Congressional Leaders of Both Parties Headed to White House Tomorrow
The full complement of congressional leaders, from both parties in both the House and Senate, are meeting with President Obama tomorrow to discuss the coming economic stimulus bill, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said today.
Obama's first meeting as president with his former Capitol colleagues is destined to be a photo opportunity. But it's also a chance to test whether Obama can still assemble the bipartisan coalition that his team once hoped would help pass the stimulus measure.
Achieving 80 votes in the Senate may be out of reach given the pre-inaugural pushback from Republicans in the upper chamber, and House conservatives have already offered their own tax-cut-centric recovery plan.
But the biggest roadbloack of all for Obama could be a non-partisan budget report released yesterday that said the stimulus bill's transportation projects might not be as effective in the short term as some had hoped. Suffice to say, Obama and the lawmakers will have much to discuss.
Josh
Matt
Eric
The fact that it may take a while for the highway projects and such to kick in is a feature, not a bug.
This recession is going to last a while, at least two more years and I am betting even longer. The stimulus won't prevent the recession and bring us back to the status quo ante. It can't. There is too much damage that has already been done to the economy. But a lot of the stimulus is already targeted at social safety net projects through existing agencies anyway and other short term expenditures. Perhaps not enough, but those will hit the economy quickly. The thing is, the stimulus has to also keep on providing stimulus over time because the market is not going to be back - no matter what the government does - to where it supports itself for quite a while. Two years from now would be a highly optimistic projection.
That means that there has to be long term stimulus built in, and not just for individuals. Jobs have to be created and maintained. That's what the highway and infrastructure investments will do. By the way, the problem for businesses is demand for what they produce, not money to meet that demand. Any tax cuts given to businesses that aren't making a profit anyway are wasted. They won't get anything. Similarly, tax cuts and grants to businesses that are making a profit will not help them. They still need increased demand. That demand will largely be government contracts. The assistance to business has to be provided by creating a demand for their products. And for it to start in the future gives them time to ramp up, arrange financing and capital and get contracts.
Remember, no business is going to see that there is a one-time stimulus hitting the economy and ramp up to hire employees and go to work on that basis. They know that the one-time stimulus like last May hits, has a short term effect, and then dies out. If nothing else, no sensible bank will loan money for a business that cannot assure a long term stream of revenue. That's what the infrastructure expenditures will do.
The fact that they will not kick in soon means they can be planned for and businesses can be built based on those plans. Fast, short-term stimulus by itself is close to useless.
January 22, 2009 6:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Senate Dems have already signaled that they will change the stimulus so it will create jobs more quickly than the bill is right now. That's a very good thing.
They will probably meet with Obama tomorrow and discuss ways of creating jobs more quickly.
This is a very good thing.
January 22, 2009 7:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
That should be the core of the bill in the first place. Creating these jobs. Methinks the price will go up a bit after Senate Dems get through with it, as long as it can boost Americans keeping and getting jobs then do what you have to do.
January 22, 2009 9:29 PM | Reply | Permalink