Barack Obama Advisers Unveil Economic Stimulus Plan
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama unveiled an economic stimulus plan sunday that he said would provide tax relief for middle income families and help jump start an economy he said was showing signs of slowing.The plan, which would immediately inject $75 billion into the economy and retain $45 billion in reserve to be used over the next three months if necessary, was presented Sunday by Obama advisers Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia, former Clinton Commerce Secretary Bill Daley, and economic adviser Austan Goolsbee.
The plan, they said, is one Obama would not only enact if elected, but one he is asking Congress and the president to pass now.
Obama’s plan would provide immediate tax relief and help offset a coming economic slowdown being signaled, he believes, by the recent .3 percent jump in unemployment rates, advisers to the campaign said Sunday.
Obama supporter Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia said the plan addresses both long-term growth and immediate concerns, and shows Obama understands the importance of education, technology, and a thriving small business sector.
The main difference between Obama’s plan and that being offered by his chief rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton, is that Clinton’s plan would not be able to kick in immediately.
Obama’s stimulus plan has four components to prevent recession:
1.Cut $250 checks for some 150 million low and middle income workers and send them out. If needed, send out an additional $250 per worker, totaling $500 for these workers
2.Likewise, send $250 to seniors earning under $50,000 as a Social Security supplement, and and prepared to send out a second $250 payment
3.Establish a $10 billion fund to help “responsible” families avoid foreclosure. The money would be given to homeowners who did not lie about their incomes and were “mindful of personal responsibility.”
4.Provides money to state and local governments hardest hit by housing crisis to prevent them from slashing infrastructure and other important state spending
5. Expand unemployment insurance
Asked how Obama would pay for the package, Goolsbee said the point was to get the money immediately into the economy, and that while it could increase the deficit in the immediate term, macro macro economic experts agreed it would prevent a costly recession in the long-term.
The advisers said the $45 billion reserve could be used to offset the possible effects high oil prices could have on the proposed breaks.
FOX News’ Bonney Kapp contributed to this report.
[...] Goolsbee as “Obama’s top economic adviser” in The New Republic. And Goolsbee was a co-presenter of Obama’s economic stimulus plan in January before that summit in [...]
Where is all this money coming from when there is such a war debt and deficit? It seems nice to say but is it realistic.
Such fiscal policies would never work properly. It takes months and even years to even see the results of the money entering into the economy properly effect those that are in need because of the administration pipe-line it goes through. Not to mention its not an effective incentive for people to develop working capital and may abuse the system.
More importantly, the more money injected into the economy the higher the inflation. Prices will multiple once policies such as these are spread all around. Might work in the immediate term when people receive money but when prices catch up, the effect will not work out unless people are able to find more sustainable income in that brief period.
I agree with Karen T
What the heck am I going to do with 250?? I hate this stupid short term thinking-feels like he is buying my vote-and I really like Obama, but, this is just more borrowing and we or the next generation is going to have to pay for it. Where is some long term planning? Leadership??? Please???????
what a darkish world?
Hedious act has been made, blood has been shed, whose to jail the freedom of the world, whose to thrive on the human pain whilest groaning is so load, whilest a thousand dreams have been lost, whilest rotten bargins of the war….
I should say that my fellow American, I address the human in you to vote for one. Big time…
the world has to have a new magnet to pull it to safety, to suck up the hatred.
vote conscientiously
It’s the prosparity that comes after peace not amongest war.
Carolyn Damon
I say your comments are ignorant. You either don’t know or don’t understand the role of the government of the United States. The government’s role is to protect the citizens from foreign invasion (they’ve been doing a great job of that??) and not blowing my tax dollars on Heating Oil! Instead of blasting a person for wanting their tax dollars spent on things that benefit the country (I’d say heating someone house doesn’t do a thing for the welfare of the country…but repairing bridges, roads and the sewer systems does) you should look into why these people have worked themselves into begging. Go to your local high school you’ll see them before they grow up. They’re the ones that are disrupting everyone else’s education. Remember the fable “The Ant and the Grasshopper?” Those are the people (the grasshoppers) that the become beggars.
The war on poverty has been none stop since Johnson signed it into law and TRILLIONS!!!! Of tax dollars handouts have been wasted. Instead of fighting poverty it has created a seedy underbelly of Americans who are beggars. It isn’t the government’s job to rob one citizen for another!!!
Instead of praising people like Roosevelt and other elected officials who robbed the American citizens. You should be condemning them for continuing the same process. Remember insanity is doing the same exact thing again and expecting different results. And Rock Star Obama wants to do just that…. Instead of spouting your sparse knowledge of history STUDY it and look at the social influence of societies that promote begging. The country was better when we took care of ourselves.
Carolyn Damon
I’d say your comments are ignorant. You either don’t know or don’t understand the role of the government of the United States. The government’s role is to protect the citizens from foreign invasion (they’ve been doing a great job of that??) and not blowing tax dollars on Heating Oil! Instead of blasting a person for wanting their tax dollars spent on things that benefit the country (I’d say heating someone house doesn’t do a thing for the welfare of the country…but repairing bridges, roads and the sewer systems does) you should look into why they people have worked themselves into begging. Go to your local high school you’ll see them before they grow up. They’re the ones that are disrupting everyone else’s education. Remember the fable “The Ant and the Grasshopper?” Those are the people (the grasshoppers) that the become beggars.
The war on poverty has been none stop since Johnson signed it into law and TRILLIONS!!!! Of tax dollars handouts have been wasted. Instead of fighting poverty it has created a seedy underbelly of Americans who are beggars. It isn’t the government’s job to rob one citizen for another!!!
Instead of praising people like Roosevelt and other elected officials who have robbed American citizens. You should be condemning them for continuing the same process. Remember insanity is doing the same exact thing again and expecting different results. And Rock Star Obama wants to do just that…. Instead of spouting your sparse knowledge of history STUDY it and look at the social influence of societies that promote begging. The country was better when we took care of ourselves.
Perhaps those people who dis the idea that $250 will do anything to help anyone, do not own and heat their own homes! Do you know what the cost is to fill a 250 gallon oil tank at $3.61 per gallon of oil. In case your calculator isn’t handy it is $902.50. That $250 might give enough oil so a low income person won’t freeze to death for about a month if the temperature is kept low, like 60-62 degrees. Your cynical, ignorant language tells me that you have no interest in the welfare of this country as a whole, your only interest is you. You are all about playing the role of the know it all, who has no ideas, and no solutions, but throws a lot of bull at people. Get a part time job? Guess what, if you are in poor health or low income and live in a area without suitable jobs, that isn’t possible. Haven’t you all heard, unemployment is up. Such selfish babble is pretty disgusting. If we hadn’t had President Roosevelt’s plan during the depression we would have had a country so impoverished there wouldn’t have been enough soup for the poor. And, by the way, if you read financial blogs and energy blogs, which I do (mainstream media tells you nothing), you would know we could be at a tipping point where a depression not a recession could occur. Then we would hear some whining from you youngsters who think you are so smart.
I will be caucusing for Sen. Obama in Maine on Feb. 10. I think his plan is excellent. I would however like to bring up something that I have been following with a great deal of dismay. We are producing ethanol, which costs more than one gallon of gasoline to produce one gallon of ethanol. This is complete insanity. We will cause a world wide famine ( including low income people in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and So. America), if we continue throwing food production into the gas tank. We need more rail transport to move products and people throughout the U.S.. Increasingly third world countries are becoming more affluent, buying cars and putting more demands on available oil and gas supplies. This cannot continue. Sometimes all that is needed is connector rail lines to tie together routes between major cities. EXAMPLE: A new 28 mile rail line would make rail transport available from Rockland, Maine ( on the midcoast, near my home in Warren, Me) to Boston, Ma., It doesn’t make sense to create more highways if we cannot afford to or don’t have gas to drive on them. Increasingly low income people may not be able to afford gasoline for their cars to drive a necessary long trip perhaps to doctors in the Boston area. I am 68 years old and I have no doubt that in my lifetime I will see $8 to $10 gallon gasoline. That won’t just cause problems with being able to heat a home and drive a car, but will cause a deep depression in our economy. I hope you will please consider what I am saying. Automobile and oil lobbies will fight you every inch of the way to the detriment of the American people, to line their pockets. Unfortunately, greed is man’s most base instinct. Sad but true.
I pray each day for your success, as I believe you are a capable communicator, and will have new and innovative ideas that can make this nation great again, and hopefully without more war which depletes the pocketbooks and moral of America………Carolyn Damon