Dem's Working on Relief Efforts to Help Stop Depression Republicans Almost Created
WASHINGTON (AP) - Confronted with big job losses and no sign the U.S. economy is ready to stand on its own (I DISAGREE WITH THIS STATEMENT), Democrats are working on a growing list of relief efforts, leaving for later how to pay for them, or whether even to bother.
Proposals include extending and perhaps expanding a popular tax credit for first-time home buyers, and creating a new credit for companies that add jobs. Taken together, the proposals look a lot like another economic stimulus package, though congressional leaders don't want to call it that.
Democratic leaders in Congress and the White House say they have no appetite for another big spending package that adds to the federal budget deficit, which hit a record $1.4 trillion for the budget year that ended last week.
But with unemployment reaching nearly 10 percent, many lawmakers are feeling pressure to act. Some of the proposals come from the Republicans' playbook and focus on tax cuts, even though they, too, would swell the deficit...
Rep. Dave Camp, D-Mich., the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, said: "The fact that they're putting forward all of these things is really an indication that the stimulus was a failure. It didn't work."
Bullwicky! No Rep. Camp (He's a Republican not a D-Mich as the report says), the stimulus helped to stop us from going into a depression.
What this is a sign of is, the Bush administration and the Republican Party's lack of doing anything to stop the loss of over 2 million jobs during the years of 2007-2008 when the recession began, and their lack of doing anything to stop the economy from tanking in and heading toward the worse recession since the Great Depression.
Imagine where the economy would be today if the Bush administration had taken control of the issue back in 2007 or early 2008.
Instead the Obama administration and the Democratic Party inherited their mess.
It was because Democrats passed (alone mind you) the stimulus package within one month so that it could begin saving jobs-- that we aren't in a depression. Instead the economy is starting to improve with a possible growth of 3 percent this quarter instead of being in the negative.
Yes jobs are scarce, they are always the last to come back -- it's just much worse this time because of the previous administration's lack of acting on the growing recession and mess.
The cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is one reason our deficit has climbed. Imagine where that deficit would be today if not for spending almost a trillion dollars in Iraq? And now because the Bush administration and the Republican Party ignored the war in Afghanistan, Obama and Democrats must now repair the damage there and finish that war as well as the one in Iraq.
If money is needed to help create more jobs -- so be it. They broke the economy, now Democrats must fix it.
Your knowledge of economics is laughable, as is your grasp of facts. US Unemployment rate for 2007 - 4.6%, for 2008 - 5.8%, for BHO year one 9.8% and climbing. Regarding the 'stimulus', less than 16% of the money has been distributed, and only a fraction of that has actually been spent, so it's impact is minimal. Regarding the deficit, the trillion spent in 8 years in Iraq and Afghanistan almost equals the amount BHO deficit spent in his first 6 months.
October 9, 2009 12:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
The unemployment rate rose to 7.2% in last month of 2008 --- FACT:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/09/news/economy/jobs_december/
That TRILLION you speak of in Obama's first 6 months --- includes the 700 billion that YOUR PEOPLE came up with in late 2008 (Bush's TEAM).
Sure is funny how you like to REVISE history.
October 9, 2009 1:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, Obama's spending is 1.6 trillion, I deducted the Tarp money, of which only 400 billion was spent, and most of it is being repaid or set to be repaid very soon. It will not add to the debt, it has actually turned a profit so far. Nice try though.
October 9, 2009 1:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
So the stimulus has only spent 16% of the money, yet you claim Obama's spent 1.6 trillion already and you ignore what benefits come from that spending like new roads, bridges, buildings, getting gas and electric clunkers off the road and out of our utility rooms and getting our homes more energy effective -- sorry, when money is spent for GOOD things, I think that is OK.
What about the Bush unemployment rate at 7.2% in Jan 2009 for Dec -- will you admit you were wrong there?
October 9, 2009 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I simply reported the stats for the year as reported from the gov't. The fact is that unemployment is much higher now than when Bush was in office.
I don't claim that some of the spending is not a good thing, infrastructure is a worthwhile expense. Unfortunately it is less than 20% of the total package. The clunkers program was idiotic. It simply rewarded a few people with free money (that was taken from other people). Note that car sales plummeted after the end of the program, proving that it simply shifted sales from one month to the next, at a huge expense. It also made used cars more expensive for poor people. Spending on home efficiency is also idiotic. Thousands spent to save a few dollars per year, and ignoring the energy cost to produce, deliver, install the new products. There is no way it will ever be a net positive. (20,000 spent on new windows to save 200 per year means the money is earning 1% - not too impressive)
October 9, 2009 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
What you ignore is the good that comes for THOUSANDS of people installing new energy efficiency devices in their homes and getting thousands of gas guzzlers off the roads.
While you may be correct about it being short term for economy as a whole, for the nation and our future, it did wonders. Sorry if you cant see into the future. While that 1% per person isn't a lot, it sure is a lot when added up together.
Sorry but I see no wasted money here. Andy money spent improving our environment, dependency on oil and gas and repairs on infrustructure is well spent in my view. I'd rather spend money on America than on other nations.
Money that was wasted (and I didn't hear complaints then) was on the invasion of Iraq.
October 9, 2009 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink