Introduction

Welcome to the HIRE, TRAIN & RETAIN Act blog. My name is Maureen Mower. I'm a 99er - one of the long-term unemployed who has run out of all unemployment benefits but still cannot find a job. I am also the author of the HIRE, TRAIN & RETAIN Act.

The HTR Act is a proposal that I came up with after becoming furious over the proposed deal between President Obama and the GOP leadership that would extend the Bush tax cuts for another two years, but does nothing to address job creation or help the 99ers. It occurred to me that since I had to prove every week that I had actively sought employment in order to "earn" my unemployment checks, then those benefitting from these tax cuts ought to start proving that they are using this "handout" (as some like to call unemployment benefits) to actually create jobs and grow our economy.

As it stands now, the cuts have been in place for 10 years, but the jobs have disappeared consistently over that same period. Yet the GOP still claims that cutting taxes on the richest 2% of Americans will create jobs. So I say it's time we force them to prove that by targeting the tax breaks ONLY to those who actually create jobs.

I hope you will read my proposal and comment on it. More importantly, copy it and send it off to your elected represntatives, and do it NOW. We have very little time to get this into consideration before it's too late, not only for the 99ers, but for the entire country.

The next post will contain the entire proposal.