Obama warns of catastrophe if Congress not to act by passing the economic stimulus bill

 2009-02-06 06:12:32  

·Obama warned economic crisis might "turn into catastrophe" if congress does not act. ·Obama also signed to see changes of the package to gain the Republicans' support. ·"If nothing is done, this recession might linger for years," he warned.

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) --

U.S. President Barack Obama warned on Thursday that the current economic crisis might "turn into catastrophe" if the congress does not approve his massive stimulus package immediately.

    "Crisis could turn into catastrophe for families and businesses across the country, and I refuse to let that happen," said Obama at the Department of Energy.

    He called on lawmakers "to rise to this moment."

    "Inaction is not an option that is acceptable to me, and it's certainly not acceptable to the American people, not on energy, not on the economy, not at this critical moment," warned the president.

    He also signed to see changes of the package to gain the Republicans' support.

    "No plan's percent. There have been constructive changes made to this one over the last several weeks. I would love to see additional improvements today," said Obama.

    In an opinion article published in The Washington Post, Obama once again urged Congress to approve the economic stimulus plan quickly, warning that the country could sink into a deeper and long-lasting recession.

    "What Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives -- action that's swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis," Obama noted.

    "If nothing is done, this recession might linger for years," he warned. "Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not able to reverse." 

Obama stresses need for economic stimulus bill to avoid long-lasting recession

2009-02-06 02:29:03  

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) --

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday once again urged Congress to approve the economic stimulus plan quickly, warning that the country could sink into a deeper and long-lasting recession.

    "What Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives -- action that's swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis," Obama noted in an opinion article published by the Washington Post.

    The president argued that each day without his stimulus package, more people lose their jobs, savings and homes.

    "If nothing is done, this recession might linger for years," he said. "Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not able to reverse."

    "That's why I feel such a sense of urgency about the recovery plan before Congress," Obama wrote in the newspaper piece titled "The Action Americans Need."

    With the plan, the president said, "we will create or save more than 3 million jobs over the next two years, provide immediate tax relief to 95 percent of American workers, ignite spending by businesses and consumers alike, and take steps to strengthen our country for years to come."

    Obama pointed out that the plan is "more than a prescription for short-term spending -- it's a strategy for America's long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, health care and education."

    The U.S. House of Representatives on Jan. 28 approved an 819-billion-dollar stimulus plan backed by the president and Democrats, sending it to the Senate.

    In the Senate, the huge bill has been growing even larger. The addition of a new tax break for homebuyers on Wednesday sent the price tag well past 900 billion dollars.

    Senate Republicans, however, have persisted in their efforts to reduce government spending in the plan, to add tax cuts and reduce the cost of mortgages for millions of homeowners.

    In his article, Obama asked the lawmakers to "place good ideas ahead of old ideological battles" and "act boldly to turn crisis into opportunity."

    Senate Democratic leaders hope that the plan can get approval and be sent to the president to sign before mid February. 

Editor: Mu Xuequan

Hurdles ahead for stimulus plan test Obama's political wisdom

2009-02-05 22:55:01  

    by Xinhua writer Liu Si

    BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) --

Approval of his massive stimulus package is no doubt a key priority of U.S. President Barrack Obama in his first days in office, but a seesawing debate in the Senate over the plan remains a headache for him.

    The Senate, which began debate on the roughly 900-billion-dollar stimulus plan on Monday, continued the battle Wednesday as Republicans sought to prevent the massive stimulus bill from becoming a Democratic spending measure.

    Challenges on how to defuse differences between the Republican and the Democrats in order to achieve a quick passage of his plan remain for the new president.

    Democrats hold 58 of the 100 seats in the Senate but they will need at least two Republican votes to avoid any procedural roadblocks that could stymie the stimulus measure.

    Senate Democratic leaders have conceded that they do not have enough votes to pass the stimulus bill as currently written and said that to gain bipartisan backing, they will seek to cut some of the measure's provisions in order to gain GOP support.

    "A number of Democrats have said they want to see changes to the bill before they vote for it," Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin said.

    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said late Tuesday that "with a little bit of luck" the Senate could finish its version this week.

    Congressional budget analysts estimate that the Senate version would cost 884.5 billion dollars over 10 years, a significant increase from the House version of 819 billion dollars.

    The Senate measure includes 325 billion dollars in tax breaks and 560 billion dollars in direct spending to spur the economy by putting more money in the hands of consumers, encouraging businesses to save or create jobs, and funding infrastructure projects to boost employment.

    The House measure combines roughly 275 billion dollars in temporary tax cuts for both individuals and businesses. It also includes about 544 billion dollars for job-creating investment projects, health industry improvements, expanded aid for the poor and unemployed, and improving education.

    From a Republican point of view, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said: "There's plenty of room to cut in this bill. It's time we started doing some of it."

    McConnell stressed earlier this week that Republicans do not want to block the bill but modifications were needed.

    During the wrestling between Republicans and Democrats, the president made strong efforts to win an early passage of his plan.

    On Wednesday, he urged Congress to quickly approve the measure as Senate Democrats were likely to make compromise to gain GOP support.

    "No plan is perfect, and we should work to make it stronger," he said.

    He warned that failure to pass the plan would turn the current crisis into a "catastrophe."

    To gain GOP support, Obama on Wednesday invited some centrist senators to the White House to discuss the stimulus package.

    On Tuesday, Obama accepted interviews with all five major U.S. television news outlets -- ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox News, in a move to seek public support.

    Obama also spoke by phone with some GOP governors who are supporting the economic recovery plan being considered by Congress.

    On Monday, the president sent his first political e-mail to his13 million supporters, urging them to "spread the word and build support" for the economic stimulus plan.

    Reid said that he hopes to complete debate on the measure by the end of the week.

    That would give House and Senate negotiators a week to reconcile the two measures before a Feb. 13 deadline set by Congressional leaders for sending a final bill to Obama, according to the U.S. media.

    As time is pressing, it will test Obama's political wisdom to win support from Republicans in the Senate. Thus for the Obama administration, necessary additions or changes on the economic stimulus package to win support from the Republicans may lead to a quick passage.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

Obama imposes $500,000 cap on executive pay in bailouts

2009-02-05 00:30:25  

·Pay cap of $500,000 was imposed for executives at companies that get bailout money. ·It could force executives to accept deep reductions in their current pay. ·Obama urged the Congress to quickly approve the massive stimulus package.

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) --

The Obama administration on Wednesday imposed a pay cap of 500,000 U.S. dollars for top executives at companies that receive the government bailout money to weather the current financial crisis.

    The new rule came out amid rising public fury about huge pay packages for executives at financial companies being propped up by federal tax dollars.

    Obama slammed the extravagant bonuses for some Wall Street executives as "shameful," noting it was a "culture of narrow self-interest and short-term gain."

    "What gets people upset, and rightfully so, are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers," said Obama.

    Executives would also be prohibited from receiving any bonuses above their base pay, except for normal stock dividends. But the cap on executive pay would not apply to banks in good financial shape that receive federal assistance, according to some U.S. media.

    The new rule would be far tougher than any restrictions imposed during the Bush administration, and it could force executives to accept deep reductions in their current pay.

    Meanwhile, Obama urged the Congress to quickly approve the massive stimulus package he proposed to save the sagging U.S. economy.

    "No plan is perfect, and we should work to make it stronger," he said. "Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the essential. Let's show people all over our country who are looking for leadership in this difficult time that we are equal to the task."

    The president warned that failure of the package may turn the current crisis into a "catastrophe."

    "A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession, a less robust recovery, and a more uncertain future," he said.

    "That's why I feel such a sense of urgency about the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan," he added, referring to the over-800-billion-dollar stimulus package.

Obama seeks action as parties try to pare stimulus

By DAVID ESPO AP Special Correspondent

Feb 5, 2009, 7:51 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) --

Senate moderates worked to cut billions of dollars from economic stimulus legislation Thursday in hopes of clearing the way for passage as the government spit out grim new jobless figures and President Barack Obama warned of more bad news ahead. With partisan tensions rising, several Republican attempts to remake the bill - with higher tax cuts, lower spending and relief for homeowners - failed on party-line votes.

"The time for talk is over. The time for action is now," declared Obama as the Senate plodded through a fourth day of debate on the legislation at the heart of his economic recovery plan. He implored lawmakers in both parties to "rise to this moment."

Obama added he would "love to see additional improvements" in the bill, a gesture to the moderates from both parties who were at work trying to trim the $920 billion price tag.

Increasingly, the events that mattered most were not the long roll calls on the Senate floor, but the private conversations in which the White House and Democratic leaders sought - either with the support of a large group of centrist lawmakers or without them - to clear the bill at the heart of the president's recovery program.

"As I have explained to people in that group, they cannot hold the president of the United States hostage," said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "If they think they're going to rewrite this bill and Barack Obama is going to walk away from what he is trying to do for the American people, they've got another thought coming."

Republicans countered that neither the president nor Democratic congressional leaders have been willing to seek common ground on the first major bill of the new administration.

"We're not having meaningful negotiations. ... It's a bad way to start," said Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who was Obama's opponent in last fall's presidential campaign.

In an Associated Press interview, he said Obama "gave the Democrats the leeway to basically shut out Republicans starting with the House and now here in the Senate, and I don't think that's good."

McCain's penchant for working across party lines has irritated fellow Republicans in the past, but he was not taking part in bipartisan talks on trimming the stimulus bill.

Instead, he advanced an alternative that highlighted the differences between the two political parties.

It carried a price tag of $421 billion, less than half the White House-backed measure. The majority of that was in the form of a one-year cut in the payroll tax and reductions in the two lowest income tax brackets.

The proposal also included provisions to help the battered housing industry, including the $15,000 tax credit for home buyers that passed separately on Wednesday.

Another proposal, by Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., was designed to reduce mortgage rates to as low as 4 percent for millions of homeowners. It was defeated on a vote of 62-35.

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota was the third Republican to try. He proposed a stimulus consisting of tax cuts and unemployment benefits for laid-off workers, at a total cost of $440 billion, but lost, 60-37.

Nearly 20 senators from both parties met twice during the day and reviewed a list of possible cuts totaling nearly $80 billion. They included elimination of at least $40 billion in aid to the states, which have budget crises of their own, as well as $1.4 billion ticketed for the National Science Foundation.

There was no sign the group of self-appointed compromisers had agreed to support the reductions, but even if they had the numbers were far short of what some were looking for.

"The president made a strong case for a proposal that would be in the neighborhood of $800 billion," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who met with Obama at the White House on Wednesday.

Yet several hours later, Obama told reporters aboard Air Force One the legislation was already within range of what he wanted.

The legislation is a blend of federal spending and tax cuts that supporters say can create or preserve at least 3 million jobs. They cite the tax cuts for lower-income workers, as well as more money for jobless benefits, worker training, food stamps, health care, education and public works projects such as highways and mass transit.

Critics contend the bill is bloated with spending for items that won't create jobs, such as smoking prevention programs or efforts to combat a future pandemic flu outbreak.

And while polls show Obama is popular and the public supports recovery legislation, Republicans have maneuvered in the past several days to identify and ridicule relatively small items in the bill.

Whatever the public relations battle, Republicans have tried without success so far to reduce spending in the measure and were ready with additional attempts during the day.

The legislation is a key early test for Obama, who has been in office just two weeks and has made economic recovery his top priority.

His warnings have become increasingly dire, and in remarks to employees at the Department of Energy, he said, "Today, we learned that last week the number of new unemployment claims jumped - jumped to 626,000. Tomorrow, we're expecting another dismal jobs report on top of the 2.6 million jobs that we lost last year. We've lost 500,000 jobs each month for the last two months."

The new jobless claims were reported by the Labor Department, and the total was the highest since October 1982, when the economy was in a steep recession.

---

Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor and Ben Feller contributed to this story.