Senate Leader Says AFL-CIO Economic Stimulus Package Recognizes Plight of Workers

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/01/22/senate-leader-says-afl-cio-economic-stimulus-package-recognizes-plight-of-workers/

by Mike Hall, Jan 22, 2008

The AFL-CIO’s blueprint to quickly boost the nation’s faltering economy is a “real stimulus package,” says Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.).


Speaking on the Senate floor today as Congress turned its attention to a nose-diving stock market, climbing unemployment and growing home foreclosures, Durbin told his colleagues the nation’s working families have fallen several rungs down the economic ladder.


On Jan. 18, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid outlining the AFL-CIO’s five-step economic stimulus package. As Durbin entered it into the Senate record, he said:

If you look at the list of things John Sweeney has highlighted…he understands what I’ve just described: the rules of economics and the fact that a lot of working families have not been part of the grand bargain in Washington for a long time.

The AFL-CIO’s five points for short-term economic stimulus are:


*Extension of unemployment benefits.


*Increased food stamp benefits.


*Tax rebates targeted to middle-income and lower-income taxpayers.


*Fiscal relief for state and local governments to avoid the economically depressing effect of tax increases and budget cuts.


*Acceleration of ready-to-go public investment in school renovations and bridge repair.

Durbin said the five-point plan

…is a good starting point when we discuss what we can do in this economy to make a difference, a real stimulus package.

[papau]

1. I like it - throw in double depreciation write-offs for new projects in 2008 and that is done. :-)