The American Jobs Act

Kicking off the southern leg of his Jobs Initiative campaign in October at the Asheville Airport, President Obama talks about the urgent need for job creation and putting our citizens back to work. – Photo: Micah Mackenzie/Urban News

Staff reports

Impact for North Carolina

The American people understand that the economic crisis and the deep recession weren’t created overnight and won’t be solved overnight. The economic security of the middle class has been under attack for decades.

That’s why President Obama believes we need to do more than just recover from this economic crisis – we need to rebuild the economy the American way, based on balance, fairness, and the same set of rules for everyone from Wall Street to Main Street.

We can work together to create the jobs of the future by helping small business entrepreneurs, by investing in education, and by making things the world buys. The President understands that, to restore an American economy that’s built to last, we cannot afford to outsource American jobs and encourage reckless financial deals that put middle class security at risk.

To create jobs, the President unveiled the American Jobs Act – nearly
all of which is made up of ideas that have been supported by both
Democrats and Republicans, and that Congress should pass right away to
get the economy moving now.

The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: put more people back to
work and put more money in the pockets of working Americans. And it
would do so without adding a dime to the deficit. The American Jobs Act
has five components:

1. Tax Cuts to Help America’s Small Businesses Hire and Grow

The President’s plan will cut the payroll tax in half, to 3.1% for
employers on the first $5 million in wages, providing broad tax relief
to all businesses but targeting it to the 98 percent of firms with wages
below this level. In North Carolina, 170,000 firms will receive a
payroll tax cut under the American Jobs Act.

2. Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America

The President’s plan includes $50 billion in immediate investments for
highways, transit, rail, and aviation, helping to modernize an
infrastructure that now receives a grade of “D” from the American
Society of Civil Engineers, and putting hundreds of thousands of
construction workers back on the job.

Of the investments for highway and transit modernization projects, the
President’s plan will make immediate investments of at least
$797,900,000 in North Carolina that could support a minimum of
approximately 10,400 local jobs.

The President is proposing to invest $35 billion to prevent layoffs of
up to 280,000 teachers, while supporting the hiring of tens of thousands
more and keeping cops and firefighters on the job. These funds would
help states and localities avoid and reverse layoffs now, and will
provide $900,300,000 in funds to North Carolina to support up to 13,400
educator and first responder jobs.

The President is proposing a $25 billion investment in school
infrastructure that will modernize at least 35,000 public schools –
investments that will create jobs, while improving classrooms and
upgrading our schools to meet 21st century needs. North Carolina will
receive $675,700,000 in funding to support as many as 8,800 jobs.

The President is proposing to invest $15 billion in a national effort
to put construction workers on the job rehabilitating and refurbishing
hundreds of thousands of vacant and foreclosed homes and businesses.

North Carolina could receive about $20,000,000 to revitalize and
refurbish local communities, in addition to funds that would be
available through a competitive application.

The President’s plan proposes $5 billion of investments for facility
modernization needs at community colleges. Investment in modernizing
community colleges fills a key resource gap, and ensures these local,
bedrock education institutions have the facilities and equipment to
address current workforce demands in today’s highly technical and
growing fields.

North Carolina could receive $163,100,000 in funding in the next fiscal year for its community colleges.

3. Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs

The President is proposing a new Pathways Back to Work Fund to provide
hundreds of thousands of low-income youth and adults with opportunities
to work and to achieve needed training in growth industries. Pathways
Back to Work could place 4,000 adults and 12,700 youths in jobs in North
Carolina.

Drawing on the best ideas of both parties and the most innovative
states, the President is proposing the most sweeping reforms to the
unemployment insurance (UI) system in 40 years to help those without
jobs transition to the workplace. This could help put the 234,000
long-term unemployed workers in North Carolina back to work.

Alongside these reforms, the President is reiterating his call to
extend unemployment insurance, preventing 90,400 people looking for work
in North Carolina from losing their benefits in just the first 6 weeks.
And, across the country, the number saved from losing benefits would
triple by the end of the year.

4. Tax Relief for Every American Worker and Family

The President’s plan will expand the payroll tax cut passed last
December by cutting workers payroll taxes in half next year. A typical
household in North Carolina, with a median income of around $42,000,
will receive a tax cut of around $1,300.

5. Fully Paid for as Part of the President’s Long-Term Deficit Reduction Plan

To ensure that the American Jobs Act is fully paid for, the President
will call on the Joint Committee to come up with additional deficit
reduction necessary to pay for the Act and still meet its deficit
target. The President will, in the coming days, release a detailed plan
that will show how we can do that while achieving the additional deficit
reduction necessary to meet the President’s broader goal of stabilizing
our debt as a share of the economy.