When I attended Netroots Nation last week, I didn’t need to drive the streets of Las Vegas to see the abandoned worksites, boarded up buildings, and closed factories. I can see that in my own district. Too many of us are not making it in America.

Congressional Democrats responded with a two-step approach. In the first half, we sought to stabilize the economy, rein in Wall Street, provide lifelines to families in freefall, and immediately put Americans back to work. We’re now nearing the second half, where our job creation strategies must be complemented by a long term commitment to bring back American manufacturing.

In California, Nevada, and across the nation, people out of work through no fault of their own outnumber new jobs available. Five people are out of work for every one job available. The Great Recession led to widespread job loss, and without a new approach to economic development, good manufacturing jobs will continue to be shipped overseas. If we don’t make it in America, we won’t make it America.

Continued infrastructure improvements, small business investments, and unemployment benefits extensions are helping turn our economy around, but we haven’t done enough. In the short term, we must continue investing in our economy to prevent a double dip recession.

The newly-minted Republican deficit hawks who supported President Bush’s unfunded tax cuts for the super wealthy and continue to support the longest war in U.S. history in Afghanistan (also not paid for) now insist that we can’t afford job creation and jobless benefits for out-of-work Americans. They don’t mind creating $11 trillion in deficits under the watch of the previous administration, but they’re all too willing to preach austerity to the unemployed on the verge of complete destitution. This economic approach is morally repugnant and empirically unsound.

As Mark Zandi, Senator John McCain’s Economics Advisor and Chief Economist for Moody’s Analytics, explains, there are basically two types of very effective pro-growth strategies in a downturned economy. The first provide immediate relief to the vulnerable, including food assistance for working families ($1.74 in GDP growth for every $1 invested) and unemployment benefits ($1.61 for every $1 spent). The second provide, protect, and nurture long term improvements, including infrastructure investments ($1.57 for every $1 spent) and aid to states to keep teachers, firefighters, and other public servants on the job ($1.41 for every $1 spent). Meanwhile, keeping the Bush tax cuts for the rich permanent ($0.32 recovered for every $1 wasted) would harm struggling families and the economy.

Additional stimulus is essential, but without new policies that bring back good manufacturing jobs, we’re only patching the Titanic. To thrive in the 21st century, we must “Make it in America”. Manufacturing matters.

I’ve introduced three bills to bring back manufacturing. The first, based on language in the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, closes $14.5 billion in corporate tax loopholes that reward the off-shoring of jobs, and I’m happy to report that a good small business bill likely to pass the House today utilizes this language as a cost offset. The second ends taxpayer subsidies for foreign-produced clean energy technology. The third ends taxpayer subsidies for foreign-produced buses, railcars, and ferries.

When we have so many welders, engineers, mechanics, electricians, technicians, and carpenters out of work, it doesn’t make sense to ship our tax dollars overseas. When we’re in the middle of a global clean tech race, it hurts our national security to use taxpayer dollars to pay for things that can be built here. It just makes sense to make it in America.

The House Democratic Caucus is introducing a number of “Make it in America” bills targeting different parts of our tax code, trade policy, grants policy, exports strategy, small business development, and more.   A few highlights are available on the Majority Leader’s website, but many other bills are in development. The ultimate goal for this pooling of good ideas is to create a Green Industrial Revolution in America.

It was a pleasure to see some of you at Netroots Nation, and I hope to see you next year in Minneapolis. For those of you who attended or have seen streaming highlights, I hope you had the same takeaway I did. None of us are completely satisfied with everything that’s happened in America, but we also can’t walk away from all that we’ve accomplished. From the Recovery Act to Wall Street reform to health care reform to Lily Ledbetter equal pay and hate crimes legislation, we’ve made tremendous progress.

Those of us in Congress who share your desire to lift up working and middle class Americans by bringing back good jobs, to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq while making sure our returning men and women in uniform are treated with dignity and respect, to get a robust public option on the books while working toward Medicare for All, to pass meaningful climate change legislation, to end the exploitation of our fragile coasts, and to create an America that grants true equality for all its citizens, we’re still fighting. And I know you are too.

Congressman John Garamendi represents California’s 10th Congressional District, which includes portions of Contra Costa, Solano, Alameda, and Sacramento counties. He previously served as California’s Lieutenant Governor and Insurance Commissioner and as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Interior Department. He is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer.  

(An update on the Stimulus from Rep. Miller – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

One year ago, our nation was headed toward an economic collapse, shedding an average of 600,000 jobs a month. State and local budget cutbacks were putting teachers’ jobs – and our students’ education – in peril. Our economy was in need of emergency triage that would immediately begin to save and create jobs and lay the foundation for longer-term economic growth. One year after its enactment, it is clear that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is meeting these core goals.

Edit by Brian: See the flip for more…

To date, the law has already created or saved two million jobs and helped our economy grow at its fastest rate in years. It has funded more than 300,000 education jobs, keeping teachers in classrooms and children and students of all ages learning. It has helped minimize harmful cuts at public colleges and universities and provided students with larger Pell Grants to pay for college.

The Recovery Act has provided a much-needed lifeline for workers who lost their jobs – and their health insurance along with it. Millions of Americans have received extended or increased unemployment benefits and many got help paying for their COBRA premiums because of the Recovery Act. We can’t underestimate the difference this has made for laid-off workers struggling to put food on their tables, heat their homes, or pay for a visit to the doctor.

The Recovery Act is also making strategic investments in our future. Recovery programs are training displaced workers for high-growth jobs in our health care, biotech, clean energy and manufacturing sectors. The Race to the Top program is leveraging key education reforms that will better prepare our children for college, competitive jobs and a global economy.

The footprints of the Recovery Act run across my own district. It’s funding the construction of a dental clinic in Vacaville and a community health center in West County that will create 250 construction jobs immediately and longer-term health care jobs. It’s keeping teachers employed in Mt. Diablo, Martinez and West County school districts, or hiring new ones, like Jessica Pozos. It’s giving laid-off workers with families who depend on them, like Brandi Britt of Richmond, new hope by training her for a new career.

As President Obama and Congress have repeatedly said, the Recovery Act marked the beginning of our efforts to rebuild our economy and our middle class. Too many workers continue to lose their jobs or have trouble finding new ones. Our work will not be over until every American in need of a job can find one.

RECOVERY ACT: HELPING STUDENTS, WORKERS AND FAMILIES

• 2 million: the number of jobs created or saved by Recovery dollars thus far, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
• 300,000: the number of teaching and other education-related jobs saved or created.
• $500: the increase in the Pell Grant scholarship eligible students received for the 2009-2010 year due to this law alone.
• $2.4 billion: the amount of Federal support that helped colleges and universities keep teaching, even as enrollments grew, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers.

In my last post, I cited a New York Times story that indicated that most economists think the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is helping to create jobs and stimulate our economy. Earlier this week, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office confirmed the economists’ findings.  

According to the CBO, in the third quarter of this year alone, 600 thousand to 1.6 million jobs were directly created or saved by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, reducing our country’s unemployment rate by 0.3 to 0.9 percent. This is an especially important finding for my home state of California, which at 12.3 percent, suffers from the third worst unemployment rate in the nation.

Indeed, it’s worth noting that the CBO report does not measure indirect job creation. Jobs created through most sub-contractors and vendors are not included in the report nor are the jobs created at local businesses when 1.6 million Americans have sufficient wages to put their money back into the economy.

They say all politics is local, and that may or may not be true, but it’s certainly the case that all jobs are local. When I talk to constituents, I hear from understandably frustrated people who think the stimulus has been ineffective. I understand that 1.6 million jobs created is just a statistic when you are still unemployed, when your family is still struggling, when your phone is ringing off the hook from relentless creditors, when you’re falling behind in your rent or mortgage payments.

More solutions over the flip…

Even for these individuals, the stimulus passed by President Obama and Congressional Democrats back in February has improved things. When 1.6 million more people are gainfully employed, the challenging job climate for those still unemployed is a little bit easier. When 1.6 million more people are able to put food on the table from their own wages, the reduced usage of government and non-profit assistance means more resources are available for families still struggling in this difficult economy. When half the stimulus package has yet to be distributed, many families are not yet aware that help is on the way.

Nevertheless, when 15.7 million Americans are unemployed, including well over 30,000 people in the 10th Congressional District, I know our work in Congress is far from done. Yesterday, I joined my Democratic colleagues on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to highlight the findings of a report by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) that identified 9,500 “ready-to-go” highway, bridge, transit, port, rail, and aviation projects worth more than $69 billion that would create hundreds of thousands of jobs if we funded them in Congress.

We know that in an economic downturn, governments are well advised to invest in their infrastructure, employing people in the present to lay down the building blocks for future economic growth. In California, AASHTO identified 120 projects worth more than $4 billion that, with federal approval, would get thousands of newly employed boots on the ground in 120 days or fewer.

Crumbling roads throughout my home state are delaying commutes, slowing down freight traffic, impeding the attractiveness of bus travel, and discouraging area residents from engaging in commerce. A more robust investment in our public transportation networks would also do much to reduce congestion, better integrate public transit, and help us reach our carbon emission goals. In the three town halls I will be hosting this Saturday in my district, I know the deteriorating status of our region’s transportation infrastructure will be a frequent topic of discussion from constituents.

Today, President Obama holds his jobs summit, and based on public reports, the importance of more investment in transportation will not go unnoticed. My Democratic colleagues in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee have alerted the President of our desire to move ahead with many of AASHTO’s recommendations. Working together, we will produce a number of bills in the coming months that will continue our important work rebuilding an economy left in shatters following eight years of neglect and misguided priorities.

While you may not agree with every bill passed by Congress or every decision made by the President, when I say that we take our responsibility as incubators of a better economy seriously, I hope you’ll take me at my word. If not, the proof is in the pudding of the lunches of the 600 thousand to 1.6 million people now employed because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Congressman John Garamendi (D-Walnut Creek) represents California’s 10th Congressional District. You can follow Congressman John Garamendi on his new Twitter and Facebook accounts.