Dear President Obama,

With unemployment remaining above 9%, and fear of a double-dip recession, America needs millions of jobs NOW.

Trickle-down policies like tax cuts will not create millions of jobs.

Neither will complex infrastructure projects with long lead times, heavy capital equipment, and few workers – as ARA overseer Ron Klain explained: http://bloom.bg/j1sPJA

Instead, we need an emergency jobs program that puts every single dollar into payroll.

JobParty.us has a simple emergency jobs plan: hire a teacher’s aide for every public school teacher in America for one year.

That’s over 3 million jobs – and they can start on September 1 when school starts. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_004.asp?referrer=report

If we put 3 million of the 14 million unemployed Americans to work, the official unemployment rate would immediately drop from 9% to 7%.

In addition, the multiplier effect would add another 1 million jobs and reduce unemployment to 6.4%

How to run it?

We would administer a test to all applicants to determine the highest grade level at which they can meaningfully help the teacher.

We would give preferences to military veterans, and to workers who have exhausted their state’s maximum unemployment benefits (so-called 99ers).

We would screen out applicants with criminal convictions and sex offenses.

How much would it cost?

If the Federal government paid each aide $30K per year, the total 1-year gross cost to employ 3 million workers is only $90 billion.

Moreover, the $90 billion gross cost would be offset by savings in unemployment, Medicaid, food stamps, and other safety-net programs. There would also be increased revenues for Social Security, Medicare, and federal/state/local taxes. Thus the net cost would be roughly $55 billion. http://www.demos.org/pubs/BackToWork.pdf

By contrast, the extension of the Bush tax cuts was expected to create just 1 million jobs at a cost of $858 billion – 1/4 the jobs at 15 times the cost.

Where could the $55 billion come from?

1. Extending the Bush Tax Cuts for the rich cost $858B. Raise $55B through a temporary millionaire surtax that is popular in every poll.

2. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost $160B each year. Raise $55B by bringing 1/3 of our troops home.

3. Corporate welfare, including subsidies for Big Oil and Ethanol, cost $2 trillion. Raise $55B by slicing 3% out of corporate welfare. http://www.jobparty.us/end_corp_welfare

But if $55 billion is beyond reach, the total cost of the program can be reduced either by lowering the one-year salary, or by lowering the number of teacher’s aides.