Rivlin Pleads With Congress To Act Soon On Jobs Front

At a Senate Budget Committee hearing held on Tuesday, former White House budget chief Alice Rivlin said job creation is the key to growing the nation’s limping economy and that lawmakers must be willing to achieve that goal sooner rather than later. 

“The future of the United States as a prosperous economy and world power depends on getting people back to work in productive jobs,” Rivlin said.

Rather than allowing the economy to erode standards of living across the country, Rivlin argued that it is possible to accelerate job growth, boost the economy and stabilize the nation’s debt all at the same time. 

“We have jobs that need to be done in both the public and private sectors and millions of people who want to do them,” Rivlin argued.”It would be unbelievably stupid to allow capacity to sit idle for lack of imagination and political will.”

The former Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve echoed the President Obama’s calls for immediate action on legislation that would work towards creating jobs, saying this move would aleviate some of the pressure in adopting sustainable fiscal policies.

“The faster we get people back to work, the easier it will be to move toward a sustainable budget,” Rivlin said. “We can’t afford to wait until the economy recovers before acting to rein in future deficits.”