Global economy crisis +stimulus bill = frustrated Senate Budget Committee

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

Democrats plan for America

Topic: Democratic senators lay out plan for America

On Wednesday, January 21, 2009, the first full day of the new administration, Democratic senate leaders laid out their overarching agenda for at least the next two years.
Priorities were:
1. Economic recovery, which, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid means “jobs, jobs, jobs.” Senator Debbie Stabenow, who led the entire presentation, emphasized that each of the proposed programs should produce more recovery in jobs and return on investment than they cost.
Sens. Charles Schumer and Byron Dorgan discussed the economy. Schumer described sewage treatment and fresh water reclamation as examples of neglected infrastructure projects, which could create jobs and sustainability. He stated that Social Security is not in jeopardy, but that Medicare will require adjustments.
Both Senators said that energy programs will be major areas of investment, and Dorgan specifically said that expansion of the power grid was a priority. This would provide for the decentralization of power production and make distribution more robust.
Dorgan also specifically addressed the need to regulate practices, like derivatives, which encourage risk taking by lenders, as well as mortgages with “teaser” rates leading to balloon payments later.
While there was some inevitable finger pointing, the emphasis was on the need for bipartisan commitment.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar said that Obama has promised to personally review and approve proposed economic policies, and to improve transparency by posting financial data, such as expenditures, interest rates and returns on the web
2. Energy: Sen. Harry Reid stressed the need for oil independence, first from the need to import oil, which is a major cause of the imbalance of trade, but ultimately from domestic oil as well. He said this was a security issue as much as an environmental and economic one.
Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Jeff Bingaman answered question on energy policy. Bingaman supports a cap and trade policy for carbon units, with a need to simplify the details, and to cap the level to which fees for allowances can rise as oil prices fluctuate. He noted that even oil produced by American companies is generally imported. He declined to give a timetable for addressing climate change, reminding the press that it is not possible to address every important issue simultaneously. Bingaman did say that Sen. Henry Waxman plans to submit an energy bill by Memorial Day.
Klobuchar said, with confirmation of Ray LaHood as Secretary of Transportation and Commerce, the United States would be in a position to be leaders again at the Copenhagen conference on climate change, the successor to the Kyoto conferences. Referring to cap and trade policy, she said it is important not to ratify historic carbon emissions, but also not to punish companies that have alreadybeen working to bring emissions down.
3. Healthcare: Sens. Ron Wyman and Debbie Stabenow presented. Stabenow said that Obama will immediately lift bans on stem cell research, and that expanded SCHIP coverage, including mental health and dental care, will pass within the next two weeks. She noted that “community mental health” had become, for some, code for reduced federal funding on mental health programs. She confirmed that universal coverage includes mental as well as physical illness. As a strategy to address the critical shortage of nurses, she proposed forgiving student loans upon completion of training.
Stabenow also said that medical information technology is an important investment for better and more efficient health care.
Regarding the economic impact of expanding health coverage, she said Canada remains competitive partly because its businesses do not have to bear the costs of employee health insurance. The big question, Stabenow said, is maintaining choice for patients.
Wyman said that for progressives “the story of universal health care is one of unrequited love.” There have been several occasions in the past when comprehensive reform appeared likely, but powerful interest groups or intervening crises prevented its passage. This time, things look better in that former foes have become allies as industry tries to divest itself of the cost and responsibility of health care. Sen. Tom Daschle, who has devoted much of his career to this issue, will become Secretary of Health and Human Services. Sens. Kennedy, Daschle, Stabenow, and Wyman have worked to make the legislation more transparent and streamlined than last time, Wyman said,and the public is likely to choose the health plan that congress uses.
Sen. Harry Reid told the press this is an aggressive congress with the political tools and capital to get much of the desired legislation passed, noting that they just passed 164 environmental bills, which would have been impossible, just a short time ago.

Kennedy: Democrats are here for workers

As the congressional Democrats announce their version of the budget they are emphasizing more domestic spending particularly in job creation and bolstering unemployment assistance. At a press conference after the Democratic budget was introduced on the Senate floor were Democratic Senators Debbie Stabenow (MI), Dick Durbin (IL), Edward Kennedy (MA) and Rep. Xavier Becerra (CA).

They said that they had three priorities to stimulate the American workforce in their Fiscal 2009 budget proposal: development of "green collar jobs" that build the renewable energy industry, education and job training so that American workers can compete in a global marketplace and a focus on jobs that create infrastructure, rebuilding roads and bridges. They also want to give further economic relief to working families by way of tax relief. Durbin said that the Bush administration has only continued to give "massive" tax cuts for "those who haven't asked for them and don't need them."

Becerra likened the U.S. government to a family struggling to make ends meet. He took out a credit card from his wallet, "We have been using the government credit card too long to make ends meet." He also spoke of how the United States continues to borrow from "creditors" like China. He threw out a total of $400 billion borrowed from China "so far."

Kennedy emphasized that the money had already been appropriated for growing unemployment infrastructure and had only to be authorized in this budget measure. Kennedy also said that this was a time for federal leadership to step in and help working families. He said that Democrats are there for the American worker.

When asked about the moratorium on earmarks supported by presidential candidates and Senate colleagues Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, both Stabenow and Durbin said that they would not support a moratorium on earmarks. "We need to amend it, not end it," said Stabenow and they both defended the process of earmarks as being open and transparent with the American people. Kennedy said he was opening to examining a moratorium as a solution.