Text: President Obama on Earmarks Reform
(Source: White House Press Office)
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I ran for President pledging to change the way business is done in Washington and build a government that works for the people by opening it up to the people. And that means restoring responsibility and transparency and accountability to actions that the government takes. And working with the Congress over my first 50 days in office, we’ve made important progress toward that end.
Full Text: U.K. PM Gordon Brown Speech to Joint Session U.S. Congress, March 4
(Source: Office of the Prime Minister)
Madam Speaker, Mr Vice-President, distinguished members of Congress, I come to this great capital of this great nation, an America renewed under a new President to say that America’s faith in the future has been, is and always will be an inspiration to the whole world.
The very creation of America was a bold affirmation of faith in the future: a future you have not just believed in but built with your own hands.
And on January 20th, you the American people began to write the latest chapter in the American story, with a transition of dignity, in which both sides of the aisle could take great pride. President Obama gave the world renewed hope, and on that day billions of people truly looked to Washington D.C as “a shining city upon a hill”.
Full Text: Ben Bernanke Testimony on Economy and Federal Budget, March 3
Filed under: Banking, Ben Bernanke, Recession, U.S. Congress, U.S. Economy, U.S. Financial Crisis
(Source: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System)
As Prepared for Delivery
Chairman Conrad, Senator Gregg, and members of the Committee, I am pleased to be here today to offer my views on current economic and financial conditions, the federal budget, and related issues.
Recent Financial and Economic Developments and the Policy Responses
Over the past 18 months, the global economy has experienced a period of extraordinary turbulence. The collapse of a global credit boom, triggered by the end of housing booms in the United States and other countries and the associated problems in mortgage markets, has led to a deterioration of asset values and credit conditions and taken a heavy toll on business and consumer confidence.
More AIG Bailouts Could Add Another $200 Billion to Taxpayers’ Tab
$30 Billion over the weekend brings current total to $170 billion
An article by the Associated Press this afternoon comes the closest I’ve seen in awhile to explaining, in plain English, why the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury seem hellbent on propping up AIG.
AIG, the world’s largest insurer, has tens of millions of customers and operates in 130 countries. What’s gotten them in trouble is a scam the company ran over the past few years called credit default swaps. These CDSs were essentially insurance policies sold by AIG and bought by other financial services companies and banks. What they were supposed to insure were the multitude of mortgage backed securities, aka, the now toxic assets. Only AIG and other purveyors of these CDSs bet that property values would continue to rise indefinitely – meaning they would never have to pay out on the “insurance” of the underlying investments. We know today that the bubble burst and AIG didn’t have the cash reserve to come even close to making good on all of its CDS obligations. Read more
Full Text: President Barack Obama – Address to Joint Session of Congress – February 24, 2009
(Source: White House Press Office)
Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery
Address to Joint Session of Congress
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
Madame Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, and the First Lady of the United States:
I’ve come here tonight not only to address the distinguished men and women in this great chamber, but to speak frankly and directly to the men and women who sent us here.
I know that for many Americans watching right now, the state of our economy is a concern that rises above all others. And rightly so. If you haven’t been personally affected by this recession, you probably know someone who has – a friend; a neighbor; a member of your family. You don’t need to hear another list of statistics to know that our economy is in crisis, because you live it every day. It’s the worry you wake up with and the source of sleepless nights. It’s the job you thought you’d retire from but now have lost; the business you built your dreams upon that’s now hanging by a thread; the college acceptance letter your child had to put back in the envelope. The impact of this recession is real, and it is everywhere.
Jindal Shows His Ignorant Side While 79% of Americans Want Republicans To Be Constructive
Filed under: Barack Obama, Economic Stimuls, Recession, U.S. Congress
Hours and hours before President Barack Obama even had the chance to deliver his message to Congress tonight, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal called Obama’s economic plans “irresponsible” in a release of excerpts from his “response” to the president’s message.
Meanwhile, in a NYT-CBS Poll released today, Obama is still showing broad support from Americans of all stripes. It’s like everyone in the country has put the election behind them while we work on a huge economic crisis except for the Republican National Committee and its toadies like Jindal.
Jindal = politics as usual while Obama tries to reach across the aisle and get everyone involved in solving problems. Here are some interesting numbers from today’s NYT-CBS Poll:
- 74% believe Obama is trying to work with Republicans in Congress; Only 31% believe Republicans in Congress are trying to work with Obama.
- 65% believe Obama has the same priorities for the country as they do; 83% think that Obama cares a lot or some about the problems of people like them.
- 77% believe Obama is bringing change to the way things are done in Washington
- 63% believe Republicans in Congress opposed the stimulus bill for political reasons rather than because the legislation would be bad for the economy.
- 79% believe working with Obama and Democrats in Congress should be the priority for Republicans over “sticking to Republican policies.”
Who do Republicans think wins the war with hope and constructive action on side and cynical politicking on the other?
WTF: Congress Passes Bill Banning Primates as Pets Even Quicker Than the Bank Bailout
From the Politico and the Humane Society:
WASHINGTON (Feb. 24, 2009) — Eight days after a chimpanzee kept as a pet attacked and critically injured a Connecticut woman, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Captive Primate Safety Act, H.R. 80, introduced by U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., to stop interstate commerce in primates as pets. The bill passed by a vote of 323 to 95. The bill now moves for consideration to the U.S. Senate, where the effort to pass the legislation is being led by U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and David Vitter, R-La.
I mean haven’t we always had monkeys as pets? Pirates had monkeys on their ships, in the Great Depression there were monkeys with grind organs, and what about BJ and the Bear? It’s only funny until you lose a face.
Bailouts, Stimulus, Etc. – What Has The Rush Gotten Us?
Filed under: Bailout Bill, Banking, Barack Obama, Economic Stimuls, Recession, U.S. Congress, U.S. Economy, U.S. Financial Crisis
Drudge Report has been trying mightily since Saturday to “sell” this story: If there was such a hot rush to pass the stimulus bill, why was President Barack Obama taking the weekend off in Chicago?
What Drudge does is show he’s in the tank for the Republicans when he runs a picture like the one to the left “above the fold” all weekend with the following headline: What’s the rush? ‘Urgent’ stimulus on hold for Obama’s weekend off …
First of all, no president of the U.S. has a “weekend off.” Not even George W. Bush, although some may say he took years off.
This is a potshot – Drudge urging the producers over at Fox News to beat up on the president.
But, despite Drudge’s partisanship, he points out a real problem with Republican and now Democrat management of the U.S. economic crisis. Our politicians are scaring us silly and ramming TARPs, assorted bailouts and stimulii through the government machine with very little transparency and even less accountability.
Back in the Fall when the Troubled Asset Relief Program, aka $700 billion bailout, was rammed through Congress there was lots of scary talk about meltdowns and companies so big and far-reaching that we couldn’t possibly let them fail. $350 billion of that bailout went out to the banks and Wall Street. We still have barely working credit markets. They’ve loosened up a bit, but nothing much has changed in the past several months. We also know that a lot of our tax dollars were wasted on bonuses, exorbitant compensation for failing management teams, mergers and acquisitions.
Final Text: Economic Stimulus Bill, Reported From House-Senate Conference
Filed under: Economic Stimuls, Recession, U.S. Congress, U.S. Economy
At the beginning of this process, the President and Congress said that there would be at least five days for public review of this. This bill is at least twice as many pages as that which was originally introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, and longer than what came out of the U.S. Senate. This is the reconciling of those two versions, known as a Conference Report. This is the actual bill. Nancy Pelosi, according to reports today, has announced that she has to leave for a trip to Europe at 6 p.m. tonight, so this monster needs to be voted on NOW. Public review of the final bill will have amounted to mere hours – not five days.
The Daily Graphic: TARP (Bailout) Recipients 2008 Lobbying Expenses
Filed under: Bailout Bill, Banking, U.S. Economy, U.S. Financial Crisis
Over the course of 2008, companies like Bank of America and PNC Bank Corp. shelled out well over $100 million to lobby Washington politicians on behalf of the financial services and banking industry. Others on the list of handing out the big bucks to the likes of members of Congress, Bush and now Obama Administration officials include, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, CitiGroup and JP Morgan. Information and graphic courtesy of The Center for Responsive Politics.
What Got Cut Out of the Stimulus Bill? Stimulus.
Filed under: Barack Obama, Economic Stimuls, Recession, U.S. Economy
Why Democrats have bent over backwards for three Republican U.S. Senate votes seems foolish, considering the price that’s been paid. According to the New York Times tonight, here are two of the largest cuts to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act:
One of the single biggest reductions was a cut of $25 billion from a state fiscal stabilization fund that will largely be used for education. The House had proposed $79 billion; the Senate reduced it to $39 billion. The final agreement fell in between, with an added adjustment demanded by House Democrats that will allow states to use some of that money for the renovation and repair of school buildings.
That agreement came only after senators who were crucial to the deal insisted on removing a separate line-item that would have provided $16 billion for school construction.
State governments are not jobs programs, but while the economy languishes is not the time to add people to a soon to be overburdened social services system. States are already breaking the bank on their unemployment compensation funds. Laid off state workers add to the problems in states of foreclosure and charity care in emergency rooms. Government shouldn’t be reinvented through recession.
As for funding for school construction, plans to build or remodel schools are some of those “shovel ready” projects everyone loves to talk about. There are plans on the shelf for unfunded projects across Ohio and the country that are ready to go putting contractors and their employees to work. Cutting funds for school construction is also anti-stimulus.
The entire political process surrounding this stimulus bill has been a joke. Democrats won in 2006. We won in 2008. We should have brought a bill to both floors of Congress free of everything Republicans beat us up for in order to get stimulus moving. When we brought a bill with money for Hollywood and the National Endowment for the Humanities and eight years of other pent up frustrations we should have been willing to fight for it – and defend it.
In the end some of the good went out with the bad to pay lip service to “bipartisanship.”
Current Summary of Economic Stimulus Bill With Conference Changes
Update: Click Here for Final Bill Text 2/13/09
So much for making it easy … the easiest information to find is this marketing piece from the House Democrats’ Appropriations Committee. I thought the bill would be out there for 48 hours?
Click Here for Most Current Economic Stimulus Bill Summary
Bank Bailout: Hurts Worse When the Politicians Failing Us Inspired Hope and Promised Change
Filed under: Bailout Bill, Banking, U.S. Congress, U.S. Economy, U.S. Financial Crisis
There are so many things to dislike about the big banks, brokerages and insurance companies that brought the financial crisis upon us that one doesn’t know where to begin. So instead, let’s begin with the politicians who we elect and pay to keep us out of these messes.
They failed us last fall with the first enactment of the TARP – the $700 billion bailout – and they’re failing us again. Only now it hurts worse because the folks failing us are the ones who inspired hope and promised change.
I had a fantasy that change would mean a different approach in handling the greed and inequity which hide behind the corporate ramparts. I thought change would mean a president taking advice from the likes of Krugman and Galbraith and instead we’ve got Summers and Geithner. Where the problem with Krugman and Galbraith may be that they’re too “liberal” for a president trying to be non partisan and centrist, the answers to our problems do not lie with “the establishment,” represented by Summers and Geithner.
I’m angry, there are lots of people angry, and we don’t want to be told any reckless business is “too big to fail.”
On Tuesday, Geithner was still singing, Too Big to Fail. He didn’t tell us much, but he did tell us Washington is still willing to pull out the stops for the investment class. Congress is no better. When it comes to the financial services sector, Congress is operating in the irrelevant sector.
What we do still have a chance at here is change. Some players need to be thrown out of the game, and their survival shouldn’t have anything to do with how far their tentacles reach into the larger economy or the campaign accounts of our elected officials.
So, here’s another fantasy … Perhaps Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s announcement Tuesday was only a trial baloon. Maybe he and Larry Summers were on the phone with Robert Rubin and Alan Greenspan and thought they might be able to rig the game one more time for Wall Street. Geithner may have said, “Boys, I just don’t know, I think we’ve run our string, but I’ll try for one more – but I’m telling you, if there’s blowback, this president is different than the last two …”
That’s my fantasy anyway.
House-Senate Conference Nearly Done With Stimulus Bill – News Roundup
Filed under: Economic Stimuls, Recession, U.S. Economy, U.S. Financial Crisis
Direct aid to states, education construction funding still up in the air
- Congressional leaders reach stimulus agreement – Washington Post
- House considers $789 Billion conference agreement on stimulus – New York Times
- Congress scales back business tax break in stimulus bill – Bloomberg
- Senate Republicans won’t stall stimulus: McConnell – Reuters
Transcript: Obama, Crist – Townhall – Ft. Myers, Florida
Filed under: Barack Obama, Economic Stimuls, Recession, U.S. Economy
(Source: CQ Transcriptswire)
CRIST: Well, Mr. President, welcome to Fort Myers, Florida.
(APPLAUSE) Just a couple of points I wanted to make to you, Mr. President. Our — our budget is in balance here in Florida. We have some people that have worked very hard in our Florida Senate and our Florida House to make that possible. In fact, we’ve had to cut about $7 billion over the past two years, and we haven’t raised taxes, and we’re still in balance.
