On Tuesday, President-elect Barack Obama spoke to reporters after a meeting with his top economic advisers at his transition office in Washington. This week, Mr. Obama called on Congress to create 3 million jobs over the next two years as part of an economic stimulus plan. (Gerald Herbert/AP)
A safety net for government jobs?
Obama's stimulus plan may strive to prevent layoffs of public-sector workers in states, cities.
By Gail Russell Chaddock | Staff writer/ January 6, 2009 edition
Reporter Gail Chaddock talks about Obama's economic stimulus plan and how much emphasis it puts on creating - or protecting - government jobs.
Washington
In Washington this week, President-elect Obama called on Congress to create 3 million jobs over the next two years – “more than 80 percent of them in the private sector.”
Republicans on Capitol Hill did a little quick math: That means 20 percent, or some 600,000 new jobs, will be in the public sector. That would boost the ranks of federal employees by a third, they said, none too pleased about the prospect of a “big government” revival.
“The federal government is bloated, inefficient, and spends too much of your hard-earned money,” said Rep. Steve King (R) of Iowa, in a statement. Some 600,000 new government jobs “will only add to the waste, fraud, and abuse coming out of Washington, D.C., and fail to provide a true economic stimulus.”
But that calculus leaves out a key phrase that Obama transition officials insist is part of the president-elect’s plan: to create “or save” 3 million jobs. “The vast majority of government jobs will be state and local jobs being saved,” said one official, speaking on background.
The debate over whether public- or private-sector jobs deserve a bigger backstop in a troubled economy is reviving one of the most enduring fault lines in American politics.
When President Franklin Roosevelt launched his Works Progress Administration in 1935, conservative critics called it a boondoggle. Many liberals, then and now, saw the program as transforming and as a big boost for the nation. By its demise in 1943, the WPA had employed some 8.5 million people and created roads, schools, bridges, and works of art across America.
But the jobs the Obama team aims to support in the public sector aren’t brand new federal jobs, aides say. They’re mainly existing state and local jobs, threatened by worsening state budget woes.
States are awash in red ink, with only a few exceptions, across the nation.
“Combined budget gaps for the remainder of this fiscal year and state fiscal years 2010 and 2011 are estimated to total more than $350 billion,” according to a Dec. 23 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Because most state governments cannot by law run a deficit, states have already begun drawing down available reserves or rainy day funds. What’s left are spending cuts, including potentially massive layoffs of state and local employees, or tax increases, the report notes. “Budget cuts are often more severe in the second year of a state fiscal crisis, after reserves have been largely depleted and thus are no longer an option for closing deficits.”
“Right now, there’s a grave risk that many, many state and local employees are going to be put out of a job because of budget cuts,” says Henry Aaron, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
In that context, an Obama economic recovery plan that saves jobs that otherwise might be lost amounts to much the same thing as creating new jobs, he adds.
“If we can avoid job loss in the public sector as well as the private, that would be a major achievement,” he says. “It’s not clear [the Obama plan] would add to the baseline of public employment. It’s simply going to avoid job loss that otherwise might be.”
For public-service unions, which were among the strongest backers of the Obama and Democratic congressional candidates in the 2008 race, stakes couldn’t be higher. Thousands of members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are contacting members of Congress this week to lobby for
“significant relief” to state and local governments to preserve “crucial services and good jobs.”
“In state after state, there are real issues about the number of workers they’re talking about laying off,” says Anna Burger, SEIU secretary-treasurer in a phone interview.
“In Michigan we heard yesterday that because they had to cut back on road crews, they won’t plow unless there are at least four inches of snow on the ground. In New York, there’s now a half-an-hour wait on a child-abuse hot line to get to workers, because of cuts. These are services critical for safety,” she adds. “We will be as active postelection as we were in the election … to make sure the newly elected members of Congress do the right thing.”
After meeting Monday with the president-elect and Democratic leaders in the Capitol, GOP leaders said they welcomed the inclusion of tax breaks in the Obama recovery plan but were wary of favoring public-sector job creation and unconditional grants to the states.
“I remain concerned about wasteful spending that might be attached to the tax relief,” said House Republican leader John Boehner in a statement after the meeting. “Simply put, we should not bury future generations under mountains of debt and create 600,000 new government jobs which, according to reports, the plan under consideration would do in the name of economic stimulus.”
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans favor offering help to state and local governments as a loan: 5 percent interest over five years and then 9 percent after that.
“I think the states that did take advantage of the loans would be very careful about how they spent the money,” he said in a press briefing on Monday.
The high-profile role of public-employee unions in the lobbying over this bill is troubling for some Republicans, who see the unions as key players in GOP defeats in the 2008 election. They see a boost for public-sector jobs as a boost, too, for partisan unions.
Comments
2. Erik Anderson | 01.06.09
“By its demise in 1943, the WPA had employed some 8.5 million people and created roads, schools, bridges, and works of art across America.”
Creating jobs through government may seem like a positive thing, but we fail to realize the error in this logic. We could create a lot of jobs by banning farm machinery or even having people dig holes and fill them back up again, but this doesn’t make sense. And these jobs must be financed by three likely sources:
1. Printing more money, causing inflation (bad).
2. Borrowing money from other countries, eventually causing inflation (bad).
3. Taking money (taxes) from people/businesses that are providing goods and services people want in the free market.
The point is, we could have saved jobs by banning farm machinery from the start of their invention, but because people were freed up from farming, they could perform other jobs that helped increase our standard of living. These jobs were not created by the government, but by people acting in the free market in order to better their individual lives.
Yes, there will be unemployment for a while, but we will find other jobs that will service citizen wants. The fact that unemployment is occurring tells us that we are working in areas that are not in demand at the moment. There is nothing wrong with this. The government shouldn’t be involved in this process because they do not know the individual wants of every single citizen. That’s why central planning is destined to fail. The government should let go of the people and let them produce what they think is best.
3. Bill Seidler | 01.07.09
Obama is proposing a guarantee of no layoffs for public employees? How do you suppose that will sit with the United Auto Workers?
4. Jerry Doyle | 01.07.09
Many government jobs at the state, county and local levels are proper for outsourcing and for competitively sourcing to the private sector at significant cost savings to the taxpayer while giving the private sector an opportunity to compete for the work. Government employeees whose jobs are targeted for outsourcing and for competitive sourcing to the private sector could compete for their jobs. Many of the former government workers would be hired by private employers to do the work, again, at a significant cost savings to the taxpayer. Only a small percentage of government jobs are truly, “inherently” government jobs that should be done by the government.
5. George Guarini | 01.07.09
Concerning the present economic meltdown, let us start by downsizing the massive inauguration day festivities.
6. Stephen Hermann | 01.07.09
Please stay as far away from that DOLT from western Iowa. He has nothing useful to say unless it is bile spewed on anyone who is not white. When I was a reporter in Storm Lake, Iowa, I caught him in so many weird moments I could write a book. Please don’t give him any excuse to start again as though he was some kind of leader…he’s a joke in most of Iowa that isn’t reactionary.
7. Moses Calouro | 01.07.09
This is incredible. How can Obama support state and local government jobs? I as a taxpayer from Rhode Island should not see my tax dollars paying to support state and local jobs as far away as California. From my understanding, California increased state spending by over 30% since 2003. Now that tough times are hitting, the federal government should not be sending money to state and local governments to support public sector jobs. The private sector pays the bills and can’t shoulder any more of this.
8. Robert M. | 01.07.09
I worked for the federal government for many years and I have seen the most outrageous waste and mismanagement imaginable. Agencies like the Department of Defense actual defraud themselves in order to create more politically desirable spending reports. I have seen figures changed again and again to cover up incompetence. There is just plain no accountability. So, before handing out the money of our grand kids yet to be, fix the mess that has been wasting money all along. We don’t need more federal employees. We need fewer dishonest federal managers. (It applies to state and local governments as well.)
9. mijcandrea | 01.07.09
Keeping government workers in their jobs isn’t just about waste. It’s about not being put on hold when calling 911, not having to wait half an hour for the police or fire dept to show up, having roads plowed, water systems kept in repair, and not waiting in long lines to pay at city hall or the county building. It’s about a live person answering the phone when you have an issue that needs resolution in your city, keeping the street and traffic lights repaired, maintaining parks, and so on. It’s amazing how many people always think laying off a few more won’t hurt. Wait until it’s their turn or they need something no longer available
10. Pam | 01.08.09
Government jobs include improving the FDA so that you don’t get tainted drugs, or die waiting for an effective medication to be approved.
Government jobs include stemming the tide of communicable diseases, disaster response, and ensuring that the nursing home you may be in provides compassionate, timely and beneficial treatment so that you can also get out of the nursing home or at least have some quality of life while you are in there.
Government jobs include ensuring that you have better access to the resources you need to be heard and taken seriously.
11. rose trujillo | 01.08.09
Shut Up Boys. I hope these may be jobs that are going to help someone overlook the industries and private companies that have cheated us out of our childrens future. I know I’ve reported plenty of illegal dealings of corporate America and nothing was done. Does Ex-President Herbert Walker Bush and Eastern Airlines ring a bell. That was not just a national, federal crime. Local governments aided and abetted also. Plus, why do you think Obama was elected in the first place? Because even the lowest employees of corporations have been witness to what a ruse America had become, continuing with the Supreme Court appointing an obvious LOSER. However, like I say, our national standing among nations has been set with intentional demise by other countries for a long time. We just took their bait. Whine boys, whine.
12. Mary Rene | 01.08.09
Let’s not forget our crooked Supreme Court and what they did in Ledbetter vs. Goodyear. What Goodyear forgets is that 50% of their customers WERE WOMEN and we never forgive or forget!!! Buy Firestone or Continental.
And don’t forget the WalMart decision–where ANY of us can be sued for our trust funds when put in a nursing home after a brain-damaging accident. I will never forgive or forget!!!
See y’all in Bushville/Hooverville!!!!
13. rose trujillo | 01.08.09
Okay. To all those blogging here, raise your hand if you are white and raise your hands if you’re “making do” during these times. Hmmm. No hands I see. Boys, you need to get over holding a “gray card” up to someones face before you give them credit for being an intelligent, hard working citizen. I’m a great-grandaughter of a business man that was a close friend of Henry Grady. He was a more resonable man a hundred years ago than you are today. Sad.
I am caucasian, but you’re probably discounting me already by my last name alone. The government was not the problem. It was whole heartedly the individuals that were supposed to provide leadership that were the problem. You are obviously ignorant of the number of employees that will be retiring shortly and perhaps there are a few whose experience will still be needed. When you call OSHA and the chap on the other end of the call says, “You won’t find a white man down in one of those holes” (meaning a trench without it being shored), then you know that’s just another indication how fair a stray we have missed the mark. It’s everywhere and rampant. Good luck with you sad prejudices and attitudes of “CAN’T”.
15. Chris B. | 01.09.09
If we save it where does it go?
If we spend it, who gets it?
Is a college degree worth anything anymore?
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1. Robert Tulloch | 01.06.09
Right. Those government employees are the ones that we need to save. After all, they are far more valuable than workers in the private sector who produce goods and services.
And part of the 600,000 public sector jobs will be in the Obambi Civilian Defense Corps which will keep us in line and report those who do not follow the path chosen by “the One”. Perhaps they will chop us up with machetes like in Barak’s old country.
The revolution is just around the corner. Be prepared. Obambis defense corps will not make it down the first street.