There are House primary candidates running on the idea this year, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York, Randy Bryce in Wisconsin and Dan Canon in Indiana. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a potential presidential nominee, has expressed support.
In November’s congressional mid-terms and likely in 2020, Democratic candidates will come up against Republicans campaigning on the successes of the Trump labor market. As the unemployment rate edged lower on his watch, the president has celebrated on Twitter. “Jobs, jobs, jobs” is a favorite refrain.
But unemployment was already under 5 percent, at the low end of recent norms, in November 2016 when Americans threw out the incumbent party and elected Trump. And in 2006, when the jobless rate was even lower, voters swept Republicans out of their congressional majority.
“The lesson from 2016 is that many Americans were left out of this economy, and particularly in places that have concentrated unemployment and a lack of resources,” California representative Ro Khanna said by phone. He’s working on his own jobs-guarantee bill, and says he hopes the idea will “become a serious part” of the Democratic platform.
Hardly Satisfied
Polling on the issue is sparse. Three-quarters of Americans worry about federal spending and increased deficits, according to Gallup. But Civis Analytics, a data firm founded by an aide to former President Barack Obama, found that more than half of Americans think the government should provide employment for those who can’t find it.
Support was highest among the young, the poor, and people of color. Jobless rates among minorities have reached record lows; still, black unemployment is nearly double the national level, and for Hispanic Americans it has averaged 6.5 percent over the last five years.
And even among those with jobs, “we have high rates of working poverty,” Duke’s Darity said. “We should hardly be satisfied.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.