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When U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, called a press conference for Jan. 25 to announce his five-point jobs plan on a visit to the Sarasota Jobs, ETC., the Congressman was quick to get to the point, saying:
“We really need to be focusing on jobs, jobs, jobs.”
Buchanan is introducing legislation calling for tax relief for small business, at least a one-year elimination of the capital gains tax for small businesses, making unemployment benefits tax free for 2010, repaying TARP funds immediately to pay down the national debt, and curbing frivolous lawsuits. It's titled the “Job
Creation Act of 2010.” He hopes to have bipartisan support.
Noting the 11.8% state unemployment rate and that the state “lost 150,000 to 200,000 jobs since the stimulus passed,” Buchanan says he will not support more bailouts that increase the deficit. In the past 12 months ending in December, the state has lost 232,400 jobs.
The two-term congressman also made sure he made another pointed remark: “The only place we don't have high unemployment is in Washington.”
The statistics mostly back him up when considering Virginia houses many federal workers. In December, nonfarm payroll employment increased in 11 states and the District of Columbia and decreased in 39 states.
The largest over-the-month increase in employment occurred in Virginia (+9,500). New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Virginia had the largest over-the-month percentage increase in employment (+0.3% each), followed by the District of Columbia, Hawaii, and Oregon (+0.2% each).
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in Virginia is 6.9% and in Maryland it's 7.5%. For the record, D.C. has a 12.1% unemployment rate. The U.S. is at 10%.
Wage and salary employment in the federal government is projected to increase by 10% for the 2008-2018 period, according to the bureau. There are more than two million federal employees of which about 15% work in the D.C. area.
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