Obama jobs bill is economy’s answer

Consumer demand constitutes 70 percent of our economy. Consumer debt is 110 percent of disposable income, down from 150 percent in 2008-09. Oversupply of housing runs in the millions.

Republican economic advisers Martin Feldstein, of Harvard, and Henry Paulson, former Secretary of the Treasury, plus many neutral economists agree that weak consumer demand is the main cause for our slow recovery.

If there is no demand for their product or service, businesses don’t hire workers. And, unless it will make them more efficient, they do not invest in new machinery, systems or factories.

That our roads, bridges, transportation systems and too many schools are falling apart, cannot be denied. That we will eventually have to fix them is an obvious given.

Repairing them now when interest rates are so low will have several beneficial effects. It will provide jobs for the unemployed that will result in an increase in consumer demand and reduction of consumer debt. The taxes on the income of those employed will increase revenue and reduce the costs of unemployment benefits. In addition, it will buffer our economy against the fallout from a European economic collapse that could affect the global economy of which we area part.

Under the circumstances, President Obama’s jobs bill is the medicine an ailing economy needs at this time, and that is the opinion of Feldstein and many independent economists. Let’s not be penny wise and pound-foolish.

Paul W. Kaiser, Jr.

Waukegan