Congress will work very hard next January to formulate a $500 b. second stimulus bill so it will be ready for President Obama to sign soon after he is inaugurated. It will include increased unemployment benefits, Food Stamps, Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), individual income tax cuts, federal Medicaid match and other aid to the states, infrastructure investment in roads, bridges, and mass transit, and green jobs programs. There's hardly anyone in Washington who isn't trying to get in on this bill.
The harder question is: how much stimulus will be get out of this? The problem with the first stimulus bill last spring was that most Americans saved their rebate checks and used them to pay down debt. Similarly, massive liquidity injections by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury have not restored bank lending and normal credit operations, at least not yet. We've been "pushing on the string" to little effect.
Former Clinton White House Chief of Staff John Podesta's think tank, the Center for American Progress, published a detailed stimulus plan last Friday that focuses on the right question: how could we best spend $350 b. in the first year after passing the second stimulus bill? It proposes $55 b. of direct payments to individuals in need, $70 b. in aid to state and local governments, $175 b. of infrastructure investment including $100 b. of green jobs creation, and a $50 b. tax cut. The beauty of the plan is the detail in which it is laid out in just 16 pages. I'm sure not every item in this plan will be enacted, but as someone who has put stimulus plans together in 1975 and 1981, this is the best developed starting point than I have seen so far. The Obama transition team is pouring over it, and Congress will too. I believe we will get more traction with this stimulus bill than we did with the last one.
Bubble time
Bubble time
We seriously need to get on
We seriously need to get on with the business of becoming energy independent. While we are doing the happy dance around the pumps with the lower prices OPEC is planning yet more production cuts and will not quit until they achieve their desired price per barrel. The record high prices this past year have done serious damage to our economy and society. WE must move forward with energy independence. It would cost the equivalent of 60 cents a gallon to charge and drive an electric car. If all gasoline cars, trucks, and suv’s instead had plug-in electric drivetrains, the amount of electricity needed to replace gasoline is about equal to the estimated wind energy potential of the state of North Dakota. Why not use some of the billions of stimulus and bailout money to get some alternative energy projects set up on the national level? We could create badly needed new green collar jobs, produce clean cheap energy and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. What a win-win situation this would be for our nation! We have the knowledge, we have the technology, what America lacks is a plan. Jeff Wilson has a new book out that is beyond awesome. The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence NOW. He walks you through every aspect of oil, what it is used for besides gas, our depletion of it. The worlds increased need ie 3rd world countries becoming more modernized and consuming more. He explains EVERY alternative energy source and what role they can play to replace oil. His research is backed up with hard data and even includes a time frame and proposed legislative agendas to wean America off oil.
http://www.themanhattanprojectof2009.com