The good folks at Loop 21 asked “10 leading young voices,” what we would like to hear from the President in his jobs speech that would make a huge difference in the lives of young people in America? Never one to shy away from giving advice, my two cents:
“As conservatives have succeeded at demonizing public servants — especially overworked and underpaid teachers — the economic crisis has forced state and local governments to lay off thousands of teachers, first responders, and social service workers. I hope to hear President Obama speak about restoring the public’s faith in the role of government as an integral part of the solution, starting with challenging Congress to pass Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream bill that would help create more than two million jobs for teachers, police officers, firefighters, health care workers and education workers.”
Feminist trailblazers, Tiffany Dufu, L.Joy Williams, and Keli Goff also weighed in:
Tiffany Dufu, President of The White House Project:
“For a lasting solution, we need to create a pipeline of strong leaders. So I’d like to see the President allocate time, energy, and resources to train the next generation. President Obama built his 2008 campaign on grassroots organizing — now it’s time to harness the power of diverse groups of young women and men so that their innovations will help to bring us out of this recession into a thriving economy.”
Keli Goff, Contributing Editor for @theloop21:
“The Economic Cycle Research Institute has argued that at this point there’s very little that can be done to significantly move the needle on jobs before 2012. If that’s true, I think it would be really bold of the President to simply be upfront about it, and to position himself as the only grownup in the room. He could legitimately argue that he’ll leave it to Congress and the GOP presidential field to politicize the issue while saying that he’s going to shoot straight with us — no matter how much it hurts — and then focus on some of the other economic policy issues the fed has greater control of. While he’s at it, he can announce a tax credit for businesses that hire those from particularly disenfranchised groups, in addition to the tax credit he recently launched to spur greater hiring of veterans. Of course, neither scenario I laid out above will probably happen in this lifetime. But a girl can dream.”
L. Joy Williams, principal consultant at LJW Community Strategies, and co-host of “Blacking it Up!”
“Amidst the President’s speech, Americans need to hear the word ‘JOB.’ While arguably tax breaks and spending cuts are necessary elements in the overall plan to fix our economy, the 14 million Americans unemployed need to know how his plan will result in a job directly for them.”
