Letter: Tax cut does not help rising unemployment

Thursday, July 24, 2003 | 8:32 a.m.

Well, how about that "jobs and growth" plan from the $350 billion in tax cuts that President Bush proposed and Congress signed?

This is more than an academic question. The jobless rate in June rose to 6.4 percent, or 9.4 million workers, versus 6.1 percent, or 9 million workers in May, the Labor Department reported. Significantly, the administration had forecast the creation of 1.4 million new jobs by the end of 2004 after its most recent tax cut became law. Against this backdrop, 913,000 workers joined the ranks of the unemployed between March and June, according to the Labor Department.

It also noted: In June there were 2 million unemployed persons who had been looking for work for 27 weeks or longer, an increase of 430,000 over the year. They represented 21.4 percent of the total unemployed, up from 18.8 percent a year earlier. Meanwhile, large-scale layoffs in the public sector are casting ominous shaadows over the American workforce. Spending cuts by state and local governments swimming in red ink don't typically spur private sector employers to spend on new workers.

One must also take into consideration that the current minimum wage of $5.15 an hour is lower than the real minimum wage of 1950. A single parent with one child needs to work two full-time minimum-wage jobs to make ends meet. It takes more than three jobs at minimum wage to support a family of four. Maybe the Bush administration should have raised the minimum wage for the poor working people, instead of providing a $350 million tax cut for richest 1 percent of America.

JOHN MARCHESE