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Rob Portman on JobsRepublican Jr Senator; previously Representative (OH-2) |
PORTMAN: I'm one of six Republicans who voted to allow this debate to go forward, I think we should. Unfortunately, Democrats did not work with us, wouldn't negotiate with us on how to pay for it. We've got a 35-year low in terms of the number of people working, the labor-participation rate. We also have record numbers of people long-term unemployed. And the Democratic answer to that is, "Let's add more to the 26 weeks of unemployment insurance to emergency benefits, and let's do nothing to reform the program. Let's do nothing to give people the skills they need to access the jobs that are out there." All the Republicans were saying, including me, was, "Look, yes, let's extend unemployment insurance, I'm okay with that. But let's pay for it. Last thing we want to do is add to the deficit. But second, let's reform this program." I have a specific proposal to do that.
Portman said the high unemployment rate is creating a "brain drain" for Ohio. "Ohio is falling behind," he said. "We're losing businesses to other states. Some of the bes and brightest young people in Ohio are leaving our state."
Fisher sought to deflect Portman's criticism that he wasn't personally involved in the effort to save jobs. He said you do so "one job at a time, one business at a time." He cited successful efforts to save jobs in his work with Gov. Strickland.
Portman said he is committed to direct involvement to save and create jobs and highlighted a recent encounter with an unemployed Cleveland mother looking for work.
As the federation of America’s unions, the AFL-CIO includes more than 13 million of America’s workers in 60 member unions working in virtually every part of the economy. The mission of the AFL-CIO is to improve the lives of working families to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our nation. To accomplish this mission we will build and change the American labor movement.
The following ratings are based on the votes the organization considered most important; the numbers reflect the percentage of time the representative voted the organization's preferred position.
[As part of the Contract with America, within 100 days we pledge to bring to the House Floor the following bill]:
The Job Creation and Wage Enhancement Act:
Small business incentives, capital gains cut and indexation, neutral cost recovery, risk assessment/cost-benefit analysis, strengthening the Regulatory Flexibility Act and unfunded mandate reform to create jobs and raise worker wages.