Senator Carl Levin visited Eastern Michigan University’s campus Monday morning to speak to an Analysis and Change of Social Welfare Policy class.
Levin has been serving in the Senate since 1978 and is Michigan’s senior United States Senator. In addition, he chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee and Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and co-chairs the Senate Great Lakes Task Force and Senate Auto Caucus.
The room hushed as Levin walked through the doorway of 119 Marshall Hall. The senator looked professional in his black suit and crisp red tie, but began joking with the classroom and displayed a down-to-earth attitude.
He took on a more serious tone as he was formally introduced and began speaking about his seven-point plan to reduce the deficit.
Levin began by saying Michigan is behind on infrastructure and public transportation systems. Policemen and firefighters, public servants that citizens are depending on for safety, are in short supply because of layoffs. Many of Michigan’s school systems need rehabilitation and teachers are getting laid off because of the state’s budget.
A new bill being presented would introduce thousands of teachers back to their jobs and would allow for short-term job replacement and long-term deficit reduction.
“It’s been a very deep recession and a very slow climb,” Levin said. “We are trying to speed up the climb in several ways.”
Levin brought to light the differences between Republican and Democratic ideas of what will most effectively reduce the deficit. Democrats believe spending must be cut and additional revenues must be spent in order for the deficit to be decreased.
Meanwhile, many members of the Republican Party oppose the use of additional revenues and only support a spending cut.
Democrats are also proposing a 5 percent surtax on income of $1 million or greater to fund efforts for employment and reduction of the unemployment rate.
In the Senate, filibusters have become common practice to prevent bills from getting passed. In this case, 60 out of 100 senators must vote agreeable for the debate to end; there is no use of simple majority rule. Filibusters are making it somewhat impossible for bills to get passed in the Senate.
“Filibusters and threats of filibusters are not rare anymore, they’re common,” Levin said.
There is a pending bill in the Senate, the appropriations bill, which is carrying about 70 attached amendments. The bill has been split from one bill into several bills dividing the issues such as teacher employment and infrastructures.
“This change was made because we couldn’t break the filibuster,” Levin said. “Nothing about the bill has been reduced – it has just been split up.”
The first question directed to Levin from the audience was “what can the country do, without spending more money, that will help improve the education of inner city children?”
Levin responded by sharing knowledge about a program called Flip being used in some schools. In this program, teachers are doing homework with their students in class to increase the one-on-one work time between teacher and student. Then, students go home and review the lecture and other information on the Internet.
The nearly empty Michigan Pfizer plant is a project Levin plans on giving generous attention to. The facility is working to become a producer of drugs for our country’s armed forces as well as a producer of medicines for the general public, such as influenza vaccines.
Levin’s main focus, however, is increasing jobs.
“Number one on my mind,” Levin said, “is jobs – any way I can do it.”
A senior student asked the Senator one last question as he prepared to leave:
“What job opportunities will there be for future social workers?”
Levin said, “There will be demands for nurses and people who speak foreign languages, as well as certain kinds of engineers. Beyond that, I can’t say specifically. It all depends on budgets and economy, most prominently that of the state.”
