBottomLine.com coalition's "Win-Win Solution: How Fixing The Housing Crisis Will Create 1 Million Jobs" report from last month-- detailing "how we can fix the housing crisis and revitalize our communities and economy if the banks were to lower the principal balance on all underwater mortgages to current market value. One in five Americans owe more on their mortgage than their home is actually worth. Collectively, underwater homeowners will have to pay down $709 billion in principal before they can start building equity in their homes. Every effort to reboot the housing market to date has failed because it has not done the most essential thing: reduce the massive debt load carried by underwater homeowners."
[ http://www.newbottomline.com/underwater_mortgages_and_1_million_jobs ]

Besides those ways to create over ten million jobs, we call for Wall Street to account these four ways:

1. Years ago I launched a http://www.petitiononline.com/stocktax effort to bring back NY's stock transfer tax on Wall Street-- to fully fund jobs in our schools, hospitals, etc. (kudos to Co. Leg. Jim Doxsey and Assembly candidate Alyssa Kogon for picking up torch on this; 150+ on board petition).

2. Years ago I also launched http://www.PetitionOnline.com/FDRagain -- to reintroduce FDR's Glass-Steagall Act on Wall Street to break up big banks and resurrect protection against speculation.

3. I also have long supported Rep. Maurice Hinchey's legislation to end excessive oil speculation-- that has unfairly driven up the price of gasoline and home heating oil (see JoelforCongress.org).
[ http://hinchey.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1666&Itemid= ]

4. Finally, I stand strongly in solidarity with peaceful Occupy Wall Street protesters holding the "economic royalists" of today (as FDR described them) accountable; kudos to those of us brave enough to replicate inspiration of Arab Spring movements in Tunisia and Tahrir square here in this country;
see http://OccupyWallSt.org -- they're right-- NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly should resign(!).

Pass it on...

Joel
(845) 444-0599/876-2488
joeltyner@earthlink.net
http://www.JoelforCongress.org
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Joel (200+ on board!)

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[also see:"Wall Street and the SuperCommittee" by Ian Pajer-Rogers
http://www.newbottomline.com/report_wall_street_and_the_supercommittee ]

Fact: 81% of Americans support taxing millionaires and billionaires more to help our economy, according to a March NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll earlier this year.
[http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/7333/what_americans_want_the_peoples_budget]

Fact: 74% of Americans support “eliminating tax credits for the oil and gas industries” in order to “reduce the current federal budget deficit", according to another March NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll earlier this year.
[http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/03/03/174932/americans-oil-subsidies/]

Fact: The vast majority of Americans also support closing tax loopholes for corporations offshoring jobs.
[http://www.workingamerica.org/upload/OutsourcingReport.pdf]

[see http://www.RebuildtheDream.com , too, for more on the ten-point Contract for the American Dream embraced this July by over 130,000 Americans at 1600+ house parties; members of the national RebuildtheDream.com coalition include MoveOn, AFL-CIO, SEIU, Working Families Party, Campaign for America's Future, and dozens of other prominent progressive organizations!]

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From http://www.CommonDreams.org/headline/2011/08/11-10 ...

Published on Thursday, August 11, 2011 by Huffington Post

"Jan Schakowsky Announces New Budget Plan With Focus On Jobs"

by Jordan Howard

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, announced on Wednesday that she will introduce a progressive-minded budget outline aimed at putting more than two million people to work.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, announced on Wednesday that she will introduce a progressive-minded budget outline aimed at putting more than two million people to work.

Titled the "Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act," the plan would cost $227 billion and would be implemented over two years. It would be financed by separate legislation introduced by Schakowsky called the "Fairness in Taxation Act," which would raise taxes for Americans who earn more than $1 million and $1 billion. It would also eliminate subsidies for big oil companies while closing loopholes for corporations that send American jobs overseas.

The congresswoman said that her plan would create 2.2 million jobs and decrease the unemployment rate by 1.3 percent.

"If we want to create jobs, then create jobs," Schakowsky said in a press release. "I'm not talking about "incentivizing" companies in the hopes they'll hire someone, or cutting taxes for the so-called job creators who have done nothing of the sort. My plan creates actual new jobs."

Schakowsky's proposal reads more like a progressive wishlist than legislation likely to be signed into law. But it does provide a template of sorts to help Democrats frame their budget argument as lawmakers enter the high-stakes super committee negotiations.

Under her plan, the following policies would be implemented:

* The School Improvement Corps would create 400,000 construction and 250,000 maintenance jobs by funding positions created by public school districts to do needed school rehabilitation improvements.

* The Park Improvement Corps would create 100,000 jobs for youth between the ages of 16 and 25 through new funding to the Department of the Interior and the USDA Forest Service's Public Lands Corps Act. Young people would work on conservation projects on public lands including the restoration and rehabilitation of natural, cultural, and historic resources.

* The Student Jobs Corps would create 250,000 more part-time work study jobs for eligible college students through new funding for the Federal Work Study Program.

* The Neighborhood Heroes Corps would hire 300,000 new teachers, 40,000 new police officers and 12,000 new firefighters.

* The Health Corps would hire at least 40,000 health care providers, including physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, and health care workers to expand access in underserved rural and urban areas.

* The Child Care Corps would create 100,000 jobs in early childhood care and education through additional funding for Early Head Start.

*The Community Corps would hire 750,000 individuals to do needed work in communities, including housing rehab, weatherization, recycling, and rural conservation.

In addition, the bill would give priority to the longterm unemployed -- the so-called "99ers" who have exhausted both their state and federal unemployment benefits. Federally extended unemployment benefits are set to expire this year, even though nearly 14 million Americans remain out of work and it takes the average worker nine months to find a new job.

"The worst deficit this country faces isn't the budget deficit," Schakowsky said. "It's the jobs deficit. We need to get our people and our economy moving again."

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From http://conyers.house.gov/_files/DetnewsarticleonHH.pdf ...

Conyers: It's Time Wall Street Pay for Main Street Jobs

The Detroit News
Fri, Mar 4, 2011
Marisa Schultz

U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, introduced a bill this week to create
a new trust fund for job creation that would be paid for through a
proposed Wall Street tax.

"It is only fair that Wall Street now pay Main Street back by helping put
America back to work," Conyers said in a statement.

The bill, the Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment &
Training Act, would create millions of jobs for the nation's unemployed,
Conyers said, in the fields of construction, infrastructure repairs, green
jobs, education, health care and neighborhood renovation.

The legislation would establish a Full Employment Trust Fund that
would allow the Department of Labor to issue grants to states and
localities for job creation and training initiatives until full employment is
reached in the United States.

Conyers is proposing a new Wall Street speculation tax of a quarter of
one percent on the value of every stock and bond transaction. The tax
would bring in about $150 billion a year to fund the new employment
trust fund.

"High levels of unemployment are unacceptable and immoral in the
wealthiest nation in the world," Conyers said.

The bill was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce
and the Committee on Ways and Means.

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From http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/09/21-7 ...

[see more on this here: http://kucinich.house.gov/UploadedFiles/NEED_Act_FINAL_112th.pdf !]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 21, 2011
4:14 PM
CONTACT: Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Nathan White (202)225-5871
Kucinich Proposes Landmark Jobs Plan
Bill To Put 7 Million Americans Back to Work, Rebuild Infrastructure

WASHINGTON - September 21 - As the nation struggles with long-term unemployment at rates not seen in generations and as infrastructure crumbles across the nation, Congressman Kucinich (D-OH) today introduced a dramatic new proposal to address our structural economic problems directly by creating over 7 million jobs.

The National Emergency Employment Defense (NEED) Act of 2011 would allow the federal government to directly fund badly-needed infrastructure repairs and fund education systems nationwide by spending money into circulation without increasing the national debt or causing inflation.

“Today, nearly 25 million Americans are either unemployed or cannot find a job on which they can live and support their families. FDR’s response to such circumstances was the New Deal. Today, we need similarly bold solutions,” said Kucinich. “We need a solution that will revive our economy in a sustainable way that will put millions of American back to work.”

“There should be work for those who are able to work. Government must become the employer of last resort. The private sector is not providing the jobs. When the private sector fails to provide the jobs, the government has a moral responsibility and a practical responsibility to step forward to put the country back to work.

“The ability to coin money is an inherent power under Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution. The NEED Act would control inflation because it will enable the government to invest in America by creating infrastructure, which is real wealth. Inflation is caused when new money is created without the creation of new wealth,” explained Kucinich.

The proposal would also establish fiscal integrity, reassert Congressional sovereignty and regain control of monetary policy from private banks.

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From http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/03/10-17 ...

Tax Wall Street -- For Jobs!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 10, 2011
3:34 PM
CONTACT: RootsAction

WASHINGTON - March 10 - What better way to finance good green jobs for millions of unemployed Americans than to tax the Wall Street juggernaut that created this economic disaster in the first place?

That’s not just a good idea -- it could be the law. The “Full Employment & Training Act” (H.R. 870), just introduced by Congressman John Conyers, is a brilliant legislative remedy for two ills that afflict our society -- massive unemployment and speculative profiteering that keeps widening the gap between the rich and the rest of us.

Please help us gather co-sponsors for the bill by signing our letter to the Progressive Caucus.

Two weeks ago, we said it was time to flip the script on Wisconsin with a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street - now Congressman Conyers has introduced this bold proposal for full employment funded by a Wall Street Transaction Tax.

The law would make the Wall Street speculators behind the economic disaster pony up to create jobs: whether teaching children, making homes energy efficient, caring for the sick or rebuilding neighborhoods.

We can create a society with plentiful jobs and equitable taxation. And H.R. 870 is a good place to start. But we need more members of Congress to cosponsor and loudly endorse the bill.

Unlikely to get through Congress? Sure -- if we don’t fundamentally reframe the national debate. That means going where few elected officials, especially President Obama, have dared to tread.

Jobs are a human right . . . and no one has a right to rip off our society to make themselves filthy rich through speculation and fraud. It’s time for Wall Street to pay.

“If this financial crisis taught us anything,” Obama declared on the night he was elected president, “it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.” But in 2011 we have a thriving, even bloated Wall Street -- while many can’t find a job.

The 21st century Full Employment & Training Act is an idea that will work for all of us. Please sign this letter to the Progressive Caucus. And pass this message along to your friends.

###

Action for a Progressive Future (the organization that runs RootsAction) is a nonprofit, progressive, public policy advocacy group that will engage citizens in the democratic process and help make sure legislators hear their voices.

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Mar. 02, 2011
Conyers Introduces Deficit Neutral Full Employment and Training Bill

Contact: Nicole Triplett
(202) 225-5543

http://conyers.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=News.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=788424eb-19b9-b4b1-129e-484cb600c11f&Region_id=&Issue_id=fa1c6003-19b9-b4b1-12a8-2ae6f1546bd5

Washington DC- Representative John Conyers (D-Mich.) today introduced H.R. 870, the “Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment & Training Act,” a comprehensive and innovative federal and local government job creation and training bill that would create millions of new jobs for the nation’s unemployed. Local jobs would be created through a partnership between the Department of Labor, state, and local governments, non-profit community organizations, and small businesses. Under the Act, jobs would be created in the fields of construction, infrastructure repairs, green jobs, education, health care, and neighborhood renovation. The Act’s Full Employment Trust Fund would provide federal funding for local community-based job creation and training initiatives until full employment is reached in the United States. The Act is deficit neutral and fully funded through a modest tax on Wall Street stock and bond transactions.

“Today, there are millions of Americans who want a job, but can’t find one,” said Conyers. “The inability to find meaningful and sustainable work strips our fellow citizens of their basic right to have access to food, housing, health care, freedom of movement, and perhaps, most importantly, the ability to pursue life with a sense of dignity and meaning. High levels of unemployment are unacceptable and immoral in the wealthiest nation in the world. Thus, I believe it is critical that the federal government empower states, local governments, non-profits, and small businesses to create jobs during an economic downturn.

My “Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act” would allow local government officials to work with community leaders to come up with an effective job creation program, based on each community’s respective needs—be it improvements in infrastructure, housing, energy efficiency, education, or health care. The private sector will also benefit if millions of new jobs are created through improvements in our nation’s aging and crumbling infrastructure. New orders for brick, concrete, steel, aluminum, and plastics mean new jobs in America’s plants and factories and a rebirth of American manufacturing.

Lastly, because we exist in a period when concerns about government debt loom large in many minds, my legislation will be fully funded by a tax on Wall Street speculation and will not add a dime to the federal debt. Wall Street was responsible for the financial crisis that began in 2008 and continues to affect us today. Having already received significant assistance from the federal government, it is only fair that Wall Street now pay Main Street back by helping put America back to work.”