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Drem wrote:/yawn

Make sure the poor and long-term unemployed get a portion of those jobs. To lower-income Americans -- including women and minorities, and the long-term unemployed -- are especially hard hit by this recession. It is important that these people have a fair chance to get the new jobs that will result from federal action. This is also good for the economy. These groups are most likely to spend any extra income they receive. And their spending is likely to promote other jobs on the Main Streets of the lower- income communities, in which they live.

1. Require contractors to set aside 20 percent of jobs for such groups. All contracts entered into with stimulus Ends -- either by federal, state, or local governments -- should require contractors to provide at least 20 percent of jobs to the long-term unemployed and to people with incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

2. Create a "Green Jobs Corps." Low-income and low-skilled workers should be put directly to work providing homes and businesses with more efficient land more renewable heating, lighting, cooling, and refrigeration systems; installing solar panels and efficient photovoltaic cells; rehabilitating and renovating older properties, and improving, recycling systems. Green Jobs Corps teams could be trained to evaluate and advise homeowners and businesses on these and other means of conserving energy.

3. Provide job training linked to these and when, jobs generated by the stimulus. These "green" jobs, as well as many others generated by the stimulus -- installing new pipes for water and sewage systems, mixing and pouring cement, laying asphalt, installing and repairing basic equipment -- can be done by people who receive relatively short-tern training for then. At least 2 percent of project funds should be allocated to such training, most efficiently through the Workforce Investment Act. In addition, advantage should be taken of building trades apprenticeships, which must be fully available to women and minorities.

4. Provide income assistance during training. One of the biggest barriers for vulnerable populations who want such training is their need for income: while being trained. Income maintenance should be assured for the duration of training, up to six months.

WorldNetDaily
Obama adviser: White males need not apply
Reich: Stimulus package should emphasize 'social return' over worker skill
Posted: January 22, 2009
12:17 pm Eastern

WorldNetDaily


Obama economic adviser Robert Reich

A top economic adviser to President Obama has told a congressional panel the billions of dollars in the proposed economic stimulus plan should be allocated with social issues in mind, to make sure the money doesn't go to just "white male construction workers" or the highly skilled.

Robert Reich, who served as labor secretary under President Clinton, was speaking to the House Steering and Policy Committee Jan. 7 about funding infrastructure projects across the nation.

"It seems to me that infrastructure spending is a very important and good way of stimulating the economy. The challenge will be to do it quickly, to find projects that can be done that will have a high social return, that also can be done with the greatest speed possible," Reich said.

"I am concerned, as I'm sure many of you are, that these jobs not simply go to high skilled people who are already professionals or to white male construction workers," he said.

This week the House is expected to pass an $825 billion economic stimulus package. In reality, this bill is just an escalation of a government-created economic mess. As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with minimal debate. So much for change. This is déjà vu. We are again being promised that its passage will help employment, help homeowners, help the environment, etc. These promises are worthless. This time around especially, Congress should know better than to pass anything of this magnitude without first reading the fine print. There a many red flags that I have found in this bill.

At least $4 billion is allocated to expanding the police state and the war on drugs through Byrne grants, which even the Bush administration opposed, and the COPS program, both of which are corrupt and largely ineffective programs.

To help Big Brother keep a better eye on us and our children, $20 billion would go towards health information technology, which would create a national system of electronic medical records without adequate privacy protection. These records would instead be subject to the misnamed federal “medical privacy” rule, which allows government and state-favored special interests to see medical records at will. An additional $250 million is allocated for states to nationalize individual student data, expanding Federal control of education and eroding privacy.

$79 billion bails out states that haphazardly expanded their budgets during the bubble years, but refuse to retrench and cut back, as their taxpayers have had to, during recession years.

$200 million expands Americorps. $100 million goes to “faith-and-community” based organizations for social services, which will further insinuate the government into charity and community service. Private charities are much more efficient and effective because they are directly accountable to donors, while public programs tend to get rewarded for failure. With its money, the Federal Government brings its incompetence and its whims, while creating foolish dependence. This is sad to see.

Of course the bill is rife with central planning projects. $4 billion for job training, much of which will be used to direct workers into “green jobs”. $200 million to “encourage” electric cars, $2 billion to support US manufacturers of advanced batteries and battery systems, which is yet another function of government I can’t find in the Constitution. Not to mention $500 million for energy efficient manufacturing demonstration projects, $70 million for a Technology Innovation Program for “research in potentially revolutionary technologies” in which government, not supply and demand, will pick winners and losers. $746 million for afterschool snacks, $6.75 billion for the Department of Commerce, including $1 billion for a census.

This bill delivers an additional debt burden of $6,700 to every American man, woman and child.

There is a lot of stimulus and growth in this bill – that is, of government. Nothing in this bill stimulates the freedom and prosperity of the American people. Politician-directed spending is never as successful as market-driven investment. Instead of passing this bill, Congress should get out of the way by cutting taxes, cutting spending, and reining in the reckless monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.

Arlos wrote:Right, Mindia; he said that the bailout should not go JUST to white construction workers and skilled labor. He didn't say it shouldn't go to them at all, or that they even came second. Read the full text of his comments, and you'll see the proof of that.

Oh, and Flink, thanks for your "excellent analysis". I needed to read a good comedy piece. It really did have me laughing out loud at its whiny and petulant tone.

It's right up there with Limbaugh saying "I hope <the President> fails".... (he said he, actually, but he was referring to Obama)

-Arlos

Gypsiyee wrote:gee golly you suck at reading comprehension, Mindia.

KaiineTN wrote:Here's a good read on it:

This week the House is expected to pass an $825 billion economic stimulus package. In reality, this bill is just an escalation of a government-created economic mess. As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with minimal debate. So much for change. This is déjà vu. We are again being promised that its passage will help employment, help homeowners, help the environment, etc. These promises are worthless. This time around especially, Congress should know better than to pass anything of this magnitude without first reading the fine print. There a many red flags that I have found in this bill.

At least $4 billion is allocated to expanding the police state and the war on drugs through Byrne grants, which even the Bush administration opposed, and the COPS program, both of which are corrupt and largely ineffective programs.

To help Big Brother keep a better eye on us and our children, $20 billion would go towards health information technology, which would create a national system of electronic medical records without adequate privacy protection. These records would instead be subject to the misnamed federal “medical privacy” rule, which allows government and state-favored special interests to see medical records at will. An additional $250 million is allocated for states to nationalize individual student data, expanding Federal control of education and eroding privacy.

$79 billion bails out states that haphazardly expanded their budgets during the bubble years, but refuse to retrench and cut back, as their taxpayers have had to, during recession years.

$200 million expands Americorps. $100 million goes to “faith-and-community” based organizations for social services, which will further insinuate the government into charity and community service. Private charities are much more efficient and effective because they are directly accountable to donors, while public programs tend to get rewarded for failure. With its money, the Federal Government brings its incompetence and its whims, while creating foolish dependence. This is sad to see.

Of course the bill is rife with central planning projects. $4 billion for job training, much of which will be used to direct workers into “green jobs”. $200 million to “encourage” electric cars, $2 billion to support US manufacturers of advanced batteries and battery systems, which is yet another function of government I can’t find in the Constitution. Not to mention $500 million for energy efficient manufacturing demonstration projects, $70 million for a Technology Innovation Program for “research in potentially revolutionary technologies” in which government, not supply and demand, will pick winners and losers. $746 million for afterschool snacks, $6.75 billion for the Department of Commerce, including $1 billion for a census.

This bill delivers an additional debt burden of $6,700 to every American man, woman and child.

There is a lot of stimulus and growth in this bill – that is, of government. Nothing in this bill stimulates the freedom and prosperity of the American people. Politician-directed spending is never as successful as market-driven investment. Instead of passing this bill, Congress should get out of the way by cutting taxes, cutting spending, and reining in the reckless monetary policy of the Federal Reserve.

Narrock wrote:

Gypsiyee wrote:gee golly you suck at reading comprehension, Mindia.

No I don't. Read it again. He is clearly appeasing minorities with his statement. That's where I have the problem with the statement. He should've left race out of it completely.

ClakarEQ wrote:The most frustrating thing I find with this is that I feel Mindia is actually smarter than this but he is in some sort of denial or something.

I realize the lefties (like me) posted a plenty re: the failings of Bush but there were SOOOOOOooo many opportunities to throw Bush under the bus. He made very few good decisions through his entire 8 years.

However, no less than 2 weeks into his new job, where Obama has not made a bad choice in the minds of 2/3rds of this country, that the righties (well Mindia anyway) are attempting to find any possible hole they can, desperate like a drug addict looking for a fix, THIS is the part I find funny. Mindia is in denial and one day he'll be weaned off his drug and see that he has been wrong all along.

It is like Mindia is addicted to Bill "I like phone sex with coworkers" O'Reily, or Rush "I do drugs but lie about it" Limbalm, or Cheney "shoot first ask later, even if it's a friend" Cheney. Wean yourself off the right wing dick, you'll be ok once you get past the denial part.