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How do they justify this?
Of the 19 Senators who voted against the package including jobless benefits after the filibuster ended, eight of them come from states that face jobless rates higher than the national average — all but one of them (Sen. Ensign of Nevada) from the South.
Here are the 19 losers.
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Here’s the idea.
If enough people who have money in one of the big four banks move it into smaller, more local, more traditional community banks, then collectively we, the people, will have taken a big step toward re-rigging the financial system so it becomes again the productive, stable engine for growth it’s meant to be. It’s neither Left nor Right — it’s populism at its best. Consider it a withdrawal tax on the big banks for the negative service they provide by consistently ignoring the public interest. It’s time for Americans to move their money out of these reckless behemoths. And you don’t have to worry, there is zero risk: deposit insurance is just as good at small banks — and unlike the big banks they don’t provide the toxic dividend of derivatives trading in a heads-they-win, tails-we-lose fashion.
Think of the message it will send to Wall Street — and to the White House. That we have had enough of the high-flying, no-limits-casino banking culture that continues to dominate Wall Street and Capitol Hill. That we won’t wait on Washington to act, because we know that Washington has, in fact, been a part of the problem from the start. We simply can’t count on Congress to fix things. We have to do it ourselves — and the big banks are the core of the problem. We need to return to the stable, reliable, people-oriented approach of America’s community banks.
Details at MoveYourMoney.
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What part of the last eight years is it that Republicans do not get? To hear these people speak, it’s as if the Bush years never happened.
Senator Orrin Hatch…
FOXBIZ: What are your solutions to jobs, the unemployment situation, rising health care costs, energy costs that are rising, inflation that is still a concern, how do we solve these issues right now? Are we trying to do too much too quickly?
HATCH: Number one you get the arrogance of power by throwing the Democrats and get the control back into conservative Republican hands. Number two we should not do away with the Bush tax cuts, those marginal tax cuts are a major help to try and keep the economy going. Number three we should use fifty state labratories to do health care.
Wonderful. So Hatch is telling us that the way to get the economy back on track is to let Republicans attain power so that they could implement the same failed policies which in large part got the economy to where it’s at now.
During the last year of President Bush’s term, the median household income in the United States dropped 3.6 percent to $50,303, the sharpest drop since the government began keeping records in 1947. During Bush’s tenure, the number of Americans in poverty increased 26.1 percent, while child poverty jumped 21.4 percent. In total, the Bush years saw 8.3 million people fall into poverty.
Was it all misery? Nope. There was one demographic which did quite well under Bush.
The Congressional Budget Office found in 2007 that families “earning more than $1 million a year saw their federal tax rates drop more sharply than any group in the country as a result of President Bush’s tax cuts,” prompting the New York Times to conclude that “rich families were the undisputed winners from President Bush’s tax cuts.”
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It’s not all gloom and doom.
Only $100 billion of the $787 billion stimulus package passed nine months ago has actually been spent by the federal government so far, with another $90 billion of stimulus coming in the form of tax reductions, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported Monday evening. That leaves three quarters of the package — and its stimulative effects — yet to come.
…the CBO estimates that between 600,000 and 1.6 million people were employed in the third quarter of 2009 who otherwise would not have been. The spending and tax cuts raised the Gross Domestic Product by somewhere between 1.2 and 3.2 percent, it found, and reduced unemployment by 0.3 to 0.9 percent.
Public perception of how well the economy is doing is all going to come down to jobs. While some have criticized the job estimates directly resulting from the stimulus bill, the numbers might very well be an underestimate.
…the CBO’s thinking doesn’t take into account the possibility that the economy might have fallen off a cliff if the stimulus hadn’t been passed, with world markets panicking and employers continuing to eliminate jobs at an eye-popping pace.
In the meantime Paul Krugman is pushing for a “jobs bill”…
Yes, the recession is probably over in a technical sense, but that doesn’t mean that full employment is just around the corner. Historically, financial crises have typically been followed not just by severe recessions but by anemic recoveries; it’s usually years before unemployment declines to anything like normal levels. And all indications are that the aftermath of the latest financial crisis is following the usual script. The Federal Reserve, for example, expects unemployment, currently 10.2 percent, to stay above 8 percent — a number that would have been considered disastrous not long ago — until sometime in 2012.
So it’s time for an emergency jobs program.
[...]
…our best hope now is for a somewhat cheaper program [than the stimulus bill] that generates more jobs for the buck. Such a program should shy away from measures, like general tax cuts, that at best lead only indirectly to job creation, with many possible disconnects along the way. Instead, it should consist of measures that more or less directly save or add jobs.
The question becomes whether President Obama has the guts to pass a jobs bill which would involve an expenditure of a couple of hundred billion at a time when people are skeptical about any more spending by the feds. As usual, it’s less about what’s best for the country and more about what’s politically feasible.
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USA Today reports…
States have reported using stimulus money to create or save more than 388,000 jobs so far this year, buttressing the Obama administration’s claim that the $787 billion plan has had a significant impact on the economy.
That total, based on a USA TODAY review of reports from 33 states and Puerto Rico, includes teachers, construction workers, and others whose jobs were funded by stimulus money awarded to states. The administration plans Friday to release reports from all 50 states, providing the broadest accounting yet of the stimulus plan’s impact.
No one claimed the economy would be back in full force within a year but the stimulus is doing what was predicted.
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It was just a matter of time.
The American farm, which has weathered the global recession better than most U.S. industries, is starting to succumb to the downturn.
The Agriculture Department forecast Thursday that U.S. farm profits will fall 38% this year, indicating that the slump is taking hold in rural America. Much of the sector had escaped the harsher aspects of the crisis, such as the big drop in property values plaguing city dwellers and suburbanites.
“It is safe to say that the global recession has finally shown up on the doorstep of the agriculture economy,” said Michael Swanson, an agricultural economist.
With profits projected to drop by 38% this year alone, farmer’s problems have become circular. Food prices have dropped which cuts down on profits which forces many farmers to have to borrow to keep the farm up and running. But their chief source of collateral, their land, has seen its value decline significantly thus making borrowing difficult.
It just ain’t easy.
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NOTE: We talk of health care reform and the economy and birthers and fat cat media types. We quote numbers and stats and poll percentages to help bolster our arguments. We call them wingnuts and loonies and show videos of crazy people. We write of hypocrisy and hate and fear and somewhere in that eclectic mix of words and emotion, we sometimes lose sight of what it’s all about.
I received an email yesterday from a regular reader of this site and I’d like to share it with you. It just sort of puts it all back into perspective. Namely, that there exists real people with real lives and stories behind those numbers and statistics we love to bandy about.
-mario
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Hey Mario.
I check out your stories quite often, and realize that you cover the “big” issues involving prominent players, but I wanted to share this story with you; it exemplifies just how pervasive this whole conservative (dare I say) propaganda has become.
For the background…I live in a very small town in Indiana, and as you may well know, the unemployment rate is pretty high here. I personally have been out of work since December ‘08, and prospects still don’t look good. Today our Congressman, Buyer (R), held a job fair at a local high school, touting “2500 jobs offered by 68 employers”. Now, I did not visit every table, but of the few I did visit, only 1 took an application. Others stated they did not have any current openings, but were there directing people to their websites where open positions would be posted as the need arose. Quite a few others were “direct sales” jobs (and I use the term “jobs” loosely)…selling Avon, or Tupperware…Seriously??
But that is not the point. Now comes the sad and sickening part. I checked the internet for any coverage on the Indianapolis news, as I had seen their cameras there, and there is a 2 minute video on their website that was shot at this “job fair”. The first minute of the video was indeed about the “job” part, and then came this:
[Reporter] “The biggest common denominator is the need for jobs, but besides that is the need for health care”.
The entire 2nd minute was devoted to Congressman Pence (R) who had this to say…
“The American people want to see healthcare reform in Congress, but I don’t believe they want a government take-over. I think most Americans understand that if Washington, D.C. creates a new government run insurance plan that millions of Hoosiers will lose the health insurance that they currently have. Something needs to be done with health care, but it needs to be the right thing.”
Reporter: “Pence says he’s not looking for another job in Washington other than the one he already has.”
Pence: “I have no plans to run for President, my focus is on serving the people here in Eastern Indiana, but also doing everything I can around the country to elect as many conservatives as possible.”
So this guy takes his turn in front of the camera to slam the Dems proposed health care at a JOB FAIR, while milling about behind him are hundreds of unemployed people hoping to get a break (which doesn’t seem too likely, unless they can live on barely above minimum wage).
I realize I live in a mostly conservative state, but this struck me as so incredibly WRONG (maybe overly sensitive as I was one of those unemployed milling about there today and I’m not a republican). I’m sure many others who were there would want to see the coverage too, and on top of not having a job, here is this fear-mongering republican taking advantage of their uncertain states of mind to promote his agenda to people who ALREADY have enough to worry about. Had I known this man was there and what platform he was using the event for…well, no telling what I may have said to him…but it probably wouldn’t have helped my chances with any prospective employers.
There, I feel a little better now…
-Sad and Sickened
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Can someone please explain why the ‘cash-for-clunkers’ initiative is in any way bad?
“My children and grandchildren are going to have to pay for these cars and we’re helping auto dealers while there are thousands of other small businesses that aren’t getting the help,” said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) during an appearance on Fox News Sunday. “The role of the federal government is not to run the used car business.”
“We’re definitely going to debate it and I’ve heard that John McCain is going to stand up and try to stop it and I’m going to work with him every way that I can,” he said. “This is crazy to try to rush this thing through again.”
Is the idea not to stimulate the economy? Upwards of 250,000 new vehicles have been sold since the program began. Add to this the fact that old gas-guzzlers are being taken off the road and it would seem like a winner all way around – consumers, manufacturers, dealerships, the environment and the economy.
What do Republicans want? Is the economy going to just miraculously turn around because…well, just because? Is every government initiative going to be attacked and deemed disastrous simply because Democrats are running the show? Will Sarah and Todd divorce?
I need to know.
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How many times can one use the words Washington and success in the same sentence and not be called a liar or a fool?
The White House said Thursday it was reviewing what has turned out to be a wildly popular “cash for clunkers” program amid concerns the $1 billion budget for rebates for new auto purchases may have been exhausted in only a week.
Transportation Department officials called lawmakers’ offices earlier Thursday to alert them of plans to suspend the program as early as Friday. But a White House official said later the program had not been suspended and officials there were assessing their options.
A Transportation Department official said the department was working with Congress and the White House to keep the program going.
The CARS program offers owners of old cars and trucks $3,500 or $4,500 toward a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle.
It would be nice if they found a way to extend the cash-for-clunkers program to replace politicians for a more efficient, honest version, except I doubt they could ever come up with the zillion billion gazillion required to replace them all.
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