“American workers are facing severe job losses and the prospect of a painful recession, as illustrated by a story in today’s Washington Post. Just this week, companies including Yahoo, Merck, and National City Bank all announced plans to cut thousands of jobs. In other news today, General Motors announced that it intends to reduce the cost of its salaried workforce by 20% or more, a move that could lead to many more white-collar layoffs. In fact, it is now clear that this September has seen more mass layoffs than any month since September 2001, when America was attacked by terrorists. Our economy has lost jobs every month in 2008, three-quarters of a million so far. In light of these sobering facts, it is clear that the Bush-McCain economic policies have been proven decisive failures.

 

“The Democratic Congress has taken the lead in responding to the economic crisis, passing a bipartisan economic stimulus, a housing rescue bill, and financial recovery legislation that is already showing signs of un-thawing our credit markets. But more action is needed: It is essential that Congress pass further economic recovery legislation to fight unemployment and restore our economy to health. Such legislation would create jobs and provide critical funding for Medicaid for states hit hardest by the economic crisis; it should also extend unemployment insurance to hundreds of thousands of Americans temporarily out of work, helping those in need while stimulating our economy. An economic recovery package has already been endorsed by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and it has the strong support of the Democratic leadership in Congress. We hope that Congressional Republicans and President Bush will join with us to get our economy back on track as soon as possible.”