This Week: Harry Reid’s Senate Rejects Barack Obama’s Jobs Bill

Three Trade Agreements: Rodney’s Remarks

By the numbers: September’s Jobs

Rodney Supports Jobs For Veterans

Noted With Interest: Budget Dereliction

Taking Aim at a Prostate Testing Recommendation

This Week: Harry Reid’s Senate Rejects Barack Obama’s Jobs Bill

“It has become crystal clear that the White House believes that proposing another expensive ‘stimulus’ spending bill and slapping the word ‘jobs’ into the title and campaigning for the measure across the country is a good political strategy.  However, it is bad economic policy for America and the U.S. Senate acknowledged that fact by rejecting the President’s jobs bill on Tuesday.

“Now that the Senate has dealt with the President's ‘all-or-nothing’ demands on his jobs bill, it is time for him to focus on finding areas of common ground to boost the economy and create private sector jobs.  As I have said for weeks, Congress and the President should not let our differences keep us from focusing on areas of agreement to provide real results for the 14 million Americans who are unemployed or the millions struggling to make it from paycheck to paycheck.

“Of course, there are potential solutions on the table that address the uncertainty in our economy, the back-breaking regulations facing small and large businesses, as well as larger proposals for tax reform and debt reduction.  More can and should be done to help create a positive environment for job creation and it can be bipartisan.

“Finally, on Wednesday the House took another step toward final passage of the trade measures with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.  These agreements will help U.S. companies and workers by immediately expanding markets for our small businesses and manufacturers, and help create as many as 250,000 new jobs so that people can get back to work.”

              Rodney Frelinghuysen

Three Trade Agreements: Rodney’s Remarks

View Rodney’s statement in support of free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama on the Floor of the House of Representatives here.

By the numbers: September’s Jobs

The official September unemployment rate remained stubbornly at 9.1 percent.  However, the numbers inside the unemployment rate tell another story:

·        9.1%:  The unemployment rate for the month of September—the same rate as August and the second highest monthly level in 2011.  Only 2 out of the last 29 months have seen unemployment below 9 percent (February and March 2011).  From March 2009 (the month after the failed $1.2 trillion “stimulus” was signed) through September 2011, unemployment has average 9.4 percent.  Prior to President Obama taking office, unemployment had not been above 9 percent in 28 years.

·        32: The number of consecutive months the unemployment rate has been at or above 8 percent. Prior to the enactment of the “stimulus,” unemployment had not been above 8 percentfor this long since the Great Depression.

·        13,992,000:  The number of unemployed Americans looking for work in the month of September, an increase of 25,000 from August and the second highest number of unemployed workers of any month in 2011. 

·        40.5:  The average number of weeksit takes for job seekers to find a job—the longest average time that Americans have been unemployed since the statistic was first recorded in 1948.

·        9,270,000:  The number of Americans who worked only part-time in September because they could not find full time employment, an increase of 444,000 from August.  The number of people working part-timefor economic reasons reached 8 million for the first time in history in February 2009, the month the “stimulus” was enacted, and has remained above 8 million for 31 consecutive months.

·        6,242,000:  The number of Americans unemployed and searching for work for more than 27 weeks in the month of September.  Since President Obama took office in January 2009, the number of people unemployed for more than 27 weeks has increased by 132 percent.

·        1,327,000:  The number of job seekers that are new to the workforce and have yet to find a job.  The number of new workers who cannot find a job has been above 1 million for two years.

·        24.6%: The unemployment rate among job seekers between the ages of 16 and 19. Youth unemployment has been above 24 percent for 27 months, the longest streak since the Great Depression.

·        16.0%: The unemployment rate among African Americans in September, up 27 percentsince President Obama took office.

·        11.3%: The unemployment rate among Hispanics and Latinos, an increaseof 14 percent since President Obama took office.

·        14%:  The unemployment rate among Americans without high school diplomas, an increase of 15 percentsince President Obama took office.

·        6.5%: The level at which the Obama administration claimedunemployment would be today if the 2009 “stimulus” was signed into law.

·        $1,172,000,000,000:  The total cost of the President’s “stimulus.”  CBO estimates the cost of the bill will reach $825 billionand interest on the debt for the bill will be at least $347 billion.

Rodney Supports Jobs For Veterans

With Rodney’s strong support, the House passed legislation Wednesday to provide occupational training to out-of-work veterans as a way to counter growing unemployment in their ranks. According to the House Veterans Affairs Committee, unemployment among veterans recently rose from 7.7 percent to 8.1 percent, nationally.

The Veterans Opportunity to Work (VOW) Act (H.R. 2433) would allow 100,000 unemployed veterans ages 35 through 64 to apply for Montgomery GI Bill) benefits. Eligible veterans could choose to enhance their skills with up to a year of training for high-demand fields such as technology and health care. The VOW Act would also boost transition assistance for servicemembers and improve job protection laws for National Guard members and Reservists.

"Veterans bring great intangibles to employers,” said Rodney, a veteran of the Vietnam conflict. “They're leaders and team players, who know how to get the job done in challenging circumstances. All they need are updated skills to help them get into the job market and compete."

The VOW Act must now be approved by the Senate before it can become law.

Noted With Interest: Budget Dereliction

This weekend will mark the 900^th day since the U.S. Senate fulfilled its responsibility and passed a budget!

Recommended Reading: Reuel Marc Gerecht, writing in the Thursday Wall Street Journal, “Iran’s Act of War. The Islamic Republic is becoming more dangerous, not less, as it ages:”

Taking Aim at a Prostate Testing Recommendation

Rodney this week wrote to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to protest a new draft recommendation regarding a common prostate cancer screening test.  The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) this month determined that the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test may not be necessary.  The panel statedthat there is at least a moderate certainty that the test has no net benefit or that the harm done by the test will outweigh the benefits.

“I have many constituents who either know someone or are the one whose life was saved by this essential screening tool,” Rodney wrote. “As you are well aware, since the use of PSA testing began, deaths from prostate cancer have decreased by 40%.”

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed non-skin cancer in men in the U.S., and 1 in 6 American men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime. Early prostate cancer often has no symptoms and therefore it is vital that PSA testing, in combination with a digital rectal exam, be encouraged and used for all men, regardless of their symptom level.

A long time advocate for prostate cancer prevention, treatment and research, Rodney told Secretary Sebelius that he is “concerned that such recommendations will have a very real and very negative impact on men’s health and their families.”

He asked Sebelius to provide him with an expanded explanation of the research the USPSTF used to reach its conclusions.

Over the years, Rodney has worked closely with the Cancer Institute of New Jersey and its federal counterpart, the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland and with the Department of Defense to support cancer research.