Solis Sees Health Care Reform As Possible Solution To Job Crisis

By Courtney Costello- Talk Radio News Service

Hilda Solis, Department of Labor Secretary, gave remarks today on health care reform, at the American Federation for Teachers, Health Care and Public Employees Joint Conference.

“We’re in a lot of trouble...[there are] things that weren’t taken care of years ago and its catching up to us now... We can downsize in a way that doesn’t hurt the most vulnerable and to me that means health care,” said Solis.

Solis stressed that there are over 250 million jobs in health care careers that can be filled by unemployed Americans. She also emphasized that newly displaced workers can take advantage of the 3.5 billion dollars that have been released by the Department of Labor for green collar jobs by partaking in new training programs.

“Health care isn't a one time shot. Health care reform is a tough issue for us, and for the President, and for many Americans. [There are] 46 million, and growing, that don’t have it,’ said Solis. “There are more people having to go to public assistance because they lost their job...we've got to fix it.”

Pelosi Supports President's Pay-As-You-Go Method

By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

The acceleration of President Obama's pay-as-you-go initiative, a method that would require Congress to use current revenues for capital items instead of borrowing funds by issuing bonds, and health care reform are important steps in turning the economy around, according to U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Pelosi and other legislators met with the President earlier this week as he announced the details of the PAYGO initiative.

The U.S. operated under the PAYGO method throughout the 1990’s. Pelosi credited it for leading to the balanced budgets and eventual surplus of the Clinton administration. 

“Democrats are coming together around this concept. For many years it has been the central organizing purpose of the blue dogs: fiscal discipline, fiscal responsibility...But I want you to know that there are initiatives from all sectors of our caucus which support pay as you go,” said Pelosi today during a press conference.

Pelosi said she was enthusiastic about “accelerating the (PAYGO) discussion” as a tool to improve the economy and initiate healthcare reform in the U.S.

The Speaker touched upon what kind of healthcare model Congress will pursue.

“It should be administratively self-sufficient. It should be a real competitor with the private sector and not have an unfair advantage. When you say the words public option and that is the term of art we will be using, you have to say right next to it: level playing field.”

She said Congress will soon consider legislation on the supplemental appropriations bill for Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and pandemic flu. The House will also consider legislation to give the Food and Drug Administration legal authority to regulate how cigarettes and other tobacco products are produced and distributed.  Committee work will be focused on the pillars of the President’s agenda which were in the budget. They include: health care, education, energy, reducing the deficit, lowering taxes, creating jobs, and turning the economy around.

Greenspan: Regulating Banks Was A Failure

By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service

Billions of dollars used in the federal bailout of financial institutions was a mistake,said Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan today in D.C. Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, Greenspan said that the ‘Too Big To Fail’ doctrine used by the Bush and Obama Administrations was seriously flawed.

“Earlier this decade,” said Greenspan, “it was widely expected that the next crisis would be triggered by the large and persistent US current-account deficit precipitating a collapse of the US dollar. The dollar accordingly came under heavy selling pressure” when the euro-dollar exchange rate rose starting in spring 2003.

“A financial crisis is characterized, in fact defined by an abrupt, discontinuous break in asset prices. But discontinuities are, of necessity, a surprise and that requires that the crisis be largely unanticipated by market participants. For, were it otherwise, financial arbiters would have diverted it,” said Greenspan.

In March, in light of the failure of Lehman Brothers and the rescue of AIG, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner proposed a plan to set a systemic regulator which would oversee the entire financial system and would prevent certain banks and nonbank financial firms to collapse financially. The plan would give the authority to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation the authority to bail out or liquidate failing banks or firms.

Greenspan said that “it is one thing to identify firms whose collapse might severely impair financial intermediation; it is quite another to identify institutions whose failure will lead to systemic breakdown. Systemic risk is readily identifiable. Potential systemic failure is not,” he said.

For Greenspan, the role of shareholders is important to explain the current financial crisis. “In Capitalist societies, we need shareholders to govern,” said Greenspan. “But their perspective has become increasingly that of investors, not owner-managers. When dissatisfied with corporate performance, they tend to sell their shares rather than seek to change management.”

“Of all the regulatory challenges that have emerged out of this crisis,” Greenspan views “the ‘too big to fail’ problem and its precedents, now fresh in everyone’s mind, is the most threatening to market efficiency and our economic future.”

Navigating through the Road Bumps in the Financial System

By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

We can’t let things go back to the way they were with the United States Financial System according to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Monday. Geithner joined Newsweek Magazine editor, Jon Meacham, at a luncheon interview on the topic of the recession and what American’s should expect as the steps to recovery continue to be put into action.

“This is still the most challenging economic crisis that this country has seen in generations. It took a long time for these problems to build up," Geithner said. "It’s going to take time for us to work through them. We’re not going to have a steady, even process of repair, it’s going to be bumpy, still feel fragile for a while.”

Geithner expressed his sympathy for struggling Americans and said he understands why Americans are angry. He said that even as growth inevitably begins to turn positive, unemployment will continue to increase for awhile. He also said, “It’s not going to feel better for a long time for millions of Americans.”

As the administration continues to work its way through this economic crisis, Geithner believes they need to take a “fresh look” at the financial system as a whole. In terms of speed and quality of initiative that are already in progress, he said he thinks the administration is doing well.

“The American people want to see us moving to change things, not just waiting and hoping,” he said.

Meacham asked Geithner about people’s critique that the administration was being too lenient. Geither replied, “I actually think that what the President has put in place is the most aggressive approach to solving a financial crisis than we’ve seen from any serious country in a very long period of time.”

He also noted that they are doing more preventative work and referred to it as a type of insurance from a greater recession. They are working to make the system more stable and plan to release a new set of proposals in the next few weeks for reforming the oversight framework.

Obama Wants You to Go Back to School

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

President Barack Obama
Photo by Michael Ruhl

Today President Barack Obama announced a new effort to stimulate tomorrow’s economy by reviving higher education through expanding Pell Grants and removing barriers to success. The public face for his new initiative is to be Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice-President Joe Biden and Community College Professor.

Obama’s plan, detailed at opportunity.gov, would help the unemployed go back to school to build new skill sets, with the goal of helping them gain future employment through specialized technical training.

“The idea here is to fundamentally change our approach to unemployment in this country, so that it’s no longer just a time to look for a new job, but is also a time to prepare yourself for a better job,” Obama said. “Our unemployment system should be not just a safety net, but a stepping stone to a new future.”

Among the barriers to success that the President wants to break down are state programs in which a worker might lose temporary financial support if they were to enroll in an education program. Obama said that in some places a worker may be unemployed, but may not qualify for federal assistance to get an education because of the salary they had a year ago but no longer make. The President said that he is committed to working with states to change these laws.

The President said that knowledge is the most valuable skill that one can sell. He encouraged all Americans to aim for getting at least 1 year of higher education, whether it is a community college, a four year school, vocational training or an apprenticeship.

“By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world,” Obama said optimistically.

This announcement came on the same day as the release of April’s unemployment statistics, which saw the loss of more than half a million jobs. The unemployment rate for April was 8.9 percent, up from 8.5 percent in March and 8.1 percent in February. April's numbers have already surpassed both the White House's and the Federal Reserve's projections for all of 2009, which were 8.1 percent and 8.8 percent, respectively.

Acknowledging that unemployment is as its highest rate in 25 years, the President urged patience, reminding us that the economic problems didn’t happen overnight, and couldn’t be fixed immediately.

“We’re still in the midst of a recession that was years in the making and will be months or even years in the unmaking,” Obama said. He continued, “We should expect further job losses in the months to come.”

Obama said that the Economic Stimulus Package is yielding real results, manifest in higher consumer spending and home sales, and an increase in construction spending. He praised the Recovery Act, and said, “Because of this plan, cops are still on the beat and teachers are still in the classroom; shovels are breaking ground and cranes dot the sky; and new life has been breathed into private companies.”

Fixing the economy and reforming education are two goals Obama has set for his administration. He said that in the weeks to come he would start working towards more education initiatives.