Economic plan would aim to get cash to buyers

Economic plan would aim to get cash to buyers

With the nation's economy plunging deeper into a recession, President-elect Barack Obama and Congress will be working overtime to craft recovery measures.

Underscoring the urgency, the national unemployment report for October due out Friday morning is expected to deliver a bleak picture of worsening job losses. General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. also are expected to announce third-quarter losses Friday, and automaker and union leaders are to meet today with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to discuss a possible second $25-billion loan on top of a package already approved.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said Tuesday night that the economy would be "first, second and third" on the agenda in coming weeks and months, both before and after Obama takes office in January.

Any economic rescue plan will be aimed at getting cash into the hands of consumers. That most likely will include an extension of unemployment insurance benefits for the nearly 1 million laid-off Americans who have exhausted their benefits this year.

Levin said he expected the measure to emerge during a lame-duck session of Congress before Obama takes office.

So urgent is the need for broad economic stimulus that the question now is not whether there will be a new stimulus package, but rather how big it will be and how soon it can win approval.

Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $61-billion stimulus that was blocked in the Senate. The Bush administration has said it wanted to let the $700-billion bailout of financial firms work before it agreed to additional spending.

Pelosi and her staff said Wednesday that the House could consider a stimulus bill of up to $100 billion during the lame-duck session set for the week of Nov. 17 if Senate Republicans and the Bush administration agree.

"If they're going to block it, or the president is going to veto it, there's no point," Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said.

Regardless of whether there's a deal for a November stimulus, Congress will take one up in January that could be far larger, with some experts suggesting $300 billion.

Once Obama takes office, many economists expect him to favor a massive infrastructure rebuilding program as a way to boost the economy. By spending on such projects as road and bridge construction and school repair, the government could help create 1 million or more jobs.

To be effective, the program would have to concentrate on "ready-to-go" work that is already approved and designed and that just needs cash to get under way.

A study by Moody's, the national credit rating agency, reported that the most cost-effective type of economic stimulus would be an increase in food-stamp payments. Moody's economist Mark Zandi calculated that for every $1 in increased food-stamp aid, the nation's economy would expand $1.73. Increasing jobless benefits and infrastructure projects also boost the nation's economy effectively, Zandi said.

With the faltering economy cutting into many states' tax receipts, a rescue package might also include direct aid to state governments. John Irons, an economist with the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., proposed in late October that Congress provide $50 billion in aid to states.

Irons also suggested that the federal government guarantee state and local bonds to shield local governments from the credit crisis and reduce their borrowing costs.

There also may be efforts to ease the housing crisis by making it easier for consumers in default to renegotiate their mortgage loans.

Quote :

To be effective, the program would have to
concentrate on "ready-to-go" work that is already approved and designed
and that just needs cash to get under way.

Glad to see Washington do something right! They have cut back funding to the states for this during the last two years leaving states with non-completed road projects, ready to go, but unfunded by the Feds!

I hope they start funding the unfunded mandates too that they keep passing, they require states to do something, but they don't provide cash-strapped states the funds to follow their stupid laws! Either stay out of the states business, or help them with the funds! With the lowering of the tax rates, more money flowed into the Feds tills, but they waste it on themselves, or stupid things!!!

Where is my welfare check?

Wait!


What is wrong with me


I am a single white male



I gotta keep working



Millions of Blacks on Reparations and Illegal Immigrants on Welfare will be depending on me







Too bad there aren't 8 days in a week



I gonna need every cent I can make

gs78 wrote:

Where is my welfare check?

You don't get one! If you're nice though, maybe Obama will give you Beer Stamps instead of Food Stamps!

Lol. Otig. Thatts funny. And you havent really been on in a while...
what gives?!

Ohios#1TigerFan wrote:

gs78 wrote:

Where is my welfare check?

You don't get one! If you're nice though, maybe Obama will give you Beer Stamps instead of Food Stamps!

I settle for that



At least I get something under Obama's Marxist Regime