stimulus

This new Rasmussen Reports poll is going to encourage Republicans who are already running on a 2010 promise to cancel whatever stimulus spending they can.
The survey found 62 percent of voters say tax cuts will create jobs and fight unemployment. Only 21 percent say spending can do that. This cuts against the long-standing economic theories [...]

As lawmakers start to shift their attention to job creation, a Brandeis University study finds that four in 10 families don’t have enough savings or assets on hand to pay for essential expenses during a period of unemployment. The report also notes that the poor economy is hitting minority households particularly hard, erasing their economic [...]

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 [...]

Alan Ota has an early look at the possible shape of the “10 for ‘10″ agenda that Republicans will run on in next year’s midterms.

Among proposals floated so far by members: a ban on spending unused funds from this year’s economic stimulus law (PL 111-5), tougher earmark disclosure requirements and an “all of the [...]

Unemployment jumped to 9.7 percent in August, though the 216,000 jobs shed were fewer than expected, the Labor Department reported this morning.
It should come as no surprise.
Economists, for many months, have warned that employment rates are among the last economic indicators to rebound from a recession, and there’s no reason to think that this time [...]

Republicans are pushing back hard against today’s unemployment report, which showed a lowerr-than-expected 247,000 new jobless and the overall unemployment rate falling 0.1 points to 9.4 percent. Former McCain campaign economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin spoke to reporters on a Republican National Committee-sponsored call to make the wonk’s case against reading too much into the report
“No [...]

Party strategists hope to harness voter anger at unemployment with anti-spending rhetoric.

Politico points readers to the economic analysis of Morgan Stanley’s Richard Berner:
In a research note that’s been making the rounds of economics blogs this week, Berner declares that “America’s long-awaited fiscal train wreck is now under way.”
By “train wreck,” he means out-of-control federal budget deficits that he’s sure will finally drag the economy under — [...]

In a little-noticed column, Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), the Senate minority whip, comes out for scrapping the stimulus money that has not yet been spent. All $677 billion of it.
It’s not a surprise that a recent Rasmussen poll found that 45 percent of Americans want to cancel the rest of the stimulus spending.  I agree.
Most economists [...]

SurveyUSA has the results of an ugly round of South Carolina polling:
Based on what you know, should Gov. Mark Sanford remain in office?
Remain in office – 34 percent
Resign – 60 percent
Not sure – 5 percent
Strikingly, the gap between white and black opinion is larger than the gap between female and male opinion. Fifty-six percent of [...]