Faced with mounting unemployment figures and criticisms that the administration’s economic stimulus plan is moving too slowly, President Barack Obama announced the Roadmap to Recovery plan Monday that he says will create or save 600,000 jobs in the next 100 days.
The president said that while the 345,000 jobs lost in May constitute too many, the month also produced the lowest job loss figures in eight months, which he believes is an indication that the administration is moving in the right direction.
Despite Obama’s optimism, unemployment reached a 25-year-high at 9.5% in May, prompting much finger pointing from Republicans who have for months charged that the stimulus plan is simply an excuse to increase the size of government.
“The biggest concern that I have moving forward is that the toll that job losses take on individual families and communities can be self-reinforcing,†said Obama. “People lose jobs, they pull back on spending, that means businesses don’t have customers, and suddenly you start seeing more job layoffs.â€
The recovery roadmap includes 10 initiatives that aim to “build momentum and accelerate job growth†in the stimulus plan’s second 100 days. Vice President Joseph Biden told reporters that he had asked cabinet secretaries to come up with projects that they could guarantee would be up and running within that time period.
They secretaries have pledged funding for 1,129 health centers to expand services to 300,000 patients; 135,000 jobs in education; 125,000 summer youth jobs; 2,300 construction and rehabilitation projects at military facilities; and the payment of salaries and benefits for 5,000 law enforcement officers for the first three years of a five-year commitment, if states will pay for the last two. Biden says the administration is “hopeful and quite certain†that the economy will be in recovery in a few years and states will be able to pay these salaries on their own.
Other projects include cleanup work at 20 Superfund sites; 200 new waste and water systems in rural areas; improvements at 90 veterans medical centers in 38 states; and rehabilitation and improvement projects at 90 airports and on 1,500 highways.
Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) says that American voters will continue to be patient and any frustrations with the stimulus are likely more targeted at the state legislatures distributing the funds.
“As a matter of public policy, it’s a good, smart step to lay out new markers and goals today because we have every reason to try to make this money work in as targeted a way as possible to reach communities that frankly don’t normally get anywhere near their share of federal dollars,†said Davis.
Davis was unwilling to rate the stimulus’ effect so far based on race, but Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said that overall, he surmised that its impact has been only fair.
“In order for the stimulus to reach the African American community, there has to be a lot of advocacy within each state legislature. It’s not going to happen automatically. In Maryland, we’re fortunate enough to have a governor who’s sensitive to making sure that there’s equity
and parity with regard to stimulus money all over our state; not everybody’s like that,†said Cummings. He and fellow CBC member Rep. Donna Edwards of Maryland have also asked their governor to list minority business contract awards on the state’s Web site and have pushed hard to ensure that those opportunities are properly advertised.“It really calls for vigilance, or we’ll be passed by. The black unemployment rate is double that of the general community. So anything that helps the unemployed should have a significant impact on the African American community since it’s suffering so much,†Cummings said.
The vice president also announced a new Website where people can both get and provide information and insight about the stimulus plan in work in every state. By autumn, the site will include a link that will enable visitors to punch in a ZIP code to get all the details of stimulus activity taking place in that area and he’s asked cabinet members to create a link on their sites sooner.
Biden said he’s observed a growing sense of optimism in the communities he’s visited to tout the recovery plan and predicted it will grow even stronger.
But Republicans disagree. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele released a statement which charged that the stimulus plan isn’t creating the jobs Obama has promised. “Simply put, the White House spin doesn’t square with reality,†the statement read. “Republicans want to work with the president to get our economy back on track, but [he] seems intent on promoting and adopting some of the most liberal and reckless government intervention economic policies we have ever seen.â€
Ohio Rep. Eric Cantor, the House minority whip, also denounced the roadmap to recovery as mere spin. He told reporters in a conference call that results of the stimulus plan so far are abysmal and that any attempt to describe it as otherwise is disingenuous. “The change the public voted for in November wasn’t more government and more unemployment and that’s essentially what we’ve got now,†said Cantor.