Replacing those jobs with local infrastructure jobs:
"Governor Dean will begin his work to improve the economy by proposing a two- year, $100 billion Fund to Restore America, designed to add more than one million new jobs to the economy. The Fund will benefit the economy in both the short and long term.
The Fund will be distributed to states and localities to assist communities that have been worst hit by the economic downturn. Some of the money will be used to improve homeland security by hiring and training first responders, public health personnel and security providers for critical installations and ports, and for purchasing new and improved equipment. Other funds will be awarded to states and cities to build new or to renovate and repair their failing infrastructure, including schools, roads, rail, water, wastewater, electrical and telecommunications systems.
The Fund will place a special emphasis on helping disadvantaged and minority communities, which have been hard hit by the downturn and have recovered the least."
Aid to State Governments to prevent gov worker layoffs:
"The federal government has promised to pay 40% of the cost of special education, but presently pays less than 17 percent. As President, Governor Dean will work to fully fund special education. By taking some of the pressure off state and local budgets, this move will create jobs through rehiring of teachers and other essential employees, and free up resources to meet other critical needs and reduce taxes.
The Bush administration has left the US without the resources to adequately protect our nation against possible terrorist strikes and unprepared to deal with the aftermath of such attacks. The critical requirements of our first line of defense — police, firefighters, hospital personnel and other first responders — have become unfunded mandates imposed on state and local governments. States and localities are struggling with the problems of insufficient people, inadequate training and nonexistent or obsolete equipment. Governor Dean’s $100 billion proposed Fund to Restore America will help meet many of these homeland security needs, but the Governor will also make a long- term commitment to increase funding by at least $5 billion a year over currently proposed Bush administration levels."
Small Business Development:
"Small businesses create more jobs each year than large corporations. But entrepreneurs and small business people are too often handcuffed by a lack of growth and working capital. So good ideas languish and businesses fail to realize their potential. Small businesses are especially important to minority communities. They offer not only jobs, but also the opportunity to build wealth through ownership. Governor Dean will revitalize the lending and investment programs of the Small Business Corporation. He will establish a Small Business Capital Corporation within the Small Business Administration. The mission of the corporation will be to expand the modest secondary market that currently exists for SBA- guaranteed loans. Based on the model of mortgage financing that has increased American home ownership levels to the highest in the world, the SBCC will bring additional capital resources to small businesses"
Targeted Delopment:
"The Governor believes we need a community and regional growth strategy for the 21st century, rather than the out-of-date concepts that dominate current thinking.
Federal spending for economic development totals more than $30 billion a year and is delivered through a bewildering array of programs, departments and agencies, each with its own requirements, mandates, matching requirements and timetables. Some are focused on business, some on transportation, others on workers, or pollution control. Putting together effective strategies for economic development at the state and regional level involves months and years of frustration and delay.
America’s national economy is actually made up of several regional economies, and the economic strength of each region varies from time to time. Yet our economic development efforts are built on national platforms, as if the entire economy moved in unison. There is little or no coordination at the national or regional level.
In a time of scarce federal dollars and a crying need for more and better jobs, an effective economic development delivery system is more than a need — it is a necessity. Governor Dean would improve the system dramatically by reinvigorating the National Economic Council and creating a White House Office of Economic Growth that would work with governors and mayors to create vital regional growth strategies, and break through bureaucratic logjams to deliver results."
Trade:
"Governor Dean believes that international trade is essential to the continued growth and health of the American economy and to the creation and strengthening of the middle class throughout the developing world. Promoting middle class societies is not only the right thing to do; it's also in our own self-interest. Our efforts will create consumers for our goods and improve our national security because nations with middle classes are generally more stable, more democratic, and less likely to foster terrorism. So the question is not whether one is for or against trade: The question is under what rules should trade be conducted, for whose benefit should the rules be drawn, and how should they be enforced.
The Bush Administration’s trade policy is not working. The Governor has seen the impact of job losses that result from this misguided policy plus the sluggish U.S. and international economies. Trade agreements must be fair. Specifically, they must include strict and enforceable labor standards based on the five core standards of the International Labor Organization (ILO):
* freedom of association,
* the right to collective bargaining,
* abolition of forced or compulsory labor,
* abolition of child labor, and
* freedom from discrimination.
Our trade agreements should also incorporate environmental standards. To persuade other countries to adopt higher environmental standards, the U.S. will have to restore its role as a global leader by becoming once again an active member of the international environmental community.
Strong and enforceable standards need to be integral elements of trade agreements themselves, not side agreements. To help America’s trading partners incorporate labor and environmental standards into their domestic body of laws, the Governor will call on the World Bank, the regional development banks, the International Labor Organization, other multilateral organizations and our own government to provide developing nations with meaningful technical assistance when needed. We should be acting to protect middle class jobs in the United States and labor and environmental standards abroad with the same enthusiasm that we apply to protecting intellectual property rights, capital, and the interests of investors.
The promise of NAFTA — that it would trigger an economic boom in Mexico, create a huge middle class market for US goods, expand the US trade surplus with Mexico, generate net new jobs at home, and drastically reduce undocumented migration — that promise has not been kept.
Since the inception of NAFTA, Mexico’s growth rate has been less than 3 percent — for the last two and a half years has been less than 1 percent. The US has lost well paying jobs as businesses have moved production to Mexico, in search of cheap labor. The promised Mexican middle class of consumers to purchase US goods has not appeared and migration to the United States continues relentlessly. But NAFTA is here to stay — our economies have become too integrated. So Governor Dean will negotiate a “New Deal” with Mexico — a real plan that will generate Mexican economic growth and save American jobs.
As President, he will work to persuade WTO members that that body should take the lead in implementing and enforcing labor and environmental standards. The WTO members have accepted a number of US proposals that they didn’t want, such as corporate intellectual property rights. If the US makes labor and environmental standards as important a priority as it has made corporate rights, the Governor believes our nation can get the concessions we seek — history shows we can make it happen."
There's more here:
http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/PageServer?pagename=policy_policy_economy_reclaimingtheamericandream
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