Dems wonder: Is the stimulus enough?
Posted: Thursday, January 15, 2009 2:14 PM by Carrie Dann
From NBC's Carrie Dann
While House Republicans are aghast at the itemized price tag on the stimulus provisions that thudded onto their desks this morning, Democrats are warning that the $825 stimulus package may not be enough to save the economy. "This product in fact may undershoot the mark," said House Appropriations Chairman Dave Obey today, adding that the country's economic woes "could get much more serious very, very fast."
In an off-camera briefing with reporters today, the sleep-deprived chairman laid out the provisions of the package, warning that, despite being "the largest effort by any legislative body on the planet to try to take government action to prevent economic catastrophe," the big-buck bill doesn't mean "salvation" and may need an additional boost further down the road. Even with the stimulus passed, he warned, unemployment in two years could be two full points above than the current rate.
Democratic leaders aim to take the bill to the House floor by January 28th and to the Senate during the first week in February. The goal is that both the omnibus appropriations bill and the stimulus will be completed by February 13th before the Presidents Day recess.
Obey noted a productive relationship on the bill between House Dems and the president-elect (or the "Crown Prince," as he twice jokingly referred to the soon-to-be POTUS).
One of the main goals of the stimulus, he said, are grants to sustain education and health care programs which would otherwise be subject to deep budget cuts at the state level. "This is not a grand new spending program," he said, anticipating the ire of fiscal hawks. "This is very largely an effort to prevent large cutbacks in education funding or to prevent counterproductive state tax increases at a time when the economy is shrinking"
The stimulus money will be tracked by a seven-person oversight board made up of assistant secretaries and agency inspector generals, Obey added. Grants and contract announcements will be posted on a website to promote transparency.
