* Message To Obama: No Half-Measures On Jobs

* 70 organizations call on Obama to launch major jobs initiative
=====================

Message To Obama: No Half-Measures On Jobs

By Isaiah J. Poole
August 30, 2011 - 3:37pm ET
www.ourfuture.org

Today 68 major progressive organizations have sent a
letter to President Obama urging him to present a "big,
bold" jobs program to the nation in his anticipated
post-Labor Day address.

Some of the organizations signing the letter, while
praising the President for his return to an emphasis on
jobs, are concerned that Obama's plan may not be large
enough to convince the nation that he is truly serious
about down the unemployment that has trapped millions of
families - especially if he limits his proposals to what
is acceptable to hostile Republicans in the Congress. They
also express concern that the President's intention to
give equal weight to deficit reduction in his speech -
along with the new "Super Committee's" focus on deficits -
will inevitably undermine whatever initial momentum the
speech may create for job creation. A problem this serious
needs a plan to match it in scope.

"Tax cuts and incentives for corporations have repeatedly
failed to put Americans back to work," the letter says.
"It is time to move beyond these half-measures designed to
appeal to a narrow ideological minority who have
repeatedly shown their unwillingness to negotiate and
their disinterest in real solutions. History--and proven
economics--tells us that any plan to solve our job crisis
needs to be big, bold, and create jobs directly."

An example of the kind of remedy that these organizations
are expecting the president to embrace is the Emergency
Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act, sponsored by Rep.
Jan Schakowsky. That legislation would commit $227 billion
over two years in projects that would create a total of
2.2 million jobs. The projects would range from public
school rehabilitation to energy conservation.

"This letter to the President reflects the growing concern
of a majority of Americans that unemployment is at crisis
levels" says Campaign for America's Future co-director
Roger Hickey in a statement today. "We want a jobs program
that does not just tinker around the edges.  And we want
the President to present a plan next week that is big and
bold enough to actually reverse our economic decline and
put people to work - even if such a program can't succeed
until a new Congress is elected.  If the President is
bold, he will help get America a Congress that will
actually act to create jobs and rebuild the American
Dream."

The effort by these progressive organizations to push
President Obama to announce and fight for a bold jobs
program, pushing beyond the boundaries of what is
perceived to be politically possible, is getting some new,
sharp criticism from commentators such as Jonathan Chait,
who wrote in The New Republic today that the effort by
centrist Democrats and progressives to influence the
president's jobs speech "is being conducted between two
sides that totally misunderstand its purpose."

To progressives, Chait writes:

... the plan does need to be somewhat big -- anything
that's too small will transparently be seen as
insufficient to the scale of the disaster. On the other
hand, it needs to grapple with the reality that most
Americans don't support the kinds of economic stimulus
that economists think we need. Now, if Obama potentially
had the votes in Congress to pass another stimulus, it
would be worth taking an unpopular vote in order to rescue
the economy. Since Obama does not and will not have those
votes, he needs to conceive of his plan as a political
message. There is no point in holding a message vote when
the message is unpopular.

This seems to be a reality liberals have trouble
acknowledging.

Actually, "liberals" and progressives are fully aware of
the headwinds, but the kind of bold steps that we are
advocating are not as unpopular as Chait presents them. As
part of our American Majority project, we've identified a
number of polls that show significant support for federal
spending to put people back to work.

But it is undeniable that the conservative narrative that
the government can't do anything and shouldn't do anything
to put people back to work--that we have to be at the
tender mercies of mythical "job creators" who have up now
shown scant interest in investing in America and its
workers--has been allowed to dominate the economic debate.
And this is where President Obama can be part of the
solution. Chait concedes that "public opinion is fairly
hazy and ill-informed" about the short-term measures the
government should take to get the economy moving, and
Obama should be devoting the next few months changing
that, drawing the contrast between a positive, pro-growth
agenda and a conservative agenda that puts middle- and
working-class America on an austerity diet while
protecting millionaires and billionaires from any
obligation to help rebuild a broadly prosperous economy.

The coalition letter notes that more than 130,000
Americans participated in the writing of the Contract for
the American Dream, which supports "investing in American
infrastructure, education, green technology, and
healthcare; a return to fairer tax rates; ensuring that
workers have living wages and the right to organize; and
keeping our democracy accountable and responsive to the
American people."

"At this pivotal moment for our nation, we need you to
present a vision based on these principles," the letter
concludes.

When on Friday the nation receives another unemployment
report that shows a sluggish-at-best economy not producing
enough jobs to give hope to the nearly 15 million
Americans who do not have a job, President Obama will be
harshly judged if he does not display the courage to
present a solution that matches the severity of the
crisis.

====================

This letter is available in PDF format at
http://s3.moveon.org/pdfs/lettertopresidentonjobsfinal.pdf. 

August 30, 2011 

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,


The announcement that you will be presenting a jobs plan
for the country could not have come at a more crucial
moment. The number one problem America faces today is the
jobs crisis.


A problem this serious needs a plan to match it in scope.
Tax cuts and incentives for corporations have repeatedly
failed to put Americans back to work. It is time to move
beyond these half measures designed to appeal to a narrow
ideological minority who have repeatedly


shown their unwillingness to negotiate and their
disinterest in real solutions. History--and proven
economics--tells us that any plan to solve our job crisis
needs to be big, bold, and create jobs directly.


With 25 million Americans out of work, or only able to
find part-time work when they want and need full time
jobs, aggressive action is needed. Representative Jan
Schakowsky's "Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream
Act" is an example of the kind of bold step that we need
to take as a country and that you should include as part
of your broader jobs agenda. It would decrease
unemployment 1.3 percent by directly creating more than 2
million jobs, including jobs for construction workers to
rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, and for educators,
health care workers, firefighters, and police, to
strengthen our communities.


Across the political spectrum, Americans are united in
calling for the government to create jobs and on how we
can pay for this investment in our economic recovery:
Raise taxes on the wealthy, so that they pay their fair
share again.


Recently, more than 130,000 ordinary Americans joined
together to create a vision to rebuild the American Dream.
The ideas they laid out in the Contract for the American
Dream are the best way forward for our country. They
include investing in American infrastructure, education,
green technology, and  healthcare; a return to fairer tax
rates; ensuring that workers have living wages and the
right to organize; and keeping our democracy accountable
and responsive to the American people. This is how to keep
our country, our democracy, and our economy strong.At this
pivotal moment for our nation we need you to present a
vision based on these principles. And we need a plan that
asks the rich and corporations to pay their fair share so
we can reinvest in American workers and communities and
rebuild the American Dream.


Sincerely,

Erica Payne
President, The Agenda Project

Nan Aron, 
President, Alliance for Justice 

Joan Fitz-Gerald
President, America Votes 

Gregg S. Rosen, CPNLP
President/Co-Founder, The American 99ers Union

Michael J. Wilson
National Director, Americans for Democratic Action

David A. Strauss, Executive Director
Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs

Melanie Campbell
President & CEO and Convener, Black Women's Roundtable

National Coalition on Black Civic Participation

Joshua Pecthalt
President, California Federation of Teachers

Roger Hickey & Robert Borosage 
Co-Founders, Campaign for America's Future 

Deepak Bhargava
Executive Director, Center for Community Change 

Dean Baker & Mark Weisbrot
Co-directors, Center for Economic and Policy Research

Wendy Philleo
Executive Director, The Center for a New American Dream

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs

Larry Cohen 
President, Communications Workers of America 

Don Mathis
President & CEO, Community Action Partnership

Rick Jacobs
Chair and Founder, Courage Campaign

Becky Bond
Political Director, CREDO Action|CREDO Mobile

Jim Dean
Chair, Democracy for America

Bob Fertik
President, Democrats.com

Miles Rapoport
President, Demos

Leonila Vega
Executive Director, Direct Care Alliance

Rev. Dr. Ken Brooker Langston
Director, Disciples Justice Action Network

Jakada Imani
Executive Director, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.

Courtney Hight
Co-Executive Director, Energy Action Coalition/Power Shift

Maya Rockeymoore
President and CEO, Global Policy Solutions

Ethan Rome, 
Executive Director, Health Care for America Now!

Bob Crittenden
Executive Director, Herndon Alliance

Kim Bobo
Executive Directive, Interfaith Worker Justice

John Cavanagh
Director, Institute for Policy Studies

Harry Waisbren
Co-Founder, Jobs Party

Sarita Gupta
Executive Director, Jobs with Justice

Sam Blair
Network Director, The Main Street Alliance

Justin Ruben
Executive Director, MoveOn.org 

Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq., 
National Chair, The National Congress of Black Women

Janet Murguia
President and CEO, National Council of La Raza (NCLR)

Susan Scanlan
Chair, National Council of Women's Organizations

Ai-jen Poo
Executive Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance

Dennis Van Roekel
President, National Education Association

Christine L. Owens
Executive Director, National Employment Law Project

Rea Carey
Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

Terry O'Neill
President, National Organization for Women 

Greg Speeter
Founder, National Priorities Project

Simone Campbell, SSS 
Executive Director,  NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby

John Sellers, Andrew Boyd & Chuck Collins
Co-Founders, The Other 98%

Leslie Moody
Executive Director, The Partnership for Working Families

Kevin Martin
Executive Director, Peace Action

Michael B. Keegan 
President, People For the American Way

Angela Glover Blackwell
Founder and CEO, PolicyLink

Darcy Burner
Executive Director, ProgressiveCongress.org

Tim Carpenter
National Director, Progressive Democrats of America

Barry Kendall
Executive Director, Progressive Ideas Network

Heather Booth 
Progressive Leader 

Ann Pratt
Executive Director, Progressive States Network

Robert Weissman
President, Public Citizen

Van Jones
President, Rebuild The Dream 

Mary Kay Henry
President, SEIU 

Hashi Shafi
Executive Director, Somali Action Alliance

Bob King 
President, The United Auto Workers International Union

Brian Miller
Executive Director, United for a Fair Economy

William McNary
President, USAction 

Michael Eisenscher
National Coordinator, U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW)

Ryan Clayton
Co-Founder, USuncut.org

Joe Szakos 
Executive Director, Virginia Organizing

Sandy Newman
President, Voices for Progress

Andrew Terrell
Executive Director, Vote on Jobs Campaign

Joan Kuriansky
Executive Director, Wider Opportunities for Women

Julie Burton
President, Women's Media Center

Karen Nussbaum
Executive Director, Working America

___________________________________________

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