In all the cries for austerity since 2010, public sector jobs and funding for some innovative projects probably took the biggest hit. Republican obstruction put paid to several ideas that the Obama Admininstration wanted to try. A few which did pass were related to tax incentives and tax breaks for hiring, training, equipment purchase etc.
In August 2011, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), whom I admire very much, announced that she would introduce the Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act, to put over 2 million people to work for two years. If enacted, the legislation would have created 2.2 million jobs. Some features of her bill which never got anywhere under Boehner:
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 include restoration and rehabilitation of natural, cultural, and historic resources.
The Student Jobs Corps would creates 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 teachers, 40,000 new police officers, and 12,000 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 our communities, including housing rehab, weatherization, recycling, and rural conservation.
The legislation gives the unemployed priority for jobs, particularly those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits (the “99ers”), and veterans. The bill allocates a fair distribution of funding and jobs among states, with targeting based on high unemployment and need. The bill also ensures that jobs do not undercut the rights of other workers, lower wages, displace current workers or take business from small/local businesses.
The $227 billion cost of the bill ($113.5 billion over each of two years) would have been fully paid for through separate legislation such as Rep. Schakowsky’s Fairness in Taxation Act, which creates higher tax brackets for millionaires and billionaires, and eliminating subsidies for Big Oil and tax loop holes for corporations that send American jobs overseas.
Hopefully with some of the tea-party elements purged after this election, sanity will prevail for the greater good of the country. I set out to list a few ideas in addition to Rep. Schakowsky's, worth implementing in Obama's second term to get the economy moving again.
1. Sustainable Water based jobs
Create a national movement for preservation of water resources & water conservation and utilization by (a) Empowering the USGS (Geological Society) to be more than just a reporting and fact finding agency and enable GIS/CAD tools to be used to improve water catchment/run offs/recycling etc. (b) Actively work towards conversion of landscaping into natural vegetation by working with Planners to change bye-laws (c) Mandate rain water harvesting / roof gardens in public buildings, schools, offices etc. All this could mean thousands of jobs for Architectural & Engineering firms, plant/tree & landscaping firms, rain water & gutter guard firms & plumbing fixtures & water storage device firms. However this has to be effectively tied to current and future drought conditions/estimates and savings from water conservation. I also feel that there are hundreds of construction jobs that could be generated if Congress were to come up with a viable national water sharing policy and approve interlinking of major rivers/lakes with appropriate environmental clearances.
2. American Entrepreneur Fund (AEF)
Create the AEF by taxing high frequency stock trades (HFT) between 2 to 5 cents per individual transaction, if said transaction were to occur within 2-8 hours of previous transaction. Micro financed through the SBA/Credit Unions with a mandate to fund 1 million local unemployed would-be entrepreneurs like food cart vendors/plumbers/florists/bakers/fitness enthusiasts/IT geeks etc. over a one year period, this could be like the GI bill on steroids for entrepreneurs. This fund would be solely for those on the unemployed dole with viable business plans. To gain legislative approvals, preference could be for persons in states where these stock exchanges are based.
3. National Job & Volunteer Registry
(a) Hire people to design, develop & maintain (cloud?) an easy to search National Job & Volunteer registry merging information from DOL/H1B&L1/job sites/employer websites. FLOTUS was touting a similar one for the Armed Forces recently. Managing such a mammoth database may require some private partnerships with companies such as Google, Oracle, Yahoo, IBM etc. If required, create a separate bilingual registry for farm workers both documented & undocumented workers similar to the one which can be developed with DREAM students/applicants.
(b) Create a national paid volunteer job task force which helps the candidates with resume rewrite/interview prep/career selection/salary negotiation/additional skills development.
Both (a) and (b) would be paid for by rerouting funds from DOL/employment offices, taxing for-profit colleges, F1 students (applying for US jobs) & candidates themselves (before and/or after the earn their pay check). Also note that for every unemployed person getting a job earlier 'cause of targeted search and help means that person is off the Government's dole and back to productive work which is everybody's goal.
4. Identify National Clusters/Grids for SMEs
(a) Create a marketing, export & import duty policy specifically for these clusters/grids & develop a parallel "Amazon" for their products & services to be sold globally. (b) Fund courses/R&D/give incentives and help job seekers veering to these job magnets. (c) Clusters can be Manufacturing/IT/Heathcare/Tourism/Law/Engineering & tax policies affecting them should be long term. (d) Help some of these struggling companies by enabling them to use 3rd party consultants to advise them on people management techniques, 3D tools, shop floor layouts, safety and hazard techniques, working capital management etc.
5. Finally develop consensus on the minimum wage and Immigration which are the 800-lb gorillas that impact the job market. If the seeds of Obamacare can be safely germinated into the sceptical public consciousness by mid 2014, then the battles for minimum wage and immigration can also be successfully fought before the end of the President's second term.
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