Communist
23rd February 2010, 03:44
.
Trumka: Creating Jobs Is Best Way to Fix Deficit (http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/02/19/trumka-creating-jobs-is-best-way-to-fix-deficit/)
AFL-CIO NOW BLOG
February 19, 2010
The best way to reduce the growing federal deficit is
to [1] create 10 million jobs now-the number of jobs
needed to close our jobs deficit-not to cut vital
programs such as [2] Social Security and [3] Medicare,
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said.
President Obama yesterday signed an executive order
creating an 18-member National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform to propose ways to reduce the
growing national debt. Click [4] here to read the
executive order.
Trumka cited data from the nonpartisan Congressional
Budget Office that most of the deficit over the next 10
years will come from the Bush administration's tax cuts
for the rich, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,
spiraling [5] health care costs and the recession.
The main driver of the recent increases in deficit
projections is worsening economic conditions-in
short, the present deficit crisis is largely a
symptom of the jobs crisis.
Solving the jobs crisis and the deficit will require
large amounts of public investment in the short term,
which should be paid for in future years by taxing Wall
Street, Trumka said. Read the full statement [6] here.
Also, it is critical that the newly appointed
commission not focus on cutting entitlements, Trumka
said. The problem with perennial proposals for
entitlement commissions and deficit commissions is that
they are too often premised on the mistaken assumption
that short-term stimulus and entitlement spending are
the root causes of burgeoning budget deficits. But that
is not the case, he said.
Social Security is fundamentally sound and does
not contribute meaningfully to our long-term
deficit. With the decline of defined-benefit
pensions, the sudden loss of retirement savings
for millions and the dramatic increase in economic
uncertainty, strengthening Social Security's core
guarantee of retiring with dignity is now more
important than ever.
Problems with Medicare financing are a symptom of the
larger problem of rising health care costs and can be
solved by comprehensive health care reform, not benefit
cuts, he added.
Commissions have been, and can be, serious and
useful mechanisms to grapple with difficult
problems. But the true test of this commission's
success will be whether it helps fix our budget
deficits by attacking the jobs deficit, or whether
it makes our budget problems worse by sacrificing
jobs and urgently needed long-term public
investment.
URLs in this post:
[1] create 10 million jobs: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/jobs/americaneedsjobsnow.cfm
[2] Social Security: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/retirementsecurity/socialsecurity/
[3] Medicare: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/medicare.cfm
[4] here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-national-commission-fiscal-responsibility
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-national-commission-fiscal-responsibility-and-reform) [5] health care: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare
[6] here: http://www.aflcio.org/mediacenter/prsptm/pr02182010.cfm
_____________________________________________
Trumka: Creating Jobs Is Best Way to Fix Deficit (http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/02/19/trumka-creating-jobs-is-best-way-to-fix-deficit/)
AFL-CIO NOW BLOG
February 19, 2010
The best way to reduce the growing federal deficit is
to [1] create 10 million jobs now-the number of jobs
needed to close our jobs deficit-not to cut vital
programs such as [2] Social Security and [3] Medicare,
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said.
President Obama yesterday signed an executive order
creating an 18-member National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform to propose ways to reduce the
growing national debt. Click [4] here to read the
executive order.
Trumka cited data from the nonpartisan Congressional
Budget Office that most of the deficit over the next 10
years will come from the Bush administration's tax cuts
for the rich, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,
spiraling [5] health care costs and the recession.
The main driver of the recent increases in deficit
projections is worsening economic conditions-in
short, the present deficit crisis is largely a
symptom of the jobs crisis.
Solving the jobs crisis and the deficit will require
large amounts of public investment in the short term,
which should be paid for in future years by taxing Wall
Street, Trumka said. Read the full statement [6] here.
Also, it is critical that the newly appointed
commission not focus on cutting entitlements, Trumka
said. The problem with perennial proposals for
entitlement commissions and deficit commissions is that
they are too often premised on the mistaken assumption
that short-term stimulus and entitlement spending are
the root causes of burgeoning budget deficits. But that
is not the case, he said.
Social Security is fundamentally sound and does
not contribute meaningfully to our long-term
deficit. With the decline of defined-benefit
pensions, the sudden loss of retirement savings
for millions and the dramatic increase in economic
uncertainty, strengthening Social Security's core
guarantee of retiring with dignity is now more
important than ever.
Problems with Medicare financing are a symptom of the
larger problem of rising health care costs and can be
solved by comprehensive health care reform, not benefit
cuts, he added.
Commissions have been, and can be, serious and
useful mechanisms to grapple with difficult
problems. But the true test of this commission's
success will be whether it helps fix our budget
deficits by attacking the jobs deficit, or whether
it makes our budget problems worse by sacrificing
jobs and urgently needed long-term public
investment.
URLs in this post:
[1] create 10 million jobs: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/jobs/americaneedsjobsnow.cfm
[2] Social Security: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/retirementsecurity/socialsecurity/
[3] Medicare: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/medicare.cfm
[4] here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-national-commission-fiscal-responsibility
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-national-commission-fiscal-responsibility-and-reform) [5] health care: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare
[6] here: http://www.aflcio.org/mediacenter/prsptm/pr02182010.cfm
_____________________________________________