Congress: Economy
Posted: Thursday, October 15, 2009 9:42 AM by firstread
Filed Under:
Congress, Economy
There might not be a BIGGER problem for the Obama administration and the Congressional Democrats to deal with going into an election year than the fact that Social Security recipients are NOT receiving a COLA increase. Will the one-time $250 payment be enough?
"How quickly the $250 proposal could be enacted is uncertain. Partisan wrangling in Congress has been intense, holding up even relatively uncontroversial bills, such as the proposal to extend jobless benefits for three more months.
The stopgap measure passed the House more than three weeks ago, and Senate Democrats last week offered a version that would extend benefits another 14 weeks for the long-term unemployed in every state, plus six more weeks for those in the hardest-hit states. But legislative aides said Senate Republicans, concerned about adding to the deficit with short-term borrowing to fund the measure, were still working on amendments to the bill."
BTW, the AP notes the $250 comes up to about a 2% increase for Social Security recipients.
Administration officials said Obama wants to “generally” pay for the bill, but did not specify how he will fund it.
Some details of how the $800 billion stimulus was spent will be released today. Vice President Biden is going to Missouri to highlight the auditing process.
"Recipients of stimulus grants, loans and contracts -- which make up about a third of the total package -- were required to file at the start of the month their first reports on how they spent the money and how many jobs were created. On Thursday, the government's http://www.recovery.gov Web site is slated to post the reports for all federal contracts awarded so far, and at month's end, it will post reports for all grants and loans awarded."
More: "Both stimulus supporters and skeptics will be poring over the reports for evidence of the impact of the spending, one of the most charged questions hanging over President Obama's agenda. The White House estimated when the bill was enacted in February that it would create or save 3.5 million jobs, and administration economists estimate that it has saved or created 1 million positions so far. Skeptics note the rise in unemployment to nearly 10 percent; the White House says things would be much worse without the stimulus."
And here is what will be near impossible to prove: the overall job creation number... here's why:
"Others say the reports being released this month will underscore the challenge of trying to quantify the jobs being created. Initial recipients of the stimulus money, and any government or company that they pass it on to, must report how they use the funds and how many jobs they create. But the reporting requirements do not apply to additional levels of contractors who receive the money."
Anyone else see this story and go, "seriously"?
The Washington Times reports, "Almost nine months after the Obama administration took power, more than half of the 33 highest-level Treasury Department posts are still vacant.
Among those nominated by the White House but still awaiting Senate confirmation are the undersecretaries for international and domestic finance and the assistant secretaries who oversee international development, financial markets and tax policy.
The delays are in line with those under other administrations, but with the economy struggling to recover from the deepest downturn since the Great Depression, the demands for sound policy decisions from the Treasury are anything but ordinary."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 10,000 for the first time in a year yesterday, finishing at its highest level since October 3, 2008. “On the floor of the venerable NYSE, the push above 10000 was met with a round of applause in a more subdued reaction to the first move above that level in March 1999. Traders took out their old paperweights and hats from the late 1990s.”
In honor of the Dow closing above the 10,000 mark, the Boston Globe has a look at where the country was when the industrial average first hit that mark in 1999.
The public will get its first report card on how the stimulus package is doing.
