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Monday, September 06, 2010

Holy Cow: POTUS Barack Obama Proposes $50 Billion To Rebuild Road, Rails And Runways.

Obama proposes $50 billion to rebuild road, rails and runways
Steven Thomma

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama Monday proposes a quick $50 billion boost in federal spending to rebuild roads, railways and runways — a move he says will create jobs and which Democrats hope will improve their election prospects in November.

Obama planned to roll out the Labor Day proposal at a speech in Milwaukee, the launch of a week-long push on the economy and jobs that will include an Ohio speech pushing tax breaks for business and a White House news conference on Friday.

It all comes as the country pivots to a fall campaign for control of Congress in which Democrats are expected to take a pounding. Independent analysts predict the Democrats could lose control of the House of Representatives, and perhaps the Senate, thanks largely to anger and anxiety about the economy. The unemployment this week ticked up to 9.6 percent.

A combative President Barack Obama is promising to put Americans back to work rebuilding roads, railways and runways, and is blaming Republicans for opposing his efforts to stimulate the economy.

In remarks prepared for a Labor Day speech in Milwaukee, Obama says his six-year transportation plan should attract bipartisan support. The plan would need congressional approval, which will be tough to achieve this election year.

Obama says every time he's moved to help the middle class, Republicans in Congress say no.


WASHINGTON — Looking to boost his standing in a tough congressional election year, President Barack Obama heads to Michigan Thursday armed with a fresh report that he hopes will help convince people that his economic policies are making life better.

Obama will point to the new report from his own Council of Economic Advisers stating that the $862 billion package of spending and tax cuts enacted last year has added between 2.7 percent and 3.2 percent to the economy and saved or created about 3 million jobs.

More specifically, he'll visit a battery plant in Holland, Mich., to showcase his argument that $94.8 billion in stimulus spending on clean energy will save or create 827,000 jobs by 2012.


WASHINGTON — To spend or not to spend? That is the question that's pressing President Barack Obama.

While gushing red ink as it spends billions to stimulate the economy, the Obama White House wants to spend more to create jobs, and it faces growing pressure from labor unions and liberal groups to keep the federal spigot open to help the jobless and to save Americans' endangered jobs.

However, Obama also faces a growing number of Americans who are saying that he's making the economy worse, not better. Congress — skittish about a voter backlash in a congressional election year, when incumbents already are falling to challenges from the right and left — appears torn between spending more to create jobs and pulling back to keep from adding to the national debt.

Eager to jumpstart the economy ahead of crucial midterm elections, President Barack Obama said Friday he intends to unveil a new package of proposals, likely including tax cuts and targeted spending, to spark job growth.

Obama spoke in the Rose Garden after the August jobs report came out better than expected, showing the private sector adding 67,000 new jobs last month and revising upward the numbers from June and July. But unemployment ticked upward to 9.6 percent as more people entered the job market, and the president said it wasn't good enough.

"That's why we need to take further steps to create jobs and keep the economy growing, including extending tax cuts for the middle class and investing in the areas of our economy where the potential for job growth is greatest," Obama said.

Pressure on President Barack Obama to do something about the weakening economy intensified Friday when the government reported that hiring last month remained lackluster and the nation's unemployment rate actually inched higher.

With critical congressional elections less than eight weeks away and Democrats being blamed for the economic malaise, Obama appeared in the Rose Garden to announce that he will soon unveil a new package of tax cuts and other incentives to spur employment.

"We are confident that we are moving in the right direction, but we want to keep this recovery moving stronger and accelerate the job growth that's needed so desperately," the president said.

The White House promised new jobs. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told the CBS Early Show Monday that Obama's proposal would "put construction workers, welders, electricians back to work ... folks that have been unemployed for a long time."

At the same time, the White House released a statement that the infrastructure plan would "help jump-start additional job creation" and provide "much-needed jobs."

White House aides conceded, however, that the proposal, which still would have to be approved by Congress and then implemented, is not likely to start creating jobs until next year.

"We're not like trying to put out an idea today that in October, 2010, this is going to create a lot of jobs," said a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the White House insisted on it. "This is not what this is."

Obama's proposal would rebuild 150,000 miles of roads and highways, construct and maintain 4,000 miles of railway, rebuild or repair 150 miles of airport runways and upgrade the nation's air traffic control system.

It also would boost spending for buses and to modernize the Amtrak fleet of railroad cars.

The plan would authorize spending and transportation policies for six years.

Aides did not say how much the overall plan would cost. They said only that the $50 billion spent at the outset would be a "significant share" of the total price.

They said the spending would be offset over 10 years, in part by raising taxes on the oil and gas industry.

On Wednesday, Obama plans to recycle an old proposal to make permanent a research tax break for business.


Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/09/06/1422946/obama-proposed-50-billion-to-rebuild.html#ixzz0ymBAF2Sy

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