core sector communique

Rebuild America Act Offers Roadmap Toward Promising Future

Bill Addresses Need for Jobs

(WASHINGTON)--With the introduction of The Rebuild America Act this week, Senator Tom Harkin, (D-IA), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, offers a roadmap toward shared prosperity, including concrete measures that would provide a big step toward ensuring that everyone has enough for a promising future. We applaud Senator Harkin’s leadership and look forward to supporting the efforts make these proposals a reality for hardworking families.

The Rebuild America Act points the way on critical issues that face American workers, their families and their future. The bill addresses the need for jobs through investments in schools, clean energy, infrastructure, and manufacturing. It includes measures to make sure that new and existing jobs offer decent wages and dignity by increasing and indexing the minimum wage and providing a fair deal for “tipped” workers, providing every worker with paid sick days, and improving access to overtime pay.

For those who are retiring or become disabled, the bill refuses to bow to the idea that we have to cut Social Security to save it, and rather would improve benefits while enhancing the long term stability of the program by raising the cap on earnings subject to payroll taxes.

Through these and a number of other measures Sen. Harkin highlights the positive role for public investments and programs in building the kind of economy we need and the country that we want.

The bill also makes clear that in a country as rich as ours, we can afford to do what needs to be done to support our families if we make sure that everyone pays their fair share. The bill includes several much needed reforms to begin to restore fairness to our tax code. These include a Wall Street Speculators Tax, the elimination of tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, an increase in the tax rate for capital gains and for hedge fund managers, and the “Buffett Rule” requiring that everyone with an income over $1 million pays no less than a 30% tax rate.

Beyond all the specifics, with this bill Senator Harkin is also sending a message that we can’t just keep on trying to fight off harmful proposals from the right. We need to set out a vision for what we really need to rebuild a stronger country and fight for it!

The Campaign for Community Change is the action arm of the Center for Community Change. The Campaign seeks to educate and empower marginalized communities to influence the public policies that affect their lives; increase their ongoing civic participation; and help them build the political will for reform. We equip low-income people and people of color with the tools to take a more active role in advocating for public policies and pushing for change.