Keep Our Economy Growing

We have great news to report concerning our economy and our nation's unemployment rate. New statistics provided by the U.S. Labor Department shows that our unemployment rate dropped to 8.6%. Reports also show that 72,000 jobs were created in the months of September and October of 2011.

A few weeks ago the largest Job Fair ever held in the Rio Grande Valley attracted over 4,000 people who were either jobless or under employed. There were 100 employers with close to 3,000 jobs available. My staff and I worked along with Workforce Solutions Hidalgo and Workforce Solutions Cameron and others to help match prospective employees with employers. We have a very capable work force in the Rio Grande Valley and they are people who are willing to work hard. There are already many examples of how one effort to help people find jobs actually works. A call center reports they have hired 36 new employees through the Job Fair and many other companies are also reporting filling in their job openings with Job Fair participants.

Creating jobs and putting more people to work is one part of getting our economy on track. The other is to make certain that those workers are protected and that our economy doesn’t fall backward but that it keeps moving forward. That is why Congress must work together on the American Jobs Act.

The American Jobs Act is an important piece of legislation that can and will work to benefit our nation's economy and in turn will also benefit the pocket books of Americans. I am supporting essential legislation in order to keep our economy growing and to prevent more economic burdens on our working class and our seniors.

Congress must ensure passage of three pieces of essential legislation in the American Jobs Act prior to the end of the year:

Extension of Unemployment Insurance for those who lost their jobs through no fault of their own.
Extension of a sustainable growth rate (SGR) fix to ensure that millions of seniors do not lose access to their Medicare physicians.
Extension and expansion of the Payroll Tax holiday that would ensure that virtually every working American receives a tax cut.
The extension and expansion of the Payroll Tax cut will help our hard working middle-class Americans save money.

If the payroll tax cut is not extended, our individual taxes would increase. To see what this would mean to you, the Payroll Tax Cut Calculator, introduced by the White House can be found here.

There is no doubt that Congress must and should pass this important legislation for the year 2012. It is a major priority. I remain hopeful that we can take a bipartisan action to extend these important provisions and also keep the government functioning through 2012.

Democrats have already voiced their commitment to vote to keep our economy growing strong and at the same time, we will not vote for anything that will jeopardize the American worker. We owe that to the American people.

In this time, when Republicans and the T.E.A. Party want policies to prohibit taxing the richest Americans, we must not allow more of the burden to fall on the backs of our middle class and low-income families. It is time to be realistic and it is time to be dedicated to really helping our citizens, not just the richest. These urgent needs must be addressed in time to ensure that the needs of Americans are met. I plan to vote to support our economy and to support the American people.

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Sincerely,

Ruben Hinojosa