Editorial writer Alberta Phillips sat down with National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial last week to discuss national and local issues regarding jobs and the economy. Morial was in Austin to headline the National Forum for Black Public Administrators Central Texas Chapter conference at the Omni Austin Hotel Southpark. Below are excerpts from the interview:

American-Statesman: Do you support President Barack Obama's jobs bill, and if so, why?

Morial: It was good news for us when the president embraced the idea that he needed a comprehensive jobs bill and then introduced one in September. We have championed over the last two years two jobs plans.

We don't believe rhetoric creates jobs — plans create jobs, programs create jobs, initiatives create jobs. So we embrace the president's plan, and the president in fact included a number of our ideas in the plan: summer jobs for youth, direct job creation for teachers and first responders and the idea of an infrastructure bank to work on the nation's infrastructure. We believe the president's plan is a good plan but we would like to see a larger plan.

Why a summer jobs program specifically for youths?

A summer jobs program is an excellent idea we've been literally pounding our fists on the table for the last two years saying you've got to put young people to work — it's going to help the economy — but also it's a vote of confidence at a time when demoralization and disenchantment and alienation are on the rise. So we think that it's a good plan.
 

You have a jobs plan and part of that is incorporated in the president's jobs bill. If it can't get through Congress, then it won't work, right?

People say that the Senate didn't pass the (president's) plan. Let me say there was a majority of senators who voted in favor of the plan. The Senate is hamstrung by an antiquated parliamentary maneuver called the filibuster ... and it prevents important issues from being voted on (their) merits. So the president's plan in my view has never been voted on, on the merits.

The polling shows that a majority of people in the country support the president's plan. There is something wrong with the political system when brinksmanship prevents important things from even being voted on, on the merits.

Click here to read the full interview.