September 15, 2010
Dear Representative Woolsey,
It shouldn’t come as news to you that jobs and the economy are the number-one concern Americans share right now. With 15 million people unemployed (not counting those underemployed), it is a frightening time for most people. Few people feel secure in their jobs, and this condition is taking a terrible toll on our society.
Sometimes it seems as if Congress truly doesn’t understand what’s going on outside of the Capitol. Perhaps visits home are too insulated—with members of Congress being surrounded only by friendly faces—to give them a true picture of the desperation and despair in this country.
Or perhaps the influence of campaign donations has created permanent blinders beyond which members of Congress—no matter how well intentioned they are—cannot see. There really seem to be people in Congress who believe that the needs of Wall Street and banks outweigh the needs of the people. In their worry that taking definitive steps toward substantive jobs development and social safety net preservation will spook Wall Street—leading to an inevitable economic crisis—they are missing the fact that we’re well into that crisis. Those largely responsible for this crisis continue to play with our taxpayer money—either on Wall Street or in the halls of Congress.
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. The many need to know that the future does not hold further job losses and financial insecurity. The many need their elected representatives in Washington, DC, to demonstrate that their concern lies with the 99 percent of us whose influence in Washington comes only from our votes and not from our wallets.
Congress hasn’t done much for the unemployed—or the employed, for that matter—in a very long time. The only people whom Congress has helped consistently are those who already have more money than most Americans will earn in their lifetimes.
There is a lot that Congress can do now, however. A good, simple beginning is to enact H.R. 4812, the Local Jobs for America Act. It will not solve all our employment problems, but it’s a good, solid first step toward an America in which everyone who needs and wants a job can get a job—a job that affords fair pay and the dignity that comes from gainful employment and self-sufficiency. THANK YOU for co-sponsoring H.R. 4812.
The animus that Americans feel toward Wall Street did not develop in a vacuum. At the root of the financial sector’s greatest acts of economic destruction is greed, which fed and was fed by an ever-heightening lust for risk and rewards—even if this lust was funded with someone else’s money. Those people who lost their retirement investments in 401(k)s, only to have to try and find menial jobs to eke out a living instead of resting secure as they age, are angry. Those people who lost their jobs because their employers gambled their workers’ futures on garnering huge profits rather than reasonable returns are angry. Those people who were rooked into taking on mortgage debt they could not afford—in part because they were seduced by the excitement of a boom economy that seemed like it could never bust, but also because those “selling” those mortgages had no stake in the people and the communities with those homes, setting all ethics aside to cash in big—are angry and in despair.
Wall Street needs to be held accountable for its actions, but it’s unlikely that any reparations will be made to those hurt most. The just and reasonable alternative is to institute a Financial Speculation Tax of 0.025% on all stock purchases. This tax would come from buyers and sellers, and those who transact most frequently would pay the most tax. Those who have invested in a 401(k) for retirement—where investment is for the long term—would pay the least tax. This tax could generate from $200 to $500 billion a year in revenue.
Low-income Americans—already the most vulnerable economically—are in danger of losing their jobs if the TANF Emergency Fund expires on September 30. Extend the TANF Emergency Fund and ensure that more people don’t become unemployed.
Although unemployment benefits have been extended for the time being, the resistance from the Senate to extend these benefits puts their continuation in jeopardy. Without jobs to find, since there is only one job for every five people looking for work, this protection is desperately needed to keep families afloat and contributing to the economy.
Restore “Full and Fair Employment” as a national goal. Whether with a Works Progress Administration (to shore up the infrastructure built last century, for instance) or a Civilian Conservation Corps, government needs to step in until the economy improves enough for the private sector to once again be the employer of choice.
THANK YOU for your pledge to protect Social Security; please hold firm on this pledge. Like you, we know that Social Security is not the cause of our financial problems and cutting Social Security is not the solution needed. Serve your constituents and not special, moneyed interests by promoting and enacting the Local Jobs for America Act and a Financial Speculation Tax, extending funding for the TANF Emergency Fund and continuing unemployment benefits, and developing jobs to achieve Full and Fair Employment.
Finally, we strongly urge you to publicly commit to voting “No” on any bills that fund wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Yemen, and to publicly urge your colleagues and the House leadership to make the same commitment. Even a small portion of the Billions wasted on wars could be better spent on creating jobs, protecting public services and helping to get our economy going again.
For peace, justice, and equity,
Progressive Democrats Sonoma County
PDA Chapter
Ed. Note – formal headings, contact info removed for this posting.
For more information about PDA (Progresssive Democrats of America) & the Brown Bag Lunch Vigils, please visit www.pdamerica.org
