Congressman Garamendi on President Obama's Jobs Address

"Americans need jobs. This is my first priority in Congress, and I was encouraged by President Obama's speech in which he laid out a robust plan to put Americans back to work. This clearly has not been a priority of the Republicans who would rather play games with the economy.

"There is much to admire in the American Jobs Act. The President addresses needed infrastructure by proposing policies to repair and modernize 35,000 schools and by supporting a desperately needed Infrastructure Bank that leverages public and private investments. He supports increasing job opportunities for teachers and veterans. He addresses the problems of people out of work for a long time by offering a $4,000 tax credit to anyone willing to hire someone who has spent more than six months looking for a job. He proposes an innovative program that uses some of the unemployment insurance program to create temporary work to build work skills. He proposes extending unemployment insurance another year to avoid the cataclysmic shock to the economy that would occur if hundreds of thousands of Americans, unemployed through no fault of their own, suddenly had no income. These are all good policies, and I look forward to reviewing the laws that carry out these proposals.

"Tomorrow we will see specifics about what is included in the American Jobs Act, and I hope my Republican colleagues heed the President's call to finally work on legislation that actually creates jobs. If our Republican colleagues want to work together to help the American people, to help the millions of struggling families unsure if they'll be able to afford to put meals on the table this holiday season and throughout the year, Democrats are ready, willing, and able to work in a bipartisan fashion to put America first."