Baucus Lukewarm On Kerry-Boxer Bill

By Marianna Levyash - Talk Radio News Service

During a Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) stated that he supports climate change legislation, but holds some qualms over the Kerry-Boxer bill.

“I want our children and grandchildren to be able to enjoy the outdoors the way that we can today. So I’m going to work to pass climate-change legislation that is both meaningful and can muster enough votes to become law,” he said.

While Baucus did make clear that it is important for Congress to to act now on preserving the environment, he noted that the unemployment rate has reached an incredibly high level and therefore lawmakers must also work to create jobs in today’s economy.

Regardless of his reassuring statements, Baucus was the only Democrat to vote against The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act - otherwise known as the Kerry-Boxer bill - a vote that signaled his discontent with certain parts of the bill.

“While we must always be mindful of the cost of legislation, that’s particularly true in today’s economy. Our unemployment rate remains far too high. And we must be diligent to create jobs, including in the energy sector,” Baucus said.

Bureau of Labor And Statistics Commissioner: We Have Moved Into A Normal Recession

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

Following Friday's announcement that unemployment has reached 9.8 percent, Bureau of Labor and Statistics Commissioner Keith Hall told the Joint Economic Committee Friday that while the U.S. economy is still in bad shape, it is at beginning to stabilize.

“We have moved into a normal recession... we really did have a six-month period that was unprecedented,” said Hall. “This particular recession was so broad and deep."

Hall added that the U.S. is slowly making a recovery in the manufacturing sector, explaining that it has expanded for the second consecutive month.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) responded to Hall by making it clear that the American economy is still hurting.

“The sky is falling... We can not be overly optimistic, but we need to call it like it is,” Said Cummings.

Rep. Kevin Bradley (R- Texas) was quick to the blame the Obama administration's use of TARP funds as an inhibitor to the economy.

“The unpredictability of government is the new invisible hand of the market. It is slowing the recovery- discouraging companies from making decisions that could lead to rehiring old workers and hiring new ones,” Brady said.

All panel members offered their condolences toward Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) whose husband recently passed away.

July Statistics Indicate Unemployment Moderation, A “Good Sign,” Says Labor Bureau Commissioner

By Mariko Lamb, Talk Radio News Service

Keith Hall, Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, released data to the Congressional Joint Economic Committee Friday that indicated a moderation in unemployment, a “good sign” for economic improvement, he said.

According to the Bureau’s statistics, the unemployment rate remained relatively consistent at 9.4% in July. Job losses in wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing and financial activities industries continued, while losses in the hardest hit sectors, construction and manufacturing, increased. Employment in leisure and hospitality remained steady and health care employment increased, growing in line with the 2009 trend thus far.

Additional findings in the report show that minorities and the uneducated continue to suffer the most job losses, a trend that parallels unemployment statistics prior to the recession. “The trend is pretty much the same,” Hall said, “so when the overall unemployment rate goes up, it goes up by more for the minorities.”

Despite continued job loss, Hall said that the moderation in the past three months is a “good sign.” “While I would say we’re not in recovery yet, this is the path that we have to go through to get to recovery. We expect to see moderation first before we start actually getting improvement in the labor market,” he said.

Boehner: GOP Could Have Saved Twice As Many Jobs

By Justin Duckham-Talk Radio News Service

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) claimed during a press conference Thursday that if the economic recovery efforts were placed in the hands of Congressional Republicans, at least twice as many jobs would have been created.

“Our projections...would be that we would have created twice as many jobs, at half the cost. Given the fact that unemployment continues to rise, we probably could have created ten times as many jobs as [Congressional Democrats] have.”

Boehner claimed that he had based the conclusion off the same method the White House is currently using to compose their statistics.

The House Minority Leader warned that the upcoming health care reform will contribute to further job loss.

“This isn’t hard to figure out. When you raise the cost of employment...you get less employees. There’s no question that their proposal raises the costs of employers to have employees, because it requires all employers to have health care,” Boehner explained.

The Department of Labor recently released a report showing that 9.5% of Americans are currently unemployed.

Boehner also attacked Congressional Democrats’ management of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“16 million of the stimulus money was appropriated to take care of the salt marsh harvest mouse,” said Boehner, who appeared alongside a picture of the endangered rodent based in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) district. “People a hundred miles away have farms that are drying up because they wouldn’t use any stimulus money to turn on the pumps.”

80,000 jobs lost in March

Keith Hall, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics testified before the Joint Economic Committee on the March employment statistics. He reported that employers across all sectors of the labor market cut payroll by 80,000 in the month of March. This has cause the unemployment rate to rise from 4.8 percent to 5.1 percent in the first quarter. The total decline in the last quarter was 232,000 jobs. In his opening statement Hall said, "I would note that the labor market conditions started to weaken more than a year ago." He later added that 68,000 of lost jobs are in hosing-related industries.

There were only three members present. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), and Rep. Baron Hill (D-IN) who acted as chairman. Schumer only stayed to make an opening statement saying that these numbers should serve "as a wake up call" to the Bush administration. In the questions both Brownback and Hill asked Hall to forecast the next quarter and comment on the policy context of the recent data. Hall repeatedly refused to project data or give an opinion on policy, saying that the numbers should speak for themselves. He refused to define the economy or the labor market as in a recession.



Construction jobs were the hardest hit, loosing 51,000 jobs in March. Since peak employment in September 2006, total construction employment is down by 394,000 jobs. Another sector that has decreased was manufacturing. Manufacturing jobs decreased by 48,000 and automobile manufacturing took half of those losses. In his written statement Hall reported, "The number of unemployed persons who were job losers continued to trend up. Job losers represented 54 percent of all unemployed persons in March, up from 48 percent 12 months earlier." 5,000 jobs were lost in the financial activities sector, which is normally considered a growth category.

Hall reported that the only sectors to add jobs were education and health care. In these sectors combined 42,000 jobs were gained. He said that overall this indicated that consumer spending was weak, making companies less likely to hire temps. He said that the labor market figures are consistent in what he described as "the general weakening of the country."