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Veterans’ Jobs Bill Passes – More Jobs Focus Needed

Mark it down: something good actually happened in Congress today, as the U.S. Senate passed a bill to help the job prospects of veterans. The bill would give tax credits to businesses that hire veterans and also help those who served in uniform get job training.

Many of Working America’s 3 million members are veterans, and this bill will help them get back into the workforce. The unemployment rate for veterans who served in wars is more than 11.5 percent.

It’s the only portion of the American Jobs Act that has passed so far. And while it’s definitely a step in the right direction, it’s only a start to the kind of investment we need to put more people back to work.

For instance: once again, the extension of unemployment benefits is set to expire. A new study shows that failing to extend unemployment benefits could cost the economy an additional half-million jobs. At a time when there are four job seekers for every open position and 42% of the unemployed have been out of work for 6 months or more, extending unemployment benefits is a must to keep money in people’s pockets. So when will that happen?

Let’s also consider the payroll tax holiday, which impacts millions of working families. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, has pledged to block the extension of this tax break, worth about $1,500 a year to the average household. That would amount to a tax hike for working people from a Senate Republican caucus who pretend to be concerned about preventing tax hikes on anyone.

The Senate tried—and failed, in the face of mostly Republican obstruction—to pass two popular jobs proposals that would have put hundreds of thousands of people back to work. That includes a bill to help states hire teachers, firefighters and police officers and another bill that would fund infrastructure projects to put construction workers back on the job. Each of these bills was fully paid for with a small surcharge—less than a penny apiece on the dollar—on the taxable income of the wealthy over $1 million a year. But the same people who are talking about ending the payroll tax holiday on working families found a tiny tax increase on millionaires radical and unacceptable.

Tax credits for employers to hire veterans absolutely have value, but the men and women who served our country would also benefit from other portions of the American Jobs Act, including having more jobs available as first responders or on infrastructure projects.

And, of course, we’re anxiously watching to see what comes out of the so-called “Super Committee,” the special Congressional body tasked with releasing deficit-cutting proposals. Both parties have released proposals that would put the burden of deficit reduction overwhelmingly on middle- and working-class families. Note that the kind of programs targeted by Super Committee proposals are mostly of the kind that kept millions of people out of poverty during this difficult economic climate. What the Super Committee should be focusing on is ways to kick-start the economy by putting people back to work.

Among the most breathtakingly cynical proposals to come out of the Super Committee has come from Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, a Wall Street favorite who won narrowly in 2010. His record includes such lowlights as pioneering the kind of bank deregulation that helped cause the financial crisis and running the corporate-funded hard-right group Club for Growth. Toomey’s Super Committee proposal revolves around shifting the tax burden even further away from the wealthy and towards the middle class – amounting to tax hikes for almost everyone making under $200,000 a year and tax cuts in the tens of thousands of dollars every year for millionaires. When a politician like Toomey says he wants to lower “your” taxes, either he thinks you make a million dollars a year, or he has complete contempt for your intelligence.

 

(Incidentally, Pennsylvania’s veterans certainly seem to understand that Toomey isn’t looking out for them.)

So, by all means, we should thank the Senate for passing a common-sense bill to help our veterans and put them back to work. But job creation needs to be the first priority in everything Congress does.

 

 

Tags: Jobs, Senate, unemployment, veterans