Unemployment Rising

SusanUnPC’s Foreword to Alegre’s Story: I’m inserting a two-part interview by CNBC’s Jim Cramer with Hillary Clinton last week, captured by our expert C.S. Part One is here, and Part Two is just below the “Read More” tag.

I’ve said it before and I’ll keep on saying — it’s still the economy stupid. So the big-shots are actually starting to use the R word — it’s not news to a lot of folks back home in Michigan. They’ve been neck-deep in the R word for the last year or more. Homes in foreclosure where even the banks can’t sell them. Folks out of work. We thought of moving home a couple years ago so our kids would be closer to my folks and the rest of the family, but we knew there was no way my husband could find work. No one’s fixing up homes when they can barely make the mortgage payment. It’s not a pretty picture and it’s only going to get worse.

Sad thing is, everyone’s saying there’s no way they could have forecasted this messed up economy. Take a look at what they had to say in the New York Times…

Part Two of Jim Cramer’s interview of Hillary Clinton:

Unemployment Rising

Friday’s awful news of 80,000 lost jobs in March surprised economic forecasters, who had not expected such a severe contraction. But it’s safe to say that it did not surprise most Americans. Just days before the report, a poll taken by this paper and CBS News showed that a stunning 81 percent of Americans believe the nation is on the wrong track. That’s the highest percentage since the poll began asking about the country’s direction in the early 1990s. Two in three respondents said they believed the economy was in a recession.

The March employment report leaves virtually no doubt they are right. The job contraction last month was on top of large losses in January and February. Not since the 1950s has job growth contracted for three months straight without recession. The question is whether lawmakers in Washington will catch up to where the people are in time to help in a meaningful way.

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Even for those who escape layoffs, a deteriorating labor market (unemployment spiked from 4.8 percent in February to 5.1 percent in March) means slower wage growth. When new inflation data is released next week, March is expected to become the sixth month in a row in which wage growth has not outpaced inflation. The likely result is more defaults by people who otherwise would have been able to keep paying their mortgages.

snip

Rising unemployment will worsen all of the expected problems of a downturn — from waning consumer spending, to foreclosures, to rising demand for government-paid health care, food stamps and unemployment benefits.

They close by calling on Congress to take swift and bold action. Hillary’s been calling for such action for over a year — I can’t imagine her frustration at seeing her collegues do so little too late for millions of American families.

Well here’s what she had to say about the jobs report yesterday…

Hillary Clinton Statement On March Jobs Report

Today’s news that unemployment jumped to 5.1% in March and that our economy lost jobs for the third straight month adds to the mounting evidence that our economy is spiraling downward, and that hardworking families are paying the price.

It’s time the President and John McCain recognize the r-word: reality. Our economy is in serious trouble and unless we act swiftly we could be sliding into a deep and painful recession.

When Wall Street faced crisis, we saw swiftly and creative action and a $30 billion lifeline for Bear Stearns. Today’s jobs report confirms that it’s time to take equally aggressive action to help American families struggling in our bearish economy.

For more than a year I have been like Paulette Revere, calling for action to keep the problems from our housing market from spilling over into our economy. After a year of denial and half-measures it is time for this Administration to put ideology aside and get serious about stemming this crisis. Perhaps this jobs report will also help John McCain recognize that doing nothing is not an economic strategy in times of urgent need.

While I support the legislative approach that Senator Dodd and Congressman Frank are taking to help restructure mortgages and keep millions of families in their homes, today’s news of serious continued weakness in our labor markets reinforces that we need to be ready to go further. I believe we must stand ready for the government to purchase at risk mortgages. We also need a second stimulus of at least $30 billion to help states and localities fight the foreclosure crisis in their communities.

When Hillary talks about feeling like she’s been Paulette Revere she’s not kidding. Here’s a speech she gave on the sub-prime mortgage crisis in mid-March of last year…

As usual, Hillary’s ahead of the pack when it comes to understanding the problems of this nation, and (as usual) she’s got plans to help the people who’re hurting.

READ more about Hillary’s plans for strengthening the middle class

In the lead-up to Bush’s final State of the Union speech, Hillary spoke about the state of our broken economy, Bush’s neglegence, and what needs to happen NOW to fix what he broke…

After seven years of inattention, neglect and denial, this Monday night, President Bush may well actually discuss the serious economic problems we face. And it’s about time.

You know, we didn’t hear from him when the typical family incomes dropped $1,000 over the past seven years — $2,600 for African American families. As health care premiums nearly doubled, gas prices more than doubled, and college costs here in South Carolina rose 124% since 2000, the fastest increase in America.

We didn’t hear from him as more than two million foreclosure notices went out — 11,000 properties right here in South Carolina are in some stage of foreclosure. That’s 11,000 families that are facing the potential loss of the American dream.

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The presidency matters more now than ever. We need a president who will run the government and manage the economy. American people don’t hire a President to talk about our problems but to solve them, to set a vision for the future, and then to roll up our sleeves and get about fulfilling it.

It’s time for a President who believes that leading an economic comeback is a fulltime, hands-on job. Who renews our commitment to a strong and prosperous middle class and brings business, labor and government together to restore America’s competitiveness in a fast changing world. A president who has a vision for a twenty-first century economy based on shared prosperity. Where we measure our success not by the wealth at the very top but by how broadly wealth is shared.

She goes on to talk about some of the things she’s do immediately…

90-day moratorium on foreclosures.
Freeze variable rates for 5 years.
Green Collar jobs.

Then there are the long-term solutions…

During the 1950s and 60s which many of us look back at with great appreciation because the economy worked so well, for so long, for so many, we had a much higher percentage of our workforce unionized. Now it is much lower. We need to make sure people can organize and bargain for good wages and safe working conditions.

We need to be sure that we restore fairness to the economy by restoring fairness to the tax code. Right now, some of the people I represent in New York City, Wall Street investment managers, making $50 million a year pay just 15% on their earnings — while a teacher making $50,000 pays 25%. I don’t think that’s right and I’ve been calling to raise the taxes on those people at the top.

As corporate profits have skyrocketed, the percentage of taxes paid by corporations has fallen. We have richly rewarded people and I am all in favor of incentivizing people to do well. That is part of what America stands for. But it isn’t right that the wealthy and the well-connected have gotten so many more benefits than the middle class and working people have.

We need to extend middle class tax cuts, including the child tax credit, marriage penalty relief. We need to reform the Alternative Minimum Tax to ensure it doesn’t hit middle class families with higher tax rates. It was never supposed to do that. We need to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and raise the minimum wage to ensure that work pays for all Americans. No one who works full time should live in poverty. If you’re working full time you shouldn’t be in poverty.

We need to give people the tools and support they need to succeed in today’s complex economy. That starts with recommitting ourselves to making college affordable for our young people. That’s especially important here in South Carolina, the average student debt upon graduation is $20,000. So you start in a big hole before you ever go to work on the first day. And you know what’s happened which is really troubling to me–America’s higher education system which was the envy of the world, we had an open system, the highest percentage of young people who went to get degrees, but now from Japan to South Korea to Canada and Ireland, other countries are educating their young people at a higher rate than here in America. The reason for that is the cost has exploded. It is more expensive today than it was thirty years ago to send a child to college.

That’s why I’ve outlined a comprehensive plan to open the doors of college to young people. It includes a new $3,500 college tax credit that will cover more than 50% of the typical cost of public colleges and universities or the full cost of tuition and fees for community colleges.

I also want to increase the size of Pell Grants, something that former Secretary Riley mentioned. I want to strengthen community colleges, invest $500 million to support innovative, on-the-job training and apprenticeship programs for those who don’t go to college.

We also have to ensure that every American has quality, affordable health care. Here in South Carolina alone, 672,000 people are uninsured. I want to ask you– how many of you know someone here in South Carolina who is uninsured? How many of you know somebody who may have insurance but it just doesn’t pay for what the doctor or the hospital says you need?

Right to organize.
Reforming the tax code.
Tax cuts for working folks.
Making college affordable.
Universal health care.
Preparing for retirement.

Guys it all comes back to strengthening our economy and Hillary gets that like nobody else.