2.4 Million Jobs Supported by the Recovery Act - and a Depression Averted

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).  The annual report by the White House task force monitoring the impact of ARRA funds, led by Vice-President Joe Biden, finds that up to 2.4 million jobs have been created or saved in both the public and private sector as a result of federal recovery efforts. 

The Vice President's report describes the importance of state fiscal relief as a critical component of job creation efforts.  This includes supporting 300,000 education jobs across the country:

The money is allowing state governments to pay teachers (hundreds of thousands across the country according to reports filed from state governments), firefighters and police officers and is also preventing states’ budget gaps from growing wider.  And those hardest hit by the recession are getting extended unemployment insurance, health coverage, and other assistance to get through these tough times.  This money goes to state governments and families in need, without red tape or delays, and was designed to be the quickest acting mechanism to save our economy from the brink of a second Great Depression... And without these payments, those hurting the most in our country would have found themselves in even greater need, and our economy would have suffered much greater damage.

This is all the more reason legislators from around the country are signing onto PSN's letter supporting more state fiscal relief as the most effective way to continue to boost the economy.

Some of the other important accomplishments of the Recovery Act include:

• 95 percent of working Americans saw a tax cut that immediately boosted consumer spending ability.
• Money has been allocated to programs and projects ahead of schedule with unprecedented transparency-- with 160,00 reports from recipients on ARRA funds submitted and made public.
• 12,500 transportation construction projects have been funded, while 11,000 bus and rail vehicles have been purchased with ARRA funds.
• 12,000 cutting-edge medical research projects at research and educational institutions in states across the country have been supported.
• Smart Grid funding is modernizing the electricity grid, including the deployment of 18 million smart meters and 877 digital sensors in the U.S. transmission system.
• 143,422 housing units have been rehabbed or developed to create jobs and improve the living standards in urban areas of the country.
• State and local governments have issued $70.8 billion in Build America Bonds to provide needed capital for school construction, water projects and infrastructure development.

The following map details the number of jobs created or saved by the recovery act in all states.

Source: White House.gov - Annual Report to the President on Progress Implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

As we have explained in previous Dispatches, the implementation of the Recovery Act has alleviated the severity of the recession, created jobs, kept millions of families out of poverty, and helped mitigate state budget deficits. 

Economists across the ideological spectrum have extolled the benefits of the recovery efforts.  In a September 2009 speech, Christina Romer, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, confirmed that, "[p]roviding $787 billion of tax cuts and spending increases [is] the boldest counter-cyclical fiscal expansion in American history."  Mark Zandi, former economic adviser to Senator John McCain's presidential campaign and chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, finds that the Recovery Act was key to the 5.7 percent GDP growth in the last quarter of 2009.  Furthermore, he states, "[t]he world would be measurably worse if not for [the ARRA]... We'd be talking about a depression."

The accompanying graphic from the Economic Policy Institute highlights the dramatic shift in monthly job losses before and after the passage of ARRA. 

Source: Economic Policy Institute - The Recovery Act Worked

Solar Energy Continues to Make Its Case - Now as a Job Creator

With more people worried about job security and the economy, state policy leaders and several corporations are making the case for renewable energy legislation as a job creator.

Solar energy creates and retains jobs, including those in the manufacturing industry.  Texas business leaders noted in a recent report, Lone Star Power: How Texas Businesses Can Supply the World with Solar Energy, one of the great advantages of solar plants is the large number of components that are involved in installing solar power systems. Manufacturing and installing these devices requires significant job creation.  In addition, jobs to maintain solar plants cannot be transferred overseas, therefore guaranteeing that jobs will remain in this country.  In fact,the same Texas business leaders acknowledged the solar industry creates 50% more jobs than the coal industry. Additionally, an increasing number of American manufacturers are losing their edge in the international playing field.  For instance, China is currently the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels and the front runner in the green world economy, boasting 1.12 million renewable energy jobs at the end of 2008.  There is a clear need for investment in solar energy in order to remain a competitor in the global market.

So what does it mean to be solar?  One way to generate solar energy involves using mirrors to reflect and focus the sun’s rays, providing heat, which in turn results in power.  Another increasingly popular way to create solar energy is through photovoltaic panels, where solar systems are installed on the rooftops of homes and office buildings.  These solar roofs are also easily linked to the electrical grid, which manages electricity consumption, thus increasing efficiency.

In our Dispatch last March, we listed some state efforts to enact solar energy legislation.  So, what are some states doing lately with solar energy?

• In Maryland, one bill was introduced to require a quicker ramp-up of the solar portion of the state's renewable portfolio standard and another bill was introduced to require utilities to pay customers back any surplus energy they create with the solar panels on their roofs. 
• The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) has also initiated a project to create what will be the world's largest solar farm in Owens Lake, California. 
• Corporations and environmental groups in Texas are advocating for incentives to build solar-integrated buildings in the state that enjoys the most solar solar radiation in the country.  They also cite a Blue Green Alliance report, which finds that Texas could gain over 23,000 manufacturing jobs in solar energy if the US were to move to a 25% renewable energy standard.   

If states continue to take action encouraging investment in solar power, manufacturers, workers, and consumers will benefit from the opportunity to create and retain jobs in building solar capacity.

Eye on the Right: Opposing the Recovery While Taking Credit for the Results

How do we know the Recovery Act is working?

Over 70 members of the House of Representatives vociferously opposed ARRA, but returned to their home districts to take credit for job creation, investments in infrastructure and the green economy, and spending on critical community needs.  Many of these same lawmakers requested further federal funds for projects in their states. 

• Although Pennsylvania Rep. Bill Shuster was against federal recovery efforts, he attended a groundbreaking cermony for a sewage treatment plant funded by ARRA.  He additionally requested that Gov. Ed Rendell utilize recovery money to reopen a school for veterans' children, claiming it would "save about 134 full-time jobs." 
• Texas Rep. Michael McCaul stated, "I didn't support final passage but at the same time I wanted to make sure if we are spending that kind of money that much of that gets directed to Texas."  Along with the Texas Congressional delegation, he also requested that Obama's administration direct $3 billion in unused recovery dollars to fund NASA's manned space program.
  
• South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson, of "You lie" fame, voted against ARRA, but sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack requesting recovery funds for a foundation in his state.
• An outspoken opponent of federal recovery efforts, House Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor met with transportation officials to explore how Virginia could apply for high-speed rail funds though ARRA.  On top of that, in November 2009, Rep. Cantor held a job fair that featured almost 15 organizations that received aid from the Recovery Act.

At the state level, there are conservative Governors who also opposed ARRA, but have included recovery funds in their budget proposals this fiscal year.  Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty previously bashed the Obama Administration and criticized the idea of utilizing federal recovery funds for state fiscal relief, but includes ARRA as a critical portion of his budget proposal.  In fact, "[n]early one-third of the governor's budget fix would rely on $387 million in federal stimulus money."  Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a persistent critic of the recovery act during his campaign, has touted $24 million in federal funds for health care information technology made available for the state through ARRA funding.

The blatant hypocrisy of these right-wing officials is quite telling.  At the basic level, this indicates an inherent acknowledgment that pumping federal funds into the economy creates jobs and fosters growth.  The right's deceptive rhetoric is a stark reminder of the hollowness of their failed economic, tax, and budget policies.