Endorse the “Main Street Recovery Program”
The Politics
President-Elect Barack Obama has pledged to “create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s.” To succeed, he needs our help.
The Campaign for America’s Future is launching an effort to mobilize support for a bold, multifaceted economic recovery plan—a program that is substantial, strategic, and sustained. The “Main Street Recovery Program” has already been endorsed by top labor leaders including John Sweeney (AFL-CIO), Anna Burger (Change to Win), Leo Gerard (Steelworkers), Dennis Van Roekel (NEA), Andrew Stern (SEIU), and Gerald McEntee (AFSCME); , the heads of nationwide progressive organizations including ACORN, Alliance for Justice, Americans for Democratic Action, Economic Policy Institute, Jobs with Justice, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, National Organization for Women, People For the American Way, Sierra Club, US Action, and US Student Association; and more than 120 economists including Dean Baker, Jeff Faux, James Galbraith, Heidi Hartman, Robert Johnson, Robert Kuttner, and Lawrence Mishel.
We’d like your endorsement as well. Please click here to read the plan and add your name to the hundreds who have already endorsed this program. We will publicly deliver these endorsements to the White House, Congress and the news media.
The Argument
Our economy now faces the most serious crisis since the Great Depression. The financial crisis that was triggered by the bursting of the housing bubble has now spread to the real economy, and we face a sharp downturn that is spreading across the globe. A serious recession has begun in the United States, as well as in Europe and Japan. The developing world is already struggling with financial turmoil and economic decline. For the first time since the 1930s, we face a real risk of deep worldwide economic contraction. More…
Reviving our nearly $15 trillion economy will require substantial fiscal expansion. With interest rates already low, monetary policy can provide little help. The decline in consumption brought by the collapse of housing and stock prices has already been dramatic. Now states and localities must cut spending or raise taxes to balance budgets. Exports are declining as the world economy slows. Three percent of GDP, about $450 billion each year for two years—a total of $900 billion—should define the floor, not the ceiling of what needs to be done. More…
The plan must be strategic – focused on public investment in areas vital to strengthening America’s long term competitiveness. Public investments are far more efficient at stimulating the economy than tax cuts for individuals or businesses. The money allocated will be spent and will produce jobs here. And public investment provides a long term return through productivity gains transmitted through the whole economy by reducing the cost of transport on modern roads and rail and increasing productivity using better trained workers and the new technologies spawned from research and development funds. Central to the plan should be investment in green technology, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and addressing the rising threat of global warming. It must also target the states, funding vital health care and public programs so the recession is not worsened by local budget-cutting. This will also help to maintain the income of the people most likely to spend in the economy. More…
Finally, the recovery plan must be sustained. Two years of deficit funded stimulus should help the economy recover. But it will take many years of fiscal expansion to move us from an economy driven by booms and busts of asset bubbles to one of sustained and balanced growth. More…
Progressive Solutions
Read the “Main Street Recovery Program” and add your name to the hundreds who have already endorsed this program by clicking here.
