Economy & Job Creation
More on Economy & Job Creation
Congresswoman Maxine Waters made history today when she delivered the first-ever speech on the House floor complied entirely of posts from her Twitter and Facebook accounts. Two weeks ago, Congresswoman Waters took to Twitter and Facebook pages to ask her "followers" to send her what they would say to House Republicans if they had the opportunity to make a speech on the House floor. We received thousands of comments from people all over the U.S. The highlighted and under-lined names are the people whose posts we used to create the speech.
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Mikael Moore, 202-579-7023
October 14th, 2011
Today, Rep. Waters released the following statement:
'"Over the last several weeks, I have heard from you in a variety of ways about our nation's struggling economy and unemployment. You have written letters, called, posted on my Facebook page and tweeted me, expressing your concern and your ideas about how to keep America moving forward. More people, especially here in Washington, need to hear your voice, concerns and ideas.
This evening, as the President speaks to the nation about his plan to create jobs, he must acknowledge the economic disaster in the African American community, whose unemployment rate hovers at roughly 16.7 percent, almost double that of the general population and equal to depression-era levels. He must then articulate how the plan he puts forth will target the communities with the highest rates of unemployment, including the African American community.
Congresswoman Waters released the following statement after her vote in the House of Representatives yesterday against the Republican debt ceiling package (known as the Budget Control Act of 2011):
Mr. Speaker, I must congratulate the Tea Party for extorting the deal made in their image, and their image alone. The cuts will be deep, they will be lasting, and they will weaken an already-depressed economy.
What's clear is that the Tea Party is so ideologically driven to kill government that they're willing to kill the private sector, kill jobs, and kill growth in the process.
by John Taylor, President and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition
If Washington is serious about addressing job creation, the White House and Congress should support the expansion of a 33-year-old law, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), legislation that has invested over a trillion dollars into our economy during the past decade.
And, they don't have to spend a dime of taxpayer money.
By Santiago Esparza
The chants of thousands of people demanding jobs filled the air downtown as UAW President Bob King and the Rev. Jesse Jackson led the crowd to Grand Circus Park.
The UAW and Jackson's Rainbow Push Coalition announced the Rebuild America: Jobs Justice Peace kickoff today at the downtown park.
By RHONDA B. GRAHAM
It's unfortunate that the first black American president feels he can't confab with African-American leaders about jobs in their community outside Black History month.
This is the distinct impression from Barack Obama's Oval Office meeting Wednesday with Benjamin T. Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Marc H. Morial, president of the National Urban League; and the Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network.
By Christi Parsons and Janet Hook
Amid signs that black Americans are not sharing in the nation's fledgling economic recovery, President Obama on Wednesday met at the White House with African American leaders, who urged him to adopt a new approach more tightly focused on chronically depressed communities.
While the unemployment rate in January dropped below 10% for the first time in five months, joblessness among blacks increased slightly, to 16.5%.