economic stimulus

Yesterday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters that Congress will likely stick around Washington well into December in order to wrap up legislation reforming health care and tackling unemployment. But he didn’t go out on any limbs to say what the latter bill will contain or how much help might be forthcoming. Instead, he [...]

It’s a nonsensical element of Medicaid’s funding formula that during economic downturns, when state budgets are most squeezed, states are also asked to bear much higher health costs as the Medicaid rolls swell. The result, inevitably, is the erosion of health coverage for the country’s most vulnerable populations.
The $787 billion economic stimulus bill addressed the [...]

A chief criticism of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, enacted in February, was that too large a portion went to tax cuts in lieu of spending. Critics, including some conservative economists, argued that people would simply save that money, rather than spending it to stimulate the economy.
Showing signs that they can learn from history, [...]

When Congress rushed to pass a $2 billion extension of the enormously popular “Cash for Clunkers” program earlier this month, there were few cheerleaders more quick than President Obama to extol the environmental virtues of the program.
“This gives consumers a break, reduces dangerous carbon pollution and our dependence on foreign oil, and strengthens the American [...]

Bill Kristol hears that Rasmussen Reports, the conservative pollster whose surveys have consistently shown the lowest levels of support for the stimulus, is releasing a poll (a “SHOCK POLL,” as Drudge will call it) showing a plurality of voters oppose the stimulus, by a margin of 43 percent to 37 percent.
The longer the plan sits [...]

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the third-ranking Republican in the House, sets the tone on the stimulus vote:
Under the guise of stimulus, House Democrats have brought a partisan bill to the floor … What we ought to be doing is coming together across this middle aisle, across the partisan divide—as our new President has challenged us [...]

Via Glenn Thrush, here’s Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell:
Frankly, what’s developing here is his biggest problem is with his own party, the Democratic Party, which seems to be drifting away from what he said he wanted, which was for the package to include at least 40 percent tax relief and to be earmark-free.
Indeed, it’s almost [...]

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), the self-described (sort of) “freedom fighter” against the Democratic majority, is rolling out the latest of his hard-right economic bills that has no chance of success. It’s instructive reading it, though; as Brian Darling of Heritage points out, it’s not far off the leading conservative think tank’s plan.

There has been much debate on the effectiveness of the Democrats’ proposed $825 billion stimulus strategy, and today party leaders found another prominent supporter.
Mark Zandi, the head economist at Moody’s Economy.com and a seemingly omnipresent witness at Capitol Hill proceedings, released a report today indicating that the Democrats’ plan “will not reverse the current recession, [...]

It came as a welcome change of pace yesterday when President Barack Obama took the inaugural podium, looked the country in the eye and warned that surviving two wars and this dismal economy will require sacrifices from Americans that transcend trips to the mall.
For as much as government can do and must do, it is [...]