White House Forum on Jobs Essential Initiative

Borosage: Country needs a strong plan to create jobs now and in the future.

WASHINGTON Nov. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Campaign for America's Future
co-director Robert Borosage today praised President Obama's call for a White
House summit on jobs. Borosage argued that the summit must look not only at
the current crisis, but consider the new engine for jobs and growth that must
replace the bubble-bust economy of the last decades. "A bold initiative on
jobs is both good policy and good politics," said Borosage.

Unemployment is expected to remain in double digits into next year, meaning
that more than 15 million job-seeking Americans will not be able to find work.
Record long-term unemployment is destructive to families, crushes hope and
damages the economy. Everyone knew that digging out of the worst economic
calamity since the Great Depression wouldn't be easy. Democrats are well
advised to keep pushing for jobs, even as Republicans keep standing in the
way.

STATEMENT OF ROBERT BOROSAGE

The jobs summit should consider both immediate and long-term strategies. Next
year, the Congress should act to create jobs immediately - creating urban and
green jobs corps to put young people to work, aiding states and localities to
forestall layoffs of police and teachers, expanding investments in new energy,
in retrofitting buildings, in transport and infrastructure to boost economy
over the course of the next two years.

At the same time, the president should use the summit to begin defining what
the engine of growth will be in the economy that we build out of the ruins of
the old. Consumers will not go back to spending more than they earn. With a
falling dollar, exports could play a bigger role. But the main engine will be
public-investment-led growth, featuring a bold commitment to make the
transition to new energy the centerpiece of a long-term economic strategy.
This can be deficit-funded while the economy recovers, but should be paid for
by progressive taxes over the long-term.

What is clear is that the old conservative refrain of cutting spending and
taxes won't help. It is time to return to the investment led growth that
helped build America's middle class after the Depression. We can rebuild
America and revive the American dream - but only if we get the change we need.

SOURCE Campaign for America's Future

Toby Chaudhuri or Jennifer Ettinger, both of Campaign for America's Future,
+1-202-955-5665