WASHINGTON — The reported economic stimulus package is not enough to help America’s working families, says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

Citing rising housing, heating and gasoline bills, Sweeney called on the Senate to “extend unemployment benefits and increase food stamps to get money into the hands of those who will spend it quickest and need it most.”

That would also have the “most immediate impact on the economy,” Sweeney said.

He called President George W. Bush “just plain wrong to continue to insist that businesses receive tax breaks at the expense of assistance to the growing ranks of unemployed workers.”

Sweeney also called on “the Senate to include fiscal relief to help the states avoid the recessionary effect of budget cuts and tax increases…to include an acceleration of ready-to-go construction projects that will put Americans to work making desperately needed repairs to U.S. schools, bridges that have been declared unsafe and sewage treatment infrastructure.”