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Bill Clinton on Jobs

President of the U.S., 1993-2001; Former Democratic Governor (AR)

 


Democratic presidents have created more jobs than Republican

Since 1961, for 52 years now, the Republicans have held the White House 28 years, the Democrats 24. In those 52 years, our private economy has produced 66 million private-sector jobs. So what's the job score? Republicans: 24 million. Democrats: 42 million.

Now, there's a reason for this. It turns out that advancing equal opportunity and economic empowerment is both morally right and good economics. Why? Because poverty, discrimination, and ignorance restrict growth. When you stifle human potential, when you don't invest in new ideas, it doesn't just cut off the people who are affected. It hurts us all.

We know that investments in education and infrastructure and scientific and technological research increase growth. They increase good jobs, and they create new wealth for all the rest of us.

Source: 2012 Democratic National Convention speech , Sep 5, 2012

American Jobs Act: prevent layoffs of teachers & cops

In early, September 2011, President Obama outlined the proposals in his American Jobs At. It contains about $250 billion in payroll tax cuts and hiring tax credits, and $200 billion in spending to employ construction workers in modernizing schools, rehabilitating buildings, and upgrading roads, railways, and bridges; to prevent layoffs of teachers, police officers, and firefighters; and to improve unemployment and training programs.
Source: Back to Work, by Bill Clinton, p.120 , Nov 8, 2011

Gov't pays reduced wages instead of layoffs

Source: Back to Work, by Bill Clinton, p.180-182 , Nov 8, 2011

1990s: Bottom 20% of earners saw wage increase of 24%

[1990s welfare reform included] policies designed to help them succeed, including a doubling of the refundable earned income tax credit; a new child tax credit; an increase in the minimum wage; a doubling of child support collections; a welfare-to-work tax credit to encourage employers to hire; more funds for child care, education, and training; the removal of employment disincentives from Medicaid; transportation aid; and housing vouchers to help low-income people move closer to job opportunities. During my two terms, nearly 8 million people moved out of poverty, and the bottom 20% of earners saw their wages rise by 24%, after falling 10% in the previous 12 years.

The success of welfare reform was due to more than better policies. There was also a conscious effort to expand the job market for people coming off welfare by organizing a large number of employers to recruit and hire their new employees from the welfare ranks.

Source: Giving, by Bill Clinton, p.174 , Sep 4, 2007

1998: Highest employment rate since 1948

In sharp contrast to the net job loss in the early years of the George W. Bush administration, the economy under Clinton was booming. "Riding a strong economy, the nation's employers added 370,000 new jobs to their payrolls last month-- far beyond expectations--and at year's end, employment reached record levels," The Times wrote that morning in January. "Not since the government began to compile employment numbers, starting 1948, has such a large percentage of Americans worked."
Source: What A Party!, by Terry McAuliffe, p.152 , Jan 23, 2007

$15B for jobs in poor communities

I recommended a minimum wage increase, expanded family leave, a child-care tax credit, and trigger locks on guns. I also asked Congress to pass the Equal Pay and Employment Non-Discrimination acts; to establish a new American Private Investment Corporation to help raise $15 billion to create new businesses and jobs in poor communities.
Source: My Life, by Bill Clinton, p.843 , Jun 21, 2004

1990: AFL-CIO refused endorsement; Locals endorsed anyway

In April, the AFL-CIO refused for the first time to endorse me. Bill Becker, their president, had never really liked me. He thought the sales tax increase was unfair to working people, opposed the tax incentives I'd supported to lure new jobs to Arkansas, and blamed me for the failure of the tax-reform referendum of 1988. He was also furious that I had supported a $300,000 loan guarantee to a business involved in a labor dispute.

Within two weeks, 18 local unions defied Becker and endorsed me anyway. They didn't fall into the classic liberal trap of making the perfect the enemy of the good. If the people who voted for Ralph Nader in 2000 hadn't made the same mistake, Al Gore would have been elected President.

Source: My Life, by Bill Clinton, p.357-8&928-9 , Jun 21, 2004

Increase minimum wage; allow more family leave