CHN: Congress Should Agree on an Economic Recovery Bill That Creates the Most Jobs and Helps the Most People
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.
