U.S. recovering from Bush’s disaster

By MICHAEL J. WILSON

WASHINGTON — With the economy still weak and unemployment too high, American workers are of two minds about whether they are better off or not. There is hope for the future and confidence that President Obama is doing all he can, but there is also a consensus that things are not better — yet.

The economic free-fall created by Bush administration policies would have grown worse had President Obama and Congress not taken action and passed a recovery package. Or worse, had the Republicans succeeded in filibustering the recovery package. The 111th Congress has been a two headed monster, racking up successes like the Cash for Clunkers program, but dawdling while important worker initiatives like the Employee Free Choice Act wait for action.

If you ask John Meyerson, a union representative in Philadelphia, he’ll tell you that he has hope for what the Obama administration can do, but that his members haven’t felt it yet. The concessionary collective bargaining that his union has done doesn’t make his members feel better off yet, but he is still campaigning for health-care reform.

It has been just six months since Obama signed into law his recovery plan and only 14 percent of the billions of dollars available have been spent, yet the effects are already being felt in communities across the country.

Tax cut

Job losses are slowing, down to 1.3 million in the second quarter from 2 million in the first. Low and middle-income workers got a tax cut. Gross Domestic Product — the economic aggregate of all goods and services — shrunk less than expected in June. Signs are that the housing and financial markets are stabilizing.

The last increase in the minimum wage just took place as well, raising the wages of 5 million workers and having a stimulative effect as they buy groceries and health care, and pay for rent, mortgages and tuition.

Enactment of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act will help end pay discrimination for millions of American women and their families. And the U.S. Department of Labor is in the process of hiring 250 additional investigators to ensure that workers get their pay from unscrupulous employers.

But the real test is not where we are today — less than a year into a new administration — but where are we going. On this point, make no mistake; American workers are more optimistic and hopeful than last year. If you ask Amy Hoeschen, a college student in Minnesota scheduled to graduate this fall, she’ll tell you it’s better to graduate into an Obama recovery than a Bush recession.

Or Gregory Wilson in Michigan, who just got recalled to his steel manufacturing facility in Jackson. The union made some concessions, but being back to work is better than being unemployed.

The challenge is for the Congress and the Obama administration to make change real, in spite of Filibuster-in-Chief Mitch McConnell, Make-Him Fail Rush Limbaugh and their tea-bagging allies. American workers are looking forward with hope, not backward, with resignation.

X Michael J. Wilson is national director of Americans for Democratic Action, Washington, D.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune.