The Economy IS THE Issue
Submitted by Jeanne Bonds on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 10:43am
Bill Faison
North Carolina House of Representatives
Representative District 50 – Caswell & Orange Counties
300 N. Salisbury Street – Room 405
Legislative Office Building Raleigh, NC 27603-5925 (919) 715-3019 Fax: (919) 832-6362 Bill.Faison@ncleg.net
Raleigh, November 30, 2011 – The NC General Assembly spent another $150,000 on a three-day “mini” Special Session and achieved nothing at all worthwhile for the people of NC. Their plan is to spend $1.1 million in total on similar Special Sessions spread from July of 2011 through April of 2012. They continue to focus on radical social issues, not jobs or the economy.
“During this session, the GOP passed a bill making it even harder to prove racial bias post-conviction in capital cases where the only remedy would be life in prison without parole. They also tried to “poke a stick” in the eye of the Democratic National Convention scheduled for Charlotte in September by telling Democrats how they could spend their money. Ultimately both will go down to vetoes,” said Rep. Bill Faison.
“The bigger issue is that at least 450,000 people (and probably closer to 700,000) are out of work. Our State’s unemployment rate is approximately 10.4 percent. The African American community has been hit harder, with an unemployment rate that is approximately 50 percent higher in our State,” said Faison.
It is widely reported that job growth in the private sector has not been fast enough to make up for public sector job losses. Even worse the Republican leadership in the NC Legislature passed a Budget firing 6,455 teachers, teachers’ aides and other State employees. They also cut Medicaid and SCHIP resulting in the loss of 15,415 private sector jobs. The combined economic effect caused an additional 12,292 private sector jobs loss. In effect, they fired 34,202 people.
“The African American middle class has been hit really hard in this economy. Even before the Great Recession, African American median (midpoint, not the average) net worth was about one tenth that of the white population ($134,992 white to $12,124 AA) and after the Great Recession it fell to about one twentieth ($113,149 white to $5,677 AA) according to a study published by the Pew Research Center. In this economy, the white population suffered a net worth loss of 16.18 percent; African Americans suffered a net worth loss of 53.18 percent,” continued Faison.
The great American equalizer and job escalator is education. Many African Americans used their degrees to successfully compete for highly desirable public sector jobs. The Recession has dramatically cut into government receipts. At the same time, the newly elected Republican Legislature has made the problem worse by cutting some taxes at a time when revenues were already down. The combination of reduced receipts and self inflicted financial wounds has resulted in them hurting people and the economy by eliminating jobs. The results, a heavier hit on middle class African Americans with very few private sector job options,” said Faison.
On average it now takes approximately 40 weeks to find a job if you lose one (longer than any time in the last 60 years) and when you do find a job you take a 17.5 percent cut in pay. Since African Americans have been hit harder by the Great Recession it only stands to reason that both the time it takes to find a job and pay cuts also hit African Americans harder.
“We face an uncertain economic future. The Federal Reserve has warned us that more likely than not we go into a double dip recession in 2012. The credit crisis in Europe threatens to spill over into our economy. So, this is the issue I am most concerned with at the present time,” said Faison. “With three children in college and one in high school, I am concerned about the future for all of our kids.”
A nice recitation of facts, mostly
Not so sure about the above line. I have heard that we should see 2-3% growth in 2012.
And of course the OP makes no mention of Faison's ideas for fixing the problem. Rattling off a bunch of statistics describing the present state of the economy doesn't really take all that much leadership.
Environmental Defense Fund
Cell phones will be to the 21st century what tobacco was to the 20th.
I guess it does when no one else is doing it
Seems to matter to the people we speak to everyday. Probably because they are the statistics and at least they know someone "gets" it. You could be right if everyone was out doing it. Haven't crossed many other paths where people are saying the same things.
Read Bernake's latest remarks for information on the Federal Reserve.
And, at least we have plan - don't see many of those walking around either. No one said it was perfect but I suggest you find someone to present an alternative.
Leadership is the ability to see a problem, find a solution and enact a plan. Leadership is the ability to get up, get out and find the means to get something done. Leadership is the ability to envision something better. Leadership is the ability to inspire people to come to new conclusions.
I agree with Jeanne
Jeanne, I completely agree. As a student in college I myself and many of my peers have lost a lot of faith in the ability of the leaders we elected to do their job. It is nice to finally see someone talking to the people out there and creating some sort of plan to get our economy back on track, instead of wasting time playing party politics. There are so many problems going on right now and very few people are stepping up to fix them, its great to see the leadership that you describe finally taking hold. Faison seems like he is the guy that wants to focus on fixing these problems as opposed to just exacerbating them.
I may have missed it in another post, but I do not see
a plan in the OP of this thread. So what's the plan and how will it be enacted?
I noticed in your definitions of leadership you only mention other people when you want them to think like you do. I know you didn't use those words, but that sure does seem to be the intent. Three of your four definitions have nothing to do with other people. Seems like a lonely way to "lead". I'll stick to my own definitions of leadership, thank you.
Environmental Defense Fund
Cell phones will be to the 21st century what tobacco was to the 20th.
I agree... It IS the issue
Having been unemployed for two years and never in my life experienced trouble getting a job, it was very difficult. I know many who have and are experiencing the same thing. Although all the other issues are important, they don't matter much when you are wondering how to eat, pay your mortgage, keep your car going, etc. I would love to see others out there talking about the economy and submitting plans, they just haven't. Bill has a plan, go to his website to view it if you don't know about it. It is easy to cast stones at something, more difficult to come up with something constructive to improve on what he has done. Let's put our energy into the later.
Cabarrus and Dare County Democrats
Great questions and enthusiasm for the Jobs Plan from two good groups yesterday. Most had already read the plan
The first 2 lines of the jobs program contradict each other
So is is going to be cut or has it already been eliminated? If already eliminated, then Faison is proposing to reinstate 70% of it, but it took a bit of reading to actually figure that out.
This reminds me of Cain's 9-9-9 plan in it's lack of progressiveness. Taxes are not inherently fair just because everyone pays them.
The following relates to enhancing job creation by small businesses.
Some specifics would be nice here pertaining to what loopholes would be closed, 'cuz a lot of somebodies are not going to like losing their little loophole.
And this last bit is just some nice sounding generalities:
It's a start I guess, but really only amounts to a tax increase and closing unspecified loopholes to give a perk to small businesses.
Environmental Defense Fund
Cell phones will be to the 21st century what tobacco was to the 20th.
Leadership that panders to the worst of American values
Wealth is a much larger concept than something so trivial. Wealth exists in the minds of young people and seniors, in old growth forests and rivers, in the clean air we breathe. All the entrepreneurial "wealth" in the world doesn't mean squat if we're destroying the social and environmental fabric that enables life.
Do we really want a state that is involved in promoting and encouraging wealth creation? I'd rather have a State promoting and encouraging responsible stewardship of natural and human resources.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
What's also missing from this plan
is the huge role our financial institutions are playing (or not playing, actually) in our stalled economy.
It's great to bring in new businesses and encourage start-ups, but it's our established companies that will pull our unemployment numbers down where they need to be. But in order to do that, they need operating capital available via floating credit lines, and the banking system is holding that back. Every day that companies are forced to make inefficient decisions because they don't have the money to work smartly, wealth is destroyed.
If Bill really wants to make a difference, he needs to go bang on a few doors in Charlotte. That's where the answer lies.