Washington, DC -- Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY-17) urged the Republican House Majority to finally fulfill their promise to the American people and produce a jobs bill.  Seven months into their control of the House and not a single jobs bill has been discussed, much less passed.  This is despite an unemployment crisis and a Republican campaign promise to have a “laser-like” focus on jobs.

The number of unemployed persons (14.1 million) and the unemployment rate (9.2 percent) were essentially unchanged over the month. Employment in most major private-sector industries changed little over the month.  The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was essentially unchanged over the month, at 6.3 million, and accounted for 44.4 percent of the unemployed.

“The June jobs report, while adding a disappointing 18,000 jobs in the last month, was still the 16th consecutive month of job growth resulting in more than two million added private sector jobs as America comes out of the recession.  There are a lot of factors contributing to the slowdown in job growth – the Japanese earthquake, high oil prices, and fears about the government defaulting on its debt. The fragile nature of the economic recovery gives events such as these a much larger significance since the economy has fewer margins for error.

“So there is no excuse for Congress to sit back and do nothing.  Instead of putting the resources of the federal government to help the recovery and put more people back to work, the Republican agenda has focused more on repealing the Affordable Care Act, and eliminating the thousands of jobs connected to it.  Worst of all, they passed their FY 2012 budget, which eliminates Medicare and Medicaid as we know it.  It seems the Republicans not only do not want to help get people back to work, they want to take away their health care too!

“According to the Economic Policy Institute, the attack on Medicare and Medicaid would result in a loss of over 2 million more jobs.  More recently, they proposed a transportation bill which deeply slashes funding for projects, thus missing a golden opportunity to provide work for Americans in need of employment.

“After opposing every jobs bill introduced in 2010, no one can be shocked they have ignored the unemployment problem since taking the majority.   Republicans must shift the focus of their agenda back to where they promised the American people it would be – creating jobs.  The answer is not more rhetoric on lowering corporate taxes; in fact, total federal tax revenue as a percentage of Gross National Product has averaged 14.9% since January 2009, the lowest in decades.  It is expected to drop even further in 2011.  That type of policy is what got us in this mess in the first place.  The American people and our job-creators need to see that our government is more interested in working for them instead of making political points.  Let’s stop the ideological gamesmanship, work together, and produce a jobs bill which helps the unemployed and aids employers at the same time. The time for this is long overdue.”

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