On LI, Bill Clinton discusses job creation

Former president Bill Clinton came to Long Island Tuesday and offered his view on how to create jobs as the country struggles with a jobless recovery.

A robust U.S. job market will depend on public-policy efforts to encourage clean-energy jobs as well as private-sector investment and skills training tailored to the jobs available, Clinton told the fall luncheon program of the Long Island Association at Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury.

He noted that Germany in the last decade has "leapfrogged" over Japan and the United States to become the No 1. producer and consumer of solar energy, a feat that has generated 300,000 new jobs.

"We by population would get 1.2 million [jobs] if we did the same thing," he said in a detailed answer to a question from moderator Kevin Law, president of the LIA, about whether the country can return to the economic vibrancy that defined Clinton's presidency.

And he said that Long Island could make a fortune in alternative energy "with all your intellectual capital."

The private sector has a lot of money to invest in general but is hesitant because of economic uncertainty and that has hampered job growth, he said.

He said that banks are sitting on $1.8 trillion in cash uncommitted to new loans and that corporations have $1.2 billion in cash.

"That is more than enough to get the whole world out of" the recession, he said at the event, which was closed to the press. Newsday obtained a recording.

But Clinton said a key question is "What do we have to do to clarify their uncertainty, regulatory and otherwise, so they want to invest that money in America?"

He said that three million jobs posted around the country have gone unfilled for more than a month. If they were filled, the unemployment rate, at 9.6 percent, would drop 2 percentage points.

He also took the opportunity to rib some local politicians. He said that his "good-natured relationship" with Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) is "proof positive that I do like a lot of Republicans." And he added, "A lot of them have really good ideas, especially since Steve Levy became one."