Wall Street Journal:
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration says it has been on a "learning curve" with the economic-stimulus package but has figured out how to spend some of the available billions more quickly.
Concerns raised on pace of stimulus - USATODAY.com
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Oh, yeah and what we should have done instead is the miracle cure the Bush Administration said would keep the economy from going into recession, Pass a huge one-time tax break for businesses along with $600 checks for everybody else to distract them from the corporate giveaway.
That worked SO well to keep the economy from going into recession, didn't it?
DRaymond: You might enjoy this....
The Great American Bubble Machine
Matt Taibbi on how Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/28816321/the_great_american_bubble_machine
Read it, watch it, or not ;-)
It would have worked out well if not for the housing for everybody fiasco of ACORN and Fannie & Freddie as well as the dems killing any regulation of those recession causers!
Didn't you realize that you had to pay taxes on that so called tax free $600?
The good news is that watching them pyss this 787B away will help prevent the larger disasters they are pushing including HC reform and Cap&Tax.
Sigh . . . . . 'tax cuts, which account for a third of the $787 billion package.' This is one of the major problem of the stimulus. People who will get these tax cuts, as little as they are per individual/family basis, will save their share instead of spending it. The recipients of these tax cuts will do what the majority of enterprises in the country is doing at the moment, hunkering down waiting to see a ray of light in the economy.
The stimulus should have been a full blown public works project fund from the get go. In a badly damaged economy where spending has froze, the stimulus was suppose to be the little engine that could. But a third of it will just sputter. All of this to get three republican to sign on to it. What a serious waste.
As Pursuance wrote:
"People who will get these tax cuts, as little as they are per individual/family basis, will save their share instead of spending it."
I rolled my ~$20/biweekly into purchasing I-series saving bonds. Figured I would end up paying for it come tax time anyway,... might as well have the extra couple hundred bucks on hand & relatively liquid.
I suspect I am not the only one doing this. You are right. Many people are saving it.
Well, so long as there are Repugs in government, there will be tax or payroll tax cuts. Their health care plan is for tax cuts or tax write offs. Now how in the world do these people think that will help those of us who are not getting a pay check because we are Out - Of - Work!
This current recession was predicted by private economists over 2 years ago. The government picked up on the idea over 14 months ago . That is why a tax cut stimulus package was introduced last spring ( 2008 ). The Obama plan was a huge government stimulus package that would target " shovel ready" projects. The package was ready to go on inauguration day according to Pelosi.
Normal recessions last about 8 to 10 months and the economy recovers on its own without any government stimulus.
This recession has been going on for about 10 months now. It would have been longer without the Bush stimulus package during 2008.
All of you Democrats should watch the movie " The Rain Maker " again with Burt Lancaster playing the role of Obama. It's about hope and dreams. Enough said.
Republicans getting their spin out before the economy starts to turn around. I saw this one coming as soon as the stim package passed. Maybe this is the first sign this mess is starting to turn around.
A while back I saw a post on how Fl wasted its stimulus building new roads and widening others.I had to lmao because on my way to work, there is a perfect example.They widened a road right after a turn at an intersection then made the two lanes immediately merge.And as for the biking lane? it end right in the middle of the road.So FL bikers, be careful. you may end up in the middle of a four lane highway!
well wear a frickin helmet down there. that might help. the fact that florida doesn't have helmet laws says they do not give a rat's behind about you.
Well, that sound like your state government. NJ is humming with a new train tunnel starting under the Hudson River from NJ to NYC, new section of light rail train and new road and bridge work all around the state. We also just got a huge amount for Swine Flue vaccine starting before the fall.
Thats all being funded by the 25 % new tax on beer and 4 dollar plus tax on cigarettes.....if we all stop drinking and smoking we will be in big trouble! How the property and sales taxes working out for everybody?
One thing is guaranteed. No matter what is happening, you can be positive the republicans are against it. That is a foregone conclusion.
What is going to happen, is happening already, is they are making themselves look like spoiled brats. Democrats aren't the only ones noticing and complaining. I hear comments in public, almost jokingly, that no matter what Obama does or tries to do, the republicans will be against it. And yet, they have not come up with one single viable solution that isn't simply a repetition of the past years and the NONregulatory ideology that got us exactly where we are today, in the toilet.
No problem figuring that out. If it doesn't include maximum benefits for the wealthy, if it doesn't include maximum benefits for multi-billion dollar corporations, then it isn't "right." Now, I know that all of their constituents can't possibly be that rich so I'm guessing the republicans are flipping off their constituents while stuffing their pockets with bribe money.
Several Republican lawmakers, led by Rep. John Mica (R., Fla.), protested the pace of spending on Friday, criticizing what they called excessive regulation. "Investments in infrastructure can create jobs, but the federal project process is so burdensome that money for good projects cannot get out fast enough," said Rep. Mica, the top Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Go back & read the article, This party of no is getting old & has become nothing more then a talking point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVaiIvcav64
I know Rethug-bashing is virtually irresistible. But that pleasurable activity won't address the failures of the Financial Team Obama. It appears the citizens of Ohio are the most awake in realizing that giving the Construction Industry windfall profits has not and will not "revive" the general jobs market. Obama should have listened to the advice of Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz et al back in Jan-Mar that his "stimulus" plan was woefully inadequate. But he would not and did not because, as we have learned, he has a strong stubborn streak in his personality. The accumulating woe will be unto US.
oh, we want the stimulus to work but difficult to see how it can happen with little or no effects being felt by the private sector and consumers. I see job loss number continue to rise and small businesses are sitting on any cash that they have to weather the current storm. Not until people get back to work in the private sector will we see any positive news. The only "shovel ready" project that I see is BHO piling up the BS on economic recovery.
In other words the "first $750 billion" was spent learning what to do?
That is how I read it too. Not very encouraging.
The haven't spent the first $787, there is still $499 billion waiting to be distributed. Go read again.
I'll give the WSJ props, the headline dragged me in. I HAD to read an article that dicussed how the government was "learning" how to spend money faster. HA!!!!!!!!!!! The only way this group could spend any faster is if each governmental employee came in everyday at 8:00 AM and threw $100 bills out the window until quittin time. I fully expected the article to mention that each of the aforementioned employees had been given a larger shovel and double window.
STOP THE WASTEFUL SPENDING!!!! If each party detests deficits then why do we have them?
Deficits mean that the wealthy can loan or invest their money in government paper instead of losing it to taxes. Then, the government ends up supporting them instead of the other way around. This is why conservative governments tend to run deficits. In the United States, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter and Clinton all paid down the debt relative to GDP, Carter bringing it to the post WWII minimum of 38%. Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and the two Bushs each set peacetime records in annual debt.
This is a conservative thing, not a Republican thing. Bismark did the same in Germany in the 19th century. In France at the same time, 'rentiers" living off government debt, were a major social class. The Bourbons of the 18th century France were notorious in this regard. Republican insincerely rail against debt to deprive the Democrats of a talking point.
wow. that makes perfect sense. never could understand why they liked debt so much
Well, that explains why GW could not wait to blow through the surplus left to him in 2000. Tax cuts for the wealthy and war profiteering. Sounds pretty "conservative" to me.
The Repugs DON'T WANT THE STIMULUS TO WORK.
Wrong. I wish it would work. The problem is, it won't.
that is because you are a normal human being. you have to admit, his political enemies want to see him fall flat on his face. sad fact is, we citizens are usually just pawns in their game.
Everyone wants it to work but to get people back to work not help the government. If it fails we all fail. Not just the democrats.
We need combine efforts for economy, fight GW, be energy independent and provide 100% of health insurance by 100% of employment. It is not so difficult task.
In huge power plants we are using only electricity. 80% of fuel energy we are loosing in vain.
If we will start new policy to build relatively small plant to use as electricity, as heat our need for energy will reduce at least 4 times. Wood in this case will provide more useful energy than oil products. All GHG from oven could be solved in water to watering forests surrounding these power plants. Together with ash it will be the best nutrition to grow forests.
If we will achieve not so difficult task to harvest 5 dry ton/acre/year of wood we need 300,000,000 acres of forest to feed all projected energy needs in 2010 year.
When one person with weight around 200 Lb. is moving to job and back on car weighting around 2000 Lb., real efficiency of movement of person will be less than 1% (calculate efficiency of engine, gasoline production, stops on the road, heating or cooling etc).
We can"t gather all GHG from millions of cars. Only electrical power without any batteries could provide as economically as environmentally friendly movement.
Small carts (20 Lb.) moving by road, absolutely automatically on road without intersection must to be direction of our transportation future.
It will be energy and transportation solutions with ZERO EMISSIONS, 100% of employment and insurance.
Despite having stolen the 2000 election, despite having allowed 9/11 to even happen, despite having sat looking stoooopid with "The Pet Goat" on his lap when planes came down on the W_T_C, I gave Bush two years to make it right.
I'll be fair and do the same with President Obama.
That 2-year rule you use is correct in only one facet......9/11 happened as a result of the administration in power 2 years before GW took office......Democrat policies of weakness and turning a blind eye gave us that nightmare!
This stimulus would have gone alot better had people ACTUALLY DONE THEIR JOBS instead of screaming "no no no". The NO-ists are NOT helpful.
This is not socialism, it is freaking trying to save our country from the long known result of trickle down economics. It doesn't work if the people handed the money do NOT pass it down and do what they are supposed to do. It was destined to fail and now is has.
I think its real nice we're getting infrastructure projects off the ground now, BUT it is NOT ENOUGH. That's not going to go nearly as far or have nearly as direct an impact as covering the states' deficits. Those deficits have a direct impact on local economies and jobs and education in those local economies. It should have been done instead of giving that money to the banks...... the SAME banks that created this entire problem!!!!
So that's real nice the "learning curve" is catching up but it is not going to do nearly enough as it might have months ago.
I thought we dismissed all news here that comes from the WSJ because it is part of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy? Or is that only when it does not fit the narrative?
What do you think about the content of the article? Do you agree, disagree?
Your response sounds like you're trying very hard to avoid having to admit that the stimulus might be working.
I can't speak for others, but I enjoy different viewpoints, unless they disagree with my view point.
I read the Wall Street Journal all the time... it's one of the best news sources out there. I just skip the editorial page because the editorial board of the WSJ is a composed of a bunch of hacks who have never been outside of NYC and only care about maximizing their personal Net Present Value.
I would also respectfully note, however, that this article conveniently appears in the Saturday Weekend Journal, to which many Journal readers don't even subscribe.
"The IMF expects at least 11 major parts of the world to have more severe economic contractions than the United State this year, including most of western Europe, Japan, Russia, and Mexico. Europe will still be stumbling along behind the United States next year, as well"
The Obama Administration deserves more credit and praise than many are giving it.
write on!
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Posted: 07-10-09 10:15 PM