Main Street

Time to Put Our Veterans Back to Work

This week, the Senate will consider yet another portion of President Obama’s American Jobs Act. This time, it’s a bill that would help the job prospects of returning veterans.

Many of the families that we talk to every day across the country have a former member of the armed forces among them, and for these veterans, getting back into the workforce can be a challenge. The unemployment rate among veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan is estimated to be more than 15 percent. With Veterans’ Day coming up this Friday, it’s a good time to think about what to do to help.

The bill being offered in the Senate would give tax credits to businesses that hire veterans, with additional credits for hiring veterans who were wounded or disabled in service, or for hiring those who have been out of work for six months or more. In addition, it would connect veterans of all ages with job training programs.

It’s a small but important step towards putting people back to work, and one that can make a big difference in the lives of veterans, their families and their communities. Congress needs to get to work putting paychecks back in people’s pockets, and those who served in uniform and came back to this rocky economy certainly deserve it.

It’s a common-sense bill that is fully paid for, and it’s based on a principle that has earned bipartisan support. Of course, that has been true of an infrastructure jobs bill that a minority of Senators blocked last week and a bill to put teachers and first responders back to work that a minority of the Senate blocked last month. The story is getting old, and independents and moderates are starting to agree that congressional Republicans are blocking jobs proposals like these primarily to hurt President Obama politically.

So will the obvious merits of this jobs proposal, aimed at those who served in uniform, finally be enough to get Senate Republicans to stop their habit of preventing a vote on bills that would actually boost the economy?

Tags: Jobs, Senate, unemployment, veterans