February 10, 2009

The Coalition on Human Needs, a Half in Ten partner, has released a factsheet urging Congress to adopt specific provisions from both the House and the Senate recovery bills.

The nation lost 600,000 jobs in January alone. The economic recovery plan that Congress sends to the President should do the most possible to save or create jobs. But the Senate bill would create up to 650,000 fewer jobs than the House legislation, because it provides less direct aid to families, aid to states, and investments in future prosperity.

Many economists agree that providing income to low-income people, federal aid to states and localities, and investments in infrastructure produce or save the most jobs. The House bill provides more funding in these areas.

These measures have multiple benefits. In addition to saving jobs, they:

• alleviate hardships that threaten health, child development, and family stability;
• invest in education so this generation and the next can contribute to the nation’s future growth in a way that will be broadly shared; and
• build renewable energy sources and other investments in sustainable prosperity.

Click here to see and download a pdf of the full factsheet.

February 10, 2009

Peter Harbage, Judy Feder, Ellen-Marie Whelan
The Center for American Progress

A percentage-point increase in unemployment could raise the number of uninsured by 1.1 million. So if unemployment rates continue as economists predict—increasing from 4.6 percent in 2007 to 11.1 percent in 2010—more than 7 million people will likely lose their health insurance.

Yet the Senate American Recovery and Reinvestment Act shortchanges support for these American families who are losing their health benefits. The bill offers less than the House version for workers who are losing their jobs and may also back away from investments aimed at refocusing our health care system on promoting health and gaining better value for our dollars.

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February 9, 2009

From the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a Half in Ten partner-

As the economic recession deepens and more people are laid off of work, welfare assistance for families is failing to pick up the slack.

Last year, 18 states reduced the number of families that receive assistance through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, according to a New York Times analysis of state figures. Read more »

February 9, 2009

Will Straw
The Center for American Progress

The Senate compromise recovery and reinvestment legislation provides for 12 to 15 percent fewer jobs created or saved than the House-passed Recovery and Reinvestment Act despite costing slightly more. The House-passed legislation creates or saves between 430,000 and 538,000 more jobs than the Senate compromise.

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February 9, 2009

Michael Ettlinger
The Center for American Progress

A Step Forward, a Stumble Back
Parsing the Economic Stimulus and Recovery Legislation

The compromise legislation now before the Senate—designed to garner the needed 60-vote supermajority for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—is an important step toward quickly slowing the downward spiral of the U.S. economy and eventually turning it around. The economy has lost 3.6 million jobs since the recession started, with 1.8 million lost over the past three months alone. This is the largest three-month decline in jobs since World War II. Action is desperately needed quickly.

Yet the Senate compromise legislation is also a stumble backward from the $820 billion legislation that passed the House of Representatives on January 28. The Center for American Progress estimates that the compromise would create between 430,000 and 538,000 fewer jobs than the House-passed bill—a finding consistent with what other economists, including Paul Krugman, reported over the weekend.

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February 9, 2009

From The Center for American Progress

“It is insane, and morally bankrupt, for a nation with this much wealth to allow [hunger] to continue,” said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, at a Center for American Progress event Friday morning. At the event, CAP Policy Analyst Joy Moses led a panel discussion on the importance of a new U.S. commitment to end food insecurity and hunger for all Americans.

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The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes many initiatives that help people in poverty, including home weatherization funds, UIMA, and child care. This essential legislation also includes a much needed expansion of the Child Tax Credit. Under current law, the Child Tax Credit gives up to $1,000 per child to households with kids—but it currently leaves out millions of children in the lowest income families. We need your help to increase support to these children.

Click here to tell the Senate to support the recovery package today!

February 3, 2009

Today, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a Half in Ten partner, sent a letter to Senators urging them to support the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (S.1).

The text of the letter is below. Click here for a pdf version of the LCCR letter.

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February 3, 2009

From ACORN, a Half in Ten partner—

Bertha Lewis
CEO and Chief Organizer, ACORN

Think the economic recovery package was all about contraceptives and a $4 billion payout to ACORN? (We wish.) Think again.

What conservative bullies like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are not telling us in their drearily familiar, windbag attacks on the desperately needed economic recovery package is that it contains a wealth of provisions that put money directly into the economy through programs aimed a low- and moderate-income families.

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February 3, 2009

Alexandra Cawthorne
The Center for American Progress
Click here to access this issue brief, with linked sources, on CAP’s website.

Meeting the Needs of Low-Income Families in the Economic Recovery

The current, severe economic crisis has made addressing poverty much more urgent. Job losses are mounting across the country and the unemployment rate has spiked to 7.2 percent. Unemployment is projected to increase to 9 percent later this year, and the number of Americans in poverty could rise by between 7.5 and 10.3 million over the next several years. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which passed the House of Representatives last week, contains many important measures intended to reduce the number of people that will enter poverty during the recession and help low-income families.

The version of the act currently being debated in the Senate is similar to the House bill, but it has weaker provisions in some important areas and does not have the same poverty-reduction potential as the House plan. The House and Senate will come together to hash out differences between the bills during the conference period after the Senate passes its plan, and Congress will be faced with important decisions at that time—decisions that will have a significant effect on how much the law contributes to poverty reduction.

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