Funding for job retraining for Americans is 1/2 of what it used to be...
by Thom Hartmann,posted Apr 10 2012 9:40AM
As nearly 13 million Americans look for a job – federal funding to retrain Americans workers and prepare them for the jobs of the 21st century are drying up. Funding for job-training programs across the country is down 18% from 2006 – even though there are six million more unemployed Americans today. Funding for counseling for the unemployed – like resume guidance and job interview coaching – is down 13%. In fact – funding for job retraining for Americans is roughly half of what it used to be more than a decade ago.
So now – even though the economy is slightly improving – business are having difficulty finding Americans workers who are trained and qualified to handle the new job. President Obama’s budget proposal called for a massive increase in job retraining programs – increasing funding to nearly $3 billion a year. Studies show this is a good economic investment, as every dollar spent on retraining unemployed Americans for new jobs yields as much as eight dollars for the local community.
However – multi-millionaire Congressman Paul Ryan’s Republican trickle-down austerity budget once again slashes funding for federal job retraining programs. Under their proposal – it’s far more important to give $3 trillion in tax breaks to the super-rich than give working Americans new job skills.
Listen to me Monday thorugh Friday LIVE from 3 PM to 6 PM on WWRL AM 1600.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced a so-called comprehensive immigration plan. And, as usual, Democrats conceded to Republican demands in the name of compromise. Over the last five days, the Judiciary Committee members considered over...
I must admit, I've never been to Oklahoma. I have family friends from there, but it's one part of the Great Plains I've managed to avoid in my life. Yet that didn't stop me from feeling quite a bit of empathy with those folks in...
For over a week, Republicans have refused to focus on anything but so-called scandal. And, it turns out, that's exactly the way they want it. On Thursday, the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank, sent a letter to...
A new CNN poll shows Obama's favorability rating at 53 percent. That's up from 51 percent in April, and up from the 51.1 percent from the poll that really counted last November. Like before the scandals, 45 percent of people disapprove of the...
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have made their point – they hate Obamacare. And, just in case anyone didn't get the message the first 36 times they made that point, they're about to waste even more taxpayer...
It turns out the IRS was investigating conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status. Duh! And the TSA has been looking at people seeking to get on airplanes. None of the conservative organizations that the IRS was "targeting" were...
The Associated Press has accused the Justice Department of "massive and unprecedented intrusion." That's according to one of the AP's top executives, after learning that the government secretly acquired two months of the news...
It seems that the Republicans won't stop until their attacks over Benghazi are as vicious as the attack in Benghazi. The Republicans would have you believe that the Obama administration altered the talking points on Benghazi out of political...
According to the U.S. Supreme Court, Monsanto has the right to control our food supply. In a unanimous ruling released this morning, the nine Justices sided with the agricultural giant, and held that an Indiana farmer violated Monsanto's...
Yesterday, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives postponed all floor votes so they could hold their ninth hearing about Benghazi. Instead of working on any number of pressing issues effecting Americans, Republicans spent nine...
