Agence France-Presse - 1/16/2009 3:53 AM GMT
Five days before becoming president, Barack Obama won a major boost when the US Senate agreed to release financial bailout funds and Democratic lawmakers unveiled an 825-billion-dollar recovery plan.
The Senate voted 52-42 to clear the release of the second half of a 700-billion-dollar financial bailout package devised under the Bush administration. The request was filed on Obama's behalf by outgoing President George W. Bush to access the 350 billion dollars.
Democratic lawmakers also unveiled a massive 825-billion-dollar financial package to jolt the world's biggest economy from a deep recession.
"This plan is a significant down payment on our most urgent challenges," Obama said after the announcement.
The "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan," comprising 275 billion dollars in tax cuts and 550 billion dollars in investments, is the lynchpin of Obama's program to deliver on his election pledges to bolster the US economy.
The plan will be debated in the Democratic-led Congress in the next two weeks, beginning in the House of Representatives, officials said.
Obama welcomed the House move to swiftly grapple with the plan, which he vowed would be fully accountable and transparent.
"It will contain the kind of strict, independent oversight that will allow the American people to hold Washington accountable for how and where their tax dollars are spent," the president-elect said in a statement.
Obama has been lobbying Congress to accept the plan in an unprecedented effort before his inauguration as the nation's 44th president on Tuesday.
The large components of the package include 90 billion dollars in infrastructure spending, 54 billion dollars to boost energy production from renewable sources, 87 billion dollars for medical care for low-income individuals and 79 billion dollars to help schools and colleges prevent cutbacks.
Workers will also receive a refundable 500-dollar tax credit under the effort.
The plan will "save or create over three million jobs, provide tax relief to struggling families and businesses that create jobs, and invest in priorities like healthcare, education and energy that will make America strong and competitive in the 21st century," Obama said.
The package contains "bang for the buck" and "justification for every dollar spent," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters.
But even with congressional passage of the mammoth package, unemployment rates could rise to between eight and nine percent this year, according to a summary of the bill made available to reporters.
"Without this package, we are warned that unemployment could explode to near 12 percent." Unemployment last year reached a 16-year high at 7.2 percent.
But in first signs of partisan rancor, top House Republican John Boehner complained his party had been snubbed in formulating the economic recovery package.
"This is the first time Republicans and the American people have seen any specifics on the proposal congressional Democrats intend to pass, and what we're seeing is disappointing," he said.
The plan also "appears to be grounded in the flawed notion that we can simply borrow and spend our way back to prosperity," Boehner added.
The Senate vote on the remaining 350 billion dollars of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) came after Obama's top economic adviser, former Treasury secretary Larry Summers, promised that between 50 and 100 billion dollars of the remaining funds would be spent on tackling the US home mortgage crisis.
It will be "a sweeping effort to address the foreclosure crisis," Summers said in a letter to top lawmakers, reassuring them that the second tranche of the financial bailout fund would be spent efficiently.
The US home mortgage meltdown was at the epicenter of global financial turmoil that has led to a sharp economic slowdown unseen since the Great Depression.
The TARP fund has so far been mostly targeted at bailing out ailing banks and automakers, and insurance and credit card companies, and lawmakers have expressed anger over the lack of accountability, transparency and focus on the travails of ordinary Americans.
http://news.my.msn.com/topstories/article.aspx?cp-documentid=2110873
Five days before becoming president, Barack Obama won a major boost when the US Senate agreed to release financial bailout funds and Democratic lawmakers unveiled an 825-billion-dollar recovery plan.
The Senate voted 52-42 to clear the release of the second half of a 700-billion-dollar financial bailout package devised under the Bush administration. The request was filed on Obama's behalf by outgoing President George W. Bush to access the 350 billion dollars.
Democratic lawmakers also unveiled a massive 825-billion-dollar financial package to jolt the world's biggest economy from a deep recession.
"This plan is a significant down payment on our most urgent challenges," Obama said after the announcement.
The "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan," comprising 275 billion dollars in tax cuts and 550 billion dollars in investments, is the lynchpin of Obama's program to deliver on his election pledges to bolster the US economy.
The plan will be debated in the Democratic-led Congress in the next two weeks, beginning in the House of Representatives, officials said.
Obama welcomed the House move to swiftly grapple with the plan, which he vowed would be fully accountable and transparent.
"It will contain the kind of strict, independent oversight that will allow the American people to hold Washington accountable for how and where their tax dollars are spent," the president-elect said in a statement.
Obama has been lobbying Congress to accept the plan in an unprecedented effort before his inauguration as the nation's 44th president on Tuesday.
The large components of the package include 90 billion dollars in infrastructure spending, 54 billion dollars to boost energy production from renewable sources, 87 billion dollars for medical care for low-income individuals and 79 billion dollars to help schools and colleges prevent cutbacks.
Workers will also receive a refundable 500-dollar tax credit under the effort.
The plan will "save or create over three million jobs, provide tax relief to struggling families and businesses that create jobs, and invest in priorities like healthcare, education and energy that will make America strong and competitive in the 21st century," Obama said.
The package contains "bang for the buck" and "justification for every dollar spent," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters.
But even with congressional passage of the mammoth package, unemployment rates could rise to between eight and nine percent this year, according to a summary of the bill made available to reporters.
"Without this package, we are warned that unemployment could explode to near 12 percent." Unemployment last year reached a 16-year high at 7.2 percent.
But in first signs of partisan rancor, top House Republican John Boehner complained his party had been snubbed in formulating the economic recovery package.
"This is the first time Republicans and the American people have seen any specifics on the proposal congressional Democrats intend to pass, and what we're seeing is disappointing," he said.
The plan also "appears to be grounded in the flawed notion that we can simply borrow and spend our way back to prosperity," Boehner added.
The Senate vote on the remaining 350 billion dollars of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) came after Obama's top economic adviser, former Treasury secretary Larry Summers, promised that between 50 and 100 billion dollars of the remaining funds would be spent on tackling the US home mortgage crisis.
It will be "a sweeping effort to address the foreclosure crisis," Summers said in a letter to top lawmakers, reassuring them that the second tranche of the financial bailout fund would be spent efficiently.
The US home mortgage meltdown was at the epicenter of global financial turmoil that has led to a sharp economic slowdown unseen since the Great Depression.
The TARP fund has so far been mostly targeted at bailing out ailing banks and automakers, and insurance and credit card companies, and lawmakers have expressed anger over the lack of accountability, transparency and focus on the travails of ordinary Americans.
http://news.my.msn.com/topstories/article.aspx?cp-documentid=2110873
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