President Obama is in Ohio today to “highlight his Administration’s job training initiatives.” No doubt the people of the Buckeye State will be asking: Just what is the president promoting this time? There are a number of “initiatives” to choose from:
Initiative A: The 2011 so-called American Jobs Act plan, which demands two more programs and $9 billion in new spending be added to the more than 47 existing programs currently operated at a cost of 18 billion taxpayer dollars annually;
Initiative B: The 2012 State of the Union plan, which included President Obama’s request to "cut through the maze of confusing [job] training programs” and establish just "one program" to serve the nation's unemployed;
Initiative C: The 2013 Big Government Budget plan, which asks taxpayers to finance two new job training programs at a cost of more than $20 billion, yet fails to outline any effort to achieve the president’s previous call for “one program"; or
Initiative D: The 2013 Big Budget Addendum plan, which pays lip service to the president’s call for “one program” by consolidating just two existing programs. This initiative was put forward a few weeks after release of the president’s budget blueprint, and also includes an effort to rebrand the nation’s roughly 3,000 One Stop Career Centers.
It's enough to make your head spin. Fortunately for America's workers, employers, and taxpayers, House Education and the Workforce Committee Republicans are taking action on one plan that will fix our nation’s broken job training system and help put people back to work.
Consolidate 27 existing job training programs into one Workforce Investment Fund;
Strengthen the role of job creators in workforce development decisions;
Remove barriers in existing law that deny immediate access to job training; and
Deliver real accountability over the use of taxpayer dollars.
While President Obama talks about the problems in the nation's job training system, Republicans are moving forward with real solutions. It is time the president joined our effort.
