White House response to Jobs Bill

Posted on February 11th, 2010 by ecthompson

We need an aggressive progressive jobs bill. This isn’t that.

From DK:

Gibbs releases the following statement in response to the Baucus tax cut for the rich jobs bill. Via e-mail:

“The President is gratified to see the Senate moving forward in a bipartisan manner on steps to help put Americans back to work. The draft bill released today by Senators Baucus and Grassley includes several of the President’s top priorities for job creation, including a tax incentive to encourage businesses to hire, a tax cut to make it easier for small businesses to invest and expand, further measures to keep people at work repairing our nation’s roads and bridges, and extended unemployment insurance and health care assistance for Americans who are out of work.

“The American people want to see Washington put aside partisan differences and make progress on jobs. The House has already passed a constructive set of measures and the President is hopeful that the draft language presented today will lead to a bipartisan Senate bill. The President looks forward to working with members from both parties on this bill and on the additional job creation measures he has identified, including incentives for energy efficiency investments and increased access to credit for small businesses.”

The American people would be happy to see progress on jobs and unlikely will care not a whit whether it’s partisan or not, as long as they can get back to work.

Tags: Economy // View Comments

  • ecthompson
    No Joe -

    You can go to recovery.gov right now and find out who got the "missing" money and what projects the money was used on. Nothing, that I know of, has been hidden. Everything seems to be above board. simple typos that's all. Nothing more.
  • ecthompson
    No Joe - 

    You can go to recovery.gov right now and find out who got the "missing" money and what projects the money was used on. Nothing, that I know of, has been hidden. Everything seems to be above board. simple typos that's all. Nothing more.
  • Joe White
    Yes the money was 'reported'.

    It was reported to have been used in places that don't exist.

    So, where has it really gone?

    'The money isn't missing'.

    Technically true, since SOMEBODY who got it knows they received it.

    But apparently the administration isn't too keen on revealing where those somebodys REALLY are. (They aren't where we were told they were.)

    I wonder why?
  • Joe White
    Yes the money was 'reported'.

    It was reported to have been used in places that don't exist.

    So, where has it really gone?

    'The money isn't missing'.

    Technically true, since SOMEBODY who got it knows they received it.

    But apparently the administration isn't too keen on revealing where those somebodys REALLY are. (They aren't where we were told they were.)

    I wonder why?
  • ecthompson
    Joe -

    It is interesting that you are talking about mystery zip codes when you should be praising the Obama administration. All of the "missing" zip codes have projects assigned to them. You and I can look up those projects on the Recovery web site (Bush never was this open with anything). So you can see that the money isn't missing. You can also see that the money is being used.

    From the Hill:

    A closer look at every ZIP code by the Franklin Center for Government Public Integrity revealed the problem was more widespread, affecting more than $375 million spread across all but 12 states.

    But Recovery Board officials stress the money has not gone missing. They said the totals were corroborated by other reports on the website, which break stimulus dollars down by ZIP code as well as project.

    Arvidson explained that only about 400 of the more than 131,000 ZIP codes on Recovery.gov are listed incorrectly. She also stressed other forms on Recovery.gov show the money is neither lost nor improperly spent.

    "This money is reported on the website it takes no genius to download the files and find the projects," Arvidson said. "The money is not missing; the money has been reported. These are clerical errors. This is much ado about nothing."
  • ecthompson
    Joe - 

    It is interesting that you are talking about mystery zip codes when you should be praising the Obama administration. All of the "missing" zip codes have projects assigned to them. You and I can look up those projects on the Recovery web site (Bush never was this open with anything). So you can see that the money isn't missing. You can also see that the money is being used.

    From the Hill:

    A closer look at every ZIP code by the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity revealed the problem was more widespread, affecting more than $375 million spread across all but 12 states. But Recovery Board officials stress the money has not gone missing. They said the totals were corroborated by other reports on the website, which break stimulus dollars down by ZIP code as well as project.Arvidson explained that only about 400 of the more than 131,000 ZIP codes on Recovery.gov are listed incorrectly. She also stressed other forms on Recovery.gov show the money is neither lost nor improperly spent. "This money is reported on the website; it takes no genius to download the files and find the projects," Arvidson said. "The money is not missing; the money has been reported. These are clerical errors. This is much ado about nothing."
  • ecthompson
    More is need as Krugman argued at the time.

    "Much of what is reported as allocated has gone to zip codes that don't exist." Really? Where is that data? What percentage of the money are we talking about? 10%? 5% or less than 1%? Could it be a reporting error?

    Bring on the data Joe.
  • ecthompson
    More is need as Krugman argued at the time. 

    "Much of what is reported as allocated has gone to zip codes that don't exist." Really? Where is that data? What percentage of the money are we talking about? 10%? 5% or less than 1%? Could it be a reporting error? 

    Bring on the data Joe.
  • MH
    I do have to agree if it isn't going to determine exactly where the states are to spend the money and call out the states that aren't putting it to use. Why they were trying tp push other legislation onto it is insane. This is where Obama needs to veto if it adds onto things and doesn't accomplish what it is intended to do.
    I just know that after the last nine months of work slowdown in my company. It is picking up really fast. We get our work for the product once the cities and counties start replacing or providing new Sewer and Water treatment plants.
  • MH
    I do have to agree if it isn't going to determine exactly where the states are to spend the money and call out the states that aren't putting it to use. Why they were trying tp push other legislation onto it is insane. This is where Obama needs to veto if it adds onto things and doesn't accomplish what it is intended to do.
    I just know that after the last nine months of work slowdown in my company. It is picking up really fast. We get our work for the product once the cities and counties start replacing or providing new Sewer and Water treatment plants.
  • Joe White
    MH,

    I don't want to let the states off easy.

    But the point of the article was that the feds were trying to pass another 'jobs bill'.

    I say 'no' on that one now.

    Not just for the sake of saying 'no' , but for the reasons I gave.
  • Joe White
    MH,

    I don't want to let the states off easy.

    But the point of the article was that the feds were trying to pass another 'jobs bill'.

    I say 'no' on that one now.

    Not just for the sake of saying 'no' , but for the reasons I gave.
  • MH
    Mr White,
    The money was given to the states to manage. How come you have let them off the hook? In Utah we have a website that shows exactly where are portion is going.
  • MH
    Mr White,
    The money was given to the states to manage. How come you have let them off the hook? In Utah we have a website that shows exactly where are portion is going.
  • Joe White
    MH,

    I have no problem with the idea that some projects take time to get off the drawing board. But the same will be true for any jobs created by any new jobs bill, won't it?

    So why is the administration saying that further spending is needed when everyone agrees that we don't know what effect the first jobs bill has (or will) have?

    Also, of the money that WAS spent, much of it seems to have disappeared, it is shown 'spent' in zip codes that don't exist and congressional districts that dont exist.

    http://watchdog.org/1530/6-4-billion-stimulus-goes-to-phantom-districts/

    This should make Democrats and Republicans and Independents ALL skeptical about this adminstrations ability to handle money and about the wisdom of approving additional jobs money for the government to spend.
  • Joe White
    MH,

    I have no problem with the idea that some projects take time to get off the drawing board. But the same will be true for any jobs created by any new jobs bill, won't it?

    So why is the administration saying that further spending is needed when everyone agrees that we don't know what effect the first jobs bill has (or will) have?

    Also, of the money that WAS spent, much of it seems to have disappeared, it is shown 'spent' in zip codes that don't exist and congressional districts that dont exist.

    http://watchdog.org/1530/6-4-billion-stimulus-goes-to-phantom-districts/

    This should make Democrats and Republicans and Independents ALL skeptical about this adminstrations ability to handle money and about the wisdom of approving additional jobs money for the government to spend.
  • MH
    Mr White,

    I agree in part that they should have instructed more of the money for infrastructure directly. But it takes awhile to get the projects going if they have been put on the back burner by the states. For lack of money. I work for a firm that makes water treatment structures. It takes almost 1 year from when it is okayed for replacement to engineering to getting bids and then getting it going. So not all of the states were set up to spend immediately.

    I know Utah is improving roads all over the state and it has enabled us to keep our unemployment down. Just because someone you may know doesn't have a job doesn't mean that the money isn't working.

    The GOVERNORS were in charge of making sure the money was spent. Speak to your governor about where the money is being spent in your state.

    This jobs bill that Sen. Reid just cut out of it the Estate Tax Credit extension. Now Why is that in a jobs bill. Golly could it be because the Right Wingers wanted it.
  • MH
    Mr White,

    I agree in part that they should have instructed more of the money for infrastructure directly. But it takes awhile to get the projects going if they have been put on the back burner by the states. For lack of money. I work for a firm that makes water treatment structures. It takesalmost 1year from when it is okayed for replacement to engineering to getting bids and then getting it going. So not all of the states were set up to spend immediately.

    I know Utah is improving roads all over the state and it has enabled us to keep our unemployment down. Just because someone you may know doesn't have a job doesn't mean that the money isn't working.

    The GOVERNORS were in charge of making sure the money was spent. Speak to your governor about where the money is being spent in your state.

    This jobs bill that Sen. Reid just cut out of it the Estate Tax Credit extension. Now Why is that in a jobs bill. Golly could it be because the Right Wingers wanted it.
  • Joe White
    Another 'jobs bill' isn't needed.

    We already had one.

    It was the 'stimulus bill' that was supposed to provide lots of 'shovel ready jobs'.

    Over $500 billion of the 'stimulus money' has not been spent or even allocated to be spent.

    Much of what is reported as allocated has gone to zip codes that don't exist.

    This administration doesn't need to be fed more money to waste.

  • Joe White
    Another 'jobs bill' isn't needed.

    We already had one.

    It was the 'stimulus bill' that was supposed to provide lots of 'shovel ready jobs'.

    Over $500 billion of the 'stimulus money' has not been spent or even allocated to be spent.

    Much of what is reported as allocated has gone to zip codes that don't exist.

    This administration doesn't need to be fed more money to waste.
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