Archive for February, 2009

Obama Plans Major Shifts in Spending
“President Obama’s new budget blueprint estimates a stunning deficit of $1.75 trillion for the current fiscal year, which began five months ago, then lays out a wrenching change of course as he seeks to finance his own priorities while stanching the flow of red ink.

By redirecting enormous streams of deficit spending toward programs like health care, education and energy, and paying for some of it through taxes on the rich, pollution surcharges, and cuts in such inviolable programs as farm subsidies, the $3.55 trillion spending plan Mr. Obama is undertaking signals a radical change of course that Congress has yet to endorse.”

U.S. jobless claims tally tops 5 million mark
“New jobless claims rose more than expected last week and the number of Americans continuing to receive unemployment benefits has topped 5.1 million, fresh evidence the recession is increasingly forcing employers to shed jobs.

The Labor Department said Thursday that first-time requests for unemployment benefits jumped to 667,000 from the previous week’s figure of 631,000. Analysts had expected a slight drop in claims.

The 667,000 new claims are the most since October 1982, though the labor force has grown by about half since then. The four-week average of initial claims, which smooths out fluctuations, rose to 639,000, the highest in more than 26 years.”

Falling Revenues Threaten Rebuilding in Iraq
“In few nations around the globe are the consequences of the financial crisis as potentially sobering as they are in Iraq. Both oil revenues and American financial support have plummeted just as the country has the chance to take advantage of its increasing stability to improve basic services and upgrade its ruined infrastructure.

Now, projects are being put off as Iraq struggles to pay for huge raises granted to government employees as well as the salaries and equipment for hundreds of thousands of new Iraqi security troops.”

House OKs $410B bill to boost spending
“The Democratic-controlled House approved $410 billion legislation Wednesday that boosted domestic programs, bristled with earmarks and chipped away at policies left behind by the Bush administration. The vote was 245-178, largely along party lines.

Republicans assailed the measure as too costly — particularly on the heels of a $787 billion stimulus bill that President Barack Obama signed last week.”

• 

Obama Vows, ‘We Will Rebuild’ and ‘Recover’
“President Obama urged the nation on Tuesday to see the economic crisis as reason to raise its ambitions, calling for expensive new efforts to address energy, health care and education even as he warned that government bailouts have not come to an end.

In his first address to a joint session of Congress, Mr. Obama mixed an acknowledgment of the depth of the economic problems with a Reaganesque exhortation to American resilience. He offered an expansive agenda followed by a pledge to begin paring an ever-climbing budget deficit.”

In GOP Response, Jindal Blasts Stimulus
“Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) continued his sharp criticism of the stimulus signed into law last week, as the man some Republicans view as the potential savior of their party used his response to President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress last night to challenge the vision laid out in the recovery package.

Delivering the official GOP response to Obama from the governor’s mansion in Baton Rouge, Jindal defended the virtues of small government that he said even his own party had abandoned in recent years.”

Obama Favoring Mid-2010 Pullout in Iraq, Aides Say
“President Obama is nearing a decision that would order American combat forces out of Iraq by August 2010 as he seeks to finally end a war that has consumed and polarized the United States for nearly six years, senior administration officials said Tuesday.

The timetable would give the military three months more to withdraw than the 16-month pullout Mr. Obama promised last year on the campaign trail. Officials said he was prepared to make that shift because he agreed with the concerns of ground commanders who wanted more time to cement security gains, strengthen political institutions and make sure Iraq did not become more unstable again.”

One Illinois Senator Tells the Other to Step Down
“Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, met privately Tuesday with the state’s junior senator, Roland W. Burris, to suggest that he resign but was rebuffed, Mr. Durbin said.

“He said he would not resign, and that was his conclusion,” Mr. Durbin said. He said Mr. Burris, who recently acknowledged that he had tried to raise money for former Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich before being appointed to fill the seat vacated by President Obama, also said he had not made up his mind about seeking election in 2010. Mr. Durbin told him it would be “extremely difficult for him to be successful in a primary or general election under the circumstances.””

Obama hopes its 3rd time lucky for Commerce
“Maybe the third time will be the charm. President Barack Obama can only hope.

On Wednesday, he named former Washington Gov. Gary Locke as his commerce secretary on Wednesday after his top two choices for the post fell through.”

• 

Obama pitching a broad economic case
“Barreling ahead on a mammoth agenda, Barack Obama is ready to offer a detailed sketch of the first year of his presidency, casting the nation’s bleeding economy as a tangle of tough, neglected problems.

In a prime-time speech from the House of Representatives, Obama will make his case Tuesday that much more has to be done to turn around the economy — a message he knows he must explain.”

U.S. Clears Path to Bank Takeovers
“The Obama administration yesterday revamped the terms of its emergency aid to troubled financial firms, setting a course that could culminate with the government nationalizing some of the country’s largest banks by taking a controlling ownership stake.

Administration officials said the change, which allows banks to repay the government with common stock rather than cash, is intended to give banks more capital to withstand a continued deterioration of the economy, and not to nationalize the banking system.

But in seeking to bolster investor confidence in troubled companies such as Citigroup, the government said it is willing to acquire large chunks of their shares.”

U.S. to Give $900 Million in Gaza Aid, Officials Say
“The Obama administration intends to provide some $900 million to help rebuild Gaza after the Israeli incursion that ended last month, administration officials said Monday.

In an early sign of how the administration plans to deal with Hamas, the militant Islamist group that controls Gaza, an official said that the aid would not go to Hamas but that it would be funneled through nongovernmental organizations.”

•