The Economy and Jobs
The Democratic-led Congress continues working to create American jobs and strengthen the economy—because we must bring down the unemployment rate and restore American job security. Congressional Republicans continue to vote in lock step against job creation, tax cuts and recovery efforts and instead support the special interests—Wall Street banks, Big Oil and insurance companies. Those economic policies brought us the Bush recession with Americans facing job losses of nearly 800,000 a month and the economy contracting by more than 6 percent. Until all Americans are back to work, more must and will be done on behalf America’s middle class and working families, but there is mounting independent evidence that the Recovery Act and other job-creation efforts are spurring an American economic recovery:
- There were an addition of 83,000 private sector jobs in June and nearly 600,000 private sector jobs this year. The Bush era actually cost us private sector jobs: 670,000 in eight years.
- GDP is up 2.7% in the 1st quarter of 2010 for the 3rd quarter of economic growth—a year ago the economy shrank 6.4%
- Manufacturing is up 11 months in a row
- The Recovery Act has increased employment by up to 2.8 million and economic growth by up to 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2010 according the non-partisan CBO. Looking ahead, CBO projects up to 3.7 million American jobs could be attributed to the Recovery Act by the end of the September.
BUSINESS WEEK – APRIL 8, 2010:
"When you take it all together, the response [to the recession] was massive, unprecedented, and ultimately successful," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.
Even Obama critics such as Phil Swagel, assistant Treasury secretary for economic policy under George W. Bush, acknowledge that White House policies have been successful… "their economic policies, including the stimulus, have helped move the economy in the right direction."
NEWSWEEK – APRIL 9, 2010:
“America is coming back stronger, better, and faster than nearly anyone expected …The recovery came quickly because the public and private sectors reacted with great speed.”
FORTUNE – APRIL 16, 2010:
“The economy has made a sharp U-turn in the past couple of months, and better days for American businesses and workers are around the corner... three [American business titans including Warren Buffett] tell me that in the past four to eight weeks, they've seen a real change in their businesses, and that indicates better news for the nation's economy.”
WALL STREET JOURNAL – MAY 3, 2010:
“Several major banks have scaled back their forecasts for this year’s U.S. federal budget deficit as the improved economic outlook leads to higher tax receipts, and as many banks and companies that received taxpayer bailouts repay their debts early.”
MCCLATCHY – MAY 7, 2010:
“It feels like a light switch went on in many businesses this spring. The job gains in March and April were strong and broad-based across industries” said Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Moody’s Analytics.
WALL STREET JOURNAL – MAY 24, 2010:
“The U.S. economy should expand at a solid pace this year and next as consumers increase spending, confident the recession is behind them... economists surveyed in the National Association for Business Economics report… predicted U.S. gross domestic product would expand by 3.2% in 2010 and 2011.”
Since 2007, the Democratic-led Congress has implemented a broad economic plan that will bring opportunity and fiscal security to all Americans, not just the wealthy few. Democrats have raised the minimum wage; passed economic recovery legislation providing recovery rebates for more than 130 million American families; and passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to jumpstart our economy, create and save 3.5 million jobs, give 98% of American working families and individuals a tax cut, and begin to rebuild America’s road, rail, and water infrastructure. We have worked to make health care, energy, and education affordable for all Americans, and address our nation's foreclosure crisis.
Congress and President Obama have also worked together to enact an array of broad-based tax cuts for working and middle-class families and small business owners—ending an era of Republican tax breaks focused only on the wealthy. These tax cuts are injecting consumer demand into the economy and spurring job creation. Learn more about tax cuts in the 111th Congress»
Democrats are building an economic approach that lifts every American, not just the privileged few. The average American CEO earns more before lunchtime in one day than a minimum wage worker earns all year. This is not the kind of America we want our children to grow up in.
LEARN MORE ABOUT LEGISLATIVE ACTION ON THE ECONOMY IN THE 111th CONGRESS:
SIGNED INTO LAW & WORKING FOR THE AMERICAN ECONOMY
AMERICAN RECOVERY & REINVESTMENT ACT
- Responsible for up to 2.8 million jobs already, including teachers, police and firefighters
- More than a third was tax cuts for 98% of Americans and small businesses
- Rebuilding America with clean energy and 21st century jobs
HIRING INCENTIVES TO RESTORE EMPLOYMENT (HIRE) ACT
- Will help create 300,000 jobs, unleash tens of billions of dollars to rebuild infrastructure
- Tax cuts for businesses to hire, accelerated write-offs for small businesses
- Cracking down on offshore accounts for corporations and the wealthy
WORKER, HOMEOWNERSHIP & BUSINESS ASSISTANCE ACT
- Boosting the economy with emergency relief for Americans hit by the recession
- An expanded first-time homebuyer tax credit
- Tax relief for small businesses and other struggling U.S businesses through net operating loss provision
- Will create up to 4 million new jobs over the decade, primarily in small businesses
STUDENT AID & FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT
- Largest investment in college aid in history to make education more affordable
- Increasing Pell Grants and strengthening community colleges and minority-serving institutions
- Spurred the sale of 700,000 vehicles
- America’s automakers are now paying back the taxpayers and creating jobs again
CREDIT CARDHOLDERS’ BILL OF RIGHTS
- Provides tough new protections for consumers
- Bans unfair rate increases, abusive fees, and penalties
- These new credit card restrictions, along with overdraft limits by the Federal Reserve, will save U.S. consumers at least $5 billion in fees this year at the largest U.S. retail banks and credit card companies
- A lack of accountability for Wall Street and big banks cost 8 million jobs
- Common sense new rules to foster the flow of credit to create American jobs
- Ends taxpayer-funded bailouts and the idea of “too big to fail”
- Protects & empowers consumers to make sound decisions on homes, credit cards, and other finances
PASSED BY HOUSE
AMERICAN JOBS AND CLOSING TAX LOOPHOLES ACT—PASSED BY HOUSE & SENATE, NEGOTIATED BILL PASSED HOUSE
- Prevents corporations from shipping jobs overseas and sticking American taxpayers with the bill
- Closes tax loopholes, making Wall Street billionaires pay a fair tax on their income
- Promotes American jobs by restoring credit to small businesses, extending tax incentives for American R&D and energy, rebuilding American infrastructure, expanding summer jobs for young people, and providing tax relief for middle class American families.
- Enforces corporate accountability, making the oil industry pay to ensure sufficient funds to clean up oil spills.
SMALL BUSINESSES JOBS AND CREDIT ACT—PASSED BY HOUSE
- Leverages billions in loans for small businesses through a lending fund for community banks
- Invests in innovative state small business lending programs
- Provides tax incentives to spur investment in small businesses and the formation of new small businesses
- Restarts private investment to meet small businesses’ evolving financing needs through a new SBA public-private partnership
- Fully paid for, with the small business lending fund saving taxpayers $1 billion as banks are expected to repay funds over 10 years
HOME STAR JOBS ACT—PASSED BY HOUSE
- Provides immediate incentives for consumers to make their homes more energy-efficient:
- Creating 168,000 jobs in construction, manufacturing, and retail – some of the hardest hit sectors by the Bush recession
- Cutting energy costs by up to $500 per year for 3 million families
- Reducing our dangerous dependence on foreign oil and dirty fuels
COMPETES ACT REAUTHORIZATION—PASSED BY HOUSE
- Our innovation agenda—investing in modernizing manufacturing; basic R&D; high risk/high reward clean energy research; and teaching science, technology, engineering and math
- Keeping our nation on a path to double funding for basic scientific research, crucial to some of our most innovative breakthroughs, over 10 years
- Creating jobs with innovative technology loan guarantees for small and mid-sized manufacturers and Regional Innovation Clusters to expand scientific and economic collaboration
- Promoting high-risk high reward research to pioneer the cutting edge discoveries of tomorrow through ARPA-E and Energy Innovation Hubs for American energy independence
- Creating the next generation of entrepreneurs by improving science, math, technology, and engineering education at all levels
- Supported by U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, Business Roundtable
JOBS FOR MAIN STREET ACT—PASSED BY HOUSE
- Creates and saves jobs with targeted investments to:
- Hire and retain teachers, police, and firefighters Rebuild highways and transit, boost small business
- Give health assistance to states struggling to keep hundreds of thousands of people on the job
- Extend health benefits for those who have lost their job through no fault of their own
- Hire and retain teachers, police, and firefighters Rebuild highways and transit, boost small business
SMALL BUSINESS AND INFRASTRUCTURE JOBS TAX ACT—PASSED BY HOUSE
- Extends successful Build America Bonds for schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, and rail lines
- Targets tax cuts to spur investment in small businesses and entrepreneurs looking to start a business
- Creates 160,000 jobs with aid to states to provide subsidies to employers who hire workers
- Cracks down on foreign tax haven corporations that dodge U.S. taxes and gain an unfair advantage over American companies playing by the rules through the U.S. tax treaty network
DISASTER RELIEF AND SUMMER JOBS ACT—PASSED BY HOUSE
- Gives disaster-stricken communities aid to rebuild their homes, infrastructure and local economies
- Creates about 300,000 summer job opportunities for young people
LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW OUR ECONOMY IS DOING:
JOBS
While 125,000 American jobs were lost in June, with the decline in temporary Census workers, American jobs have been created in five of the last six month, averaging nearly 150,000 jobs a month this year – mostly in the private sector. That’s a sharp turnaround from the end of the Bush administration, when we were losing nearly 750,000 jobs a month. At the recession’s peak, job losses totaled 8.4 million – the most since World War II as a proportion of total payrolls. If job growth continues at this pace, the Obama Administration will create more jobs in 2010 than the Bush Administration created in eight years.
We added 83,000 private sector jobs in June and nearly 600,000 private sector jobs this year. The Bush era actually cost us private sector jobs: 670,000 in eight years.
ECONOMIC GROWTH
In the 1st quarter of 2009 starting before President Obama took office, America’s GDP fell by 6.4%. One year later, our economy grew by 2.7% for the 3rd straight quarter of economic growth.
HOUSEHOLD WEALTH
Since the Recovery Act took effect, Americans regained nearly 35 percent ($6 trillion) of the $17.5 trillion in household wealth wiped out during the last 18 months of the Bush Administration.
MANUFACTURING
America’s manufacturing base has grown for 11 straight months—with more than 135,000 manufacturing jobs created over the last six months. Durable goods orders rose 0.9 percent in May, excluding transportation. Industrial production, the output at the nation's factories, mines and utilities, rose 1.2 percent in May with factories ratcheting up production for the third month in a row.
NEW BUSINESS START-UPS
More entrepreneurs launched new businesses in 2009 than at any other time in the past 14 years, with 558,000 new businesses created each month.
CONSUMER SPENDING & RETAIL SALES
Consumer confidence is up and retail sales are on the rebound.