$780B stimulus deal reached Bill to spark economy expected to clear Senate BY JANET HOOK AND RICHARD SIMON Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and Senate Democratic leaders, propelled by news of the biggest one-month loss of jobs in 35 years, hammered out a deal Friday evening that is expected to move a massive economic stimulus plan through the Senate. The legislation, a cornerstone of Obama’s efforts to revive the economy, would carry a price tag of about $780 billion under the compromise deal, though the fi nal figure was unclear. The bill is expected to cost less than the $819 billion bill approved by the House and far lower than the bill as amended on the Senate floor, which had grown to more than $930 billion. The bill had stalled amid partisan differences, with most Republicans saying it carried unnecessary spending and not enough in tax cuts. But over the course of several days, a small group of senators from both parties, working with White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, negotiated the compromise, trimming the bill in hopes of winning backing from a handful of moderate Republicans. Senate Democratic leaders said they believed they would have enough support to pass the legislation, though it remained unclear when a vote would be held. Under the deal, the cost of the bill would be lowered by scaling back tax cuts in the legislation. In addition, lawmakers trimmed many items that they believed did not belong in a stimulus package because they did not spur economic growth, such as $870 million for combating the pandemic flu. “We trimmed the fat, fried the bacon, and milked the sacred cows,” said Sen. Ben Nelson D-Neb., a leader of the bipartisan group that worked out the compromise. “Not everybody is going to get every dollar they want, but it’s still a very strong package,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer D-Calif. “This package proves three words ‘Yes we can.’ ” Democratic leaders said they believe the compromise will pick up support from three GOP moderates — Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Supporters may also need the vote of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who is battling brain cancer and returning to Washington for the vote. After approval, the Senate and House will have to work out their differences and then vote on a fi nal version of the legislation before sending it to Obama for his signature. Details of the compromise agreement were not immediately available, but it met the goal set by Obama and some moderate Republicans that the price tag end up in the neighborhood of $800 billion. The agreement was announced after days of frenzied behind-thescenes negotiations, involving close and deep involvement by the Obama administration. The president called Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., late Thursday night. Emanuel called him five times Friday morning and joined the negotiations in person in the afternoon. Friday’s release of a dire unemployment report added to the urgency of Obama’s and Reid’s appeal that Congress move with speed. U.S. employers eliminated 598,000 jobs in January, the biggest one-month plunge since 1974. The unemployment rate now stands at 7.6 percent. “These numbers demand action,” said Obama. “It is inexcusable and irresponsible for any of us to get bogged down in distraction, delay or politics as usual while millions of Americans are being put out of work.” The White House announced Obama would campaign for the bill early next week in Indiana and Florida and that the president will also hold his first prime-time news conference on Monday, another platform to push for the legislation. By taking his campaign on the road, Obama is making himself the public face of the stimulus legislation, an attempt to supersede the less popular congressional Democratic leadership, some analysts said. With so much attention focused on the debate in Congress, Americans have begun to associate the stimulus bill with Democratic officials such as..................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00100
$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts $380 million in the Senate bill for the Women, Infants and Children program $198 million for Filipino World War 2 vets and their families $300 million for grants to combat violence against women $2 billion for federal child-care block grants $6 billion for university building projects $15 billion for boosting Pell Grant college scholarships $4 billion for job-training programs, including $1.2 billion for “youths” up to the age of 24 $1 billion for community-development block grants $4.2 billion for “neighborhood stabilization activities” $650 million for digital-TV coupons $90 million to educate “vulnerable populations” $15 billion for business-loss carry-backs $145 billion for “Making Work Pay” tax credits $83 billion for the earned income credit $150 million for the Smithsonian $34 million to renovate the Department of Commerce headquarters $500 million for improvement projects for National Institutes of Health facilities $44 million for repairs to Department of Agriculture headquarters $350 million for Agriculture Department computers $88 million to help move the Public Health Service into a new building $448 million for constructing a new Homeland Security Department headquarters $600 million to convert the federal auto fleet to hybrids $450 million for NASA (carve-out for “climate-research missions”) $600 million for NOAA (carve-out for “climate modeling”) $1 billion for the Census Bureau $89 billion for Medicaid $30 billion for COBRA insurance extension $36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits $20 billion for food stamps $4.5 billion for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers $850 million for Amtrak $87 million for a polar icebreaking ship $1.7 billion for the National Park System $55 million for Historic Preservation Fund $7.6 billion for “rural community advancement programs” $150 million for agricultural-commodity purchases $150 million for “producers of livestock, honeybees, and farm-raised fish” $2 billion for renewable-energy research ($400 million for global-warming research) $2 billion for a “clean coal” power plant in Illinois $6.2 billion for the Weatherization Assistance Program $3.5 billion for energy-efficiency and conservation block grants $3.4 billion for the State Energy Program $200 million for state and local electric-transport projects $300 million for energy-efficient-appliance rebate programs $400 million for hybrid cars for state and local governments $1 billion for the manufacturing of advanced batteries $1.5 billion for green-technology loan guarantees $8 billion for innovative-technology loan-guarantee program $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects $4.5 billion for electricity grid $79 billion for State Fiscal Stabilization Fund
With the exception of a couple lines, I don't really see anything that's going to help the US average citizen - either by creating jobs or stimulating growth.
The bank bailout at this point has cost 13 times the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so who has the 'clout' with the politicians?
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
We will see if this passes. Congressional phones are ringing off the hook in opposition to Obama's "porkulus" plan. This recession was caused by bad debt, we don't huge govermental debt on top of that. It is better to do nothing, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Dems are desperate to drag Reps into supporting this. Call Mr. Bridge to nowhere Paul Tonko{D-21st} and tell him we don't need any more debt, any more bridges to nowhere.
All the lines are very vague....that fact remains that this is a shake-down of momentous proportions......it's like taking one end of a wool rug and giving it a flick.....the wave ends up at the end and 'the dirt' is flicked off.......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Stimulus bill survives Senate Three Republicans cast critical votes BY DAVID ESPO The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — An $838 billion economic stimulus bill backed by the White House narrowly advanced in the Senate on Monday over strong Republican opposition, and Democratic leaders vowed to deliver the emergency legislation for President Barack Obama’s signature within a few days. The vote was 61-36, one more than the 60 needed to move the measure toward Senate passage today. That ALSO INSIDE AUTOMAKERS must soon show viability to receive extra bailout cash. A3 in turn, will set the stage for possibly contentious negotiations with the House on a final compromise on legislation the president says is desperately needed to tackle the worst economic crisis in more than a generation. The Senate vote occurred as the Obama administration moved ahead on another key component of its economic recovery plan. Officials said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner would outline rules today for $350 billion in bailout funds designed to help the financial industry as well as homeowners facing foreclosure. As for the stimulus, Obama said Monday night at the start of his televised news conference, “I can tell you with complete confidence that a failure to act will only deepen this crisis as well as the pain felt by millions of Americans.” The Senate vote was close but scarcely in doubt once the White House and Democratic leaders agreed to trim about $100 billion on Friday. As a result, Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania broke ranks to cast their votes to advance the bill. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, DMass., battling a brain tumor, made his first appearance in the Capitol since suffering a seizure on Inauguration Day, and he joined all other Democrats in support of the measure. “There is no reason we can’t do this by the end of the week,” said Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said, he declared he was prepared to hold the Senate in session into the Presidents Day weekend if necessary, and cautioned Republicans not to try and delay final progress. He said passage would mark “the first step on the long road to recovery.” Moments before the vote, the Congressional Budget Offi ce issued a new estimate that put the cost at $838 billion, an increase from the $827 billion figure from last week. Ironically, the agency said provisions in the bill intended to limit bonuses to executives at firms receiving federal bailout money would result in lower tax revenues for the government. “This bill has the votes to pass. We know that,” conceded Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who has spoken daily in the Senate against the legislation. As if to underscore its prospects for passage, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a prominent and powerful business group, issued a statement calling on the Senate to advance the measure. Even so, in the hours before Monday’s vote, Republican opponents attacked it as too costly and unlikely to have the desired effect on the economy. “This is a spending bill, not a stimulus bill,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., ridiculed the bill. “The emperor has no clothes! Somebody has to say it. I’m referring to this additional bailout, this spending bill that spends everything we’ve got on nothing we are sure about.” All 36 votes in opposition were cast by Republicans. The two remaining versions of the legislation are relatively close in size — $838 billion in the Senate and $819 billion in the House — and are similar in many respects. Both include Obama’s call for a tax cut for lower-income wage earners, as well as billions for unemployment benefits, food stamps, health care and other programs to help victims of the worst recession in decades. In a bow to the administration, they also include billions for development of new information technology for the health industry, and billions more to lay the groundwork for a new environmentally friendly industry that would help reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil. At the same time, the differences are considerable. The measure nearing approval in the Senate calls for more tax cuts and less spending than the House bill, largely because it includes a $70 billion provision to protect middle-class taxpayers from falling victim to the alternative minimum tax, which was intended to make sure the very wealthy don’t avoid paying taxes. Both houses provide for tax breaks for home buyers, but the Senate’s provision is far more generous. The Senate bill also gives a tax break to purchasers of new cars. Both houses provide $87 billion in additional funds for the Medicaid program, which provides health care to the low income. But the House and Senate differ on the formula to be used in distributing the money, a dispute that pits states against one another rather than Republicans against Democrats. There are dozens of differences on spending. The Senate proposed $450 million for NASA for exploration, for example, $50 million less than ..................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00100
History is set to repeat itself, again. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009 that is being debated in Washington has all the hallmarks of a classic déjà vu. Last year the federal government sent out rebate checks in an attempt to stimulate the economy. They also dumped huge sums of money into failing Wall Street banks and insurance firms. Both had no effect. It's long past time that central planners learned that throwing good money after bad will not stimulate the economy. We must instead cut taxes, reform burdensome regulation and eliminate government waste. It is not until we pay attention to our past history of stimulus failures that we can begin to move toward the future.
For eight long years there is a large pool of Americans who have been left out of the discussion. The previous administration’s bungling of the nation’s finances has left the economy in the worst shape since the Great Depression. They spent and spent without concern. In November, we the “ignored” inserted ourselves back into the discussion, with our votes. Last week, the reports of new claims for unemployment went to a seasonally adjusted rate of 626,000. Part of the stimulus package, according to an article in the Jan. 27 New York Times by Robert Pear, “. . . would create a temporary new entitlement allowing workers getting unemployment checks to qualify for Medicaid. The bill would spend $127 billion over the next two-and-one-half years on health care alone. . . “ This is not pork, it’s survival. I support the passage of the economic stimulus package.
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy.
Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.
Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).
The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.
But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”
Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far.
New Penalties
Hospitals and doctors that are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties. “Meaningful user” isn’t defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time” (511, 518, 540-541)
What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the “tough” decisions elected politicians won’t make.
The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forgo experimental treatments,” and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.
Elderly Hardest Hit
Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.
Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).
The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle’s book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis.
In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision.
Hidden Provisions
If the Obama administration’s economic stimulus bill passes the Senate in its current form, seniors in the U.S. will face similar rationing. Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years and sacrifice later.
The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined (90-92, 174-177, 181).
Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional. Daschle supported the Clinton administration’s health-care overhaul in 1994, and attributed its failure to debate and delay. A year ago, Daschle wrote that the next president should act quickly before critics mount an opposition. “If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it,” he said. “The issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol.”
More Scrutiny Needed
On Friday, President Obama called it “inexcusable and irresponsible” for senators to delay passing the stimulus bill. In truth, this bill needs more scrutiny.
The health-care industry is the largest employer in the U.S. It produces almost 17 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Yet the bill treats health care the way European governments do: as a cost problem instead of a growth industry. Imagine limiting growth and innovation in the electronics or auto industry during this downturn. This stimulus is dangerous to your health and the economy.
(Betsy McCaughey is former lieutenant governor of New York and is an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. The opinions expressed are her own.)
Mr. Obama knows that the American people are against this stimulus pkg. That is why he was on prime time last night. He was trying to sell it to us. He did it just like Bush did the 'war on terror'. They all use the 'fear' tactic! Well, he didn't sell me last night. And as great of a speaker that obama is, last night wasn't so good. I expected more. Almost like a campaign speech. He actually came across no different than any past president. And I really don't think he sold the 'taxpayers' on this one. It will be interesting to see what his approval rating will be as the weeks and months go on. And perhaps the media is now finding out that they 'selected' the wrong guy! (not that McCain was a great alternative) They should have done what they were hired to do.......'report the news'.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
So why did Mr.Biden say that there is a 30% chance the 'stimulus' will fail????? Because the other 70% of our economy is consumer spending......
30% government $ + 70% consumer $ = 100% of our economy.............................I SAY LET IT FINISH WHAT IT NEEDS TO DO........
As our system is pulled apart it will be rebuilt with ATM/RealID/National Healthcare cards/bio-info..........there is more than meets the eye here.....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Meltdown 101: Highlights of economic stimulus plan Email IM Share Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer Jim Abrams, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr
WASHINGTON – Now that there's a tentative agreement on the economic stimulus plan that President Barack Obama and other supporters hope will provide a considerable jolt to the economy, how long will it take to get infrastructure and other projects moving? And do economists think the plan is big enough to create millions of jobs?
Here are some questions and answers about the latest version of the stimulus initiative.
Q: What are the main objectives of the package?
A: A combination of tax cuts and spending incentives totaling nearly $790 billion is aimed at putting money back in the pockets of consumers and businesses and creating millions of jobs. It also looks to accomplish some long-term goals, such as making the country more energy efficient and improving the nation's crumbling roads and bridges.
Overall, the package breaks down to nearly two-thirds spending initiatives and just over one-third tax cuts.
Q: Does the bill include federal aid to the states?
A: Yes. It includes major contributions to states to help with their budget shortfalls and assure the viability of Medicaid and education programs.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the moderate Republican who helped broker the deal, said the spending includes about $90 billion in increased federal matches to states to help pay for Medicaid, along with a $54 billion "fiscal stabilization" fund that states could use to build and repair schools and improve facilities at institutions of higher learning.
Q: What are some of the other main focuses of the bill?
A: Here are some highlights:
Education: The package has some $11.5 billion to support the IDEA program for special education. There's another $10 billion for a federal program to help low-income students.
Energy: The package includes funds to modernize the electrical grid — in part by incorporating renewable energy resources — and to make federal buildings more energy efficient and help low-income households weatherize their homes.
Health: The plan includes subsidies to allow people who are laid off to purchase health insurance through the federal COBRA plan. There is also money to support hospitals seeking to modernize health information technology.
Infrastructure: The infrastructure section of the package includes funds for building and repairing highways and bridges, expanding transit systems, upgrading airports and rail systems and building and repairing federal buildings — with the focus on making them more energy efficient. Funds are available for clean water projects, cleanup of environmental waste areas and nuclear waste cleanups.
Money devoted solely to transportation infrastructure reaches almost $50 billion. Collins said that when all the infrastructure projects for roads, sewers, energy and electricity transmission are added up, it will reach about $150 billion.
The package includes money to bring broadband Internet service to underserved areas.
Other highlights: The plan also supports National Institutes of Health research and contributes to programs in the departments of defense, homeland security, veterans affairs and state.
Q: What are some of the tax breaks in the bill?
A: It includes Obama's signature "Making Work Pay" tax credit for 95 percent of workers, though negotiators agreed to trim the credit to $400 a year instead of $500 — or $800 for married couples, cut from Obama's original proposal of $1,000. It would begin showing up in most workers' paychecks in June as an extra $13 a week in take-home pay, falling to about $8 a week next January.
There is also a $70 billion, one-year fix for the alternative minimum tax. The fix would save some 20 million mainly upper-middle-income taxpayers about $2,000 in taxes for 2009.
Q: How will infrastructure spending affect jobs?
A: The Federal Highway Administration has estimated that every $1 billion the federal government spends on infrastructure projects translates to 35,000 jobs. Collins put the total infrastructure spending — including highways, mass transit, environmental cleanups and broadband facilities — at $150 billion. Do the math and that translates into more than 5 million jobs, based on the highway administration's assumptions.
Senate leaders have offered their own estimate — they said Wednesday that the total stimulus package will sustain some 3.5 million jobs.
Q: How long would it take for highway projects to begin?
A: Lawmakers say most of the projects could be up and running within 90 days, although it could take somewhat more time in northern states with longer winters. Highway construction groups have estimated that there are thousands of projects that could be started within that 90 days.
Q: Do economists feel the stimulus package is big enough to actually stimulate the economy?
A: Many leading economists have concluded that the stimulus alone may be insufficient to bring a quick turnaround for the economy.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, called for a larger package of spending and tax breaks and predicted that unemployment could top 9 percent next year, up from the current 7.6 percent, even if an $800 billion package is enacted. Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman also contends that $800 billion will fall short of filling the gap left by projected reductions in consumer and business spending.
Obama has also acknowledged that the stimulus measures are only "one leg of the stool" needed to stabilize the economy. Spending initiatives and tax cuts, he has said, must be combined with the ongoing massive effort to restore confidence and integrity to financial markets, get credit flowing again and right the collapsed housing market.
Logged
We will see if this passes. Congressional phones are ringing off the hook in opposition to Obama's "porkulus" plan. This recession was caused by bad debt, we don't huge govermental debt on top of that. It is better to do nothing, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Dems are desperate to drag Reps into supporting this. Call Mr. Bridge to nowhere Paul Tonko{D-21st} and tell him we don't need any more debt, any more bridges to nowhere.
