GOP Must Look Past Partisan Politics and Support It

_{September 8, 2011}

WASHINGTON—The Center for Community Change praised President Obama for offering a plan that would create jobs through a mix of infrastructure work, assistance for unemployed workers and tax relief that would benefit the majority of Americans, not just the wealthiest.

“We believe the President’s plan is a modest but useful start in creating jobs and getting our economy moving again,” said Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change. “We hope that Republican lawmakers will avoid playing partisan politics and support this plan for the good of all Americans. It’s time to end the political games and get down to the business of putting Americans back to work.”

“We urge the President to end tax breaks for the wealthiest of Americans, Wall Street and big corporations,” Bhargava added. “Unfortunately, some elements of the President’s plan don’t go far enough to get Americans back to work. We would like to see fewer tax reductions and more direct job creation. Direct hiring is a better use of our resources. In addition, we are concerned about proposals to have people do work in exchange for unemployment insurance benefits under the guise of ‘training,’ when we can and should be creating quality, living wage jobs for everyone who is able to work.”

Obama mentioned some of the very recommendations the Center for Community Change has made in his speech, such as building and repairing our infrastructure and helping unemployed workers stay afloat so they can continue to pay bills while looking for work.

The Center’s other recommendations includes: protecting our environment and building a green economy; ensuring state and local governments can provide critical services such as education, health care and public safety; creating community jobs programs to help cities and towns hire unemployed people to work on community projects; providing young people with job opportunities; funding work sharing, and; providing relief for families in foreclosure and creating jobs by rehabilitating our current housing stock and creating more affordable housing.

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The Center for Community Change is a national nonprofit that strengthens the leadership, voice and power of low-income communities and communities of color nationwide to confront the vital issues of today and build the social movements of tomorrow.