Mount Vernon Washington TEA PARTY PATRIOTS WEBSITE
House Dems at Odds Over Scaled-Down Senate Jobs Bill
House Democratic leaders sent mixed signals Friday on a new jobs bill supported by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and a senior Republican senator predicted his party will block action on the Senate floor.
The two events further complicated plans to quickly pass election-year legislation addressing huge job losses.
Senate Democrats scrapped a bipartisan jobs bill Thursday in favor of one they say is leaner and more focused on putting Americans back to work, all but daring Republicans to vote against it.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Democrats may lose that bet, at least at a key procedural stage.
"I personally believe that every Republican would have to vote against cloture," Hatch said in an interview, using the term for the 41 GOP senators' power to keep the bill from coming to the floor for an up-or-down vote. They would do so to protest Reid's decision to scrap the broader bipartisan bill, which could have passed the Senate easily, Hatch said.
If the Senate manages to pass the scaled-back bill, however, House Democrats will be under pressure to hand President Barack Obama a badly needed political victory while addressing the biggest economic issue facing the country -- the loss of 8.4 million jobs since the start of the recession. Supporters hope nervous lawmakers facing congressional elections in November, and an unemployment rate just below 10 percent, will feel obligated to support a jobs bill.
Reid wants to quickly pass the bill after Congress returns from a weeklong break Feb. 22.
House Democrats were at odds over the pared-down Senate bill. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said he could live with it, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said she wants to pass key provisions of a much broader House-passed bill centered more on spending than tax cuts.
Pelosi issued a statement Friday saying she would work with Reid, but she said she wants to salvage parts of the House bill, including $27 billion in aid to states, mainly to save teachers' jobs.
Hoyer gave a different assessment.
"The answer is yes," he said when asked whether the House would support a scaled-back Senate bill.
"We feel it's very important to pass a bill which will help expand the economy and grow jobs, so we'd be very inclined. If the Senate can pass something, we're going to pass that, and we know we can pass that," he told reporters Friday in Annapolis, Md.
The new Senate bill features tax breaks for businesses that hire unemployed workers or buy new equipment, along with funding for highway programs and local infrastructure projects. The $174 billion House bill didn't include a tax break for hiring workers because House Democrats were skeptical that it would create many jobs.
Republicans, who said Reid blindsided them when he abruptly nixed the bipartisan Senate bill, are unlikely to offer much help, jeopardizing a brief attempt at bipartisan lawmaking.
Reid, D-Nev., put forward the pared-back $35 billion plan -- combining about $15 billion in tax provisions with a $20 billion cash infusion into highway and transit programs -- Thursday after Senate Democrats balked at a broader, $104 billion bill stuffed with unrelated provisions sought by lobbyists for business groups and doctors. His maneuver blew apart an agreement with key Republicans such as Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who worked with Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., for weeks to produce a bill containing the extra provisions.
The White House predicted the scaled-back measure would still get support from both parties because its provisions have wide support. "I think you're going to have bipartisan votes because they're working together on ideas that appeal to both Democrats and Republicans," said Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
Reid will need at least one GOP vote to prevail in a filibuster challenge.
The centerpiece of his new bill is a $13 billion payroll tax credit for companies that hire unemployed workers. The idea, pushed by Sens. Hatch and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., would exempt businesses hiring unemployed workers this year from the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax for those hires.
It also would provide an additional $1,000 tax credit for workers retained for a full year and deposit an additional $20 billion into the federal highway trust fund -- money that would have to be borrowed. There's also $2 billion to subsidize bond issues by state and local governments for large infrastructure projects.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/12/house-dems-odds-scaled-senate-jobs/
The two events further complicated plans to quickly pass election-year legislation addressing huge job losses.
Senate Democrats scrapped a bipartisan jobs bill Thursday in favor of one they say is leaner and more focused on putting Americans back to work, all but daring Republicans to vote against it.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Democrats may lose that bet, at least at a key procedural stage.
"I personally believe that every Republican would have to vote against cloture," Hatch said in an interview, using the term for the 41 GOP senators' power to keep the bill from coming to the floor for an up-or-down vote. They would do so to protest Reid's decision to scrap the broader bipartisan bill, which could have passed the Senate easily, Hatch said.
If the Senate manages to pass the scaled-back bill, however, House Democrats will be under pressure to hand President Barack Obama a badly needed political victory while addressing the biggest economic issue facing the country -- the loss of 8.4 million jobs since the start of the recession. Supporters hope nervous lawmakers facing congressional elections in November, and an unemployment rate just below 10 percent, will feel obligated to support a jobs bill.
Reid wants to quickly pass the bill after Congress returns from a weeklong break Feb. 22.
House Democrats were at odds over the pared-down Senate bill. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said he could live with it, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said she wants to pass key provisions of a much broader House-passed bill centered more on spending than tax cuts.
Pelosi issued a statement Friday saying she would work with Reid, but she said she wants to salvage parts of the House bill, including $27 billion in aid to states, mainly to save teachers' jobs.
Hoyer gave a different assessment.
"The answer is yes," he said when asked whether the House would support a scaled-back Senate bill.
"We feel it's very important to pass a bill which will help expand the economy and grow jobs, so we'd be very inclined. If the Senate can pass something, we're going to pass that, and we know we can pass that," he told reporters Friday in Annapolis, Md.
The new Senate bill features tax breaks for businesses that hire unemployed workers or buy new equipment, along with funding for highway programs and local infrastructure projects. The $174 billion House bill didn't include a tax break for hiring workers because House Democrats were skeptical that it would create many jobs.
Republicans, who said Reid blindsided them when he abruptly nixed the bipartisan Senate bill, are unlikely to offer much help, jeopardizing a brief attempt at bipartisan lawmaking.
Reid, D-Nev., put forward the pared-back $35 billion plan -- combining about $15 billion in tax provisions with a $20 billion cash infusion into highway and transit programs -- Thursday after Senate Democrats balked at a broader, $104 billion bill stuffed with unrelated provisions sought by lobbyists for business groups and doctors. His maneuver blew apart an agreement with key Republicans such as Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who worked with Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., for weeks to produce a bill containing the extra provisions.
The White House predicted the scaled-back measure would still get support from both parties because its provisions have wide support. "I think you're going to have bipartisan votes because they're working together on ideas that appeal to both Democrats and Republicans," said Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
Reid will need at least one GOP vote to prevail in a filibuster challenge.
The centerpiece of his new bill is a $13 billion payroll tax credit for companies that hire unemployed workers. The idea, pushed by Sens. Hatch and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., would exempt businesses hiring unemployed workers this year from the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax for those hires.
It also would provide an additional $1,000 tax credit for workers retained for a full year and deposit an additional $20 billion into the federal highway trust fund -- money that would have to be borrowed. There's also $2 billion to subsidize bond issues by state and local governments for large infrastructure projects.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/12/house-dems-odds-scaled-senate-jobs/
THE SUPER-SIZED BOONDOGGLE
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18985&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that the Stimulus II plan -- reportedly with an $85 billion price tag -- was a "really nice piece of legislation." You'll have to take his word for it since no one outside the Democratic leadership and K Street had seen an actual bill as of Tuesday afternoon. Few will read the whole thing before casting their hasty votes. And once again, we'll only be informed of the last-minute sweeteners, Cash for Cloture handouts and backroom deals after the ink of the president's signature is dry, says columnist Michelle Malkin.
Reportedly:
Additionally, President Obama wants $23 billion added for a fraud-friendly "Cash for Caulkers" weatherization program. Instead of returning the money to reduce the debt as stipulated in the law, Obama is also pushing to siphon $30 billion from the ever-morphing Toxic Asset Relief Program (TARP), says Malkin.
Source: Michelle Malkin, "The Super-Sized Census Boondoggle," Jewish World Review, February 10, 2010.
For text:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin021010.php3
For more on Federal Spending & Budget Issues:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=25
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that the Stimulus II plan -- reportedly with an $85 billion price tag -- was a "really nice piece of legislation." You'll have to take his word for it since no one outside the Democratic leadership and K Street had seen an actual bill as of Tuesday afternoon. Few will read the whole thing before casting their hasty votes. And once again, we'll only be informed of the last-minute sweeteners, Cash for Cloture handouts and backroom deals after the ink of the president's signature is dry, says columnist Michelle Malkin.
Reportedly:
- Public-sector unions are pushing hard to include their precious card-check plan, which would allow Big Labor bosses to sabotage workers' rights to a federally supervised private-ballot election.
- Democrats plan to stuff a reauthorization of the Patriot Act into the bill to make it harder for Republicans to oppose it.
- It will also include a $20 billion bailout for the beleaguered federal Highway Trust Fund, which has been raided for years to pay for bike paths, beautification programs and other pet projects, while its core targets -- basic roads and bridges -- have deteriorated.
- Democrats will throw in some small-business tax breaks and a temporary payroll tax holiday gimmick, supported by some Republicans, for companies that hire unemployed workers.
- The $154 billion Stimulus II passed in the House on a party-line vote in December is crammed to the gills with special-interest spending.
- Half of the money would go to government bureaucracies already overflowing with Stimulus I money.
- Nearly $30 billion would go to protect public-sector union employees in state governments.
Additionally, President Obama wants $23 billion added for a fraud-friendly "Cash for Caulkers" weatherization program. Instead of returning the money to reduce the debt as stipulated in the law, Obama is also pushing to siphon $30 billion from the ever-morphing Toxic Asset Relief Program (TARP), says Malkin.
Source: Michelle Malkin, "The Super-Sized Census Boondoggle," Jewish World Review, February 10, 2010.
For text:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin021010.php3
For more on Federal Spending & Budget Issues:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=25
Obama urges major new stimulus, jobs spending
AKA - The JOBS Bill
By TOM RAUM, AP
December 8, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama called for a major new burst of federal spending Tuesday, perhaps $150 billion or more, aiming to jolt the wobbly economy into a stronger recovery and reduce painfully persistent double-digit unemployment.
Despite Republican criticism concerning record federal deficits, Obama said the U.S. has had to "spend our way out of this recession" with so many people out of work but insisted he was still mindful of a need to confront soaring deficits. More than 7 million Americans have lost their jobs since the recession began two years ago, and the jobless rate stands at 10 percent, statistics Obama called "staggering."
Congressional approval would be required for the new spending.
"We avoided the depression many feared," Obama said in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. But he added, "Our work is far from done."
It was the third time in a week the president had presided over a high-profile event on jobs, responding to rising pleas in Congress that he spend more time discussing unemployment as midterm election season draws near.
Obama proposed new spending for highway and bridge construction, for small business tax cuts and for retrofitting millions of homes to make them more energy-efficient. He said he wanted to extend economic stimulus programs to keep unemployment insurance from expiring for millions of out-of-work Americans and to help laid-off workers keep their health insurance. He proposed an additional $250 apiece in stimulus spending for seniors and veterans and aid to state and local governments to discourage them from laying off teachers, police officers and firefighters.
He did not give a price tag for the new package but said he would work with Congress on deciding how to pay for it.
On Capitol Hill, estimates of a potential jobs bill range from $75 billion to $150 billion, said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House.
"100 billion, 150 billion, 75 billion — those are all figures that are being talked about," Hoyer told reporters.
Those billions would be on top of money for separate legislation for safety-net initiatives such as extending unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless and providing them health insurance subsidies.
Some lawmakers put the total cost of the new proposals at $200 billion or more.
White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein said the White House is considering spending $50 billion on infrastructure projects alone such as roads and bridges and water projects. Other figures, he said in an interview with The Associated Press, would be worked out with Congress.
Republicans ridiculed the president's speech and his parallel call for doing more to hold down government deficits.
"At least the president's proposal will result in one new job — he'll need to hire a magician to make this new deficit spending appear fiscally responsible," said Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee. House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio declared the president "out of ideas and out of touch."
While Obama did not propose the kind of direct federal public works jobs that were created in the 1930s, he said government action could set the stage for more job creation by private business. Many of his proposals would extend or expand programs included in the mammoth $787 billion stimulus package passed last winter.
While acknowledging increasing concerns in Congress and among the public over the nation's growing debt, Obama said critics present a "false choice" between paying down deficits and investing in job creation and economic growth.
"Even as we have had to spend our way out of this recession in the near term, we have begun to make the hard choices necessary to get our country on a more stable fiscal footing in the long run," he said.
To find money to pay for the new programs, the administration is pointing to the Treasury Department's report on Monday that it expects to get back $200 billion in taxpayer-approved bank bailout funds faster than expected.
Obama suggested this windfall would help the government spend money on job creation at the same time it eats into the nation's debt, which now totals $12 trillion.
He called the bank bailout, under the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, "galling."
"There has rarely been a less loved — or more necessary — emergency program," Obama said.
The program is due to go out of business at the end of this year, although Congress is expected to extend it to next October.
The perception that the program mainly bailed out Wall Street bankers while doing little to help ordinary Americans has fed anti-Washington sentiment across the nation.
In clear acknowledgment of this sentiment, Obama said the unexpected $200 billion in repaid loans and other savings "gives us a chance to pay down the deficit faster than we thought possible and to shift funds that would have gone to help the banks on Wall Street to help create jobs on Main Street."
But Republicans cried foul, claiming that the leftover and repaid TARP money must be used exclusively for deficit reduction or additional bank bailouts, as the law setting it up spells out, and not for what amounts to an expensive new stimulus program to create jobs.
"The stimulus money clearly was a spending bill. TARP was a loan — a loan to be paid back. And we know that a number of the banks are, in fact, paying it back," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "So I don't think raiding a loan program to launch another spending spree is the best way to create jobs."
David Walker, president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a group that promotes fiscal responsibility, said that just because the government hasn't had to spend all the TARP money on banks "doesn't mean we should automatically spend it on something else."
Walker, former head of Congress' Government Accountability Office, said in an interview that clearly defined objectives or conditions were missing from both the $700 billion bank bailout law passed in October 2008 and this year's $787 billion stimulus package. He said, "You can't change history, but you need to learn from past mistakes to make sure that you don't repeat them."
Liberal groups praised Obama's new initiatives. "We think that Obama made a step in the right direction," said Karen Dolan of the Institute for Policy Studies. "He's finally tapping into that moral outrage of the American people at the Wall Street bailouts."
A major part of his package includes new incentives for small businesses, which account for two-thirds of the nation's work force. He proposed a new tax cut for small businesses that hire in 2010 and an elimination for one year of the capital gains tax on profits from small-business investments.
Obama also proposed an elimination of fees on loans to small businesses, coupled with federal guarantees of those loans through the end of next year. His proposal for new tax breaks for energy-efficient retrofits in homes is modeled on the now-expired Cash for Clunkers rebates for trading in used vehicles for more fuel-efficient vehicles. Some administration officials have dubbed the proposed new program "Cash for Caulkers."
Although the unemployment rate inched down to 10 percent in November from 10.2 percent in October, more of America's largest companies will shrink their staffs than will hire in the next six months, according to a new survey by the Business Roundtable.
A Labor Department report on Tuesday showed there were about 6.3 unemployed people, on average, for each job opening in October. Comparable November figures were not yet available.
___
Associated Press writers Julie Pace, Andrew Taylor and Philip Elliott contributed to this report.
December 8, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama called for a major new burst of federal spending Tuesday, perhaps $150 billion or more, aiming to jolt the wobbly economy into a stronger recovery and reduce painfully persistent double-digit unemployment.
Despite Republican criticism concerning record federal deficits, Obama said the U.S. has had to "spend our way out of this recession" with so many people out of work but insisted he was still mindful of a need to confront soaring deficits. More than 7 million Americans have lost their jobs since the recession began two years ago, and the jobless rate stands at 10 percent, statistics Obama called "staggering."
Congressional approval would be required for the new spending.
"We avoided the depression many feared," Obama said in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. But he added, "Our work is far from done."
It was the third time in a week the president had presided over a high-profile event on jobs, responding to rising pleas in Congress that he spend more time discussing unemployment as midterm election season draws near.
Obama proposed new spending for highway and bridge construction, for small business tax cuts and for retrofitting millions of homes to make them more energy-efficient. He said he wanted to extend economic stimulus programs to keep unemployment insurance from expiring for millions of out-of-work Americans and to help laid-off workers keep their health insurance. He proposed an additional $250 apiece in stimulus spending for seniors and veterans and aid to state and local governments to discourage them from laying off teachers, police officers and firefighters.
He did not give a price tag for the new package but said he would work with Congress on deciding how to pay for it.
On Capitol Hill, estimates of a potential jobs bill range from $75 billion to $150 billion, said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House.
"100 billion, 150 billion, 75 billion — those are all figures that are being talked about," Hoyer told reporters.
Those billions would be on top of money for separate legislation for safety-net initiatives such as extending unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless and providing them health insurance subsidies.
Some lawmakers put the total cost of the new proposals at $200 billion or more.
White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein said the White House is considering spending $50 billion on infrastructure projects alone such as roads and bridges and water projects. Other figures, he said in an interview with The Associated Press, would be worked out with Congress.
Republicans ridiculed the president's speech and his parallel call for doing more to hold down government deficits.
"At least the president's proposal will result in one new job — he'll need to hire a magician to make this new deficit spending appear fiscally responsible," said Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee. House GOP leader John Boehner of Ohio declared the president "out of ideas and out of touch."
While Obama did not propose the kind of direct federal public works jobs that were created in the 1930s, he said government action could set the stage for more job creation by private business. Many of his proposals would extend or expand programs included in the mammoth $787 billion stimulus package passed last winter.
While acknowledging increasing concerns in Congress and among the public over the nation's growing debt, Obama said critics present a "false choice" between paying down deficits and investing in job creation and economic growth.
"Even as we have had to spend our way out of this recession in the near term, we have begun to make the hard choices necessary to get our country on a more stable fiscal footing in the long run," he said.
To find money to pay for the new programs, the administration is pointing to the Treasury Department's report on Monday that it expects to get back $200 billion in taxpayer-approved bank bailout funds faster than expected.
Obama suggested this windfall would help the government spend money on job creation at the same time it eats into the nation's debt, which now totals $12 trillion.
He called the bank bailout, under the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, "galling."
"There has rarely been a less loved — or more necessary — emergency program," Obama said.
The program is due to go out of business at the end of this year, although Congress is expected to extend it to next October.
The perception that the program mainly bailed out Wall Street bankers while doing little to help ordinary Americans has fed anti-Washington sentiment across the nation.
In clear acknowledgment of this sentiment, Obama said the unexpected $200 billion in repaid loans and other savings "gives us a chance to pay down the deficit faster than we thought possible and to shift funds that would have gone to help the banks on Wall Street to help create jobs on Main Street."
But Republicans cried foul, claiming that the leftover and repaid TARP money must be used exclusively for deficit reduction or additional bank bailouts, as the law setting it up spells out, and not for what amounts to an expensive new stimulus program to create jobs.
"The stimulus money clearly was a spending bill. TARP was a loan — a loan to be paid back. And we know that a number of the banks are, in fact, paying it back," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "So I don't think raiding a loan program to launch another spending spree is the best way to create jobs."
David Walker, president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a group that promotes fiscal responsibility, said that just because the government hasn't had to spend all the TARP money on banks "doesn't mean we should automatically spend it on something else."
Walker, former head of Congress' Government Accountability Office, said in an interview that clearly defined objectives or conditions were missing from both the $700 billion bank bailout law passed in October 2008 and this year's $787 billion stimulus package. He said, "You can't change history, but you need to learn from past mistakes to make sure that you don't repeat them."
Liberal groups praised Obama's new initiatives. "We think that Obama made a step in the right direction," said Karen Dolan of the Institute for Policy Studies. "He's finally tapping into that moral outrage of the American people at the Wall Street bailouts."
A major part of his package includes new incentives for small businesses, which account for two-thirds of the nation's work force. He proposed a new tax cut for small businesses that hire in 2010 and an elimination for one year of the capital gains tax on profits from small-business investments.
Obama also proposed an elimination of fees on loans to small businesses, coupled with federal guarantees of those loans through the end of next year. His proposal for new tax breaks for energy-efficient retrofits in homes is modeled on the now-expired Cash for Clunkers rebates for trading in used vehicles for more fuel-efficient vehicles. Some administration officials have dubbed the proposed new program "Cash for Caulkers."
Although the unemployment rate inched down to 10 percent in November from 10.2 percent in October, more of America's largest companies will shrink their staffs than will hire in the next six months, according to a new survey by the Business Roundtable.
A Labor Department report on Tuesday showed there were about 6.3 unemployed people, on average, for each job opening in October. Comparable November figures were not yet available.
___
Associated Press writers Julie Pace, Andrew Taylor and Philip Elliott contributed to this report.
YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK
TARP, recovery and now … this!
Congress scrambles to write economic 'jobs stimulus' 3.0
Posted: November 26, 20096:25 pm Eastern
By Drew Zahn
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama signed a combined nearly $1.5 trillion in federal spending in the attempt to correct the nation's economic tailspin, but with unemployment soaring over 10 percent, Congress is gearing up to pass yet another economic "stimulus" package, perhaps as soon as January.
The Los Angeles Times reports that President Obama and fellow Democrats in particular are in process of assembling a new jobs package that would devote unspecified billions of dollars to projects meant to put people back on payrolls in 2010. The House version of "stimulus 3.0" may even be pushed through as quickly as next month.
The Times cites Democratic House members disappointed that Obama's $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act wasn't larger and pledging to press for a new, substantial spending plan to address unemployment.
"I hope we don't play around the edges with this and we do what will work. Invest the money now," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif. "We have to create jobs, and we have to create them right away."
Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, however, believes that more government spending will do nothing to solve unemployment.
"There is no doubt that the original stimulus failed to create jobs, and has in fact probably cost additional jobs and prolonged the recession," he said. "To create jobs we need to lower the tax burden to stimulate investment, which is the exact opposite of what the Democrats did earlier this year and now contemplate again."
Reports over the success of the last stimulus package are widely mixed, with the White House claiming the spending has created or saved over 640,000 jobs. At the same time, the Government Accountability Office has already discounted tens of thousands of those jobs and found "a range of significant reporting and processing problems that need to be addressed."
Regardless of how miscalculated the 640,000 number may be, the Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 16 million people, or 10.2 percent of the workforce, unemployed in October, a rise of 3.49 million jobs lost since Obama took office in January.
Nonetheless, an aide to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., has said that the $787 billion package did what it set out to do: stop the onset of another Great Depression.
"Once we averted a depression," said Katie Grant, a Hoyer spokeswoman, "the Recovery Act started creating and saving jobs, and a jobs bill will build on that to get Americans back to work."
Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., also said, "The economic recovery package was an important step in a new direction, but we need to do more to help Americans who have lost their jobs."
Political columnist and former presidential appointee Armstrong Williams, however, disagrees:
"A second stimulus package … sorry … 'jobs initiative' … is the Democrats' attempt to give the appearance that their plan is working," Williams writes. "They know that if the levee cracks before the 2010 midterms, they will be swept out of office, just like the 1994 U.S. midterm elections. Calling a second stimulus package a 'jobs initiative' doesn't change the fact that the administration's response to the unemployment crisis has been an economic bust. It's hard to see how more of the same will change that."
Last week, congressional members announced formation of the new Jobs Now! Caucus, a coalition The Hill reports is already 161 members strong.
"The purpose of the Jobs Now! Caucus is to take a stand for putting our families, our communities and our nation back to work," states the website of Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, co-chairperson of the coalition. "This caucus will advocate for policy initiatives that stimulate and maintain a strong economy based on sustainable development. It will seek to achieve one common goal across the political spectrum: creating jobs again in America."
The Hill reports the group will begin formally meeting after the Thanksgiving break and plans to come up with its own legislative proposals.
Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., another Jobs Now! Caucus member, said that new measures need to be focused on jobs alone.
"I think we have to do a better job of directing that money to job creation and not to a bureaucracy," Watson told The Hill.
The how and the how much
After interviewing lawmakers, the Times reports Congress is considering a variety of ways to spur job growth: "road projects … loans to small businesses, incentives to companies that agree to manufacture products in the U.S. and special partnerships in which government tries to avert private-sector layoffs by picking up a share of employee wages."
Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., a member of the Jobs Now! Caucus, floated the idea at the conference introducing the caucus of funding additional infrastructure projects. Other possibilities include tax credits for companies making new hires and extending federal unemployment benefits.
Rep. Watson told The Hill she supports increased funding for education, specifically for teachers in danger of being laid off due to tight state budgets.
The final price tag for the new stimulus plan is as nebulous as what the monies are intended to purchase.
Rep. Kaptur, for example, has said she would be open to using funds left over or not yet paid out of either Obama's Recovery Act or Bush's Wall Street bailout. Congressional aides told the Times some are considering a 25-cent tax on stock transactions
Congress may even ask for additional deficit spending to fund the proposed new stimulus.
A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Times, referring to the political peril of adding even more to the national debt, "No question that it's a delicate balance, but there's also no question that we've got to do more to address the jobs situation and to boost opportunities for middle-class families."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a conference call that if forced to choose between jobs and increased debt, the choice would be easy:
"The American people have an anger about the growth of the deficit because they're not getting anything for it," she reasoned.
Her implication: if Americans see additional jobs, they won't feel the money – even money borrowed and added to the national debt – will have been wasted.
By Drew Zahn
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama signed a combined nearly $1.5 trillion in federal spending in the attempt to correct the nation's economic tailspin, but with unemployment soaring over 10 percent, Congress is gearing up to pass yet another economic "stimulus" package, perhaps as soon as January.
The Los Angeles Times reports that President Obama and fellow Democrats in particular are in process of assembling a new jobs package that would devote unspecified billions of dollars to projects meant to put people back on payrolls in 2010. The House version of "stimulus 3.0" may even be pushed through as quickly as next month.
The Times cites Democratic House members disappointed that Obama's $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act wasn't larger and pledging to press for a new, substantial spending plan to address unemployment.
"I hope we don't play around the edges with this and we do what will work. Invest the money now," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif. "We have to create jobs, and we have to create them right away."
Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, however, believes that more government spending will do nothing to solve unemployment.
"There is no doubt that the original stimulus failed to create jobs, and has in fact probably cost additional jobs and prolonged the recession," he said. "To create jobs we need to lower the tax burden to stimulate investment, which is the exact opposite of what the Democrats did earlier this year and now contemplate again."
Reports over the success of the last stimulus package are widely mixed, with the White House claiming the spending has created or saved over 640,000 jobs. At the same time, the Government Accountability Office has already discounted tens of thousands of those jobs and found "a range of significant reporting and processing problems that need to be addressed."
Regardless of how miscalculated the 640,000 number may be, the Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 16 million people, or 10.2 percent of the workforce, unemployed in October, a rise of 3.49 million jobs lost since Obama took office in January.
Nonetheless, an aide to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., has said that the $787 billion package did what it set out to do: stop the onset of another Great Depression.
"Once we averted a depression," said Katie Grant, a Hoyer spokeswoman, "the Recovery Act started creating and saving jobs, and a jobs bill will build on that to get Americans back to work."
Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., also said, "The economic recovery package was an important step in a new direction, but we need to do more to help Americans who have lost their jobs."
Political columnist and former presidential appointee Armstrong Williams, however, disagrees:
"A second stimulus package … sorry … 'jobs initiative' … is the Democrats' attempt to give the appearance that their plan is working," Williams writes. "They know that if the levee cracks before the 2010 midterms, they will be swept out of office, just like the 1994 U.S. midterm elections. Calling a second stimulus package a 'jobs initiative' doesn't change the fact that the administration's response to the unemployment crisis has been an economic bust. It's hard to see how more of the same will change that."
Last week, congressional members announced formation of the new Jobs Now! Caucus, a coalition The Hill reports is already 161 members strong.
"The purpose of the Jobs Now! Caucus is to take a stand for putting our families, our communities and our nation back to work," states the website of Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, co-chairperson of the coalition. "This caucus will advocate for policy initiatives that stimulate and maintain a strong economy based on sustainable development. It will seek to achieve one common goal across the political spectrum: creating jobs again in America."
The Hill reports the group will begin formally meeting after the Thanksgiving break and plans to come up with its own legislative proposals.
Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., another Jobs Now! Caucus member, said that new measures need to be focused on jobs alone.
"I think we have to do a better job of directing that money to job creation and not to a bureaucracy," Watson told The Hill.
The how and the how much
After interviewing lawmakers, the Times reports Congress is considering a variety of ways to spur job growth: "road projects … loans to small businesses, incentives to companies that agree to manufacture products in the U.S. and special partnerships in which government tries to avert private-sector layoffs by picking up a share of employee wages."
Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., a member of the Jobs Now! Caucus, floated the idea at the conference introducing the caucus of funding additional infrastructure projects. Other possibilities include tax credits for companies making new hires and extending federal unemployment benefits.
Rep. Watson told The Hill she supports increased funding for education, specifically for teachers in danger of being laid off due to tight state budgets.
The final price tag for the new stimulus plan is as nebulous as what the monies are intended to purchase.
Rep. Kaptur, for example, has said she would be open to using funds left over or not yet paid out of either Obama's Recovery Act or Bush's Wall Street bailout. Congressional aides told the Times some are considering a 25-cent tax on stock transactions
Congress may even ask for additional deficit spending to fund the proposed new stimulus.
A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Times, referring to the political peril of adding even more to the national debt, "No question that it's a delicate balance, but there's also no question that we've got to do more to address the jobs situation and to boost opportunities for middle-class families."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a conference call that if forced to choose between jobs and increased debt, the choice would be easy:
"The American people have an anger about the growth of the deficit because they're not getting anything for it," she reasoned.
Her implication: if Americans see additional jobs, they won't feel the money – even money borrowed and added to the national debt – will have been wasted.