Posted on 10/28/2011 11:16:31 AM PDT by tutstar
Edited on 10/28/2011 12:25:59 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
(Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama, sidestepping Republicans in Congress who have thwarted his $447 billion jobs plan, has invoked his executive powers to help homeowners, students and veterans struggling to find work.
Touring the country with the slogan that Americans "can't wait" for lawmakers to act, he has rolled out a series of initiatives this week and the White House promises a steady stream of more measures for months to come.
On Friday, Obama told federal agencies to streamline their research efforts to get innovative breakthroughs into the marketplace faster, and to create a website aimed at helping firms that want to export.
The administration has declined to predict how many jobs any of these initiatives will create, with the exception of help for veterans, where the goal was a modest 8,000 over three years. Critics say the moves are political gimmickry that lack economic heft and will do very little to boost hiring.
Following are a list of the actions taken so far:
RESEARCH AND EXPORTS
Obama issued a memorandum to instruct federal agencies to speed up public-private research partnerships, help agencies partner with the private sector, and devise a five-year plan to keep closer track of progress and patent creation.
He also issued a second memo to create a new website called BusinessUSA, mainly aimed at small businesses, to aid export-hungry firms find information on federal programs.
Obama wants to double U.S. exports by the end of 2014 and is on track to reach that goal, although to hit it the United States must grow exports by 15 percent annually from now onward.
HOMEOWNERS
On October 24 the White House announced steps to make it easier for some homeowners to refinance their mortgages, allowing credit-worthy borrowers to reduce their payments thanks to currently low interest rates. The changes eliminate some fees and increase competition for refinancing business.
The Obama administration also extended the length of time unemployed borrowers can suspend mortgage payments without being foreclosed to 12 months from four months, and simplified the process for distressed borrowers to get help with loans.
STUDENTS
On October 25 Obama unveiled a "pay as you earn" proposal to help reduce monthly student loan payments for some college graduates. Accelerating a program that starts in 2014, borrowers from next year will be able to reduce monthly student loan payments to 10 percent of their discretionary income, and debt balances will be forgiven after 20 years of payments.
Current U.S. law allows borrowers to limit their loan payments to 15 percent of discretionary income and forgives all remaining debt after 25 years. The White House says this will help around 1.6 million students.
Obama also used an executive order to allow students to consolidate federal college debt into a single monthly payment, and offer a 0.5 percentage point cut in the monthly interest rate on that debt. Up to six million students could benefit from this initiative.
U.S. students graduating last year had an average debt of $24,000. More than 36 million Americans have federal student loan debt, but only 450,000 have so far taken advantage of the existing income-based repayment program.
VETERANS
On October 25 Obama challenged community health centers to hire 8,000 veterans -- including former military medics -- over the next three years. The White House also asked health centers to start reporting on the number of veterans they employ.
It also announced an initiative to help train veterans for careers as physician assistants, a fast-track to get military medics into the civilian health field. Physician assistants work in emergency care, counseling and follow-up care.
(Reporting by Laura MacInnis and Alister Bull; Editing by Paul Simao)
FUNDING HAS TO ORIGINATE IN THE HOUSE!!!
IT'S THE CONSTITUTION STUPID!
It isn’t posted on the White House site yet.
Defund it!
What does the order say?
“Jobs” is obamaspeak for more gravy for the public unions.
So, is Boner going to fold again on this and let him get away with it?
Three or four small wars without bothering to consult congress. Three Executive Orders spending money with no consent from congress. What next? If Boner just sits there and takes it, then what’s going to stop him? And as I’ve said repeatedly, where the hell is Michelle Bachman, who should be raising hell over Boner’s boners.
It’s a major part of his reelection strategy to make it look like he’s doing all he can, despite Congress. But there’s really nothing of substance to most of this stuff. One of his two memoranda today appears just to create an informational website about exporting for small businesses. Trumped up, small potatoes BS.
IF Bush or any Republican president did this end run around Congress, the liberal MSM would be screaming about ‘separation of powers’, Congress being the spending body, President Usurps Powers Not His, Is this violation an impeachable offense, talk about special prosecutors investigating this, etc.
He is doing this because nobody has the guts to stop him and he knows it.
Who is stopping him? Extremely upsetting.
Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Pretty neat, eh?
“So, is Boner going to fold again on this and let him get away with it?”
Dear Speaker of the House Boehner,
So, the very idea is laughable, huh?
Signed,
Barak
Sounds like a compassionate thing he is doing, until you realize it is only testing the waters for more nefarious “strokes of the pen” down the road. He is curious to see if he can get away with it.
So all the first order does is just “speed up” the process of something that was already authorized and appropriated.
The second EO creates another bogus entity. Provided the entity is defined for a purpose for which funds have already been appropriated for, there’s nothing to see here either.
The whole taking action because Congress hasn’t is all rhetoric. The EO is just window dressings with nothing really being accomplsihed.
“we can’t wait for Congress to take action,”
Means: “If congress won’t redistribute wealth, I will”
Yes We Can’t!
Congress can stop it, if we had the guts to make them.
Congress and overturn and executive order, it has to be done withing, I think, 60 days.
Half the Congress is Democrat and of the Republican half 75% of them have no balls.
Obama is home free and he knows it.
Manwhile he and his Wookie wife are campaigning separately all over the country on our money, and lieing about it being campaigning.
We have Air Force One and Air Force Wifey now.
The Congress needs to set a budget on Air Force and Helicopter flights for these two dipsticks.
This was an executive action, not an executive order. I made the same mistake. One bypasses Congress (executive order), the other does not involve any appropriation of funds (executive action). Well, maybe it won’t involve additional funding immediately, but this executive action will most definitely result in an expanded Federal Government, since more fed employees will need to be hired to regulate, monitor and oversee all the day-to-day operations of BusinessUSA. This “new” agency is redundant and it is an effort to control more of the private sector.
Bachmann should have stayed focused in Congress keeping the RINO feet to the fire.
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