Cleaver: Jobs legislation really just a misnamed tax cut bill

In his EC from DC report, Fifth District Congressman Emanuel Cleaver tells why he voted against the jobs bill this week:

There was a great deal of worry this week that with the snow last month on the east coast, today’s jobs numbers were going to be very poor and perhaps drag down the slow but steady progress we have been making. Any month in which the economy doesn’t create jobs is a disappointment. While the numbers released today are not great, there were signs of progress. Economists across the country are cautiously looking at today’s numbers as a net positive. A year ago, America shed more than 700,000 jobs in February; this February, we lost 36,000. It’s widely acknowledged that this number would have been better except for the snowstorms that hit the Northeast last month.

Though the labor market remains weak overall, we are seeing some bright spots in certain sectors of the economy. The temporary help sector, an early indicator of progress in the labor market, continues to show growth, adding 48,000 positions in February and 284,000 jobs since September. After declining for three years, the manufacturing sector has stabilized. The Diffusion Index in Manufacturing reached 54.9, the first time it has moved above 50 since the recession began, indicating that more subsectors within manufacturing are expanding rather than contracting.

Despite some good signs, millions of Americans and thousands of my constituents remain out of work. Much more needs to be done.

This is exactly why I could not support the so-called jobs bill which narrowly passed the House this week. As I have said all along, to the House leadership and White House, ‘this is not the jobs bill’ and we shouldn’t confuse the millions of Americans who are struggling to find work. We should stop calling it a jobs bill, and instead acknowledge this is about business tax cuts.

Please do not confuse what I am saying. I think some tax cuts for businesses may be needed. But now is not the time for trickle down economics. The Congress’s first priority must be to pass legislation that directly and deliberately creates jobs.

As the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus’ Jobs Task Force, I could not in good conscience pass yet another band-aid that offered an empty promise to those struggling to find work.

Like so many of our policy decisions this bill does not target the need in a way that will move a significant number of unemployed into the work force.

My task force has suggested that rather than using a one-size-fits-all shotgun approach that treats the unemployment problems in Detroit the same as Fargo, we concentrate funding using Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMA’s) to specifically identify and target areas with poverty rates of 15 percent or higher, or unemployment of greater than 10 percent. We have to put the money where it will do the most good.

Other essential elements of job creation I would have liked to have seen in this bill are:
Creating public jobs initiatives, involving the Department of Labor Employment & Training Administration and the Corporation for National and Community Service, to maximize direct training and hiring.
Locally-directed funding for Summer Youth Employment; collegiate-level internships and/or fellowships; and apprentice programs.
Enforcing the minority contracting requirements under the Department of Transportation; promoting equal access to funding for projects of the National Significant and National Corridor grants in the extension of SAFETEA-LU; and strengthening apprentice and training programs.
Expanding unemployment insurance and COBRA benefits.
Providing access to capital and technical assistance to capital for small business from SBA and MBDA.

This is yet again a bill that was much better prior to being sent to the Senate. It now returns to the other chamber having been adjusted slightly by the House to at least pay for itself, but still did far too little to create actual jobs for me to support.