By Marianna Levyash – Talk Radio News Service

During a Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) stated that he supports climate change legislation, but holds some qualms over the Kerry-Boxer bill.

“I want our children and grandchildren to be able to enjoy the outdoors the way that we can today. So I’m going to work to pass climate-change legislation that is both meaningful and can muster enough votes to become law,” he said.

While Baucus did make clear that it is important for Congress to to act now on preserving the environment, he noted that the unemployment rate has reached an incredibly high level and therefore lawmakers must also work to create jobs in today’s economy.

Regardless of his reassuring statements, Baucus was the only Democrat to vote against The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act – otherwise known as the Kerry-Boxer bill – a vote that signaled his discontent with certain parts of the bill.

“While we must always be mindful of the cost of legislation, that’s particularly true in today’s economy. Our unemployment rate remains far too high. And we must be diligent to create jobs, including in the energy sector,” Baucus said.

Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) says that since the stimulus package was passed the U.S. has lost 3 million jobs. (0:09)

 

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Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

Following Friday’s announcement that unemployment has reached 9.8 percent, Bureau of Labor and Statistics Commissioner Keith Hall told the Joint Economic Committee Friday that while the U.S. economy is still in bad shape, it is at beginning to stabilize.

“We have moved into a normal recession… we really did have a six-month period that was unprecedented,” said Hall. “This particular recession was so broad and deep.”

Hall added that the U.S. is slowly making a recovery in the manufacturing sector, explaining that it has expanded for the second consecutive month.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) responded to Hall by making it clear that the American economy is still hurting.

“The sky is falling… We can not be overly optimistic, but we need to call it like it is,” Said Cummings.

Rep. Kevin Bradley (R- Texas) was quick to the blame the Obama administration’s use of TARP funds as an inhibitor to the economy.

“The unpredictability of government is the new invisible hand of the market. It is slowing the recovery- discouraging companies from making decisions that could lead to rehiring old workers and hiring new ones,” Brady said.

All panel members offered their condolences toward Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) whose husband recently passed away.

By Mariko Lamb, Talk Radio News Service

Keith Hall, Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, released data to the Congressional Joint Economic Committee Friday that indicated a moderation in unemployment, a “good sign” for economic improvement, he said.

According to the Bureau’s statistics, the unemployment rate remained relatively consistent at 9.4% in July. Job losses in wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing and financial activities industries continued, while losses in the hardest hit sectors, construction and manufacturing, increased. Employment in leisure and hospitality remained steady and health care employment increased, growing in line with the 2009 trend thus far.

Additional findings in the report show that minorities and the uneducated continue to suffer the most job losses, a trend that parallels unemployment statistics prior to the recession. “The trend is pretty much the same,” Hall said, “so when the overall unemployment rate goes up, it goes up by more for the minorities.”

Despite continued job loss, Hall said that the moderation in the past three months is a “good sign.” “While I would say we’re not in recovery yet, this is the path that we have to go through to get to recovery. We expect to see moderation first before we start actually getting improvement in the labor market,” he said.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner, Keith Hall, says that minorities and the uneducated continue to suffer the most job losses, a trend that parallels unemployment statistics prior to the recession. “The trend is pretty much the same,” Hall says. “When the overall unemployment rate goes up, it goes up by more for the minorities.” (0:18)

 

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Despite positive signs of economic recovery, “the rate of job loss remains high and the unemployment rate has continued its steep rise,” says Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke. “Job insecurity, together with declines in home values and tight credit, is likely to limit gains in consumer spending,” he said. (0:21)

 

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During a press conference Thursday, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) warned that the proposed reforms to the U.S. health care system may lead to further job loss.

“When you raise the cost of employment…you get less employees. There’s no question that their proposal raises the costs of employers to have employees, because it requires all employers to have health care,” Boehner explained (0:15)

 

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House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said during a press conference Thursday, that had his party been put in charge of the economic recovery efforts, they would have been able to have saved at least twice as many jobs (0:20)

 

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By Justin Duckham-Talk Radio News Service

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) claimed during a press conference Thursday that if the economic recovery efforts were placed in the hands of Congressional Republicans, at least twice as many jobs would have been created.

“Our projections…would be that we would have created twice as many jobs, at half the cost. Given the fact that unemployment continues to rise, we probably could have created ten times as many jobs as [Congressional Democrats] have.”

Boehner claimed that he had based the conclusion off the same method the White House is currently using to compose their statistics.

The House Minority Leader warned that the upcoming health care reform will contribute to further job loss.

“This isn’t hard to figure out. When you raise the cost of employment…you get less employees. There’s no question that their proposal raises the costs of employers to have employees, because it requires all employers to have health care,” Boehner explained.

The Department of Labor recently released a report showing that 9.5% of Americans are currently unemployed.

Boehner also attacked Congressional Democrats’ management of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“16 million of the stimulus money was appropriated to take care of the salt marsh harvest mouse,” said Boehner, who appeared alongside a picture of the endangered rodent based in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) district. “People a hundred miles away have farms that are drying up because they wouldn’t use any stimulus money to turn on the pumps.”

Shelly Maxwell interviews former Republican Barney Smith, a lifelong resident of Marion, Indiana, who lost his job at a local RCA plant after working there for 31 years. Smith who was jobless for 13 and a half months, joined the Obama campaign and became known as an example of what Americans all across the U.S. were going through. (9:12)

 

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