President’s jobs bill is important for Nevada

Danny Thompson

Monday, Oct. 24, 2011 | 2 a.m.

Unemployment is above 9 percent in this country — and Nevada has the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 13 percent — but that doesn’t seem to faze Republicans in our nation’s capital. President Barack Obama has offered a plan to put this country back to work, but Republicans keep stopping his efforts to do so.

The president has laid out a common-sense road map, one that would help companies — including small businesses — grow. For instance, the president’s plan would provide tax cuts to help businesses start hiring, by cutting in half the payroll tax for 98 percent of businesses. Additionally, there would be a payroll tax holiday for businesses that add workers.

In terms of investing in this country’s future, some of the key parts of the president’s plan would prevent as many as 280,000 teacher layoffs, modernize 35,000 public schools and rebuild our infrastructure — including roads, rail and airports. Republicans helped derail the president’s plan more than a week ago and so far have blocked subsequent slimmed-down versions of the legislation.

While the Republicans don’t like the combination of tax cuts and investments, the American people have embraced it. A recent NBC-Wall Street Journal poll found that 63 percent of Americans supported the president’s jobs bill.

For many voters, they’re tired of not seeing enough progress being made on some of the tough issues facing this nation — including the high number of people unable to get a job and the continuing foreclosure crisis. Nevadans especially are frustrated by the lack of progress in Washington. But let’s not lose sight of why there is gridlock in Congress, which is helping prevent real efforts to get this country out of the fix it is in.

When Barack Obama was sworn in as president, he inherited one of the worst economies since the Great Depression. He won election by an overwhelming margin, but the Republican leaders in Congress made it clear that they would block his proposals to jump-start the economy at every turn. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell couldn’t have summed up the GOP’s sentiment any better when, right before the 2010 congressional elections, he said “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

President Obama — assisted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — has reached out in good faith to Republican members of Congress, trying to meet them halfway on issues such as putting people back to work and reducing the nation’s deficit. But the Republican congressional leadership has constantly rejected the president’s efforts to find common ground.

I understand that politics can get rough at times. It comes with the territory for elected officials. But when the country’s economic future is at stake — when people can’t get work for months on end — we shouldn’t tolerate partisan bickering.

Here in Nevada, we’ve seen firsthand how obstructionism and callous GOP policies have caused terrible pain for hard-working men and women and their families. Nevadans are suffering. We need to continue to support President Barack Obama’s jobs bill and reject the path taken by do-nothing congressional Republicans as they stand in the way of progress.

Danny Thompson is the executive secretary treasurer of the Nevada State AFL-CIO.