Obama was a bit more lively than usual (which wouldn’t be hard) in presenting his plan. What do you think of it? Will Republicans vote for it? Will it work or will it be more money down the stimulus drain? Will it help 50+ year old office workers for whom construction work isn’t an option? Will it help laid off factory workers whose jobs are never coming back no matter how much money is pumped in? Will this help companies who don’t hire more and produce more because demand is gone because of the recession? And so on? Or is the fed gov doing anything pointless at this point with this being an attempt to prop up Obama’s low ratings for next year’s election? Sound off!
The much-anticipated jobs plan President Obama laid out Thursday evening borrows a page from the tax package he negotiated with GOP leaders in December. In order to get the stimulus spending he wants, Obama proposed to give Republicans tax breaks they’ve supported in the past — with a promise not to increase the deficit. The $447-billion plan isn’t particularly novel, relying on familiar tax breaks, infrastructure projects and grants to state and local governments. The details, though, may not matter as much as how lawmakers respond to them. The bitterly partisan brinkmanship in Washington over the debt ceiling weakened the public’s already shaky confidence; reaching bipartisan agreement on even a modest jobs plan could help undo that damage. It’s a rare moment of political convergence for the president and his critics.
Here’s the text of the speech.
#34 a big problem with the last Obama stimulus package is nearly 40% went to tax cuts to the middle class. This detail is often left out by sheeple like you.
They should have used ALL of it for putting people back to work on infrastructure spending.
#35 Which idea you like better?
> Government does nothing. Have prayer for better times and a little rain in Texas.
> Pay employers $35,000 to hire someone for $35,000
> Something in between
#36 exactly what’s being proposed this time, but without the promise of green jobs.
#37, Where does the government get the $35,000 from?
#37, Where does the government get the “somewhere in between” from?
#39 – that’s easy – from the fat-cats flying corporate jets!
#37, Where does the government get any of the money it spends from?
#41, Fat Chance.
Care to try again?
#34–MikeN==assuming what you say is true, I my gut says it is, that is a very insightful remark about “government think.” Cause and effect, government action = consequences, are disconnected.
All kinds of non-think going on all the time. Too much of it accepted as dogma.
PUKES: Tax cuts equal jobs.
DUMBOS: Welfare equals investment.
We’re all dooooooomed.
Stupid Hoomans.
28, Dallas,
What EXACTLY needs to be done? He wants to throw working class Americans a bone by reducing payroll taxes, but he’s not cutting entitlement programs.
Where is the money coming from? Just the “rich”? Ha!
Entitlement programs take up about one half of the Federal budget. Defense is ~ less than one fifth.
Want to make people pay their “fair share” in taxes? How about doing away with all loopholes and making EVERYONE pay a flat tax (except for the poor). Better yet, just go to the Fair Tax system.
Something tells me he’s not interested in fair share. Nor is he indicating how he’s going to cover the drop in revenue if he’s not getting rid of entitlement programs.
Fostering a positive environment for job creation should have been his #1 priority when he took office. Instead he’s waited over two and a half years to decide it was time to do something about it.
36, Dallas,
Each job created by the Stimulus Plan cost tax payers $278k. We were better off giving each person $100k and keeping the other $178k.
34, MikeN,
Is there a difference?
Food for thought (care to guess who they’ll be voting for in 2012?): http://tinyurl.com/4xra3rj
Nancy Pelosi gave her opinion during the speech, ‘promising words, but’
Obama had as his guest Richard Trumka, one of whose member unions just took guards hostage and dumped grain in Washington because they were using a different union.
#42 Well your round about answers appear to be that the Gov should do nothing (Option A).
That’s perfectly fine. (God , I hate when people ans a question with another question).
With the pair of drunken ass clown good ole boys behind him, what can go wrong?
#48 Boner invited Jim Plante, CEO of Pathway Genomics to moan about regulations. Pathway was rejected by the FDA for phony DNA testing. That’s exactly what gov regulation is suppose to do.
Why are you against the killing of innocent babies and the elderly?
#45,
You get the money by cutting spending. I would start by repealing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. That was and continues to be deficit spending that nobody requested, nobody needs and was never funded.
#46
Lie. Work program have a typical multiplier effect of 1.4 to 1.6.
I’m trying to imagine the reaction if in 2007 George Bush had appeared before a joint session of Congress and said he had intelligence that Iran possessed WMD…
“Liberals attack Rick Perry for calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme,” I don’t attack perry for calling SS a ponzi scheme, because it it. I think he’s an ass for being a hypocrite about it and saying he changed his mind after he wrote the book and decided to run for prez. Other wise I just think of him as another ignorant prick of a politician willing to lie to anyone as long as he gets what he and his corporate backers get what they want.
As usual, President Obama makes a speech, and the next day the market drops 300 points.
Maybe the best stimulus that President Obama could provide is to STFU !!
#22 Let me make a wild guess. You think the richest people on Earth are Americans? You’re wrong.
#33 In large part I agree with you but many businesses are investing. Just not in America even when the investor was born and raised here.
#52 I don’t know what planet this is typical on but nobody in the Obama admin is willing to go public supporting that lie. It’s all yours.
#54 Exactly, anyone that can do math knows this is a Ponzi scheme. People knew what was coming 40 years ago because I can remember them saying it.
#52, you just can’t seem to get off the delusion that a tax cut is spending.
Let’s try again
A tax cut is reducing income
Spending is exchanging money for a good or service.
When you don’t have the money to spend, you can either borrow it or reduce the spending
Common sense dictates that if you don’t have enough money you should reduce spending as borrowing doesn’t seem to be working anymore
MWD78, see Roger Pielke Jr. blog for description of companies looking to hire but they can’t find the skilled workers who can handle basic machinery.
Obama did a pivot. A year ago he was saying … ‘My plans are working. The economy is recovering. It’s slow. Everybody is impatient, but hang on.’
He doesn’t say that anymore. His new message is entirely new: ‘I have a new plan now. It’s going to work. The Republicans are going to stop it. And on Election Day next year, if we have 9 percent unemployment or worse — a second recession — it’s them, not us.’
That is his entire reelection campaign message. …
A better question is: Are jobs obsolete?
#61 But Hoover is your hero. I’ve heard you defend him before.
Not even TeaDud can keep all his crazy straight.
#64 My apologies, I must be remembering someone else. TeaDud has compared Obama to Hoover before.
What a bunch of moronic old stupid men, putting in time for their pensions, clapping.
To what i don’t know?
An earthworm would of made more sense and logic.
“Pass it right now!”
This will go down with Pelosi’s sneer “You will have to pass the (Obamacare) bill to see whats in the bill”
If Americans are stupid enough to let this circus show go on – from both parties then they deserve all they get
For the sake of their kids – and indeed the world i hope not
Up here in Canada on a famous comedy show “Wayne and Shuster” many years ago they had a skit involving the politicians in the Canadian House of Parliament
In the skit they slammed their fountain pen covers on the desks, screamed and acted like the buffoons – that these American politicians on both sides mainly are
The amazing part is that the politicians were so shocked to see the reflection in the mirror so to speak that at least for the public impression they toned themselves down
Americans need to do a lot more
They should be phoning and emailing their local representatives demanding that its over
What stupidity – who could go on spending in their household like this
The only thing (most except Obama who is on a mission while having a party) fear is loss of re-election
#59 nope. A tax cut without a corresponding spending cut equates to more deficit. More spending to borrow money for the shortfall.
Get that through your skull. The equation is simple and linear. Surely one of your engineers has an abacas in his cubicle.
#69 Um, bullshit.