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Category Archives: Jobs
Keystone Pipeline Update
John Boehner continues to lobby for the Keystone XL Pipeline and now claims that he plans on attaching the issue to the jobs bill expected to be introduced next week. Boehner claims that the pipeline will create “over 100,000 indirect jobs”. Other estimates from credible sources, such as Robert Jones, the VP for TransCanada, indicate that this figure is wildly exaggerated. Jones claims that the pipeline would only create 20,000 temporary jobs and likely only a few hundred permanent jobs. Perhaps John Boehner should do a little fact-checking before he opens that hole in his unusually tan face.
Inside Politics | Jan. 25 – No Drama Obama. SOTU Analysis.
The 2012 State of the Union was yet another eloquently delivered speech by our president, Barack Obama. While talking to a buddy of mine who isn’t entirely on the progressive side of things, he admitted that “it’s good to have a President that doesn’t make up words and sayings.” My sentiments entirely. Far gone are the Bush days of “misunderestimating,” “Axes of Evil,” and being the laughingstock of the world. Our President also showed his bipartisan nature by highlighting many things the two sides agree on, including merging six government agencies into one, cutting out needless bureaucracy, rewarding teachers for doing a good job and inspiring their students, strengthening the border, and cutting taxes for companies that keep jobs here in America. He then essentially threw the ball in the Congressional court, telling them that if they pass bills with the above ideas that both sides agree on, he will “sign them right away.”
He additionally gave progressives a lot to be happy about, with his statements on asking the Top 2% of Americans to pay their fair share, citing Mitt Romney’s insanely low tax percentage as evidence that the richest Americans are getting away with paying the same percentage of taxes as the bus driver or coal miner barely making ends meet. He highlighted the need for environmental change, citing what he’s already done and what he plans to do with increasing funding for natural gas, wind, solar, and biofuel research. He also showed the three million job increase that has occured in the last 22 months, a revolutionary increase in jobs. Finally, he said that enough was enough with Congresspeople engaging in insider trading, and requesting a fair playing field for all people living in this country.
Whether or not you support progressivism (although if you’re reading this you probably do), it’s hard to deny Barack Obama’s still got game. It’s time for Washington embrace the no-drama attitude Obama has embodied for years, and get things done in this country. I’m proud Obama is the leader of my party, and am beyond honored that he’s coming to U of M to speak at the Al Glick Field House on Friday (get your tickets at the Michigan Union Ticket Office tomorrow morning at 9 am!). Seeing the man in person will certainly be an honor.
Quote of the Day | “You can have a town, why don’t you take it”
“Our consensus is that we go out there listening to the American people. It’s about jobs, it’s about reducing the deficit and it’s about fighting for the middle class. I look forward to doing that with this great leadership team.”
Environmental Event Tonight
Tonight at long last the Enviro Dems documentary A Place to Stay will be revealed. Come hear from experts in urban planning and design about what makes a community attractive, particularly to college-educated young people (like us). Come be a part of the discussion!
Posted in Blog, College Democrats, Detroit, Economy, Environment, Events, Jobs
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Kal Penn to Work at White House
Actor Kal Penn, whom most of us met during the campaign, will soon be working in the White House as the associate director of the White House office of public liaison. Penn, who has said he wishes to enter politics, likes public service, despite the significant pay cut, because of what his grandparents taught him:
It’s probably because of the value system my grandparents instilled in me. They marched with Gandhi in the Indian independence movement, and that was always in the back of my head. [Source]
Penn describes his new office as “the front door of the White House. They take out all of the red tape that falls between the general public and the White House.”
Posted in Barack Obama, Blog, Cabinet Appointments, Jobs, Stuff Democrats Like
Tagged Barack Obama, Kal Penn, white house
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Walgreens to offer Free 'Take Care' Clinics for recently Unemployed
Walgreens will be offering their Take Care clinics for free to those who will be losing their jobs and will become uninsured throughout the rest of this year. Â To qualify for the free clinic services you have to present proof that you have lost your job since March 31 and are no longer insured. Â Spouses and children qualify for the free services as long as they don’t have their own insurance. Â Also, to recieve the services from Walgreens Take Care clinics for free you have to have been treated at a Take Care clinic in the past. Â If you have not you must pay for your first visit and then all of the rest will be free. Â
The Walgreens Take Care clinics will not offer free check-ups or vaccinations because they would like to focus on providing services for more serious conditions like an urgent-care center.  They will focus on treating ailments such as allergies, respiratory problems, infections and skin conditions.  These services typically will cost around $60 or more to uninsured patients. They will also only offer these free services during the hours of 11am -3pm Monday through Friday.
This new service has been referred to as “experimental” by the chairman of Take Care Health System, Hal Rosenbluth. Â Walgreens is not sure how much money this program will cost them but they are hoping that world will spread about the program and that will help business.Â
I think this is a really good concept and is a step in the right direction.  However, there are clearly some flaws ranging from the qualification requirement that you must have lost your job since March 31 to the rule that you essentially must pay for your first visit.  These services will only be offered from March 31 to the end of the year.  Most people will probably not go to the doctor more than once in that time period, never using their available free visits.  This service are still appreciated though, and hopefully people will take advantage of the program and it can be expanded.
America's high five sticks out like a sore thumb
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The NY Times made a cool interactive map of The US that’s color coded by unemployment rates. Michigan does have a ridiculous amount of unemployment and seems to boast 14 counties with 15+% unemployment rates. It’s sad. But, you guys should check it out. You can filter the counties out based on cool things like if they are around manufacturing centers to look at trends on how things like the auto industry may have affected it.Â
Will you be Insured?
Young adults ages 19-29 make up the largest group of uninsured Americans. Â Mostly because the jobs they have are more likely to not offer insurance to them. Â In fact, only 50% of the people in this group working are offered insurance by their employer. Â People in this age group that aren’t working are most likely students in college that can still be covered under their parents insurance. Â Once they are done with their education though they won’t qualify for their parents insurance anymore. Â So then they will enter into jobs (if they can find them) that have only a 50% chance of offering them insurance. Â This is going to be us in one-three years. Â
The statistic that young adults just starting work are the most likely to be uninsured, is not new news.  However, I had no idea that the percentage of  people in this group uninsured was so high at 23% –about one in every four people.  So my question to you is: Will the job you get after graduation insure you?
Outsourced: Offshore Innovation
For many companies these days, it’s absolutely natural for them to tap the knowledge base abroad for parts of resource and development (R&D). Why? Students in “first-world” countries are still shying from the technical jobs, whereas in India, there are at least 100, 000 English-speaking engineers graduating a year. Folks in R&D, often unable to find enough engineers here in the West, head over to Asia. R&D is massively competitive, meaning products put out a year late often suffer great losses — as a consequence, the time-to-market pressure put on by the companies abroad also pushes Indians (and Chinese!) to innovate faster and faster. Also, these Asian economies want products suited to them — not just Western hand-me-downs (via BusinessWeek).
Posted in Blog, India, Jobs, Outsourced
Tagged asian tiger, business week, development, India, infosys, Outsourced, south korea, wipro
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109,000 Jobs
White House numbers suggest that Michigan stands to gain or maintain 109,000 jobs with the passage of the stimulus package. With 3.5 million jobs expected to be spread out over 300,000,000 Americans, and 10,000,000 Michiganders we should expect about 15,000,000 – ideally more given the fact that we have been harder hit than most states by the current economic downturn. Still 109,000 is a big number. To put that in perspective, there are 114,000 people in Ann Arbor. Imagine this entire city minus the 5,000 people on the College Dems listserve, and imagine all of them unemployed and getting a job as a result of this bill. Then imagine you’re a Republican member of the Michigan congressional delegation and decided to vote against this bill. You’d have to be crazy. Or just blinded by partisanship.
Posted in Barack Obama, Blog, Economy, Jobs, Republican Party
Tagged Congress, Jobs, michigan, obama, stimulus
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