LOL the public is only worth 150 billion, doesn't take much to buy a vote these days does it? Keep the peasants fed and dry and they will submit.
After consulting with Barack Obama, Democratic leaders are likely to call Congress back to work after the election in hopes of passing legislation that would include extended jobless benefits, money for food stamps and possibly a tax rebate, officials said Saturday.
The bill's total cost could reach $150 billion, these officials said.
The officials stressed that no final decisions have been made. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to pre-empt a formal announcement. House Democrats have announced plans for an economic forum on Monday "to help Congress develop an economic recovery plan that focuses on creating jobs and strengthening our economy."
Democrats said Obama's campaign has been involved in discussions on a possible stimulus package. The party's presidential candidate, running ahead in the polls, has outlined his own proposals for stimulating the economy.
Democrats are increasingly confident of capturing the White House and increasing their majorities in the House and Senate on Nov. 4.
If they are successful, a lame-duck session of Congress two weeks later would allow them to start work on a response to the credit crunch that has sent stock prices plummeting and also threatens to trigger a deep recession. It often takes two or three months for a new Congress to begin turning out legislation, particularly when a new president is settling into the White House.
On the other hand, by attempting to pass legislation next month, Democrats would have to negotiate with President Bush, whose term runs until Jan. 20, 2009. Additionally, Senate Republicans, with 49 seats, could block any measure they opposed.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters in Denver last Wednesday a $150 billion stimulus package is necessary and she may call the House back into session after the election. Her spokesman, Brendan Daly, added, "Congress just worked in a bipartisan way with the Administration to pass an economic rescue plan to help stabilize our financial markets, and we must now work together to pass a jobs creation and economic recovery stimulus package."
In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has announced a post-election session beginning Nov. 17 to consider public lands legislation. His spokesman, Jim Manley, issued a written statement that said "recent developments only reinforce the need for additional action to reinvigorate the economy." He added, "no decisions have yet been made on how to proceed."
An Obama spokesman, Bill Burton, said the campaign is monitoring the situation.
The candidate has said previously he favors $25 billion to help states meet their own needs, another $25 billion for roads, bridges and other infrastructure, and $65 billion for tax rebates paid for by a windfall profits tax on oil.
Speaking in Ohio on Friday, the Illinois Democrat also said, "we should extend expiring unemployment benefits to those Americans who've lost their jobs and can't find new ones."
The House passed a $61 billion economic stimulus bill before lawmakers adjourned for the elections, but it was largely symbolic since Senate Republicans had already thwarted efforts to pass a companion measure.
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 6
Obama sure isn't FDR and Nancy Pelosi is no Eleonore Roosevelt, but America is in deep shit. I will take a life line even if he is wearinbg horns and a tail.
To many Americans are bought off with pennies while the corporate cons take the dollars and keep laughing. Maybe we should vote more tax money to the criminal CEO's so they can rent another spa resort at our expense, maybe they will even say thank you this time!
If the public woke up for once and paid attention instead of running in circles like mad dogs this could never have happened.
We are in a deep recession but will be into depression soon. Panic never served anyone except the crime lords.
But boosting the economy wasn't really what it was really about, now was it?
Bush has run the government just like he run all his business ventures. Bush bought a California baseball team and sold off all the assets which were the good players and then sold the team. Bush borrowed millions from bin Laden's brother to start an oil company, he never paid the loan back because after the deal was signed bin Laden's plane blew up on takeoff from a Texas airport, The company name was Arbusto. (in Spanish Arbusto means shrub which is how he got the nick name shrub) Bush failed the company, cooked the books and sold it at a profit. That is just how Bush has been able to destroy the world economy not just ours and he has done it and gained a huge monetary profit from it.
It was George H.W. Bush that designed the S & L scandals in the Reagan years and made of with huge profits by cooking the books and the Bush/Cheney gang were tied heavily into the Enron scandal.
All these big figures in billions and trillions they keep throwing at the public is only on paper and never existed anywhere in the world and is the main reason that the world economy has bottomed out. This is also the very same reason that caused the 1930's depression almost to the letter, its all speculation and nothing to back it up.
The truly sad aspect of this is that these guys build their entire political ideology on the concept that they are the "elite" ruling the "unwashed" masses. But they wrap themselves in God and the flag and the public thinks they have their interests in mind. What a colossal sham!