EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
- Wisconsin Bill Would Treat Organic Milk, Sharp Cheddar, Brown Eggs as "Junk Food"
- As Death Toll Rises Beyond 500, Garment Factory Disaster 'Worst in World History'
- Climate Change's 'Evil Twin': Ocean Acidification
- Patent Filing Claims Solar Energy ‘Breakthrough’
- Disaster Capitalism Strikes as Hedge Funds Circle Near-Bankrupt Municipalities Like Vultures
- Move Over, Koch Brothers: A Bigger, Darker Rightwing Funder Is Out to Destroy Public Education
- Patent Filing Claims Solar Energy ‘Breakthrough’
- Wisconsin Bill Would Treat Organic Milk, Sharp Cheddar, Brown Eggs as "Junk Food"
- Climate Change's 'Evil Twin': Ocean Acidification
- Disaster Capitalism Strikes as Hedge Funds Circle Near-Bankrupt Municipalities Like Vultures
Popular content
Today's Top News
How Obama Must Sell His Recovery Plan
Millions of Americans are suffering thanks to an economic crisis that shows no signs of letting up soon. Congressional stimulus proposals likely hold the key to our economic revival. Yet the debate over the bill is dominated by allegations about alleged pork and wasteful spending. At a time of national crisis and on the heels of a formidable electoral victory, why are President Obama and his congressional allies playing defense on the recovery?
Obama must find a more compelling way to tell America that we need far more than just a short-term stimulus plan. This bill -- with some relatively small adjustments -- offers hopeful signs that the nation is ready to transform and move quickly to do so.
Sure, the bill is flawed, but it also does much right. Foremost, it offers solid and immediate help for low-income people - - those hit "first and worst" -- with boosts in unemployment insurance, food stamps and refundable tax credits. Many Republicans are questioning why such social support expansions are in the bill, but it is clear that it is both humane and economically savvy. The inability and unwillingness of millions of Americans to spend is forcing us further down a grave economic spiral. The poorest Americans -- those who are targets of this social spending -- have no choice but to spend what they have. That is why this kind of spending is, in fact, perhaps the most stimulative portion of the bill -- the gross-domestic-product turnover per dollar spent for these kinds of social spending is far, far higher than any corporate tax break.
The bill also provides some tentative first steps toward a down payment on many pressing infrastructure demands -- a kind of economic backfilling. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the Minneapolis bridge collapse, we have seen what happens when we refuse to dedicate the necessary dollars and manpower to fixing our infrastructure. But not all infrastructure projects are equal. Retrofitting schools and homes, building new energy grids and expanding public transit access all work to make a more green and broadly prosperous America.
So, the broad outlines of the bill are encouraging. But there remain significant concerns about whether this bill will help those who need it most and usher in a new era of shared prosperity in America.
For instance, the bill calls for massive investments in suburban highways, but comparatively little for the public transit that is the economic lifeblood of millions of low-income Americans -- and which, if funded well, could be the salvation of millions more.
Job training programs also do not receive nearly enough funding. At PolicyLink, we call for at least 1 or 2 percent of all infrastructure funding to go toward training the next generation workforce.
And outside-the-box projects like grants and loans for new supermarkets in poor communities (to help inner-city residents eat better and improve their health) or more targeted broadband expansion (to encourage competitiveness and entrepreneurship in low-income communities) haven't the attention they deserve, either.
The bill started off from a very exciting place -- a recognition that we need a massive infrastructure investment and it could be used as stimulus. But the infrastructure choices, so far, have not met this singular moment. And Republicans have been successful at the cable news game of highlighting seemingly wasteful spending, forcing supporters of the stimulus continue to play defense.
Still, we support the general outlines of this bill. We, of course, hope President Obama and Congress will improve it. But the president must not shy away from talking about what this bill truly is. It is not simply a stimulus package. It is a stimulus and recovery package. It is the first step toward settling the roiling economy and beginning a dramatic, overdue and equitable transformation of the American economy. The nation can afford nothing less -- now or for future generations.
- Posted in
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
4 Comments so far
Show AllMy sense of it is that our new president has greatly overestimated the power that his victory and high approval rating numbers give him. He seems to have sincerely believed that the Republicans would see the magnitude of the economic problem and be willing to work with him.
But like Rush Limbaugh, they all want him to fail and will obstruct by any means necessary to achieve that. They don't care if people are suffering financially. In fact, they seem to feel it works to their advantage.
Compromise and bipartisanship should great as rhetoric but in reality they seem to be giving the game away.
AFSC reports;
Some Senate offices report that calls from constituents are running 100 to 1 against the economic recovery legislation. This bill is an essential first step toward reviving the U.S. economy, creating or saving an estimated 3 to 4 million jobs, and taking giant steps toward a new, green economy. The same advocates of "no taxes, no government intervention" that got the United States into the current unregulated economic mess are now trying to derail legislation that is one critical part of the solution.
Please call your senators in the next 24 hours. Reach them through the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for your senator by name. The phones lines may be busy, so keep calling back.
Urge your senators to support the economic recovery act, to focus on getting money out fast to help those in need. Here's the message to give to the person who answers the phone in your senator's office:
Vote yes on the economic recovery bill.
Vote yes on the Schumer amendment to increase funding for mass transit.
Vote yes on efforts to ensure the Child Tax Credit is extended to reach lower income families.
If you don't know your senators' names, you can look them up on our website.
http://capwiz.com/fconl/dbq/officials/
I think the neocons lost the last election on purpose knowing that their policies had driven the American economy to the brink of a giant collapse. Now that Democrats occupy the White House and hold a slim majority in both houses of Congress the Republicans and their coconspirators in the media will attempt to blame the economic collapse on the democrats.
Obama needs to counter attack the republicans and lay the blame for the economic collapse squarely on the Republican policies of deregulation, massive deficit spending, tax cuts that went to the already wealthy, “free trade” and bubble prone monetary policies of the last 15 years.
To do this Obama is going to have to change his economic outlook and break away from the direction he seems to be taking. Given his appointments it seems unlikely that he will be willing to change his economic stripes. Obama also needs to change his political stripes and give up on attempting to be bipartisan to be able to mount the kind of counterattack needed to place the blame for our current economic crisis were it belongs; on the neoconservative economic policies enacted by Bush and the republicans since 2001. If the republicans do manage to hang the albatross that is our economy around Obama’s neck and obtain a few more seats in Congress in 2010 the nation will slip into a depression as bad as the Great Depression.
This stimulus bill will only accelerate the consolidation of wealth, while merely tossing a few crumbs at the feet of the sheople for them to swallow the whole package, as the status quo remains untouched and the country slides even deeper in debt. As long as the private Federal Reserve, and "fractional reserve banking", exists, we will continue to have the same problems of ever increasing debt. The Fed circulates debt, period. Every dollar you have is a debt owed to the private Federal Reserve. The issuance of currency has been an ongoing struggle in this republic from day one. The constitution mandates that the creation of currency is the responsibility of congress, not private banking cartels. We need to eliminate the Federal Reserve system, issue our own currency and spend it into the economy, which would also eliminate inflation and the need for income taxes.
According to Ben Franklin, the American revolution was largely a result of the Bank of England not wanting to allow the colonies to issue their own debt/interest free currency. Maybe our "representatives" need a little history lesson.