WASHINGTON The House of Representatives on Thursday approved a $447 billion bill that boosts funding for large swaths of the U.S. government and reflects the priorities of Democrats who control Congress and the White House.

The House approved the spending bill by a vote of 221 to 202 and sent it to the Senate, which must pass it by December 18 or extend a temporary measure to keep the government running.

No Republicans voted for the bill.

The bill funds dozens of government agencies and boosts spending for the priorities of President Barack Obama’s administration, such as building high-speed rail and beefing up oversight of financial markets.

It would boost lending programs for small businesses, which the administration has identified as a way to bring down the nation’s 10 percent unemployment rate, and allow auto dealerships that have been cut loose by General Motors and Chrysler to appeal the decision.

The bill also advances liberal social policies, reversing restrictions put in place by former President George W. Bush and his Republican allies.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama called for a major new burst of federal spending Tuesday, perhaps $150 billion or more, aiming to jolt the wobbly economy into a stronger recovery and reduce painfully persistent double-digit unemployment.

Despite Republican criticism concerning record federal deficits, Obama said the U.S. has had to “spend our way out of this recession” with so many people out of work but insisted he was still mindful of a need to confront soaring deficits. More than 7 million Americans have lost their jobs since the recession began two years ago, and the jobless rate stands at 10 percent, statistics Obama called “staggering.”

Congressional approval would be required for the new spending.

“We avoided the depression many feared,” Obama said in a speech at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. But he added, “Our work is far from done.”

It was the third time in a week the president had presided over a high-profile event on jobs, responding to rising pleas in Congress that he spend more time discussing unemployment as midterm election season draws near.

Obama proposed new spending for highway and bridge construction, for small business tax cuts and for retrofitting millions of homes to make them more energy-efficient. He said he wanted to extend economic stimulus programs to keep unemployment insurance from expiring for millions of out-of-work Americans and to help laid-off workers keep their health insurance. He proposed an additional $250 apiece in stimulus spending for seniors and veterans and aid to state and local governments to discourage them from laying off teachers, police officers and firefighters.

On Capitol Hill, estimates of a potential jobs bill range from $75 billion to $150 billion, said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House.

For the rest of this article please go here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091209/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_jobs

Face Forward Comments:

It defies all logic.  Other than creating another slush fund for the Democrats to run their pet projects out of, another “Stimulus Package” makes no sense.  Every lawmaker in America took heat from the “tax payers”over the first package.  It was in large part what kicked off the tea parties.  This is just another example of the government not listening to the people that are paying the bill.

Everyone has heard about the jobs saved or created that weren’t not really there.  One of the more famous ones was the Georgia district that claimed (in support of Obama) that it has saved 9 out of 5 jobs.  I guess they forgot to save the math teacher’s job.  So far, the cost of creating a single job is running about $250,000.

The Obama administration has spent around $217 billion of the stimulus funds.  The Republican party, which opposes another stimulus package, points out some of the wasteful pet project that have been funded by the Democratic controlled administration.  The money is still being accounted for but it looks like pure waste could run as high as 25%.  If you add the mismanagement and overspending on needed projects, the waste could run as high as 50 percent.

Here are just a few the more blatantly stupid projects uncovered

$5 million grant from the Department of Energy to create a geothermal energy system for the EMPTY Oak Ridge City Center shopping mall in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Penn State University received $1.57 million to search for fossils in Argentina

A liberal-leaning theater in Minnesota, In the Heart of the Beast, named after a famous quote by communist leader Che Guevara, received $100,000 for socially conscious puppet shows.

$6 million that went to the New York advertising firm Young & Republican to advertise the transition from analog to digital television. GOP lawmakers criticized the project for only creating three jobs.

$4.7 million that Lockheed Martin received to conduct advance research of supersonic jet travel

$2 million in stimulus funds that went to pay for new pipes to pump recycled water to the Sharp Park Golf Course, which the San Francisco City Council considered closing because of the threat it posed to the California red-legged frog.

$2 million in stimulus money went to build a replica railroad as a tourist attraction in Carson City, Nev.

 A dinner cruise company based in Chicago received nearly $1 million in funds to combat terrorism.

 Half a million dollars went to Arizona State University to study the genetic makeup of ants to determine distinctive roles in ant colonies;

$450,000 went to the University of Arizona to study the division of labor in ant colonies.

The State University of New York at Buffalo won $390,000 to study young adults who drink malt liquor and smoke marijuana.

The National Institutes of Health got $219,000 in funds to study whether female college students are more likely to “hook up” after drinking alcohol.

 The University of Hawaii collected $210,000 to study the learning patterns of honeybees

$700,000 went to help crab fishermen in Oregon recover lost crab pots.

If the government wants to create real jobs in America, it’s simple.  Do whatever it takes to get our manufacturing sector back, let us drill for oil and gas on our own lands, build nuclear plants and stop trying to hand over our sovereignty to the UN through the ridiculous cap and trade taxes that are being proposed.

GMAC, the financial lifeline for General Motors Co., Chrysler Group LLC and their dealer networks, is asking the U.S. Treasury for more federal aid beyond the $12.5 billion it’s already received, because it remains billions of dollars short of a capital reserve requirement all bank holding companies must meet.

The request, which is subject to ongoing negotiations, comes as GMAC is caught in a financial game of chicken with Chrysler Financial that could drive some large Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealers out of business or force them to sell their operations.

Chrysler Financial, which Treasury has demanded go out of business by the end of 2011, is asserting its first-lien rights on loans to Chrysler dealers. At the same time GMAC, due to its capital shortfall, has asked those same dealers to pay additional collateral on the vehicles they order from Chrysler Group. Many of those dealers borrowed $10 million or more to expand their showrooms, and can’t sell the property for anywhere near what they owe Chrysler Financial.

It’s unclear whether additional taxpayer aid to GMAC would alleviate that problem.

The government already owns 35% of GMAC as a result of the government-financed bankruptcy restructuring of General Motors. Additional government assistance could give taxpayers a majority stake and raise questions about the Obama administration’s statements that it doesn’t want to run auto companies. GMAC, which the Obama auto task force chose as the primary source of financing for both Chrysler and GM, must be healthy if either manufacturer is to sell enough cars to stem their declining market share and repay their own government loans.

For the rest of the story:

http://www.freep.com/article/20091028/BUSINESS01/91028022/1322/GMAC-may-get-3rd-helping-of-aid

Face Forward Comments:

You mean that cracker jack team of Union bosses and government appointed overseers have not been able to crack the profitability code yet?  Whoops, now that I think about it, has any government appointed overseer or any union boss ever cracked any profitability code anywhere?

Of course we are going to give the money to GM.  We gave money to fund a (foreign) car company that Al Gore invested in, so why wouldn’t we turn more money over to GM and the unions.

Everything about the GM deal is so crooked and full political payoffs it sickens me. Besides the American Tax Payer, stock holders, and former dealerships as the obvious looser in the deal, think about the people that have seen the value of their car drop because they were unlucky enough to have bought a GM….Imagine all of Hummer owners when they found out that the brand was going to China.  And my favorite, imagine all of those people that bought a Saturn.  The deal was done and Penske was going to buy the brand.  Then suddenly, after Saturn (GM) was able to move all of their old dead stock with Cash for Clunkers, the Penske deal is off.  Sorry if you already owned a Saturn.  How could you have known it was going so bad for GM.  But for those of you that bought after the car bailout, well, you already knew the government was involved so you really should have seen that one coming.

I know it is much to early to expect any kind of improvement given the economy, however do you really ever expect anything different from this company?  Isn’t this the way it will always be?  My answer; I expect no changes and for GM to be on the public dole for the rest of it’s existence.  It was already a bureaucratic nightmare and will be even more so now that no one there will be able to make a decision without presidential approval.  We all know his decision making process, dithering.

As for me, I am buying a Ford F-250 and hoping that GM and the rest of the politicans that bought them, go away

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

America Now Over 6 Million Jobs Shy of Administration’s Projections.  These are the same people that want to run helath care, control your salary, and tax you for your carbon usage?  You would have to be nuts to trust this administration.

The table below compares the White House’s February 2009 projection of the number of jobs that would be created by the 2009 stimulus law (through the end of 2010) with the actual change in state payroll employment through September 2009 (the latest figures available).  According to the data, 49 States and the District of Columbia have lost jobs since stimulus was enacted.  Only North Dakota has seen net job creation following the February 2009 stimulus.  While President Obama claimed the result of his stimulus bill would be the creation of 3.5 million jobs, the Nation has already lost a total of 2.7 million – a difference of 6.2 million jobs.  To see how stimulus has failed your state, see the table below.