Broken into pieces, President Obama’s jobs plan still has trouble passing
Broken into pieces, President Obama’s jobs plan still has trouble passing
Steve Chiotakis: There was another attempt at getting a jobs bill through the U.S. Senate, and another filibuster sent the bill to defeat. After failing to get President Obama’s near half trillion dollar American jobs Act past a GOP filibuster, Senate Democrats tried to push one plank of it through that would’ve sent money to states for teaching, firefighting and first responder jobs.
But Marketplace’s Mitchell Hartman reports now, the outcome was the same.
Mitchell Hartman: Following this defeat, Democrats plan to bring forward other items in the President’s jobs agenda — like infrastructure spending and help for the unemployed.
Helping the states prevent layoffs is popular with voters, especially public-sector union voters. But it doesn’t play well with Republicans. They argue that more deficit spending and higher taxes on the wealthy to save public sector jobs in the short-term could actually harm private-sector job creation in the long-term.
Outplacement expert John Challenger says all those laid-off teachers and government administrators may prove a drag on the job market for a while.
John Challenger: Employers in the private sector worry that people coming out of the public sector don’t have the same kind of urgency to get the job done; that they’ve been in more comfortable, safer jobs for a longer period of time.
Since March 2010, the private sector’s added nearly 2.5 million jobs. Over the same period, government has shed more than half a million jobs.
I’m Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace.
Stories You Might Like
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
