CURIOUS?!

"NYT - Volunteer to Save the Economy"

Bruce Reed and John Bridgeland, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush's domestic policy advisers, respectively, have a great idea to create 250,000 jobs for $8 billion; focus on non-profits.

'The nonprofit plunge also seriously endangers the nation’s job market. Nonprofit enterprises have 9.4 million employees and 4.7 million volunteers nationwide — together, that’s 10 percent of the American work force, more than the auto and financial industries combined. Yet nonprofit groups have been almost completely overlooked during the economic debate. That’s a mistake.

There is, however, a bipartisan solution ready to go: during the campaign, both Mr. Obama and Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee, endorsed the Serve America Act, which would greatly expand national and community service.

By including key provisions of that bill in the economic recovery package, Congress and the administration would enable 250,000 Americans to do full-time service over the next two years. We can invest in a new generation of volunteers as well: if federal work-study programs were doubled, over half a million part-time opportunities a year would be created for college students. All this could be done through existing nonprofit groups, charities and faith-based organizations, not a new government bureaucracy.

The total two-year cost? Less than $8 billion — adding not even 1 percent to a $825 billion recovery package.'