Brown backs ‘economic recovery package’ with Michigan Dems

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Lorain) announced his support for a new economic recovery package in a conference call with Michigan Democrats, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-Mich.).

"One of the first things we should do is extend unemployment benefits," Brown said. "That's money that goes directly into people's pockets. That's money that gets directly spent in communities, generating more economic activity for the whole economy, and that's how we fix this in my state or any other state."

Democrats are advocating the new package to help restore confidence in the economy after the recent turn in the financial markets on Wall Street, when stocks dropped in response to the collapse of financial institutions Lehman Brothers Holdings and Merrill Lynch & Co.

Democrats are touting infrastructure and energy investment that wasn't included in this Spring's stimulus package.

Brown said the second thing that needs to be done is to pay more attention to infrastructure, which creates jobs while building infrastructure and leads to economic development.

Brown also advocated the stimulus package investing money to help states with high unemployment with Medicaid services. He pointed to Ohio and Michigan having more demand for these services, "especially for children and families who've lost jobs."

Brown also stressed the importance of tax credits and tax-based incentives for the energy industry that he said are "so important for the creation of jobs."

"My state has the most solar energy jobs of any state in the country," Brown said. "We have, right outside of Toledo, a lot of things going on in wind turban research and jobs and manufacturing the gear boxes and the blades and all the things we need to do to jumpstart this energy industry, which will create the kind of jobs in Ohio and Michigan that we had so many of so many years ago."

Brown stressed the importance of any stimulus package's commitment to manufacturing.

Brown said the first thing to focus on was improving infrastructure and tax breaks for alternative energy, and said that Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) would bring better manufacturing policy to the table that would stimulate the economy.

Levin confirmed that the "ballpark" figure for the stimulus package is the $50 billion dollar price tag that U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has mentioned.