Thursday
Jan292009
Global economy crisis +stimulus bill = frustrated Senate Budget Committee
Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 5:14PM
Today's Senate Budget Committee meeting titled "The Global Economy: Outlook, Risks, and Policy Implications" started off with Senator Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) reading off today's headline from the Financial Times entitled, "Economic Pain to be 'worst for 60 years." Conrad said "That is a story in the Financial Times today, pretty sobering."
The meeting consisted of witnesses, Simon Johnson, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, Brad Setser, fellow for geoeconomics with the Council on Foreign Relations and Tim Adams, managing editor of The Lindsey Group. Their testimonies included information and statistics about the housing and economic crisis in general.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked each witness if they thought the first $350 billion bailout fund was spent wisely and Adams stated that the money should have been used for what it was supposed to be for. Graham agreed and said "People are running out of trust and patience with us up here."
Several Senators felt contrary to what was stated. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said that she favored the bill. "I think it's important to say that the reality is our country, our government should have acted sooner on the issues in front of us...We have to do something different...I believe we need to act as quickly as possible to begin this because everyday the numbers get worse and worse and worse."
by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Services
The meeting consisted of witnesses, Simon Johnson, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, Brad Setser, fellow for geoeconomics with the Council on Foreign Relations and Tim Adams, managing editor of The Lindsey Group. Their testimonies included information and statistics about the housing and economic crisis in general.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked each witness if they thought the first $350 billion bailout fund was spent wisely and Adams stated that the money should have been used for what it was supposed to be for. Graham agreed and said "People are running out of trust and patience with us up here."
Several Senators felt contrary to what was stated. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said that she favored the bill. "I think it's important to say that the reality is our country, our government should have acted sooner on the issues in front of us...We have to do something different...I believe we need to act as quickly as possible to begin this because everyday the numbers get worse and worse and worse."
by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Services
Reader Comments