Stimulus Deal? Not So Fast
EmailABC News’ Jonathan Karl reports: Earlier this afternoon, Senate leaders triumphantly announced a deal on a $789 billion stimulus plan. The deal was to be made official at a joint House-Senate conference committee meeting at 3 p.m. ET. Several members of the committee showed up. The cameras were rolling. Staff filled the room. So did reporters. Then the meeting was been postponed. The problem: Liberals in the House are objecting to the amount of money in the bill for school construction — apparently significantly less than either the $79 billion approved by the House or the $39 billion approved by the Senate. Another problem: Some House Democrats say the bill gives states too much discretion on how to use some of the money intended for education. Some Senate Democrats are unhappy, too. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said there is just not enough money in the bill for school construction. “Every school in America will get $10,000 bucks if they’re lucky,” Harkin said, guessing that might be enough to buy two energy-efficient windows. “And what’s that going to do for them?” he asked. “We’re trying to add new heating facilities. We’re trying to add renovations. And doing it by formula doesn’t do it.” Harkin said he’d ultimately vote for the deal, but he doesn’t like the concessions made to get the support of the moderate Republicans. “I’m just dismayed at the process,” Harkin said. “I think that we, on our side, caved in too much in order to appease a few people. I just think we should have held strong on some of these things and seen if we could have passed it. If not, then you come back and try to fix it.” All signs suggest that this will be worked out. But right now: impasse. UPDATE: To quell the last-minute rebellion by House Democratic leaders, who were unhappy with the scaled-down bill, senators increased the funds allocated to states for school construction. In terms of the overall deal, the approximate top-line numbers include about 282 billion in tax cuts, which is lower than the $376 billion passed by the Senate, but more than $264 billion passed by House and roughly $507 billion in spending, for a total cost of $789 billion. These numbers are likely to change as they go through the Congressional Budget Office.
Mitt Romney's Full Speech at CPAC 2012 
Romney Makes His Case to Conservatives at CPAC
I like to look at this like a Roadrunner cartoon. Like the Coyote we dug a big hole in the road buying houses we could not afford. The banks tried to make it look nice by covering the hole with a blanket painted to look like the road and coming up with ways to keep the bad loans rolling and make a quick buck. We assumed we could be the Roadrunner with economy and housing market just zipping along as we flew right over the hole. The problem is, we are the Coyote. We saw the Roadrunner zip right over the trap, and started to think it was not a trap at all. We walked out onto our nice rug painted like the road, and we all know what happens next. We fell right through. The big issue is, will the Stimulus fill in that hole, or just put another blanket over it to make it look better for a while. The economy goes in cycles, up and down over and over. If the stimulus works there will be a new hole eventually ( that Coyote never did learn ). If it does not, next time we will not just fall into the hole. We will have spent so much money this time we will not be able to get out, which will be like adding to the trap by balancing that big anvil over the hole. As we all know, that big anvil will then fall onto our heads. Our credit will be so maxed out and the damage still left from this time will make anything we are able to do like holding up that little umbrella. There will only be one difference, it won’t be funny.
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Posted by: FederalistBlogs | February 11, 2009, 5:07 pm 5:07 pm
So Washington is upset that the states think they know better to spend “stimulus” money in their own neighborhhods than the politicos in DC. Oh what HORROR!!! Those heretics! Daring to do what is best for their people over the interests and agendas of Washington’s Disparate Criminals!!!
Posted by: hmn... | February 11, 2009, 5:10 pm 5:10 pm
There’s still time enough for House shenanigans or last-minute defections by the three GOP amigos propping up the entire stimulus. I’ll believe the deal when this package is passed and on the president’s desk.
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Posted by: matt | February 11, 2009, 5:25 pm 5:25 pm
Here’s my stimulus plan:
Cut ALL credit card rates to 8% maximum.
Stop blaming the people who bought houses they “couldn’t afford” – the banks told them they could afford it.
BLAME THE BANKS.
Posted by: R Mutt | February 11, 2009, 5:30 pm 5:30 pm
Go line by line and justify the spending and how it will stimulate the economy.
Posted by: Russell Hale | February 11, 2009, 5:50 pm 5:50 pm
R Mutt: “Stop blaming the people who bought houses they “couldn’t afford” – the banks told them they could afford it.”
What, YOU CAN’T ADD??? You can’t add up to see that you can not make it?
hmmm, you make 2,500 a month… house payment will be 1,500 a month…. Car payment 400 a month…. electric bill 150 a month…. groceries 400 a month…. house and cell phone… 150 a month…. gas for work 80 a month…. going out to eat 100 a month….
If I told you that you could fly, what, would your stupid self go jump off a building and then say blame him? .. he told me I could
Posted by: ajax | February 11, 2009, 5:52 pm 5:52 pm
We don’t need a stimulus package!! Get these businesses running good by giving them tax breaks along with a cut in payroll taxes so we get MORE JOBS! VERY SIMPLE This stimulus crap, is getting to be a truly low IQed bore.Americans are not dumb, but these dems………..
Posted by: Dave | February 11, 2009, 5:54 pm 5:54 pm
What did you expect from this bunch ? These folks don’t have a real grasp of reality you know! They haven’t started to even understand half of how bad off we are. And they are at ground zero. This is just the beginning and most of them act like it is the end of a long hard pull for them. CRAZY!
Posted by: Bonnie Kimberly | February 11, 2009, 6:01 pm 6:01 pm
ajax: “What, YOU CAN’T ADD??? You can’t add up to see that you can not make it?”
Who as their full time job claimed to be able to realistically assess risk? The banks lending money or Bubba upgrading from a double wide?
I have no real sympathy for Bubba, but it was the bankers job to assess risk. And that line of nonsense about Congress forcing them to give away money just doesn’t match the reality – that would be socialism of an order that simply did not happen. The risk was categorically and deliberately mis-estimated, which is why a mortgage problem now threatens to bring down the entire banking industry.
Posted by: jhw539 | February 11, 2009, 6:27 pm 6:27 pm
Dave,
I am so sorry about your lack of understanding regarding economics.
For example, history shows that businesses will ignore tax cuts in a downturn. Businesses will only hire more people when they see more customers.
If you want to stimulate the economy, you need to put money in the pockets of people who will spend it.
This is the theory behind building projects. Send the money to some state for bridge repair and some family will suddenly find it has some money to spend, which means more customers at the door, which means your local businesses will start hiring.
On the other hand, I care about what we have after the money is spent and I’m not sure we need to do 8 years of road and bridge repairs all at once.
Obama wants to spend some of this money on the infrastructure for electronic medical records. I am all for increasing the efficiency of the health delivery system, but I hope that if they build this, it will be both decentralized and encrypted for privacy. Letting any medical professional look up anybody they want is not acceptable to me.
Another proposal is to increase the efficiency of federal buildings. It is hard to see how anyone with America’s interests in heart can be opposed to this. People who like Hugo Chavez may be opposed however.
Another obvious win is the proposal to provide incentives for buying high efficency cars. Cars run on oil and this country is being held hostage to oil. Time to break free!
Posted by: John | February 11, 2009, 6:37 pm 6:37 pm
What is a “timulus” package. Don’t they proofread these stories?
Posted by: Jwench | February 11, 2009, 6:51 pm 6:51 pm
“We don’t need a stimulus package!!” — Tax cuts for big business is just a backdoor bailout. How many jobs did the first bailout create? And a tax cut for an individual doesn’t help if the person has no job. Folks need to get off their narrow ideological perspective and get back down to reality. There are a lot of families suffering right now and they need help fast.
Posted by: Mark from atlanta | February 11, 2009, 7:09 pm 7:09 pm
Thanks, Obama. Class warfare begins….
Posted by: kp | February 11, 2009, 7:10 pm 7:10 pm
I am very much in favor of attempting to centralized all medical information into one data base but the job will take a long time and corporation from many different individuals and company’s. Technology will make this possible at some time but think about it. Physicians, hospitals, nursing homes, centers that draw blood, companies that do all sort of testing,rehab centers(physical and mental), drug stores. I probably missed a few. I really have no idea what time frame has been suggested to accomplish this part of the recovery plan.
Posted by: William | February 11, 2009, 7:27 pm 7:27 pm
Thanks, Obama. Class warfare begins….
Posted by: kp | Feb 11, 2009 7:10:43 PM
Ok, he can be like Bush the past 8 years and sit back and do nothing.
Posted by: Jwench | February 11, 2009, 7:29 pm 7:29 pm
Jwench: “Ok, he can be like Bush the past 8 years and sit back and do nothing. ”
Wow, I WISH Bush did nothing. I know it’s not what you meant, but to disregard Bush and the Republican Congress’s 4 TRILLION DOLLAR borrow and spend spree is a dangerous precedent. There is a good reason that most economists blame Republicans for our national debt. Even the conservative ones agree with this obvious observation of fact (compare tax and spend with borrow and spend and let me know which results in more debt) – but very quietly since they often see it as part of the ‘starve the beast’ strategy and want the federal government to essentially collapse.
Posted by: jhw539 | February 11, 2009, 7:35 pm 7:35 pm
@jhw539;
I think that is BULL$#!+.
You going to tell me that people can’t add up how much they pay out a month and how much they take in a month and do a little subtraction.
I think that is just a whining @$$ excuse. Plus.. a lot of the houses in our area being Repoed are upper dollar houses of people that KNEW damn well what they made verses what they paid out. They were getting a house and hoping to flip it and make money.
BOTTOM LINE IS… WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OURSELVES! You don’t have sense enough to get into a loan.. you need to get an attorney to do your closing! Otherwise, GET AN APPARTMENT!
Posted by: ajax | February 11, 2009, 8:10 pm 8:10 pm
ajax: “You going to tell me that people can’t add up how much they pay out a month and how much they take in a month and do a little subtraction.”
Did you bother to read my post? I am telling you that the guy getting paid $1,000,000 a year salary to do that math ought to be better at than the guy borrowing. I have less sympathy for the bank that loaned $500k to a dishwasher using a 5/1 ARM with a balloon payment than the dishwasher. What the hell was the bank thinking? What are they paid for? I expect the dishwasher to be stupid about money, but how can you POSSIBLY EXONERATE BANKS FOR NOT DOING THEIR JOB VETTING LOANS?
“They were getting a house and hoping to flip it and make money.”
And this shows you’re just completely ignorant of the numbers. Flippers are not the problem – we’d could buy every last one out for half of the first TARP go around. It’s the entire inflated market driven by banks who should have – who were PAID and TRAINED – to know better.
Posted by: jhw539 | February 11, 2009, 8:37 pm 8:37 pm
ajax: “BOTTOM LINE IS… WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OURSELVES!”
Apparently banks aren’t. You expect the people borrowing from them to run all the risk numbers for the poor dears.
Posted by: jhw539 | February 11, 2009, 8:38 pm 8:38 pm
William said “I am very much in favor of attempting to centralized all medical information into one data base ” I’m not. It will make it that much easier for the Federal government to deny coverage once they force Universal Healthcare on us. If you get really sick, you might as well go crawl in a hole & die, because the government will say that it’s too expensive to cure you…. your treatment isn’t on the list. The stimulus package guarantees that soon, no more advances will be made in medicine, because they will be deemed too expensive.
Posted by: ellsbells930 | February 11, 2009, 10:47 pm 10:47 pm
jhw539 said “I am telling you that the guy getting paid $1,000,000 a year salary to do that math ought to be better at than the guy borrowing.” The guy getting paid $1,000,000 a year did do the math – but it didn’t matter because he got his bonus based on how many mortgages he pushed through – that and they didn’t think interest rates would rise as high as they did.
Posted by: ellsbells930 | February 11, 2009, 10:49 pm 10:49 pm
Considering that Obama has already hired two of the banking advisors who instigated the “bad debt” gambeling, dosen’t that make a statement as two what he is being advised – buy bad mortgages! So now, the government can go belly up the same way. Could it be we need someone who is not a banker or lawyer leading the national economy?
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