Stimulus plan

[Danny]

http://projects.nytimes.com/44th_president/stimulus

Tax Cuts for Individuals     New tax credit for workers

Provide a tax credit at a rate of 6.2 percent of earned income (after federal taxes are taken out), up to $400 for individuals and up to $800 for couples, in 2009 and 2010. The credit begins to phase out at income levels of $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for married couples filing jointly. Since the credit is “refundable,” people with no federal income-tax liability will get money back.
   $116.2 billion
Health; Aid to States    Help states with Medicaid costs
Increase the federal government's contribution for Medicaid costs to help states close their budget gaps. The Senate favored a formula to distribute the money that is more beneficial to less-populous states, whereas the House voted for extra help for those that have experienced large increases in unemployment. The compromise bill splits the difference on formula changes between the House and Senate.
   $87.1 billion
Tax Cuts for Individuals    Extend patch for the alternative minimum tax

Exempt up to $46,700 of an individual's income and $70,950 of a couple's income from the A.M.T. in 2009 and allow the use of nonrefundable personal credits to avoid the A.M.T. The tax was originally aimed at the very rich but has begun to engulf middle-income families because it has not been adjusted for inflation. Each year, Congress creates a temporary fix to keep millions of people from paying the alternative minimum tax.
   $69.8 billion
Education and Job Training; Aid to States    Help states prevent cuts to essential services like education

Includes nearly $40 billion for local school districts and public colleges and universities.
   $53.6 billion
Unemployment    Extend and increase unemployment compensation

Continue an extended unemployment benefits program, set to expire at the end of March, through the end of 2009; extend the average weekly payment, about $300, by $25. The program would provide jobless workers an additional seven weeks of compensation, on top of the 13 weeks they would regularly get. Workers in states with high unemployment rates would get an additional 13 weeks, to a total of 33 weeks. Unemployment compensation for railroad workers, who are not included in the federal or state unemployment system, would be extended to 13 weeks.
   $35.8 billion
Transportation    Provide money for highways and bridges

Provide money to states to repair or construct highways or bridges, reallocating money that is not spent quickly.
   $27.5 billion
Health; Unemployment    Health coverage under Cobra

Subsidize 65 percent of the cost of premiums for jobless workers to keep group health coverage for nine months. Such workers would otherwise have to pay 102 percent of premiums, including the employer’s share. To be eligible, workers need to have been forced out of their jobs between Sept. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2009. A provision in the House bill would have made Cobra health benefits available to workers on the job for more than 10 years and those over age 55 until they are eligible for Medicare, but it was not included in the final draft.
   $25.1 billion
Aid to Individuals    Increase food assistance

Provides $20 billion to increase benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly the Food Stamp Program) by 13 percent. Also includes $500 million for a special nutrition program for women, infants and children (WIC), $100 million for senior nutrition programs, $100 million for school lunch program and $150 million for food banks.
   $20.9 billion
Health    Incentives to Medicaid and Medicare providers to adopt health information technology    $17.2 billion
Education and Job Training; Aid to Individuals    Increase the maximum Pell Grant by $500, from $4,850 to $5,350    $15.6 billion
Tax Cuts for Individuals    Expand eligibility for Child Tax Credit

Allow households making at least $3,000 to subtract $1,000 from their tax bill for each child in 2009 and 2010. Under current law, the tax credit is of no use to families with incomes below $12,550.
   $14.8 billion
Aid to Individuals    Provide cash payment to seniors, disabled veterans and other needy individuals

Give a one-time payment of $250 to recipients of Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, railroad retirement benefits and veterans disability compensation or pension benefits.
   $14.4 billion
Tax Cuts for Businesses; Energy    Expand tax incentives for renewable energy facilities

Extend production tax credit for wind energy facilities through 2012 and other renewable energy facilities through 2013. Allow renewable facilities to claim investment tax credit instead of production tax credit. Remove cap on investment tax credit for small wind property. Allow renewable energy producers to claim a 30 percent cash grant from the Treasury Department in lieu of the 30 percent investment tax credit.
   $14.0 billion
Education and Job Training; Tax Cuts for Individuals    Expand higher education tax credits

Expand the federal Hope scholarship for 2009 and 2010 to provide a tax credit of up to $2,500 a year for all four years of college tuition, instead of $1,800 a year for the first two years. Also, the credit would now be 40 percent refundable and cover costs of textbooks. The tax credit would phase out for individuals making between $80,000 and $90,000 and couples earning between $160,000 and $180,000. Allow computer-related expenses to be exempt under tax-advantaged college savings plans in 2009 and 2010.
   $13.9 billion
Education and Job Training    Provide additional money to schools serving low-income children
Provide additional money to Title I schools, which serve poor children; the money ($13 billion over two years) would increase annual spending by more than 40 percent.
   $13.0 billion
Education and Job Training    Provide additional money for special education

Increase the federal government's share of the cost of teaching children with special needs.
   $12.2 billion
Energy    Modernize the electric grid

Make the electric grid "smarter," by improving communication so electricity can be distributed and used more efficiently.
   $11.0 billion
Aid to States; Education and Job Training    Create new bonds for improvements in public education

Create $22 billion of new tax credit bonds for the construction and repair of public school facilities or to acquire land for construction of new public schools. Authorize states and local governments to issue another $1.4 billion in bonds to finance improvements in low-income school districts.
   $10.9 billion
Health; Science and Research    Provide additional financing to the National Institutes of Health for research and infrastructure

Includes $8.5 billion for research grants, in areas such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease and stem cells, and $1.5 billion to renovate research facilities.
   $10.0 billion
Transportation    Invest in rail transportation

Expand passenger rail capacity and make grants for high-speed rail projects, including Amtrak.
   $9.3 billion
Transportation    Invest in public transit

Provide grants to states for public transit infrastructure investment, reallocating money that is not spent quickly.
   $8.4 billion
Housing; Tax Cuts for Individuals    Incentive for first-time homebuyers

Provide first-time home buyers with a refundable tax credit of up to $8,000, up $500 from the original credit enacted last year, for purchases made this year (before Dec. 1). The credit phases out for single taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes that exceed $75,000 (or $150,000 for married couples filing jointly). The buyer will forfeit the credit if he or she sells the house within three years.
   $6.6 billion
Aid to States    Incentives for economic recovery in distressed areas

Create $25 billion of new tax credit bonds for investment in areas that have significant poverty, unemployment or home foreclosure. Increase tax credits to $5 billion from $3.5 billion in 2008 and 2009, for a program that provides incentives for businesses to locate in economically distressed communities. Authorize $2 billion in tax-exempt bonds for use by Indian tribes for economic development without any restrictions (currently bonds issued by tribal governments must satisfy an "essential government function" requirement.)
   $6.5 billion
Energy    Provide grants to cities, counties and states to increase energy efficiency    $6.3 billion
Energy    Provide additional financing for Innovative Energy Loan Guarantee program

Guarantee loans for renewable energy or electricity transmission projects that "avoid, reduce, or sequester air pollutants or anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases," according to the program's Web site.
   $6.0 billion
Environment    Clean up sites formerly used by the Defense Department    $6.0 billion
Environment    Finance local water projects

Provide money for wastewater treatment projects and projects that improve the quality of drinking water.
   $6.0 billion
Tax Cuts for Businesses    Extension of bonus depreciation

Gives companies a 50 percent bonus deduction on capital investments made in 2008 that would normally be depreciated over many years. Businesses can choose to accelerate refunds of research and development credits and alternative minimum tax credits in lieu of bonus depreciation.
   $5.9 billion
Energy; Aid to Individuals    Increase financing for home weatherization program

Help low-income families make their homes more energy efficient, through projects like adding insulation.
   $5.0 billion
Unemployment    Exempt unemployment compensation

Exempt the first $2,400 of unemployment insurance benefits from federal income taxes in 2009.
   $4.7 billion
Tax Cuts for Individuals    Increase Earned Income Tax Credit

Increase the E.I.T.C. to 45 percent, from 40 percent, of the first $12,570 earned by families with more than three children in 2009 and 2010.
   $4.7 billion
Infrastructure    Provide additional money to the Army Corps of Engineers

Includes $2 billion for construction projects like dam repair and flood control, $1.9 billion for maintenance, $500 million for projects along the Mississippi River and $100 million to clean up early atomic energy facilities.
   $4.6 billion
Energy    Increase energy efficiency in federal buildings    $4.5 billion
Infrastructure    Create new program to expand broadband access

Finance broadband infrastructure to expand access in rural and underserved areas.
   $4.5 billion
Aid to States    Create a tax credit bond option for state and local governments

Allow state and local governments to sell taxable debt in 2009 and 2010 and receive direct subsidies from the government.
   $4.3 billion
Aid to States; Unemployment    Give states aid to properly administer unemployment compensation

Provides one-time grants to encourage states to modernize their systems to increase coverage among low-wage, part-time and other jobless workers. Provide additional assistance to administer the extended unemployment benefits program.
   $4.2 billion
Infrastructure    Make military facilities more energy efficient    $4.2 billion
Aid to States    Provide additional financing for state and local law enforcement

Includes $1 billion to hire additional police officers, as well as grants for programs to prevent drug-related crime in rural areas, drug trafficking on the Mexican border, domestic violence against women and Internet crimes against children.
   $4.0 billion
Energy; Infrastructure; Housing    Repair and modernize public housing units    $4.0 billion
Education and Job Training    Finance job training programs

Focuses on jobs related to health care and the environment. Includes $1.2 billion to create summer jobs for teenagers.
   $4.0 billion
Energy    Invest in fossil energy

Includes money for near-zero emissions power plants, clean coal technology and carbon capture.
   $3.4 billion
Tax Cuts for Businesses    Expand deduction limits for banks buying bonds more »

Allow banks to deduct 80 percent of the cost of buying and carrying tax-exempt bonds sold by issuers who sell up to $30 million worth of bonds per year, up from $10 million.
   $3.2 billion
Tax Cuts for Businesses    Provide tax break to General Motors

Allow General Motors to claim refunds for taxes paid in earlier, profitable years. General Motors and Chrysler received a multibillion-dollar federal bailout in December to prevent them from collapsing.
   $3.2 billion
Infrastructure    Repair and improve facilities on public lands and parks    $3.1 billion
Science and Research    Provide additional financing for the National Science Foundation

Finance research, focusing on the environment and global competitiveness.
   $3.0 billion
Infrastructure    Provide additional money to the Department of Homeland Security

Includes $1 billion for airport baggage screening equipment as well as money for border security and building fire stations.
   $2.8 billion
Aid to States    Increase block grants for welfare program

Provide states additional money for the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which was created during the 1996 welfare reform and requires recipients to work in order to receive cash assistance.
   $2.7 billion
Energy; Science and Research    Conduct energy efficiency and renewable energy research    $2.5 billion
Infrastructure; Rural Assistance    Provide additional financing to improve communications in rural areas

Includes financing for two Agriculture Department programs to improve communications in rural areas: one to expand broadband and another to improve health care and education through technology like video conferencing.
   $2.5 billion
Housing    Help states and local governments acquire and repair low-income housing

Includes $100 million for competitive grants to local governments and nonprofit organizations to remove lead-based paint hazards.
   $2.4 billion
Health; Infrastructure    Improve Defense Department facilities related to the quality of life

Construct or repair child development centers, health clinics, barracks and dormitories.
   $2.3 billion
Education and Job Training    Increase financing for Head Start and Early Head Start

Allow more children to participate in childhood education programs.
   $2.1 billion
Energy; Tax Cuts for Individuals    Increase tax credits for residential energy efficiency improvements

Increase tax credits for purchases to make homes energy efficient, such as new furnaces or insulation, to 30 percent through 2010, for up to $1,500.
   $2.0 billion
Energy; Tax Cuts for Individuals    Incentive for alternative vehicle

Increase the tax credit for purchasing plug-in hybrid vehicles to $7,500.
   $2.0 billion
Health    Provide additional financing for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology    $2.0 billion
Housing    Make full-year payments to owners receiving Section 8 housing vouchers    $2.0 billion
Aid to Individuals    Provide additional child care

Provide child care for children in low-income families.
   $2.0 billion
Energy    Support battery manufacturing

Provide grants to manufacturers of advanced battery systems and car batteries in the United States.
   $2.0 billion
Housing    Redevelop abandoned and foreclosed homes    $2.0 billion
Health; Infrastructure    Finance renovations and technology upgrade at community health centers    $2.0 billion
Energy; Science and Research    Provide additional financing for science and research at the Department of Energy

Includes $400 million for rapid development of clean energy technology.
   $2.0 billion
Tax Cuts for Individuals    Incentive for car buyers

Allow those who buy a new vehicle in 2009 — with a price tag of up to $49,500 — to deduct state, local and excise taxes as well as interest on their car loan. The tax break is an above-the-line deduction, which means that it can be taken even by those who do not itemize other deductions on their tax returns. The deduction begins to phase out for single tax filers with adjusted gross income of more than $125,000, or $250,000 for married couples filing jointly.
   $1.7 billion
Tax Cuts for Businesses; Energy    Incentive for advanced energy investment

Establish a new 30 percent investment tax credit for manufacturers of advanced energy property, which may include technology for the production of renewable energy, energy storage, energy conservation, efficient transmission and distribution of electricity, and carbon capture and sequestration.
   $1.6 billion
Tax Cuts for Businesses    Delay recognition of certain cancellation of debt income

Allow some businesses to defer tax on income that is recognized when they buy back their debt at a discount.
   $1.6 billion
Aid to States; Unemployment    Expand Trade Adjustment Assistance program

Increase financing to states for the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program, which provides retraining and extended unemployment benefits for workers who have lost their jobs because of trade or outsourcing.


full article at http://projects.nytimes.com/44th_president/stimulus

[Fury]

Nice of them to show us exactly how that money has been wasted.

Where are the 3.5+ million jobs it was supposed to create?

[Danny]

Nice of them to show us exactly how that money has been wasted.

Where are the 3.5+ million jobs it was supposed to create?

Yeah I know the stimulus didn't create 1 single job. Damn those fuckers.

[Soul Crusher]

Danger for Dems as economy slows
By: Jake Sherman and Jonathan Allen and Abby Phillip
www.politico.com
July 3, 2010 06:09 PM EDT
 
President Barack Obama and the Democrats head into the summer campaign season with the economy slowing, unemployment flirting with double-digits — and few options for a quick fix.

Obama’s economic stimulus plan is winding down, right when Democrats need it most. And a big new jobs bill?

Forget it. House Democrats had to battle this week just to pass a bill to prevent teachers from being laid off, over the objections of 15 mostly conservative House Democrats and even Obama, who threatened a veto over how the House planned to pay for it.

The spending was so sensitive that the White House pleaded for the funding privately and through surrogates — and even ultimately in a public letter — but refused to make an official budget request, infuriating some in House leadership.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi even enlisted Mark Zandi — a former economic adviser to Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign — to make the case to her caucus for more spending. Zandi’s warning Tuesday: boost aid to the states or risk a “double-dip” recession — which House Democrats clearly understood could cross-check their chances of retaining the majority in November.

It’s that kind of year: Democrats desperately need to show midterm voters they’re doing something to create jobs. Republicans are ready to pounce, blasting the Democrats as free-spending budget-busters — and polls show voters are listening, nervous about government spending and ballooning deficits after Obama’s barrage of bailouts, stimulus and health care reform.

“The question is, can they create the perception that they have done all these things to create jobs, or that they tried but the dastardly Republicans prevented them from creating jobs?” said Howard Gleckman, a senior researcher on tax and budget policy for the Urban Institute. Both options, he said are likely to have similar political consequences come November.

“The truth of the matter is that the unemployment rate between now and November is pretty much baked in the cake. It’s not going to come down very much.”

It’s true: There was near-universal agreement among economists that the June jobs report Friday cast significant doubt on the prospects for a robust recovery anytime soon, a finding encapsulated for most Americans in a single number — the 9.5 percent unemployment rate, even though it was down from 9.7 percent the previous month.

Still, the Obama administration already has launched the message that they hope will take Democrats into November: a “Recovery Summer” spent talking up 3.5 million jobs created or saved by the $787 billion stimulus bill passed by Congress last year.

But the scope of the problem is daunting: on a day when the Labor Department reported the economy created a modest 83,000 private-sector jobs last month, Obama touted new stimulus-funded broadband Internet projects, adding just 5,000 jobs.

Stimulus money will continue to flow out of the federal government into 2011, but experts are warning that the greatest risk is the prospect of state economies tanking and dumping thousands of teachers, policemen, and other state employees on the already-saturated unemployment rolls.

This political problem has spurred a fierce philosophical debate inside the Democratic Party over what’s the best medicine for the economy — bigger spending, or cutting deficits. Liberals are clamoring for more money to save the economy, and centrists are arguing there's no more money to give in the face of trillion-plus dollar deficits.

“Some of our colleagues do have this mindset that the only thing that matters right now is deficits, but some of us would argue that the real anxiety is jobs, so we should be focusing on that,” said Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), a Pelosi ally and an up-and-coming Democratic election strategist.

He called the centrists’ fears “misplaced trauma.”

Tell that to about a dozen or so members — including Alabama Democrat Bobby Bright, South Dakota’s Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Ike Skelton of Missouri and Vic Snyder of Arkansas – who tend to vote against all spending increases.

“I just think that there are those who want to make sure that they are very moderate, conservative Democrats,” said Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, the Maryland Democrat charged by leadership with whipping some of his party’s most conservative members. “They won’t vote for anything but the basics.”

Democratic aides and lawmakers said that their internal polling shows lawmakers should be more wary of turning against spending, because while Americans want the debt reduced, they’re also pining for investments in job creation.

“Deficits should be a matter of concern, but I think we misread the American people,” Israel said. “The American people wouldn’t mind federal investments if they thought they were getting something for their money. The problem now is they don’t believe they’re getting anything for their money. So the issue isn’t spending. It’s results for the American people.”

And it's not just the members of Congress. House Democrats, who express less and less trust in the motives of the president's advisers by the day, increasingly view the White House's actions as an effort to prevent Obama from getting stuck with political baggage for his own 2012 reelection race.

This Democratic family feud played out this week over what would normally be a slam-dunk appropriations bill.

House Appropriations Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wisc.) labored for weeks to craft a package of domestic spending — $10 billion for teacher salaries, $5 billion for college scholarships, $701 million for border security and $142 million in money to help the Gulf Coast — to ride alongside the $33 billion emergency supplemental funding the war in Afghanistan. He looked for cuts to existing programs so that centrist Democrats could tell constituents that the new spending was "paid for."

But 15 House Democrats, mostly conservatives, voted against the bill anyway, suggesting that — "paid for" or not — there's not much upside in voting for new spending.

Just as Obey prepared to bring his amendment to the floor for a vote, the White House released a statement of administration policy with a threat to veto the measure over $800 million in rescissions Obey had proposed to help offset the cost of the education spending — a paltry amount compared with the new windfall for the Education Department. Obey targeted charter school grants and the new “Race to the Top” reform program — both top priorities for the president and his Education Secretary, Arne Duncan.

The veto threat gave cover to Democrats, liberal and conservative, who would vote against the measure but also may have backfired a bit by infuriating House Democrats.

The statement included a shot at Obey: His cuts to pet projects were “short-sighted,” the administration concluded.

Obey, not one to shrink from a fight, ripped into Obama’s education chief on the House floor.

“[T]o suggest that we are being unduly harsh is a joke,” Obey said. He later characterized Duncan as "whining," in a brief discussion with POLITICO.

The open warfare between the White House and Obey, who has worked on Appropriations issues with eight presidents, portends greater difficulty in moving anything with a price tag through Congress this year. In truth, the spending paralysis has been evident for months — in the failure of the House to write a budget and the inability of the House and Senate to agree on legislation promoting job creation and extending tax breaks among other items.

But tempers are now running hotter, the window before the election is getting shorter and the economy is not improving.

So as they approach November, congressional Democrats say they’ll have their hands tied, should the White House want to spend more money, but reject their overtures to cut wasteful programs.

“The low-hanging fruit,” a Democratic aide said, “is gone.”

That was certainly the case when Senate Republicans, plus Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), blocked a bill to extend unemployment benefits this week, saying Democrats hadn’t included the requisite cuts to pay for it.

“Republicans and conservative Democrats seem to have completely embraced the austerity argument,” said Thomas Mann, a senior fellow of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. “If you can’t get a simple unemployment extension without paying for it some other way, then you know that the fiscal hawks have taken over.”
 
 
© 2010 Capitol News Company, LLC

________________________ _________________

Danny - get this into your head, the Stim Bill failed and another one will have the same result. 

Govt. Spending recklessly is what got us into this jam, and it won't get us out.   

[Bindare_Dundat]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- More Americans than ever before feel they have no hope of finding a job.

A record 1.21 million people want to work, but said they aren't looking because of the weak labor market, according to federal statistics released Friday. The June figure is up from 793,000 a year ago.

The statistic is yet another sign of how bleak the employment picture is. And these folks, known as "discouraged workers," aren't even counted in the unemployment rate because they haven't looked for work in the past four weeks.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/03/news/economy/discouraged_workers/index.htm

[pro nitrousADRL]

stim= fail

unless you count the pot hole  that got fixed down the road,  gee   thanks bam bam

[Soul Crusher]

How anyone can classify the Stim Bill as anything but a collosal waste of money is beyond me. 

Many of us predicted exactly what would happen and it has.

But "give Obama a chance" etc etc.    

How did that work out?

[BM OUT]

Yeah I know the stimulus didn't create 1 single job. Damn those fuckers.

No,it created temp jobs like census workers and a lot of government jobs and paid off filthy unions,but other then that,it did nothing but redistribute wealth.

[Fury]

It was claimed the stim bill would create 3.5+ million jobs. To this point, it hasn't created anywhere near that. Nothing else needs to be said.

The stim bill = massive failure.

[GigantorX]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- More Americans than ever before feel they have no hope of finding a job.

A record 1.21 million people want to work, but said they aren't looking because of the weak labor market, according to federal statistics released Friday. The June figure is up from 793,000 a year ago.

The statistic is yet another sign of how bleak the employment picture is. And these folks, known as "discouraged workers," aren't even counted in the unemployment rate because they haven't looked for work in the past four weeks.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/03/news/economy/discouraged_workers/index.htm

Yep. The 4 week threshold is huge when taking a look into the substance of the Employment Reports. The U.E. rate shrank to 9.5% from 9.7% because 650,000 people quite looking for work and crossed the 4-Week threshold. The rate went down because the pool of labor shrank. That is not good. It's bad when the full force of the network propaganda arms, the Fed and the Admin. work together to manipulate the numbers and control the message.....and still fail and thus let the truth "out".

We need 125,000 jobs just to keep up with population growth...we didn't hit that last month. The Birth/Death adjusment is a total cock-up and is literally a guess (always to the upside) as to how many jobs are created/lost when businesses are started/killed. It is just a number that some algorithim produces. I was reading Mauldins new newsletter and it was saying that the Birth/Death numbers were stating that almost 75,000 new CONSTRUCTION jobs were created....how the hell? Construction was creating jobs? With a 33% tanking of new home construction, a slow donw in CRE and the housing market generally being in the toilet....really?

Garbage, all of it. And it is high time the hold-outs and forever faithful on this board see that.

[Soul Crusher]

How many college grads who just graduated are now entering into the pool too?