Posted on 10/03/2009 4:39:35 AM PDT by reaganaut1
White House officials and Democratic leaders in Congress on Friday said they were weighing extending key elements of the economic-stimulus program as the nation grapples with a deteriorating job market.
Obama administration economists said they would like the enhanced unemployment-insurance program to extend beyond its Dec. 31 expiration date. They also want to maintain a program that offers tax credits to pay 65% of the cost of health insurance policies under the COBRA program, which allows laid-off workers to purchase the health plans they had through their previous employer.
White House officials said they also are examining whether to extend a soon-to-expire tax credit for first-time homebuyers, but that provision faces a stiffer headwind.
"The question is, does it need to be extended or would fiscal considerations lead us to not do so," one administration official said. "We've got a budget deficit to think about, too."
Administration officials are reluctant to call these possible moves a second stimulus package because about 60% of the initial $787 billion stimulus package remains unspent and not contractually obligated to projects. They are focused on what they call the "safety net" parts of the original package, which expire Dec. 31.
But since the extensions would require congressional action, they would likely reopen a debate about the fast-rising federal deficit and the effectiveness to date of the stimulus package.
For the fiscal year that ended Wednesday, the government is expected to post a record $1.56 trillion budget deficit. That rise is feeding criticism of the administration's spending, and sowing some worry among officials about spending.
Indeed, Republicans jumped on Friday's gloomy jobs report, calling it proof that the original stimulus plan hadn't worked.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Generous unemployment and COBRA benefits reduce the pressure on the unemployed to take the jobs available, but it's "insensitive" to say that.
So if something doesn’t work, do more of it...
Same old manure.
Pay people to not work. Take my tax dollars to pay for their health care. Encourage people to buy homes who cannot afford them
Maybe we can bring back cash for clunkers and Obamacare for roads.
It’s funny to watch them contradict themselves after telling us how great their stimulus was working and how well they have turned the economy around and now they are losing more and more credibility.
But it is working! At least 25,000 new federal workers have been added by the “Stimulus”, and evidently there remains 10s of thousands of vacant federal jobs to fill, so they need to extend it - what could be more natural?
The recession could have ended in January.
Just declare a one-year moratorium on all federal taxes. Economic activity would have exploded. Cost = less than the various stimulus packages.
Of course, this approach would have empowered actual people, not government. So it wasn’t even considered by anybody in Congress, not even the Republicans.
I’m sure there would have been some negative economic consequences to such a policy, but I’m not an economist, so I have no idea what they would be.
The Chinese told us so.
Renew the Bush tax-cuts and give a $1000 business tax credit for every employee hired to cover training and hiring costs.
It would cost us far less then all this “stimulus” and it would actually create jobs not pork.
Not quite accurate.
The GOP negotiators, lead by Eric Cantor, advocated business tax cuts in place of the stimulus spending at the White House meeting in January. Dear Reader told them "No, I won the election we are not going to do that".
The dirty little secret is that the benefit of reduced COBRA benefits is taxable. All those saps are going to have to pay taxes on the reduction. Just like those suckers who went for the Cash for Clunkers scam.
From an email:
Cash for Clunkers; more Debt for Dumbies
If you traded in a clunker worth $3500, you get $4500 off for an apparent “savings” of $1000.
However, you have to pay taxes on the $4500 come April 15th (something that no auto dealer will tell you). If you are in the 30% tax bracket, you will pay $1350 on that $4500.
So, rather than save $1000, you actually pay an extra $350 to the feds. In addition, you traded in a car that was most likely paid for. Now, you have 4 or 5 years of payments on a car that you did not need, that was costing you less to run than the payments that you will now be making.
But wait, it gets even better: you also got ripped off by the dealer.
For example, every dealer here in L.A. was selling the Ford Focus with all the goodies including A/C, auto transmission, power windows, etc for $12,500 the month before the “cash for clunkers” program started.
When “cash for clunkers” came along, they stopped discounting them and instead sold them at the list price of $15,500. So, you paid $3000 more than you would have the month before. (Honda, Toyota , and Kia played the same list price game that Ford and Chevy did).
So, lets do the final tally here:
You traded in a car worth: $3500
You got a discount of: $4500
We could also add in the additional taxes (sales tax, state tax, etc.) on the extra $3000 that you paid for the car, along with the 5 years of interest on the car loan, but, lets just stop here.
So, who actually made out on the deal? The Feds collected taxes on the car along with taxes on the $4500 they “gave” you. The car dealers made an extra $3000 or more on every car they sold along with the kickbacks from the manufacturers and the loan companies. The manufacturers got to dump lots of cars they could not give away the month before. And, the poor stupid consumer got saddled with even more debt that they cannot afford. Now there will be defaults on these “Obama Good Deal Cars” like there were on the forced Obama Home Loans when he was a Chicago “Community Organizer” that gave loans to people who could not even qualify for a Sears Credit Card...
Obama and his band of merry men convinced Joe consumer that he was getting $4500 in “free” money from the “government” when in fact Joe was giving away his $3500 car and paying an additional $3350 for the privilege. Oh my America, what did you do???
Government gains its primary power by giving tax breaks to some and inflicting increases on others.
Which is why we will never see a flat tax or other drastic simplification of the tax system. The congressment would be cutting themselves off from their primary power center. Not gonna happen.
The beginning of several new entitlements is happening right before our eyes.
Look folks, until 0bummerCare, Cap and Tax, forced unionization, Porkulus continuation, money supply blowout, and other Tax Increases are defeated, get the hell out of U.S. Investments.
We have possibly the worst investment climate this side of Zimbabwe.
Until 0bummer is soundly defeated, capital should flee, nobody should hire, and we should all grow vegetables.
Who is going to hire in that climate?
Thank you for posting this. I got the email as well. I am keeping my clunker, which just went over 200k miles.
It’s hard to know quite how to respond to these people. They live under so many layers of delusion, of IOU’s to powerful unions and now, I expect, by a tinge of fear, that they cannot be reasoned with.
That’s what Marxists do. If the round peg won’t fit in the square hole bring out the sledge hammer. When Marxist states survive, they only do it by the application of brute force. Happily, Marxist states always fail—eventually.
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