Issue Position: Supporting Rhode Island's Working Families

Issue Position

Issue Position: Supporting Rhode Island's Working Families

Supporting Rhode Island's Working Families
Rhode Islanders, like families across the nation, are experiencing economic anxieties the likes of which we have not seen in a generation. Once a manufacturing capital, Rhode Island has lost thousands of well-paying industrial jobs in recent years. U.S. trade policy has encouraged companies to move jobs overseas where labor is cheap and regulations are few. While the economic policies of the Bush Administration left the wealthiest better off than ever before, wages for working Americans have stagnated against a backdrop of soaring health care, housing, fuel, and education costs. Many Rhode Island families are struggling to get by and our country is stuck in the worst recession since the Great Depression.

I believe that relief for struggling families is long overdue. I was proud to support the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which will create or save 13,000 Rhode Island jobs over the next two years; provide a refundable tax credit up to $1,000 for 470,000 Rhode Island workers and their families; make 14,000 Rhode Island families eligible for a new, $2,500, partially refundable American Opportunity Tax Credit to make college affordable; and offer an additional $100 per month in unemployment insurance benefits to 86,000 workers in Rhode Island who have lost their jobs in this recession. It also provided a one time increase of $250 to all Social Security and SSDI recipients, which I fought to include in the final bill to make sure our seniors and citizens with disabilities were not forgotten.

We will not be able escape the recession until we do something about the depressed housing market. Thousands of Rhode Islanders bought or refinanced homes during the recent housing "bubble" and, as property values have fallen, those homeowners find themselves "underwater," owing more on their mortgage than their home is worth. I have cosponsored legislation that would stabilize the housing market and enable families to stay in their homes by empowering bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of a home mortgage. This reform would give Rhode Islanders and struggling homeowners nationwide the leverage to negotiate for reasonable mortgage modifications.

I have also introduced legislation to address the epidemic of high interest consumer credit. With working families in Rhode Island and across the nation relying more heavily than ever on credit cards to pay the bills and put food on the table, credit card interest rates that can climb well above 25 or 30 percent are excessive, unnecessary, and harmful both to family budgets and our economy. To address this problem before it becomes a catastrophe I've introduced the Consumer Credit Fairness Act (CCFA), which would encourage lenders to keep their rates reasonable.

There's much more that will need to be done in the weeks and months ahead to restore our economy, but I have confidence that with President Obama's leadership we will emerge from this crisis stronger than ever.

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