Gibbs: Without Stimulus Five Million Jobs Will Disappear

The White House warned on Wednesday that the country would stand to lose five million jobs over the next three years should a stimulus package not make its way to the president's desk. Simply implementing more of the same economic policies, the president's aides added, would not be enough of a fix.

"Continuing the policies that got us where we are today is not a recipe for getting us where we need to be tomorrow," spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

The laying down of numerical markers -- Gibbs also predicted that Friday would bring news of more steep job losses -- is one of the more direct pleas the Obama administration has made in support of its stimulus package.

"Our failure to do something in size and scope commensurate with the challenges we have at hand, will find ourselves worse off than we are now," Gibbs concluded.

Gibbs dodged a question as to whether Obama was privately encouraging moderate Democrats to speak or vote against the stimulus package, something Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee said had taken place in his conversations with the president.

"I think the president continues to meet with members of both parties to try and get the very strongest bill possible," Gibbs said. "He said yesterday that there was no doubt this legislation will undergo changes to get the strongest bill possible. I'm not going to get into every private conversation the president has. But suffice to say he wants a bill that will get the economy moving again."

Of equal evasion, Gibbs declined to project whether or not he believed the stimulus would get the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.

"There are people hired here to count votes... with job descriptions different than mine. And I don't know hypothetically what might happen at any given moment. The President, as he has done throughout this process... wants to hear from members about any idea or concerns they have about what's in a specific package," he said.

Comments

[claylandg]

Fear Mongering i thought we were done doing this when bush left.
Can i remind you the last time we had to rush to pass something TARP
and we are still trying to fix this problem, looks like problems after problems because of rushing .Let's step back ,take a breath and dig in and get it done correctly this time.

[Overtone]

Still missing from the stimulus package is the proven, most effective, way to provide up to 6 million new jobs and 4 million new small firms. It is called A Human Investment Tax Credit Program.

The full 2009 Report, which includes a detailed economic analysis - as well as a short version, which only provides details on what can be done and an outline of how Congress can do it - is available to download free at: aesopinstitute.org

[MyTake]

I hope Obama has a plan B for Gibbs.

Gibbs may be a nice person, but he is in a way over his head as press secretary. Obama needs a much stronger willed press person who is capable of dealing with all the "stress" fires that are flaming up all over the place and will continue to rise over the course of this recession/­depression­/man made fraud period.

His body language and facial expressions exhibited before, during and after these questions/answer sessions are being seized upon by opposition forces in the media already and he has only been 2 weeks standing in the line of fire.

In short, in this time of dire stress, the person in that position has to deliver solid answers and avoid the FEAR phrases which puts everyone in even more stress.

[Old time Dem]

Inh another month he'll be well seasoned..­.........

[flyingmonkey]

Obviously there are democrats who are not voting for this package. Who are they and why aren't they supporting it and the President?

[tenzenz]

Behind Enemy Lines; Your Party numbers may be correct, however, you seem to be forgetting about the Filibuster. With 58 votes from the Dems & the two 3rd party candidates, they are still 2 votes shy of a filibuster proof majority & therefore need at least 2 republicans to support the Stimulus package in order to pass it out of the Senate. Unfortunately, the Republicans have no intention of supporting anything with this kind of numbers, & now the Senate Republicans want to add even more Tax Cuts compared to what was already written in the House Bill, (25% of the total bill price). They continue to wear blinders when it comes to looking back at the tax cuts already given during the Bush Administration. They did nothing to help the economy in the long run, Tax Cuts always end up benefiting the wealthiest 1% & weakening the working class. No Tax Cut has ever put mass numbers of people to work, yet this is the same old lame old answer to every ill in society that the Republicans ever put forth. Republicans have one solution for everything IE; Poor Health Care system-GOP Solution= Tax Cuts, Social Security's Demise-GOP Solution= Tax Cuts, Failing Infrastructure-GOP Solution=Tax Cuts, Renewable Energy Grid-GOP Solution=Tax Cuts. Reducing High energy costs- GOP Solution=Tax Cuts...Tim­e for the GOP to start thinking outside their Greedy All Boy, All White network.

[behindEnemyLines]

No one Republican has threatened to filibuster this bill. So you can't use that as an excuse. The GOP will be happy to allow the Dems to go it alone on this one. Now about those terrible tax cuts. If they are so bad why are they still in the bill? Why haven't the Bush tax cuts been repealed? The truth is the Democrats don't have enough support from their own members to even bring this up for a vote (which you forgot to address). Tax cuts creates jobs because you in effect lower the cost of doing business which in turn allows you to hire more people. Second everyone who pays taxes benefited from the Bush tax cuts. I am no where near rich and I got a tax cut under the previous president. You also forgot to mention that the largest amount of tax revenue ever collected was in 2006 after the second half of the tax cuts were passed. Oh and Im not "White" just felt I should throw that in there seeing that everyone seems to think that only white people can be conservative.

All of you democrats should focus your anger on your own party. If these people really represented you then they would listen to your cries to leave the GOP behind. Have they done that? No, they don't care what you guys think, they only care about their own political careers.

[behindEnemyLines]

One more time. The Democrats do not need Republican support to pass this bill. The Dems control 58 seats in the senate. The only ones holding this bill up is the Democrats. Support from the American people to pass this bill is falling as each days goes by. Today Democratic senators have come out opposing the bill. Harry Reid admitted that he does not have the votes to pass it. Well if he doesn't have the votes that means that their are 10 democrats who will not vote yes.

If you are a supporter of this bill the only peopl you can blame is the Democrats. They do not want this massive spending bill to only have their names on it, especially seeing that support for passage has dropped below 30%. If they believe their out of control spending bill is the savior then why can't they pass it with such a large majority in the senate? They are scared and refuse to put their political careers on the line.

[Tchalla Jackson]

I’m afraid that Gibbs is spot on about the dire conditions of this economy. Personally, I have stake in the game, because my company a powerhouse for decades are feeling the shakes from this massive economic quake. My company cut more than 20k jobs this year and continuously informing us to brace for more drastic measures, including more layoffs, if conditions worsens. Republican wants tax cuts only, but this problem is ways beyond just cutting taxes. If a substantive stimulus package isn’t in circulation soon -solid, responsible companies like mine will soon be reduced to dust. Obviously, there's no tax revenue if a majority of the American people are sitting at home.

[aspertame2]

I have a concern that very little stimulus money will go into job creation.

Tax the heck out of wealth, only loophole is $$$ that goes direct into hiring and job creation/workplace infrastructure. That's not socialism, it's making money show better productivity!

[behindEnemyLines]

your right. we should tax the hell out of YOUR boss and see how many employees at your place of employment keep their jobs

[forty8r]

Pst, The GOP wants a complete economic meltdown to create political instability and regain power by a coup. What other option do they have to get power?

[BrielleSF]

I feel we're living the fable about the boy who called wolf. We had a president over 8 years who used fear and crisis to push his agenda forward, while we learned after the fact that the crisis wasn't actually a crisis and the agenda was something different then outlined. People are now so tired of being lied to, but have come to expect it resulting from the dishonest administration that just left power. Here we have a true crisis on our hands we haven't seen in almost 100 years and people are just not taking it seriously and acting like this is 'just a little recession'.

I hope in this time that we can remember the fable and that we are dealing with a new administration. We need to forget how we've been handled for the past 8 years and learn to have some trust and faith in our government again. Of course we shouldn't follow blindly, but we need to give this new administration more than 2 weeks!

[SPELLKASTER]

Why should we give this administration two weeks or another two weeks - he has already shown us what he and how he wants to spend our hard earned tax dollars: redecorate the White House, by a fleet of new limos., have a new Air Force One built, lets include all the parties that he is throwing with Kobe beef from Japan and lets not forget that his citizenship has not been proven yet either and you all are letting this man spend, spend, and spend some more without saying anything.

Say here is an idea -- the inmates or detainees at Gitmo - let them stay at the White House - after remodeling and redecorating there may be room for them! Maybe that is what he has in mind!

Isn't it funny that Bush did veto the medical for illegal immigrants children 4 times - now Obama says lets pay for their medical. I have no medical because it is not provided at my work and I do not get paid enough to pay for it myself but yet we can shell out to people who are NOT citizens of this country and don't pay . We should be doing for OUR OWN first. Oh yes on the same subject - I believe that Mexico has already been inlisted in providing abortions for those that want it from this country and WE are paying for that too.

[LoveAlaska]

I think every republican who stands in the way of the stimulus bill should be voted out and boy oh boy we proved we can do it!

[Eyeswideopen1]

They will be voted out either way.

[behindEnemyLines]

um last time I checked Democrats didn't need one Republican to vote for this bill. The dems to control 58 seats in the senate. So why won't they put their money where their mouth is? They're scared to do this on their own.

[blueline2]

Because, fo....ol, with less than 60 votes, they can't stop the GOP from filibustering. How hard do people need to get it knocked into their heads? The Dems need a couple Repubs, but the Repubs want the crisis to grow even worse, more layoffs, foreclosures, etc, and then say 'see we told you the Dems are no good.' It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.

[davidwayneosedach]

To Gibbs: exactly how many new jobs will appear directly as a result of the stimulus?

[MBWinters]

Greetings Sam....

What does the current's adminstration ploy have in common with people who are passive agressive? Let me help you-it is the use of unfounded fear. Fear is employed when they can not get the people around them to go along willingly with there beliefs and desires. In this case we are talking about the waining support for the Reinvestment Act in its present form and the adminitration brings some expert on the stage to use fear as a tool to manipulate the uninformed to put pressure on their senator. A commo trick often used by organizations and people with a deep seeded emotional illness.

I would suggest that you might encourage people to read The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression before they allow more fear mongers to come along and infect them with their deep seeded emotional illness. You may even like the book -it chronicles how the Dems with the spending programs actually extended the Great Depression. The author and another expert thinks if left alone would have corrected itself much sooner and without all the spending.

Warm regards,

Michael Winters
A Nedw Patriot for America

[KarelS]

Yeah. Let's let alone the same "patriots" who got us into this mess. Heck! Let's bring Bush and Cheney and Phil Gramm back, give even more tax breaks to the likes of Thaine, let even more businesses ship offshore--tax exempt, of course . . . This is not a recipe for correcting things much sooner: This is a recipe for bloody revolution.
Is that what you want?

[Golfer59]

I am starting to feel as though the Obama Administration is using the Bush administration scare tatics.

[pepperdude]

WE ARE IN SERIOUS TIMES BUT ONE CANNOT KNOW WHAT POLITICIANS ARE UP TO? ARE THEY JUST TRYING TO SCARE CONGRESS AND REPUBS IN PARTICULAR TO PASS SOMETHING THEY DON'T SUPPORT? I MEAN THE NUMBERS KEEP CHANGING. PREZ O NEEDS TO BE CAREFUL WITH HIS NUMBERS OR HE WILL LOSE CREDIBILITY IF THINGS DON'T HAPPEN AS SCARILY PREDICTED