Tuesday, January 20, 2009
By C. NICOLE MASON
Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan should focus more money and attention on the people who need it the most. These include the unemployed, low-income workers, female heads of households and families being forced into foreclosure.
Last week we learned the number of unemployed increased by 534,000 in December, bringing the number of unemployed to 11.2 million. In 2008 alone, the ranks of the unemployed grew by 2.6 million — that’s nearly 7,123 jobs lost per day over a one-year period.
Nearly 10 million homeowners are having trouble making their payments, and sub-prime lending has ravaged many racial and ethnic minority communities. Close to 1.5 million homes are in the process of foreclosure. And with poor credit and high debt, the likelihood that families will be able to land on their feet any time in the near future is slim.
Instead of focusing on jobs and foreclosure protection, Obama’s proposal gives $300 billion away in tax cuts. Many individuals would see only around $500. That won’t do much, especially when they are already in debt and are fearing for their jobs.
Tax breaks
On top of that, Obama is talking about providing a $3,000 tax break to businesses for each employee they hire. But that would barely even cover the costs of health insurance, payroll taxes and training — much less the salary — for that employee.
When Obama does discuss jobs, he talks of providing money to states for “shovel ready” projects to rebuild roads, highways and bridges. While we need some of these jobs, the number of women who will directly benefit from them will be microscopic. Women make up less than 10 percent of all construction workers, and when you subtract women administrative assistants and surveyors, the percentage falls to less than 2 percent.
In a vulnerable and weak economy, women and single-women heads of households are hit hardest. They tend to earn less and have fewer assets than their male counterparts, and they are more likely to live in poverty.
Obama should provide funds for jobs dominated by women. When he talks about jobs created in education and health, he is talking about repairs to schools and health care technology, not necessarily more money or jobs for teachers and nurses.
His administration should also offer fiscal support to states to increase childcare subsidies to single women heads of households so they will be able to survive this downturn.
On the homeowner front, the stimulus package should include clear and direct relief to those facing bankruptcy. Judges in bankruptcy courts should be authorized to rewrite loans. And Obama should cajole banks into renegotiating mortgages.
Unemployment benefits
Obama has proposed some excellent ideas, like extending unemployment benefits to part-time workers and making Medicaid available to individuals who become unemployed.
These are good starts.
He should build on them — and not get distracted by the calls for business tax cuts or bank bailouts.
He should keep his focus on the neediest — and reserve the bulk of the near-trillion dollars for them.
That is not only the most moral course. It is also the most sensible economic course.
If you give people a job, they will have money to spend.
If you protect people’s homes, they will have confidence to spend.
If you help women provide for their children, that money will go directly into the economy, thus creating more jobs.
We all will benefit from a recovery package that addresses the most vulnerable and least advantaged in our society.
X C. Nicole Mason is a political scientist and the executive director of the Women of Color Policy Network at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University. She wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues; it is affiliated with The Progressive magazine.