Huffington Post: Austan Goolsbee Hopes GOP Will Discuss Budget 'In An Adult Way'

Dan Froomkin HuffPost Reporting froomkin@huffingtonpost.com

Austan Goolsbee

Austan Goolsbee, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, singled out the GOP's public relations campaign against "out-of-control government spending."

Rightardiaa has run several of Goolsbee's Whiteboards on our blog. 

Speaking at an Aspen Institute roundtable, Goolsbee said the Republicans calling for immediate but unspecified spending reductions are intentionally confusing the nation's long-term deficit problem with the short-term deficits due mostly to the recession.

We have known for 35 years that we have a fiscal imbalance that is associated with rising healthcare costs and the ageing population." 

(Republicans) "keep saying and implying that it's about discretionary spending" even though "everyone in the know knows that's not correct.

Goolsbee also said too much focus on the long-term deficit can lead politicians to lose sight of what's required in the short run.


"The most important thing is to get growth," he said, warning that poorly-chosen or excessive spending cuts could instead endanger the recovery.

This is not the moment that you want to be saying, "OK, let's pull the rug out from under the recovery." Goolsbee added:


The problem with deficits is that you have to pay back the money, not that they drive up the interest rates.
 
Rightardia agrees. The basis of Keynesian economics is that the government should increase spending and cut taxes during an economic crises.

Defense spending would be a good place to look for waste because defense spending benefits a small cadre of defense contractors.


A good example is the US nuclear program. Very few US corporations are involved in this billion dollar industry in the production of nuclear weapons. Of course, the US just signed another START treaty with Russia to reduce out nuclear arsenal by 30 per cent.

Will the 'nuclear defense budget" be cut by one-third? This budget was actually increased by $5 billion for he next five years for modernization and another $600 million in funds was added to maintain the US nuclear complex next year.


Republican John Kyl started lobbying for even more nuclear modernity funds immediately after the Senate started working on the START treaty. Kyl said on the Us nuclear modernization commitment:


Most experts believe it’s going to require a little over one billion a year for at least ten years, so you are in the order of 12, 13, maybe 15 billion over the course of 10 or 12 years. 



Will the GOP also attack programs that have nothing to do with the current financial crises like Social Security and Medicare? You betcha!


source: http://www.cullmantimes.com/local/x2072622472/Beason-Dems-don-t-want-to-solve-illegal-immigration-problem

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On the other hand infrastructure programs like railways create lots of local jobs. it put contracting companies back to work. the recovery is making slow progress and this is not the time for a meat axe in Washington.

The WH blog: Tax Cut Facts: How Obama’s Tax Cuts Are Helping American Families

Posted by Jared Bernstein on October 21, 2010 at 1:09 PM EDT

A recent article in the New York Times pointed out that a lot of people don’t know that the Recovery Act cut their taxes.

Actualy taxes were cut by $240 billion so far, going up to nearly $290 billion before we’re done. This assumes Republicans will fail in their efforts to raise your taxes by canceling the rest of the tax breaks, something they’ve pledged to do.

As the Times article points out, there are good reasons why folks may not be familiar with these tax cuts. For example, even though the Recovery Act provided states with billions of dollars to help avoid Medicaid cuts and keep teachers on the job, some states were forced to go the other way, raising taxes to help offset their budget shortfalls.

Take another example—the Making Work Pay Tax Credit. It reached 95% of working families—over 100 million American taxpayers, more people than any other tax cut in the history of tax cuts. Taxpayers received up to $800 through the credit, which came to them incrementally by reducing how much money was withheld from their paychecks for taxes both this year and last.

This incremental nature probably explains part of the lack of recognition—if you get a tax credit little by little instead of all in one big check, you’re less likely to notice that your income went up. And of course, there’s been a lot of very tough stuff going on with people’s jobs and paychecks throughout this downturn. But the data confirm that workers are spending the benefits they got during this period.

Look at the following graph, which first appeared in this analysis by Gary Burtless of the Brookings Institute (we’ve updated it). As Gary put it:

The severity of the recession caused private incomes to plunge…[but] Federal government programs and stimulus dollars cushioned the massive blow to private family incomes. Disposable income fell less than 1 percent after the start of the recession, a stunning fact too often ignored given the severity and length of the current downturn.

Gary Burtless Disposable Income Chart, October, 2010

The bottom line shows how much income folks got from the private sector, from paychecks, profits, and capital income. The top line shows their take-home, after-tax disposable income, including benefits like Social Security and Unemployment Insurance. And as you can see, even as private income has fallen, disposable income has remained steady, thanks in large part to reduced tax payments and higher benefit payments to folks hit hard by the recession.

The gap between the two lines is historically very large, and it’s a great picture of the Recovery Act at work. To be clear, we’re not claiming—not by a long shot—that these tax breaks offset anything approaching the full spate of economic pain families are experiencing as a result of the Great Recession. But we are strongly asserting that they helped.

In fact, as you can see in the chart below, consumer spending is almost back to its pre-recession peak, suggesting that families have been using these tax cuts and benefits to make ends meet.

Real Consumer Spending Chart, October 2010

And as I noted, there’s a lot more than Making Work Pay at work here.

Only about one third Recovery funds disbursed

Although all $200 billion has benn awarded, only $62 billion has been disbursed to the states.

This means more than two-thirds of the recovery funds are still need to be spent before the fiscal year ends on September 30th.

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Recovery in Action: Re-training Auto Workers and Creating Jobs

WED, JULY 22, 3:45 PM EST
Posted by Nathan Sterken

Recovery Act funds continued to roll out this week, financing the re-training of displaced automotive workers and creating jobs across the country. In Missouri, the Executive Director of the White House Council on Auto Communities and Workers announced the availability of $25 million to re-train former automotive workers

"America’s auto workers have sacrificed so much during this economic downturn, and it’s our responsibility to stand with them during these difficult times. These grants help those workers who have been displaced learn new skills in these high growth and emerging industries and get support in finding where these new jobs are."

This week has also seen the beginning of dozens of projects funded by the Recovery Act that not only create jobs, but help make us a stronger country in the long haul. As detailed in the following press clips, Americans young and old are finding employment thanks to the Recovery Act doing work ranging from helping the elderly to contributing to the creation of a new clean energy economy:

Arizona, Yuma Sun, 7/21/09

Students employed by Helping Hands "A nonprofit organization that has had to cut back in these economic times received help improving client services, thanks to the federal stimulus. Greater Foothills Helping Hands, which provides volunteers to perform domestic chores for the elderly and disabled, received a hand up this summer when Arizona Western College in conjunction with Yuma Private Industry Council provided employment for 80 Yuma high school students, through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Judy Arnold, Helping Hands executive director, said the students did a phenomenal job with yard work and it was a total blessing to have them. ‘A lot of our care receivers can't afford this,’ Arnold said. ‘The work wouldn't have gotten done if it wasn't for the students.’

For the previous two weeks, two teams of 40 students each split up into crews of 10 and were dispatched to Foothills residents too frail to accomplish yard work on their own. Some of the tasks must be done to comply with city ordinances and students save residents not only work but possible fines, Rudy Rodriguez, AWC's ARRA coordinator, said. . . .

Evarist Santiago, 17, a Vista High School senior, said he enjoys arranging help for the elderly to move furniture, schedule rides for doctor appointments or grocery shopping but also doing data entry of care receivers' birthdays so Helping Hands can remember them on that special day.   ‘I'd recommend ARRA to other students because I learned a lot here. I haven't got a job for the fall but an office job would be a good one to have.

Arnold noted students were considerate and willing to help. ‘I think the program was such a positive plus for everyone involved. We're certainly thankful we're able to have them participate.’"

Arkansas, Baxter Bulletin, 7/22/09

Youth workforce program: Teens work at Norfolk School during summer "When students return to Norfork School in August, they'll find it extra shiny and clean thanks to seven of their schoolmates.

As part of the Arkansas Summer Youth Workforce program, Ethan Barnes, Megan Cain, Dalton Davis and Anthony King, all 17, Wade Staton and Chase Loosey, 16, and Lindsay Teegarden, 15, are each putting in 200 hours this summer helping to move library books, furniture and school supplies, and helping custodians clean every surface.

Barnes has painted miles of baseboards and door trim. ‘He's an excellent painter,’ said Norfork High School Principal Bobby Hulse. ‘You won't find a smudge anywhere.’ The program, previously part of the Jobs Training Partnership Act and the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, received a boost in funding this year from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to Tina Hopkins, employment and training adviser at the Arkansas Workforce Center in Mountain Home.

‘In previous years, we've had 30 to 40 participants in Baxter and Marion counties,’ Hopkins said. ‘This year, because of stimulus dollars, we increased the eligibility age to 24, and we have 80 participants.’ Hopkins, 29, asks each applicant what job they would like if they could have any job at all. Two girls expressed interest in hair. Hopkins found one of the girls a job at a beauty school. The other is working in a salon.

Colorado, Denver Post, 7/21/09

Colorado gets $19.6 million stimulus "With the approval of Colorado's plan for renewable-energy and efficiency projects, the state is receiving $19.6 million in federal economic-stimulus money.  The funding, announced Monday by the U.S. Department of Energy, is part of a total of $49 million for energy projects Colorado is eligible for under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

‘What we are trying to do is not just one-time projects,’ said Todd Hartman, spokesman for the Governor's Energy Office. ‘We want to use the funds to build up infrastructure for energy efficiency and renewables.’  The programs include financial incentives to builders to promote energy efficiency in new-home construction and to homeowners for energy efficiency in existing homes.

Another program would provide increased rebates for installing solar and wind systems.  There is also a revolving loan program and a financing program to help with business and residential energy investment.  ‘It's a very innovative plan,’ said Howard Geller, executive director of the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, a nonprofit energy-advocacy group based in Boulder.

Michigan, Crain’s Detroit Business, 7/20/09

State has $15 million in federal funds to help small manufacturers diversify "The state has $15 million in federal stimulus funds to help small Michigan manufacturing companies diversify into renewable energy technologies.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding, announced Monday by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, targets investments in advanced manufacturing of renewable energy systems and wind turbine systems, solar technologies, bio-energy equipment and geothermal heating and cooling systems.

The goal of the funding is to create new markets for Michigan manufacturers, provide support to renewable energy original equipment manufacturers and tier-one suppliers, and create anchor companies that attract other businesses to Michigan.  The state plans to award grants, loans, or a combination of the two, according to a request for proposals issued by the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth's Bureau of Energy Systems.

For-profit manufacturing businesses located in Michigan with 500 or fewer full-time or equivalent employees are eligible. A business that relocates to Michigan by the time of an award also will be considered eligible.  The RFP says preference will be given to companies that demonstrate a 50 percent cost share of the total allowable project costs, although cost sharing is not applicable to companies that are approved to receive a revolving loan."

North Carolina, News 14, 7/20/09

Stimulus funding helps teenagers land jobs "The heat was a bit of a surprise Monday afternoon. The sun isn’t blaring, but the humidity was enough to make anyone working outside wince. Cody Shoe maneuvered a riding lawnmower in the muggy air.He was grooming the campus of Stanly Community College.

Shoe’s been on the job for about four weeks. ‘It seems like an easy job until you really get in there and do it and then you realize how difficult these people have it,’ Shoe said. Shoe is one of 40 Stanly County teenagers working this summer because of funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus package.

More than $1 billion was set aside from the package to be invested in youth employment. North Carolina is getting about $25 million of the money and Stanly County received $40,000. Those funds will pay for 40 teenagers to work 20 hours a week for six weeks at $7.25 an hour.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics released in June, the country is experiencing the lowest rate of young men ages 16 to 19 working since 1948. That worries community leaders like David Dutton, who knows hands-on work experience is what helps young people land jobs.

‘When you talk to these young people you will discover, they're not working to buy toys, they're not working to buy things of that nature. Almost every youth that I've talked to is working to help their family,’ said Dutton who runs the Resource Development Center.

His organization is handling the Stanly County youth employment stimulus funds. Dutton matched the teens with companies and jobs. Shoe will be a senior this fall. He’s attending Stanly Early College, which will help him get his associate’s degree by the end of next year for free. The teenager juggles school, work and caring for siblings to help out his parents.

Pennsylvania, Altoona Mirror, 7/22/09

Stimulus money goes to workforce development "The Southern Alleghenies Workforce Investment Board has received more than $3.7 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding to enhance and expand its existing support of workforce development services throughout Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fulton, Huntingdon and Somerset counties.

The money is being directed toward paid summer work for youth ages 14 to 24, financial support in the form of tuition assistance and supportive services for eligible adults and displaced workers. Investment board Director Susan Whisler said the board's goal is to direct the funds to help those most in need of workforce-related assistance.

source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/

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Stimulus Job Creation: A Midyear Check-In

By John Rossheim, Monster Senior Contributing Writer



When it was signed into law in February 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) promised hundreds of billions of dollars to create or save millions of jobs for US workers. Have employers been able to claim a share of the funds and begin putting people to work? They have, though it’s virtually impossible at this point to gauge the magnitude of hiring directly attributable to the economic stimulus.

“We can see how much money has gone out but only guess how many jobs that creates,” says Ethan Pollack, a policy analyst with the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). President Barack Obama has claimed that stimulus spending had created or saved about 150,000 jobs as of late spring 2009, a substantial number still dwarfed by monthly job losses -- 345,000 in May alone.

While the Obama administration has said that all recovery funding will not and should not be distributed at once, the president’s Cabinet is taking credit for distributing substantial money that has or will lead to job creation.

“When it comes to rolling out the money, we’re actually ahead of schedule,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told the National Press Club in May.

For example, more than $25 billion of $27.5 billion in ARRA money designated for highway projects had been allocated by mid-May, according to Recovery.org, a private venture that tracks recovery-project funding. (The government’s ARRA site is Recovery.gov, where you can learn about ARRA-funded projects as they are announced.)

So where are stimulus jobs being created today? Let’s look at a few examples across industries and around the country.

Healthcare: Clinics Hire in Indiana

Stimulus-funded hiring in community health has begun in Indiana.

Neighborhood Health Clinics, a nonprofit community health provider in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has been allocated $340,000 in ARRA money. “We’ve received stimulus funding to hire an additional physician, two nurses and a billing specialist,” says Mary Haupert, president. The physician begins work in June; the clinic is in the process of making the other three hires.

The process of transferring the clinic’s ARRA money to its payroll account is simple, Haupert says: “We have a grant amount and can access it online.”

What happens when the stimulus funding runs out in April 2011? “We feel the physician will have acquired enough patients to generate the revenue to pay for the salaries of the staff hired via ARRA,” Haupert says.

Meanwhile, the clinic is applying for a second round of ARRA funding -- $675,000 to help expand the physical plant, which will mean construction jobs and more healthcare employment opportunities.

Government Contracting: Putting Training Funds to Work

Recovery Act funding is already creating good jobs with government contractors nationwide.

With ARRA money, Department of Energy contractor Washington River Protection Solutions has hired dozens of health physics technicians who will protect the safety of workers cleaning up radioactive waste from nuclear weapons production at Washington state’s Hanford nuclear reservation.

“We’re getting $326 million of Recovery Act money over two-and-a-half years,” says John Britton, a Washington River spokesman. “We’ve hired 30 health physics technicians. They will get 20 weeks of classroom training and six weeks on the job. We hope they’ll stay for their entire career.” The project -- the largest environmental cleanup in history -- is expected to last until 2035.

The technician jobs are unusually well-paying considering they require only a high school diploma and some aptitude for math and science. Trainees begin at $20 per hour; senior technicians may earn $35 an hour.

ARRA money is also flowing through state and local governments to those entering the workforce for the first time, sometimes to fund temporary jobs. For example, Indiana is hiring 2,000 young adults from low-income households for the summer to improve the state’s parks and trails.

Construction: Shovels Dig into New England

Those thoroughly hyped “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects are finally putting construction boots on the ground.

Pike Industries has won contracts for 10 stimulus projects in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, says spokesman Erik Taylor. “As a result, Pike has gone from a position of considering significant layoffs to hiring feverishly,” he says. “Sixty-five people have been hired and 70 more hires are in process.”

Pike is hiring mostly equipment operators and laborers, but also knowledge workers such as construction project managers and administrative assistants.

“The economy has been basically garbage, so I’m excited about this job,” says Jason Fullerton, recently hired by Pike to operate an excavator on an Interstate 89 resurfacing project in New Hampshire. “I’m hoping that when the stimulus work is done, the economy will have come back a bit [creating further opportunities].”

What’s the future of stimulus spending under ARRA? “We’ll see a lot more money in the next six months -- much more than has already hit,” says the EPI’s Pollack.

source: Monster.com

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“Cash for Clunkers” Program Passes Senate

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Popular 'Cash for Clunkers' program will boost new car sales and protect American jobs. This bill had cleared the House and the The US Senate approved passage of the emergency supplemental, which includes a “Cash for Clunkers” program to boost new car sales.

This provision will save American jobs and increase America’s energy security. Senator Barbara Mikulski was an original co-sponsor of the provision. It now heads to President Obama to be signed into law.

Some conservative House Republicans criticized the bill. Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., said he opposed the bill because it did not cover used cars. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., called it "a clunker of a bill" that defied the laws of economics by manufacturing demand for cars.

“This program will help get people back into the showroom and back buying cars,” Senator Mikulski said. “It will protect and save American jobs, and get polluting jalopies off our streets and highways. It is good for our economy, good for our environment, and good for our energy security.”

The Cash for Clunkers program will provide incentives to consumers – federal vouchers of up to $4,500 – to trade in their old gas-guzzling vehicles for new ones that get better mileage and are better for the environment.

Owners of cars and trucks that get less than 18 mpg and were made in 1984 or after will get a voucher of between $3,500 to $4,500 for a new car, priced at $45,000 or less, that rates at least 4 mpg better than the vehicle they traded in. The bigger the difference in mpg, the greater the voucher. A 4 mpg improvement would earn a $3,500 voucher, while a 10 mpg improvement would earn a $4,500 voucher.

The program, which will run from July 1st to November 1, 2009, will help jump-start new car sales, and protect jobs that rely on a robust American automobile industry. Similar programs in countries all over the world have significantly increased the demand for new car sales. For instance, new vehicle sales in Germany increased 25 to 40 percent after implementing a similar program earlier this year.

Senator Mikulski has led Senate efforts to keep America’s auto industry strong and protect and save the millions of jobs that depend on it. Earlier this year, Senator Mikulski’s amendment giving tax relief to new car buyers was signed into law as part of President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Rightardia had reported on this bill earlier when it had cleared the House. 

For more information, go to: mikulski.senate.gov/Newsroom/PressReleases/record.cfm?id=311378.

usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/Cash-for-Clunkers

detnews.com/article/20090609/AUTO01/906090433/1148/U.S.-House-approves--cash-for-clunkers-


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