Everyone agrees we are experiencing the greatest economic crisis
since the Great Depression. The challenges we all face are magnified by
the simultaneous occurrence of three extraordinary events: the collapse
of financial markets worldwide, a severe credit crunch, and a dramatic
loss of consumer confidence associated with the collapse of our housing
and automobile markets.
How bad is it? During the past several years, 3.6 million Americans
lost their jobs, millions of working families are losing their homes
through bankruptcy and subsequent foreclosures, and the value of
everything we own - our retirement accounts, our homes and our currency
- have been devalued by as much as 40%-50%. And forecasts predict
another 2-3 million jobs will be lost this year –
no matter what actions we undertake. This is the economic emergency of
our generation, and we must take bold actions to save our way of life.
No one has all the answers, but one fact is clear: we must act now to
begin to reverse our economy’s downward spiral by putting people back
to work. What we need now is jobs, jobs and more jobs. After all, if
you are working, you will have income to pay your monthly bills and
live in your house, not the poor house.
With the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of
2009, I am more confident than ever that we will succeed in building a
better future for all of us. The Recovery Act is not a bailout; it is
an economic investment, a jumpstart of our economy that will generate
millions of jobs in the private sector. These will not be government
jobs; they will be real jobs created by the economic engines
of our economy – privately owned small businesses that produce 50% of
our GDP and nearly 80% of new jobs. These jobs in transportation and
infrastructure, renewable energy, education, health care, science and
technology will help grow our economy and expand the middle class.
In the weeks and months ahead, I will continue to work hard with
all our community leaders to bring about all the changes we need. Our
work together will not be easy and our success will not be quick. It
took us over eight years to slide into this mess, and that’s about how
long it will take us to work our way out.
The Recovery Act I helped to create will succeed by doing three things:
(1) Delivers one of the largest tax cuts in American history to 95%
of working families – putting money back into our pockets to
immediately sustain our families and stimulate local economies;
(2) Creates and maintains millions of jobs - rebuilding our
infrastructure, investing in our schools, highways, bridges, renewable
energy, a smart electrical grid and clean water – transforming our
economy in the process; and
(3) Stabilizes state governments – providing billions of dollars in
necessary grants to sustain those in need, and modernizing our economy
by investing in renewable energy and the education of our children, on
whose future we all depend, and most importantly, educating and
training Wisconsin workers who through no fault of their own have been
displaced.
The Recovery Act will soon become known as America’s Blueprint, for
it lays out for all to see exactly how we will build a sustainable and
independent economy. It is an aggressive and bold initiative that will
guarantee the success of capitalism and our standard of living. Nothing
in my lifetime has been so challenging and so critically important.
I am working hard to bring about all the changes we need, and to
bring several billion federal tax dollars back to Wisconsin to help
grow our way out of today’s terrible recession. These essential funds
will soon become available through Governor Doyle’s Economic Recovery
Office in Madison, and I look forward to working closely with our
talented and hard working Wisconsin state legislators to
put our tax dollars to work right here in Northeast Wisconsin.
We all have a lot of work to do. Let’s get started.
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