Jobs bill moving forward in Congress
TEXT OF INTERVIEW
Steve Chiotakis: Well the U.S. Senate’s voted to advance a $15 billion job-creation bill. It is a Democratic measure, yet five Republicans — including newly-elected Scott Brown of Massachusetts — crossed the aisle to support it. Later today, the House Committee on Financial Services will hold a hearing on whether a new stimulus bill is needed to get people working again. Marketplace’s Gregory Warner is with us live from Philadelphia to talk about it. Good morning, Gregory.
Gregory Warner: Good morning, Steve.
Chiotakis: So if the Senate has already moved forward on this job creation bill, why is the House Committee on Financial Services hearing about whether more money is needed for jobs?
Warner: Well, I’ve been talking to some of the people who will be addressing the committee. They say that the jobs-creation bill is a start — we’ll get 100,000, 200,000 jobs out of it — but the government needs to be a lot more hands-on. I talked with Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Institute:
Lawrence Mishel: We had the WPA in the 1930s, and I would suggest that we can do an effort, again, where the federal government provides money to, in fact, hire people directly.
Chiotakis: So then Gregory, Mishel says it should work like the Works Progress Administration, gimme an idea of what that means?
Warner: Well, he’s basically saying that we can’t rely on businesses alone to bring us out of this 10 percent unemployment. And he’ll be asking the House Committee to push stimulus money directly into government hires — people like schoolteachers and civil servants.
Chiotakis: All right. Marketplace’s Gregory Warner in Philadelphia this morning. Gregory, thanks.
Warner: Thank you.
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