Durbin pushes Obama jobs plan in Aurora

Sen. Dick Durbin said Wednesday Congress must get more people back to work before debating the best methods to tackle the nation’s budget deficit.

Until unemployment shrinks it would be irresponsible for Congress to attack safety net programs such as unemployment benefits, Medicaid and federal grants for food pantries, Durbin said.

The Illinois Democrat lent an ear to human service agencies in Kane County at a round-table discussion at the Kane County Health Department in Aurora while also playing cheerleader for President Barack Obama’s jobs plan.

Local food pantries, a representative from the River Valley Workforce Investment Board and Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner all told Durbin they are under extreme duress just to provide food, shelter and job training for the thousands of people looking for help in the down economy. Hesed House representatives said they set a record earlier this year for the most people ever housed in the homeless shelter in one night.

“We had 214 people one night,” said Ryan Dowd, executive director of the shelter. “We filled every bed, every chair, and we even had several people volunteer to sleep outside.”

Weisner said local human service agencies need federal funding because local governments can’t provide it right now.

“We’re at a time in local government when our social services need the most support, and at the same time we’re least able to provide it,” Weisner said. “If we get a further breakdown in the safety net, all of us will be in trouble. We will not be the city we should be.”

Durbin said that’s a reality Republicans don’t understand in targeting human service agencies for budget cuts.

“We have a serious deficit problem in Washington, and we have to deal with it,” Durbin said. “But you cannot balance the budget with 14 million Americans out of work. It’s much like saying we’ve got a long-term plan for dealing with a patient, but first we have to stabilize this patient. The problem we have is there is a mindset in Washington that says before you do anything else, cut spending.”

Durbin championed Obama’s plan to cut the payroll tax on workers and small businesses. The plan is both an extension of existing cuts and an expansion of the cuts worth about $240 billion. The plan cuts the payroll tax paid by employees — which helps fund Social Security — in half through 2012. That cut would return about $1,500 a year to the average Illinois resident, Durbin said. Small businesses would also see their portion of the tax trimmed in an effort to encourage new hiring. A small business in Illinois would get about $4,000 in trade for hiring a new worker.

“That, to me, says to a small business it’s worth giving (a new employee) a chance,” Durbin said.

He also pressed the portion of Obama’s plan to spend money on infrastructure improvements, such as school modernization, to drive jobs. But in an interview, Durbin hedged his forecast on the ability of Obama’s plan to put a large number of the unemployed back to work immediately. Durbin said Congress must focus on plans with the potential to create jobs in the long term.

“There is no magic bullet,” Durbin said.

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady said he likes the idea of payroll tax cuts, but Obama’s plan falls far short of a long-term solution to unemployment.

“The reality is we are almost three years into the Obama administration, and this is the first time they’ve come up with a jobs plan,” Brady said. “All Dick Durbin is doing is going out and demagoguing. I’d like to know what’s the Durbin jobs plan. We haven’t heard a thing out of Durbin other than to make Republicans look evil. That’s really kind of pathetic.”