Thomas MacMIllan Photo
U.S. Rep. DeLauro (right).
Alexandra Ferreira is about to join the 99ers club, people who have reached the end of their 99 weeks of government unemployment benefits. Joe Guerrera, a heavy equipment operator, can’t find consistent work and worries about putting his son through college. Mike Alberino, a steelworker, said free-trade agreements have eviscerated American manufacturing.
They gathered in a Fair Haven church to serve as human exhibits for a quest by labor leaders and their U.S. congresswoman to change the channel in the nation’s recession discussion: From the “Debt” Channel to the “Jobs” Channel.
As world markets reeled and the U.S. headed for a second recession amid 24/7 debt-reduction and budget-cutting talk in Congress, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro argued that the plight of struggling workers like Guerrera and Alberino can’t be tackled with more spending cuts. Like other liberal Democrats upset with the recent deal between President Obama and House Republicans, she argued that government has to get back in the business of raising and spending some money to put people to work.
She made her remarks Monday evening in the basement of the Second Star of Jacob Church in Fair Haven, where she appeared at an event organized by the AFL-CIO and the Connecticut Citizens Action Group (CCAG). Fueled by Pepe’s pizza, some 25 people listened to the woes of the unemployed and underemployed, then applauded as DeLauro promised to fight to preserve social service programs and education funding and, above all, help create jobs.
In order to be successful, DeLauro and other Democrats will have to rejoin a battle they lost during the debt-ceiling fight: Convincing Republicans to make revenue increases a part of any deficit reduction plan, said DeLauro, who voted against the debt-ceiling deal.
DeLauro mentioned several pieces of legislation she’d like to see pass, including an extension of unemployment benefits, a bill that would prohibit employer discrimination against the unemployed when hiring, and the creation of an “infrastructure bank” to jump-start road construction.
Democrats will also fight to prevent cuts of existing programs as a new bipartisan committee meets to find ways to reduce the deficit. Any deficit solution has to include revenues and must not cut social service programs or education, DeLauro said.
In the wake of a bruising battle over raising the debt-ceiling and lowering the deficit, some Democrats are working to reframe the discourse on the country’s financial future away from cuts and towards job growth and revenue increases, including tax hikes on the wealthy. Many Democrats feel Republicans — especially those affiliated with the Tea Party — hijacked the debt-ceiling debate to force revenues off the table, to the detriment of social services and entitlement programs. Those Republicans argued that Democratic spending had gotten out of control and imperiled the nation’s financial future.
Guerrera (far right).
DeLauro spoke Wednesday after individual testimonials by a group of six panelists. She took notes as Guerrera spoke about his struggles to find steady construction work, while he sees deteriorated infrastructure on all sides. “Everything’s crumbling down around me.”
Ferreira (left).
Ferreira, a former organizer with CCAG who speaks four languages, told DeLauro that nearly two years of unemployment have forced her and her family to cancel the health insurance they couldn’t afford and now pay $600 a month for a “catastrophic insurance” policy with a deductible of $13,000. Meanwhile, she said, lots of big corporations pay no taxes at all.
Alberino (left).
Years ago, manufacturing was the way for families to make it to the middle class, said Alberino. “Those days have basically completely ended.”
He said the rubber workers in his union have been decimated by free trade agreements that allowed China to corner the market in tire production. China went from selling just 4 percent of aftermarket tires in 2004 to 25 percent in 2008, he said.
We’re witnessing a “collapse of the American Dream,” DeLauro said. Meanwhile, Republicans held the country hostage with a “manufactured crisis” over the debt ceiling, she said. “That is not the issue. The issue is jobs.”
Everyone agrees the deficit needs to be reduced; the question is where to start, DeLauro said. Will it be reduced on the backs of students? Seniors? Children? she said. “No one will talk about increasing revenue.”
DeLauro said that’s why she voted against the debt-ceiling deal. But she wouldn’t have done so if the deal was really in danger of not passing, she said. “I would never have put the nation at risk of default,” she stressed.
“I think it’s a bad deal for this nation,” she said. It will result in harder times for “working people and the poor,” she said.
She laid out several pieces of legislation that she’s working on. One is the extension of unemployment benefits, which economists agree would help stimulate the economy, she said.
DeLauro said she’s continuing to work on an infrastructure bank, an idea which she said has found support from labor as well as from the national Chamber of Commerce.
DeLauro also talked up an idea called “work share,” which would encourage companies to react to a slower economy not by laying off workers, but by reducing work hours. It’s another idea that economists say would ultimately pay off, she said.
Meanwhile, DeLauro said she’ll also be fighting against a “full scale assault on education.” The government is paying for literacy programs in Afghanistan while it cuts back on literacy programs in this country, she said. Such programs are a key to preparing people for jobs, she said.
“Our only focus, our only focus over the next several months is job creation,” DeLauro said. She underscored the message moments later by disappointing a man who asked about the possibility of immigration reform. Given the state of the economy, immigration is not going to make it onto the table this year, she said. “I don’t believe it’s going to happen between now and the next election.”
In response to the final question of the night — What can we do? — DeLauro told people to communicate with their elected leaders. “We’ve got to let folks in Washington know that it’s about jobs.”