Highlighted in this press release is the assertion that Spendulus "is expected to create or save 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year."
“Senator Specter cast the deciding vote on the very worrisome stimulus bill, when he could have negotiated with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama for more productive tax cuts and less wasteful spending.”Should Toomey file to run, it will be interesting to see who Mitch supports.
My favorite is the "as needed" part.
The Bluegrass Policy Blog, however, didn't miss it.
"The first issue is what it would mean for the policy to work. The President gave a very concrete metric: he wanted a program that would raise employment relative to what it would be in the absence of stimulus by 3 to 4 million by the end of 2010."
"When people are employed and buying things, loan defaults fall and asset prices are likely to rise. Both of these developments would surely be helpful to stressed financial institutions. This is, I believe, a key lesson of the Great Depression. In the Depression, the end of deflation, renewed optimism, and increased employment and output were as crucial to the recovery of the financial system as the more direct actions taken to stabilize banks. Thus, real and financial recovery reinforced each other. So, fiscal policy to raise employment may help to restart lending and in that way generate a more durable recovery."
"And when, a week after the bill is signed, we see my home state of California raising taxes and cutting spending by more than the amount of the relief the package provides, it certainly doesn’t feel like we’ve accomplishing anything. But we have. States have balanced budget requirements. In the absence of the relief provided in the package, the best case is that their spending cuts and tax increases would be even larger, and the worst case is that they would be unable to pay their bills at all. The fact that states are already changing their budgets, and are factoring in the funds from the package in doing so, is a sign that this portion of the package is timely and effective."
"But let me perfectly clear, because I know you’ll hear the same old claims that rolling back these tax breaks means a massive tax increase on the American people: if your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime."
"On climate change, the administration figures the federal government will collect $646 billion between 2012 and 2019 for carbon credits. That plan assumes Congress would be able to pass a nationwide “cap-and-trade” system quickly, likely by the end of this year. Obama cabinet officials told governors last weekend they hope Congress passes a law by this summer."
"The nationwide limits on carbon dioxide pollution would apply to all sources of the problem, including cars and trucks."
"Obama and Geithner say things like,"
"If you underestimate the problem; if you do too little, too late; if you don’t move aggressively enough; if you are not open and honest in trying to assess the true cost of this; then you will face a deeper, long lasting crisis."
"But what they’re actually doing is underestimating the problem, doing too little too late, and not being open and honest in trying to assess the true cost. The actual plan seems to be to keep the banks semi-alive by implicitly guaranteeing their liabilities and dribbling in money as necessary, all the while proclaiming that they’re adequately capitalized — and hope that things turn up. It’s Japan all over again."
"And the result will probably be a deeper, long-lasting crisis."
"We had some priorities that if at all possible we needed to maintain. And one was in education and the basic funding formula for our schools. I think everybody felt that it was just a requirement that we continue the effort that we're making to improve the education system. We had public safety issues that people felt were a priority as well as the healthcare safety net for our most vulnerable people."