Economy and Jobs
Working to Create Jobs and Turn Colorado's Economy Around
Our nation is undergoing an economic upheaval the likes of which we have not seen since the Great Depression. And while our economy is now showing signs of recovery, too many Colorado families are still struggling to make ends meet or stay in their homes. At the same time, small businesses are still having difficulty accessing credit.
The road to economic recovery will be long and difficult, but we have taken important steps to help working families stave off a prolonged recession. Specifically, we have:
- Made the vigorous investments necessary to get our economy moving again. Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (P.L.111-5), we have made targeted investments in energy, health care, education, and transportation that will help create jobs and grow our economy. In Colorado, we estimate that the bill will save or create 60,000 jobs.
- Cut taxes for 95 percent of American families. The Making Work Pay tax cut - which covers more Americans than any in history - is putting more than $900 million back into the pockets of more than 1.8 million Colorado families.
- Passed the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009, to help keep struggling Colorado families in their homes by providing more tools to homeowners and loan servicers to stem the tide of home foreclosures. This new law takes real action to stem the tide of foreclosures, assist homeowners, and strengthen our housing sector. It will promote loan modification and homeowner lending, which are essential to rebuilding our housing market and revitalizing our communities.
- Passed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act to help American consumers by limiting unfair and abusive credit card company practices.
- Passed the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment ("HIRE" Act), which provides an exemption from Social Security payroll taxes for businesses that hire unemployed workers, creates a $1,000 tax credit for hiring new workers, and allows small businesses to write off increased levels of capital expenditures.
- Passed the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act, which extended the first time homebuyer tax credit, created a new tax credit for existing homeowners, and provided tax relief for struggling businesses.
As we move forward, we need to:
- Send a strong Wall Street Reform bill to the President's desk.
- Bring tighter discipline to our budgets.
- Look for new ways to improve access to credit for our nation's small businesses.
- Invest in our domestic energy economy. We need to break our dependence on foreign oil and protect our planet from the threat of climate change. In Colorado, we must do our part harnessing the power of the wind and sun and natural gas.
- Revitalize public education. If we are to truly lift our economy out of turmoil, schools must prepare children of today for the world economy of tomorrow. This will require new ideas, and a rejection of old programs that don't work and old battle lines that only hurt students and teachers, not help them.
