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. The number of unemployed Americans increased by 563,000 to 13.7 million in April 2009, and the unemployment rate rose to 8.9 percent overall. In Colorado, more than 58,000 workers have lost their jobs, and every day, more and more Coloradans fall behind in their mortgage payments.
The road to economic recovery will be long and difficult, but Congress and the President 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.
- Passed a budget that lays the foundation for significant cost savings and reforms to our health care system and energy sector. This budget also cuts our deficit by two-thirds over five years, stimulating the economy in the short run and then reducing the deficit in the long run. We must work to reduce the deficit, because economic recovery will be short-lived if we mortgage our children's future to achieve it.
- 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.
As we move forward, we need to:
- Pursue comprehensive financial reform that will prevent the kind of recklessness and greed in the financial markets that got us into this mess in the first place.
- Continue to bring discipline to our budgets.
- Change our health care system, keeping what works and bringing costs under control so that every American has access to basic, affordable health care.
- 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.
