"American families are feeling the pain as jobs continue to be outsourced, benefits continue to be slashed, and pensions continue to be cut. It's no coincidence that businesses are exporting our jobs in mass numbers to low wage countries. The bottom line is that priorities in Congress are upside-down. The Bush-Kuhl administration continues to give away billions in tax breaks to multi-millionaires and Big Oil, all at the expense of working American families. What Americans really need is a Congress that will fight for their best interests, not the corporate special interests. We need a sane, healthy approach to economic development in Western New York and I won't stopuntil American families have the real answers to these very real economic problems."
Retired Navy Commander Eric Massa

Working together to create good jobs with solid benefits for American families. Retired Navy Commander Eric Massa knows that the key to economic revitalization is the creation of good jobs with solid benefits. Eric Massa will lead the fight for jobs in Western New York. He will fight for working American families, not the corporate special interests. For six years the Bush-Kuhl administration has given away billions of dollars in tax cuts to multi-millionaires and corporate special interests. They have funded these windfall tax breaks by making deep cuts in critical areas such as Veteran's programs, children's health care and Medicare. Eric Massa's comprehensive plan lays out ways to get the American economy back on track and will mean new jobs with solid benefits for American families.

1. FIXING FAILED BUSH-KUHL FREE TRADE ECONOMIC POLICIES
1. American workers are the backbone of our economy. Americans make up the most productive workforce in the world. The United States earns more than $13 trillion per year, yet jobs are disappearing, health care costs are rising, and pensions are shrinking. Working families deserve more than a government that will work to benefit the wealthiest 1% of us to the detriment of the middle class. By implementing Fair Trade agreements we can put American families first. Americans are working incredibly long hours and receive fewer paid days off. The problem is not the people, it's the politicians in Washington.
2. Create fair trade policies. Bush-Kuhl trade deals like NAFTA, CAFTA, and a dozen others have failed. We have lost millions of jobs¹ because we have created the conditions where businesses need to move to countries like China and Mexico in order to compete. To bring jobs back to America, we must replace these failed free trade deals with new Fair Trade policies. Congress must level the playing field with our trading partners. Fair Trade will guarantee worker's rights, higher manufacturing standards, decent working conditions, and good wages and benefits across the board. On August 20, 2008, Eric Massa released a detailed roadmap on how to achieve Fair Trade.²


2. CREATING AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE BUSINESS CAN SUCCEED AND WORKING MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES CAN GROW
1. Promote technological and innovative jobs to invest in our Nation's future. Americans need 21st century jobs that put good educations to use. Eric Massa proposes that Congress increase the availability and amount of low interest FASFA loans to college students. Congress should also instate a policy of loan forgiveness for people who choose to serve five years in public sector jobs like teaching, social work, fire fighting, nursing, or policing. This new policy will make it possible for the next generation of workers to afford to stay in Western New York. By encouraging 21st century jobs with benefits, Congress will create a generation of young people who were educated here, work here, and can afford to stay here. Eric Massa knows that this kind of economic engine will create a skilled workforce that attracts good companies, offering high paying jobs and solid benefits.
2. Focus our investments in strategic areas. Tourism, alternative energy technologies, optics/imaging, and biotechnology/life sciences are four key areas where the 29th district is poised for growth and global leadership status. Investment and development efforts should be concentrated in these strategic areas, and all levels of government should be working together to create high quality, 21st century jobs. Americans need a responsive government that's a facilitator, not a barrier, to business.
3. Invest in job training programs for displaced workers. Americans need more access to training and lifelong education if our workers are going to remain competitive in the global economy. Everyday, classroom space goes unused at state colleges, universities, and technical schools in New York and across the Nation. These seats can be filled for little to no marginal cost and we can make a valuable investment in post-secondary educational institutions and in the American worker. Eric's plan will be modeled after Rhode Island's and will allow workers that recently lost their jobs to attend, free of cost, any class that is not at capacity at any state college, university, community, or technical school³. Let's invest in our own workforce first.
4. Reinvest in smart urban growth. Our cities must be overhauled. In order to attract jobs to Western New York, new leadership must emerge to create an attractive environment for business owners. Eric Massa proposes that the local infrastructure in our main cities, like Corning, Elmira, Hornell, Olean, and Rochester be brought up to the highest standards. Roads must be maintained, bridges repaired, and water and waste systems expanded. Let's revoke the billions of dollars in wasteful tax handouts that we give to Big Oil and other corporate special interests and use this money to strengthen our communities. By executing a "Manhattan project" to upgrade our infrastructure we will create thousands of good paying jobs right here in Western New York.
5. Maximizing our Empire State Zones. Creating tax incentives in specific areas to encourage specific jobs is another significant part of Eric's solution. Incentives to students and private businesses to develop strategic areas will create good jobs with benefits and fill a huge need in our economy. Eric Massa proposes that Congress begin by offering tax incentives for research and development in the biofuel industry. This will generate even more jobs in an up and coming field.


3. GETTING COSTS UNDER CONTROL
1. Making health care affordable. "It is a well-known fact that the U.S. automobile industry spends more per car on health care than on steel,"--Lee Iacocca, the retired chairman of Chrysler⁴. One major source of unfair competition between the US and most other developed nations is this: many US companies contribute huge sums to the employer's share of employee's private health insurance. In most other industrial countries, which include many of our main competitors, health coverage comes largely from tax-based public revenue and is only supplemented by private contributions. The absence in the US of a broad and fully accessible public health system and our reliance on an incredibly expensive and fragmented private system, forces up the cost of US goods and services by 10-20 percent or more⁵. On the other had, many of our competitors among developing states compete with us on cost by not offering their workers good modern health care. So either because no equivalent health care is available or because there is good care paid by other means, US goods are more expensive, so US companies lose orders and US workers lose jobs. The answer is to adopt a made-in-America style of single-payer health care, which will allow lower costs of goods, more export-based jobs, more profitable firms and better national health care. Everybody wins.
2. Americans must have access to quality, affordable education. Right now, the average debt of a graduating college student is $19,200⁶ and predatory lenders keep interest rates as high as 30%⁷. As education costs skyrocket, Americans simply cannot afford the price of higher levels of learning. This leaves our talented young people with a dilemma. They can either go to college and graduate with a mountain of debt, or simply not go. Neither option is acceptable. Finding a solution must be a priority in Congress. Congress must reach out to our local universities,businesses, and local government officials to adopt a comprehensive plan to create technology incubators such as Raleigh-Durham's Research Triangle right here in Western New York. Companies in new, highly-technological fields like nanotechnology need a workforce with special skills. Congress must work to connect our students with our companies. Companies looking for specialty skilled workers should pay for part of the student's education, much like a scholarship. The student, in turn, will agree to work at the business for a set amount of time. Not only will this create good jobs with solid benefits that can be filled by the American workforce, but it will also keep young people in Western New York, help the area prosper, and create a skilled workforce that matches the local labor demands.

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¹ AFL-CIO

² http://massaforcongress.com/eric_massa_trade_plan.pdf

³ http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE28/28-42/28-42-81.HTM

⁴http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2005-06-22-gm-healthcare-usat_x.htm

⁵ Health Care Meltdown Written by: Robert H. LeBow, MD Revised and updated by: C Rocky White, MD Published in 2007

⁶ http://www.carrollcounty.com/articles/2007/07/25/features/family/family995.txt

⁷ http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0813/p09s01-coop.html