Are you fed up with politics as usual from our elected officials? At a time like this, when nearly 1 in 10 Americans have been unemployed for over 24 months, we need our leaders to put politics aside and support ideas that will work. But after Wall Street wrecked the economy through reckless speculating while regulators looked the other way, Republicans in Congress have the audacity to claim that government regulation is preventing those same companies from creating jobs. This comes even as small business owners are asking Washington to set clear rules and help put Americans back to work.
Yesterday the President released a jobs plan that would put Americans back to work in jobs that strengthen our country, like fixing our crumbling roads, bridges, and schools. In fact, the American Jobs Act would extend unemployment benefits for 81,400 Michiganders who would otherwise lose them, as well as put 293,000 long-term unemployed workers in Michigan back to work.
Republicans in Congress have admitted repeatedly that they’d rather see the President fail than adopt policies that would help hard-working Americans succeed – even if those policies are based on ideas they supported in the past. Now the President has proposed a bill based on political compromise that nonpartisan experts say will create two million American jobs.
With more money in the pockets of middle-class Americans, businesses will have more customers and will be able to hire more workers. We need strong action from our leaders in order to prevent the economy from falling into another recession.