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TechnoratiA Trillion Dollar Recovery
We don't need a stimulus, we need a recovery. And that means investing $1 trillion over the next two years.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) has proposed a plan to do just that--a detailed $1 trillion recovery plan to kick start the economy, invest in sustainable, long term growth and target individuals and communities that are most desperate for resources.
Obama political adviser David Axelrod said this weekend that the new Administration is looking at a stimulus bill in the range of $675 to $775 billion over two years. But is that enough at this moment of metastasizing economic pain and deepening recession? Not according to CPC Co-Chair, Representative Lynn Woolsey of California, who said, "...anything much less than $1 trillion would be like trying to put out a forest fire with a squirt gun."
In addition to much needed investments which have already been laid out--like the extension of unemployment insurance while joblessness soars, increasing food stamps, and assisting cash-strapped states with Medicaid--the CPC plan goes a step further. It takes a holistic approach to economic recovery and the needs of ordinary Americans by addressing infrastructure, human capital, keeping people in their homes, job creation, fiscal relief for state, local and tribal governments, education and job training and tax relief for lower-income families.
There are smart commitments in the CPC plan that deserve real attention, such as:
• A percentage of the infrastructure work would be performed by veterans, low-income and homeless individuals, out-of-school youth, and others facing multiple barriers to employment.
• Green technologies to weatherize the nation's homes and small businesses.
• Grants to neediest schools for modernization, renovation, energy efficiency, and investing in educational technology.
• Construction of libraries in rural communities in order to expand broadband access
• Capital improvements and short-term operating funds for federally-qualified health centers.
• Boost funding for National Health Service Corps to produce more doctors, dentists and nurses to provide health care in underserved area.
• Expand sustainable food systems at local community level.
• A moratorium on home foreclosures.
• At least $100 billion allocated to "green jobs creation", including at community level and in Indian Country.
• Creation of a new energy block grant to transition to green energy sources
• Re-establish Youth Conservation Corps to eliminate backlog of work projects in national, state, and local parks.
• Federal Arts and Writers Project to create jobs for American artists, writers, editors, researchers, photographers, and others.
• Triple funding for Community Development Block Grant Program
• Make the child tax credit fully refundable, lifting 2.7 million people--including 1.7 million children--above the poverty line.
• Expand the earned income tax creditfor families with three or more children.
"The Progressive Caucus is determined to bring justice and prosperity to the American economy, and this proposal does both," CPC Co-Chair, Representative Raul Grijalva of Arizona, said in a released statement.
"The American people's urgent needs in health care, employment, education and infrastructure have been neglected for so very long that the basic structure of our economic system has been undermined. Now that the American people have the attention of Wall Street and Washington, we intend to lift their voice and demand the profound change the people voted for."
There is a groundswell of support for massive action along these lines. More than twenty progressive groups and unions are spearheading the Jobs and Economic Recovery Now campaign, building grassroots support for a bold recovery program of $850 billion or more. At events across the nation, supporters urged quick passage of the legislation so that it is waiting on President Obama's desk the day he takes office.
The campaign is also targeting moderate Republicans in the Senate in order to avoid a filibuster. It was just three months ago, after all, that Republicans successfully filibustered a stimulus that targeted unemployment insurance, food stamps and "shovel-ready" infrastructure projects--and that was only $56 billion.
At this moment, a massive recovery along the lines of what the country needs is far from a done deal. The Congressional Progressive Caucus has done a great service with its plan, showing us what a comprehensive approach to economic recovery looks like--addressing the needs of ordinary Americans who have been left behind by the Wall Street Bailout Bonanza and eight years of greed and deregulation. Contact your elected officials--make sure they read the plan and support a $1 trillion recovery. We can't afford anything less.
35 Comments so far
Show AllThe Obama stim. will IMHO end up in the hands of the same vandals that robbed us in the 1st place. The rest will be absorbed by the huge bureaucracy at all levels of the Gov't. A few crumbs will make it too the street. The easiest way to stimulate it would be to just send a check to every man, women and child. But that doesn't help all the powerful people who want the $$ as treats to hand out to their families, friends and co-workers, does it?
Now that the government is giving away money, could they give some of it directly back to We the People instead of to the banks and corporations who gambled away our money?
1.
"• Federal Arts and Writers Project to create jobs for American artists, writers, editors, researchers, photographers, and others."
Promotion of creativity and free thought.The only creativity that comes out of Capitalism is how to steal money from Americans and create more greed,ship our jobs over seas and blame unions for the disaster.30 years of that crap and here we are, on the verge of financial chaos.
Dam , Imperial Capitalists are very good in that creative department.
Maybe a Writers project that teaches journalists about the importance of protecting the Constitution will spread to the Main Stream Media and America will have some real reporting and journalism on the boob tube.Journalists need to stop sheltering the criminals that are destroying our country.
2.
"like the extension of unemployment insurance while joblessness soars, increasing food stamps, and assisting cash-strapped states with Medicaid--the CPC plan goes a step further."
Wait just a minute, we can't fill are jails fast enough with desperate poor hungry people committing crimes if you actual have a plan to help struggling Americans. Remember, we need to build more privatized jails and hire more law enforcement agents across the country, there is a plan in place.
Financial disaster and martial law is almost upon us.
Lets see how the arrogant elite leaders on a state by state level will enjoy martial law imposed on them, they were all on board with the Patriot Act as long as they held power at a state level, fools, all of them for not protecting the Constitution.
3.
"• At least $100 billion allocated to "green jobs creation", including at community level and in Indian Country."
Get real, lets spend a trillion on green jobs, and stop sending our money over seas to middle east country's.
We engineer new energy technology,build it with American hands, and we sell it globally. No give always here.
But I am not a worldly man, I am not a wealthy Capitalist, I am just an American tax payer watching my tax dollars disappear in bailouts for the Wealthy Capitalists running our banks and Wall street.
BornFreeMen
Flat broke, but great full I still have a job and I can help my three sons through some very difficult financial times. I just don't know how long we Americans can hold on it we can't find solutions, Forget about King George and Prince Dick , they have been watching this disaster unfold over the last 9 months and done nothing, except make sure their Republican cronies get the bailout money.
Creating jobs by rebuilding and repairing infrastructure is a step in the right direction, BUT anything done to promote job growth will inevitably fail UNLESS the trade agreements are modified to take into account disparaties in worker pay, meaning either raise wages overseas or tax the goods coming in. Otherwise, the race to the bottom will continue, and the US economy will not turn around long term. There may be a blip for awhile, but then it will descend again. Creating new jobs will do us no good, unless we keep them here. Will the current administration avoid this elephant in their room like the last one did?
Excellent analysis chess. It's all about creating and keeping jobs here. If Obama's program only creates some make work jobs that are then downsized or shipped to China it won't work.
We should look long and hard at this raising tariffs thing. If we raise tariffs on imported cars will Detroit go back to making crappy cars again? If we raise tariffs on imported oil from Canada will they just turn around and sell it to China? They have aleady said they will do this. One of the mistakes that Herbert Hoover made was passing the Smoot Hartley Tariff bill which raised tariffs and set off a world wide Depression. Look it up if you don't believe me.
This situation is different now because we are not benefiting from so-called 'American' products (employment wise). American companies are really Chinese companies with an US corporate label. Thus, a reduction is likely to hurt China much more than us. It is true that the price of goods at Wal-mart might rise and there would be some 'pain' in that regard, until that kick-started manufacturing here again. Look at it this way, though, even if the price of such goods stays low, it won't matter if people don't have jobs because they will not be able to afford them at any price (as is being evidenced at present).
The geniuses of outsourcing either ignored this fact, or thought it wouldn't matter. They were in it for the short-term gain (i.e., just to maximize profits as quickly as they could to reward the investor; it was an unbalanced equation from the get-go). Again, if 'free' trade is going to work, it must raise ALL boats; otherwise, it amounts to a ruse benefiting those at the top. The direct cause-effect of this fallacious system was buffered for awhile by easily available credit, which has made the overall effect much worse. You are correct, though, higher tarrifs alone will not work, because the 'rules of the game' must be changed in favor of balance and sustainability--any measurse short of this will not work.
There's a bigger issue than this. Ironically, many of the biggest employers are foreign manufacturers, who make their goods here (see Toyota and BMW), which have demonstrated more loyalty to the American worker than US companies! If Detroit continues to make crappy products they should fail. HOWEVER, the cost of living is much higher here than in 'slave labor' countries (such as India or China), and we cannot compete with this. My first choice would be to raise their pay, so that they can afford things we make over here--that's what 'fair' trade was supposed to be about. Also, protecting the environment, not a race to the bottom like it is now, which leads to worker exploitation and impoverishment EVERYWHERE, while feeding the coffers of the elite. My god, we have enough crap coming from China: poisoned food, toys, and drugs (for example). Remember too, that while capital can move anywhere, practically overnight, the worker cannot. We must look at this issue from all sides, not just media 'talking points.'
My first choice would be to raise their pay, so that they can afford things we make over here--that's what 'fair' trade was supposed to be about. Also, protecting the environment, not a race to the bottom like it is now, which leads to worker exploitation and impoverishment EVERYWHERE . . .
"Fair Trade", "Capitalism" . . . when you take these to their logical conclusion, the Race to the Bottom is about slavery. Why pay anybody anything? But, you say, if everyone is enslaved there won't be anyone left to buy anything. In the immortal word of Cheesedick Cheney: So? Being Top Dog any place means screwing people from every degree on the compass. This is the satisfaction of being Top Dog. While it's true that there is never enough for these people, sapping your labor, paying you as little as possible, SCREWING and HUMILIATING you totally is the object and true satisfaction of the capitalist. It either ends in our total bondage, or revolution.
I think you put too much emphasis into a conspiracy that doesn't exist.
I'm sure that in the case of Trickier Dick Cheney you might be right. He does seem to be the type where simply making a profit just isn't enough, you have to also actively destroy everyone else too.
But more generally I think it's just plain short-sightedness. It is kind of like the person who drives their car every day 4 blocks to work. He doesn't see how he could possibly effect the global climate.
Each business thinks insularly and only looks at the profit margins based on the world of today. They are incapable of seeing the impact of lower pay and lower benefits (euphamistically called 'higher profit margins') on the ability of that same populace to buy their goods in the first place. Or to afford their loans.
And if you are really talking about only one company in one location then this model is true.
The problem is a lack of recognition that the conditions which make it favorable for one company to close down in the USA and re-open in China are the same conditions that make it favorable for many of them to do so.
And then, eventually, no one can afford the products.
This state of affairs would have played itself out back in 2001 or 2002 if all that deregulation and loan-fraud hadn't come about. The easy money policies helped to keep this instability together for a while. As long as you could continue to re-finance you could stay ahead of the curve even though you ended up being forced into early retirement and were now working as a barrista at starbucks.
That easy money just made everything far worse in the end.
On the last day of 2008, BBC News had a story about Cuba 50 years after the revolution. They were interviewing a professor in Miami who was stating that Cuba's economy is in difficulty and that the country has billions of dollars in debt and that some of it goes back to the Soviet era. As if the USA has no debt. The "honorable" professor was making the point that the US blockade of Cuba should not be lifted because Cuba would like nothing more than to do business with the USA on credit which they do not have access to now. In other words, Cuba's economy was well, sub-standard and not worthy of such credit. This even though Cuba pays cash in-full for purchases of food, etc., from the USA. The implication was that unlike the USA, the Cuban economic system was well, deficient. Now, think about this. The USA has a multi-multi-trillion dollar debt, borrows money from countries to where we have exported our factories and jobs, people are being kicked out of their homes, don't have health care or cannot afford it, where poverty is growing, workers are losing their jobs and pensions, people (children) are going hungry, seniors have to choose between heat in the winter, food and/or medicine, etc. And the USA is going to lecture the Cubans on how they should reform their economy? I remember reading a sign in Havana back in 1997. It read, "200 million homeless people in the world. And not one of them lives in Cuba". Citizens in the USA should be so be able to say. And imagine us having free universal health care and education. Blasphemy! isn't it?
Indeed, "We can't afford anything less."
The only question I have isn't about the immediate correctness of the solution but about the oxymoronic idea of "sustainable, long term growth". Don't we have to realize that any system that demands growth will reach an unpleasant endpoint? Don't we have to address the problem of growth on a finite planet and its ecological implications?
But, at the moment, the $1,000,000,000,000 solution is for sure the best answer!
It's according what growth is. If its renewable, green and recyclable than it's sustainable long term growth.
Rickster
I can suggest where you get the money from: the rich, wealthy people who got us into this mess.
Tax property of the wealthy and very wealthy at a rate which will eliminate the wealthy and very wealthy.
I drove through Aspen, Colorado today. I pasted many, many private jets, maybe one hundred. What does those people and corporations need with so much? They don't when people are hungry, ignorant, and sick.
Take the wealth of the rich through taxation.
Until you people get it, and vote into office common people, unlike the newest corporate shill you elected, Mr. Obama, you will remain the exploited dogs you are today.
hoyt said: the rich, wealthy people who got us into this mess.
In other words, the investor class, the repubs, the neocons, the media, and their easily led 'low-information' followers.
Any 'recovery' will only be temporary, hijacked, or discredited by the above unless we hold as many of them as possible accountable for their role in our multiple meltdowns. The recovery plan needs to publicly discredit the core of their ideology and challenge their myths in a major way--this has to be an integral part of recovery and transition to a more sustainable financial/environmental/social/political paradigm.
Raising the property taxes of the wealthy a bit higher is good, but raise their taxes too high and they'll take their money and fly off to Shangrila.
"they'll take their money and fly off to Shangrila."
Let them fly off we can prevent them from taking their money. We can freeze their accounts. If they are jumping ship, because their being taxed higher, than consider them terrorist.
Rickster
While I welcome intelligent infrastructure spending this article advocates putting a band aide on a cancer.
First, where does this trillion dollars come from? The country already runs a 500 billion a year deficit. This plan, like most of the others, will lead to devaluing the dollar and hyperinflation.
Second, the root cause is not addressed. The USeconomy is now built on cheap credit, debt, speculation, and consumerism. A healthy economy is built on savings, investment, and production. The cure is not more of the same!
This economy is the planned result of the actions of the Federal Reserve, a private bank that makes money off of deficits and debt. A private bank that is unconstitutional.
There is only one course available to the US. Make no mistake, it will be taken, whether now by choice, or later by necessity.
Eliminate the Federal Reserve and return to the gold and silver standard that is Constitutional.
Eliminate 95% of the military budget.
Withdraw from all "free trade" agreements.
Institute National Single Payer Health Care.
Remove all corporate rights and heavily regulate all corporations.
There is more to do but these are the basics. If these are not done kiss democracy goodbye for the only other course is despotic fascism.
expatincebu,
This is intelligent followup.
Your comments are appropriate guides.
"Eliminate 95% of the military budget."
Who else is addressing our 600 billion dollar military-defense budget?
Not author Vanden Heuvel.
The bankers' bailout is an easy target to ridicule,
but what of the MIC "bailout"?
You say, "A healthy economy is built on savings, investment, and production." We have no savings, so do we just stagnate? We must focus on the 'investment and production.' We can deal with inflation when necessary.
ABOVE -- said in a Nutshell. perfectly put
Greg R - most of what you say in your own post sounds reasonable, so I was surprised at your opinion that the post of rtdrury is 'pie in the sky.'
I think rtdrury is simply arguing that, in the expenditure of so much public capital as is now proposed, we avoid restoring/rebuilding the same, flawed elitist structures and processes that brought us to our present crisis, in favor of a more humane, democratically-governed economy.
By what conceivable logic can you call rtdrury's ideas 'pie in the sky?'
rtdrury suggests that a bit of "public enlightenment and empowerment" will magically make the perfectly balanced economy. I don't buy that for a second. We're talking about humans here for Christ's sake. Greed, jealosy and on and on, it's a dreamer's dream.
public ownership of the means of production - an idea whose time has come ;o)
Not going to happen comrade.
Here in SE Minn. my phone company, electric company and my farm supplier/buyer are and have long been cooperatives, nothing new, and they've worked out well.
Realwealthlife
CPC's plan also is about investing in 'human infrastructure' which is going to be vital as we shrink more and more employed folks out of the 'consumer economy' and need to find work they can do that benefits all. This is sector that needs development for the future of a service/knowledge/caring economy.
This stimulus idea has legs of its own, not surprisingly. It should not be funded. The great majority of people are true progressives at heart and their hearts tell them that this stimulus idea will trample all over us if we invest our hopes in it. It is not cynicism in our hearts that tell us this, it is a simple conviction learned at a relatively young age that win/win cooperation trumps win/lose competition pretty much every time. This stimulus idea is like every idea that oozes out of the elite establishment: It is guaranteed to shift wealth from below to above. The elites' familiar argument is that such a wealth redistribution is a necessary ordering of nature to combat entropy/chaos. Nothing could be further from the truth. The elite do not create order. The elite create chaos and destruction. That is, behind the elite's facade of order is a mountain of chaos. Everyone knows that by far the most efficient/stable economy is that of SMALL enterprises on the order of ten man-powers. The Nation is buying into this stimulus idea because The Nation operates under an assumption that it should not rock the boat out of fear that it will lose readers. The elite establishment serves The Nation so The Nation reciprocates.
Here are the specifics that we arrive at when we apply what we learned about win/win cooperation: In a cooperative society the "authorities" do not try to direct the spending of public funds. Rather the "authorities" limit themselves to keeping the information flowing freely to all people, for the public enlightenment and empowerment. The public enlightenment and empowerment then yields the desired results: No fear of economic disruptions, because there are none. There are no gigantic depressions because the economies, macro/micro, are stable. S T A B L E!!! There is no need for stimulus and there is no need for "authoritative" direction. The people produce and the people consume based on their healthy informed wants/needs. And with industrialization, prosperity increases for all, and fewer work hours are needed. Industry serves the BETTER interests of the PEOPLE. And the people understand the difference between a functional economy and a dysfunctional economy and the people act to keep it functional.
Can we stop throwing slabs of meat to the elite already? Haven't we learned anything over the past eight years? The people have a plan and it does not include the elite.
These are nice libertian, utopian thoughts, but in the real world they're just pie-in-the-sky. We need $1 trillion in stimulus to get near full employment which most Americans would agree is a good situation. We all need to push for the best spending package, which is one that puts us in better shape in the future. Spending on bullets and bombs will likely get us nowhere or worse. Spending on education, alternative energies such as wind, infrastructure upgrades, etc. will give us good value for the money.
Your concern is a good thing but your prescription leaves the underlying problem to fester. This is why I proposed an alternative prescription, to help fix the underlying problem. The underlying problem is that the great majority of Americans don't understand what exactly should be driving the economy and the larger society. Real informed human aspirations, not capitalist propaganda, should drive the economy. This creates two changes, a smaller economy and a more stable, higher quality economy. Please look around the world, and you will find smaller, more stable, higher quality economies. Those people realize there is more to life than work and consumption. MUCH more. And so people work less, consume less and live higher quality lives. Their economies are STABLE. They aren't perfect but they are closer to the ideal. Is this by accident or by design?
WASHINGTON – Government officials overseeing a $700 billion bailout have acknowledged difficulties tracking the money and assessing the program's effectiveness.
The information was contained in a document, released Wednesday, of a Dec. 10 meeting of the Financial Stability Oversight Board. The panel, headed by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, includes Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Securities and Exchange Commission chief Christopher Cox.
Forget the bailout - our Ship of State has been sunk!
The Glue That Holds Chaos Together
First, before anything else is done,we have to roll back the cost of living bonus that the Congress voted for themselves. They do not deserve the bonus, and it is proves that they believe themselves to be royalty. There is no argument that can merit the Congress getting a four-thousand-dollar-plus cost of living, while we are getting our hours cut, our jobs cut, and it has all been on Their watch. The Congress should be expected to work for a dollar a year, just like the auto CEO's, until they get their mess straightened out.
Thanks!
Galbraith has included a suggestion to increase Social Security benefits as well as part of any stimulus ...
The first shall be last and the last shall be first. biblical
Pride in wealth and fame
Breeds its own collapse.
Do your work, retire:
This is the Tao of heaven. tao te ching
Sounds pretty damn good to me.