Back in 2006, I was working on the state Senate campaign of our very own NYBri. One day, I was riding up to SD-41 from NYC with a volunteer and we began to discuss this Keith Olbermann guy. He had just started doing his now mostly unwatchable "special comments" and we both marveled at how truly odd, how so very American, actually, it was that the one guy on national television who seemed to have the guts to say that the Emperor truly had no clothes was a washed up sportscaster on what truly had to be his last chance in the bigs.
Tonight, I watched a comedian shame the entire profession of journalism. It reminded me very much of the afternoon back in the summer of 2004 when that same comedian appeared on the now defunct CNN show "Crossfire." That day, Jon Stewart went on national television, into the very lion's den of hacktacular political theater of the day, and utterly destroyed Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala with simple, unvarnished truth.
Stewart performed such a service to the nation again this evening, reminding professional clown Jim Cramer that:
What it feels like to us, and I'm speaking purely as a layman, it feels like we are capitalizing your adventure by our pensions and our hard earned (money) and that it is a game that you know, that you all know what is going on, but that you go on television as a financial network and pretend isn't happening... I gotta tell ya, ya know, I understand that you want to make finance entertaining, but it's not a f#&@cking game...and when I watch that...I can't tell you how angry that makes me. Because what it says to me is that you all know.
If there is any justice left in the world, Jim Cramer's career as a professional cheerleader for crooks is over and CNBC will have lost whatever last shred of credibility they may have had left.
The number of newly started foreclosure cases on Long Island jumped 54 percent last month from January, although the number of actual lender repossessions of homes continued to fall, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosures.
Long Island had 933 new cases - 607 in Suffolk and 326 in Nassau - compared with 606 in January, the report showed. The rate of new February cases shows Long Island is almost back to where it was a year ago, when lenders opened foreclosure proceedings on 999 homes, according to the data.
In total, Long Island's foreclosure-related filings, from auction notices to repossessions, grew by 26 percent last month from January, the company said. That was more than the nationwide average increase of almost 6 percent, RealtyTrac reported.
There are more than 45,000 homeless children in New York state and the number is likely to increase because of the deepening economic recession, according to a new study from the National Center on Family Homelessness released Tuesday.
At the same time, the state has only about 15,000 emergency shelter units available for homeless families. New York ranked 22nd out of 50 states in the number of homeless children.
An estimated 1.5 million children were homeless across the United States in 2008. This was the first time such a snapshot was taken since a 1999 report by the same group. The study found that 1 in 32 children in New York do not know where they will get their next meal. Health problems were much more pronounced for homeless children, compared to middle-income children in the state, particularly asthma, traumatic stress and emotional disturbance.
The racial breakdown for homeless children in the state was white (36 percent), Hispanic (31 percent), black (27 percent), Asian (6 percent) and Native American (0 percent).In addition, the report found that less than 25 percent of homeless children graduate from high school in New York.
"The numbers are growing exponentially higher," said David Rossetti, executive director of St. Paul's Center in Rensselaer, a homeless shelter for single mothers with children. The 19-bed facility is currently full and, as soon as a room becomes available, it is immediately filled.
Rossetti said the mortgage crisis has caused landlords into foreclosure on their rental properties, plunging more families with children into homelessness.
"These are often two-income working families, making minimum wage and living paycheck to paycheck," Rossetti said. "When the apartment gets foreclosed on, they're evicted and can't find another apartment they can afford."
And, if this story weren't bad enough, consider this. Across the nation, nearly 1 in every 7 houses or apartments are currently empty. No, really.
Across the nation, 19 million houses and apartments - nearly one out of every seven - are vacant, the highest percentage since the 1960s. But only about six million of those homes are for sale or for rent. That means millions more could still flood onto the market, depressing prices further.
The subject of broadband penetration is one we've been talking about for quite some time here at TAP. We tried our best to push Assemblyman Richard Brodsky's Telecom Reform Act and were supportive overall of Eliot Spitzer's broadband efforts as well. We've tried to point out that any plan to revitalize the upstate economy should absolutely incorporate broadband penetration as a large part of such a plan.
Those who have been reading this site for a while now know that many of us are in rural locales with limited, if any, broadband access. Many community members are on dial up even though they live in more urban settings.
There is a difference between available and accessible. In New York City, practically every household has at least one option for moderate-speed Internet service. Most have two: Time Warner and Cablevision connect to 98% of households and Verizon offers DSL to 87%.
Yet less than half of the city purchases the service. Broadband adoption rates in the Bronx rival those in rural America. Three quarters of low income households throughout the city do not have their own broadband connection. If you are a New Yorker reading this from your home, you are in a privileged minority.
Most efforts to address this problem focus on what's called "demand-side stimulation." That means trying to convince people to purchase a computer and an at-home broadband connection because, well, what crazy person wouldn't purchase an Internet connection when they could? The problem must be in the people who aren't on the Internet, rather than with the Internet itself. Of course, the people who have this idea all use the Internet every day and can't imagine life without it.
If we're going to make the Internet work for the other half of my city - and the other half of the country - we're going to have to ask the people who know the Internet's problems to help design the solutions.
Internet for Everyone has just launched a great series of videos titled "Five Days on the Digital Dirt Road" where they have traveled around the state of North Carolina. They've been talking to folks about their experiences and the many shortcomings of the broadband situation where they live. They are even organizing a Town Hall meeting that folks can attend in person or online.
This is one of the videos from NC, but I'm sure there are plenty of folks from around NY who can realte all too well to this man's experience.
I'd love to see such a campaign here in New York with Town Halls and the input of folks from across the Empire State. Maybe we could light a fire under the policy makers who continue to punt on this ever more important issue.
U.S. private sector job losses accelerated in February, according to a report by ADP Employer Services on Wednesday that came in worse than economists' expectations.
ADP said private employers cut 697,000 jobs in February versus a revised 614,000 jobs lost in January. The January job cuts were originally reported at 522,000.
It was the biggest job loss since the report's launch in 2001.
Economists had expected 610,000 private-sector job cuts in February, according to the median of 23 forecasts in a Reuters poll.
Lovely. Now, from the Times (with very cool interactive map):
What does the worst recession in a generation look like?
It is both deep and broad. Every state in the country, with the exception of a band stretching from the Dakotas down to Texas, is now shedding jobs at a rapid pace. And even that band has recently begun to suffer, because of the sharp fall in both oil and crop prices.
Unlike the last two recessions - earlier this decade and in the early 1990s - this one is causing much more job loss among the less educated than among college graduates. Those earlier recessions introduced the country to the concept of mass white-collar layoffs. The brunt of the layoffs in this recession is falling on construction workers, hotel workers, retail workers and others without a four-year degree.
The Great Recession of 2008 (and beyond) is hurting men more than women. It is hurting homeowners and investors more than renters or retirees who rely on Social Security checks. It is hurting Latinos more than any other ethnic group. A year ago, a greater share of Latinos held jobs than whites. Today, the two have switched places.
If the Great Recession, as some have called it, has a capital city, it is El Centro, Calif., due east of San Diego, in the desert of California's Inland Valley. El Centro has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, a depressionlike 22.6 percent.
Doesn't look like there's much reason for the Joads to go to California anymore.
Senator Schumer has finally realized that things have changed, perhaps permanently, and is saying so publicly. This is a good thing.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, who has raised millions in campaign dollars from Wall Street, had a stern message Monday for his one-time benefactors: your go-go days are over.
"Compensation will likely never return - and shouldn't - to the stratospheric levels that it reached," he said in his toughest comments to date on Wall Street's system of awarding giant bonuses to top executives.
But Schumer, the Senate's No. 3 Democrat, argued that new, tougher rules would actually boost confidence in Wall Street over the long-term.
"Going forward, strong regulation will cause money, business and jobs to come here and stay here," he told a Crain's NY Business breakfast.
The days of collecting absolutely absurd compensation completely divorced from any results are over. The sooner the Wizards of Wall St, many of whom are managing firms that now exist solely because of massive infusions of public money, realize that they'll never be able to take home billions for driving their companies and the global economy in to the ground, the better.
I'm glad to see that Senator Schumer gets this as well. Schumer's admission of this fact has to be the clearest indicator yet that the party is indeed over.
The U.S. economy was hitting on almost no cylinders in the fourth quarter, as gross domestic product fell at the fastest pace since 1982 on sharp declines in consumer spending, investment and exports, the government said Friday. GDP fell at a 6.2% seasonally adjusted annualized pace in the final three months of 2008, revised from the initial estimate of a 3.8% drop, the Commerce Department reported. It was the worst decline in GDP since a 6.4% decrease in the first quarter of 1982. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected a revision to a 5.5% decline. The revision showed inventory investment and exports were "substantially weaker" than first reported, the government said.
Like most parts of the country, New York's 20th District is concerned about the economy and specifically jobs. It stands to reason then that the two men running to replace Kirsten Gillibrand in that district would be stressing jobs and job creation. The problem is that one of them, Jim Tedisco, is making claims about his job creation record that are basically bunk. CBS 6 in Albany did a little fact checking. Their conclusion? Tedisco, a career politician, is largely full of it while Scott Murphy, a businessman, is delivering the goods.
We start our fact check with Jim Tedisco. The fine print under those 3,000 jobs that he takes credit for helping to create. Well S 6.863A and S.7721B, its state legislation that he voted for that created and later strengthened the Metroplex Authority. That brings new business to Schenectady County, three thousand is the total number of jobs Metroplex says it has created, I checked on that. But in talking to both sides, Democrats and Republicans who were there at the beginning they all agree that Tedisco didn't really have a lot to do with the actual creation of Metroplex. It was a project spearheaded by city, county and business leaders. The Tedisco campaign counters that Tedisco was and still is one of Metroplex's strongest supporters.
Now, I consider myself one of the "strongest supporters" of New York Giants. This does not mean I can claim any credit for Super Bowl XLII. Nice try, Jimmy Disco.
Now on to Scott Murphy. He says he helped create more than 1,000 jobs. Unlike Tedisco he gives no on-screen footnote to back up the claim so I asked the Murphy campaign for a breakdown of those jobs. They provided me with dozens of documents that showed New York State companies that show Murphy, and his company Advantage Capital provided capital to, to get up off the ground and running. Kionix, in Ithaca, 119 jobs created. PECO Pallet in Yonkers, 47 jobs created. Just a couple of examples. Murphy's signature is there on official State documents. Many of the investments were done through a state program called CAPCO to help small businesses in financially distressed areas. Now I also went one step further and I checked with some of those companies. One of them is the Golden Goal Lacrosse Park in Fort Anne, a corporate headquarters in New Jersey, they were indeed very familiar with Scott Murphy and immediately confirmed for me that he has helped them create jobs. I got the same story when I called that company Kionix in Ithaca.
Scott Murphy has created jobs in the real world, lots of them. Jim Tedisco has been a cheerleader on the sidelines for projects made real by others and is now trying to take credit for them. That's just a fact.
Which brings me to this. Given that newly minted RNC chair Michael Steele has made this race a top priority and even appeared personally with Tedisco recently said:
"You and I know that in the history of mankind and womankind, government-federal, state or local-has never created one job."
Which is it, Mr. Tedisco? How can Tedisco continue to claim that he's responsible for creating 3,000 jobs (a laughable claim disputed by both Democrats and Republicans) from his perch in Albany, a claim that is simply not borne out by the facts? How can Tedisco claim to be a job creator while in government when the leader of his own party claims with a straight face that "never in the history of mankind..." has government ever created a job. Jimmy's claim makes even less sense when one considers that Tedisco is running to join a Republican House caucus that, when faced with a rapidly deteriorating economy and accelerating job losses, voted en masse to do...nothing. Since Tedisco refuses to say whether he would have been the only Republican in the House to vote differently, I think it's fair to assume that he would have voted along with the rest of the do nothings.
Essentially, it all boils down to this. Scott Murphy has put his money where his mouth is, creating jobs, with real money, real investment and real risk, out in the real world. Jim Tedisco, a career politician in Albany has not. Period.
The number of U.S. workers continuing to claim jobless benefits notched a fresh record in the second week of February, Labor Department data showed on Thursday, while new claims for aid were the highest since 1982.
The number of people remaining on the benefits roll after drawing an initial week of assistance increased by 114,000 to a 5.112 million in the week ended Feb. 14, the most recent week for which data is available. The so-called continued claims topped every estimate in a Reuters poll of 15 economists, which had a consensus forecast of 5.00 million.
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits increased to a seasonally adjusted 667,000 in the week ended Feb. 21 from a revised 631,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said. It was the highest reading since October 1982, when claims reached 695,000.
The year-long U.S. recession has savaged the labor market and sent the unemployment rate soaring, with some economists fearing it will pierce 9 percent in 2009 from 7.6 percent in January and mount further next year.
The Senate Dems are preparing to conference the fair Share Tax Reform Act of 2009, a bill also known as the "Millionaire's Tax". It was introduced by Senator Schneiderman and had 18 total sponsors signed on in support.
Until now. It seems the bill has picked up two more sponsors ahead of tonight's meeting.
As the Senate Democrats prepare to conference the question of tax reform at 6 p.m. this evening, the so-called Fair Share bill being pushed by the WFP and its labor allies is gaining steam in both houses of the Legislature.
In the Senate, two more Democrats - Tom Duane and Martin Dilan - have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill, bringing the total number of supporters to 20, according to the WFP's Bill Lipton.
...
In the Assembly, a same-as bill is being carried by Assemblyman Darryl Towns, chairman of the 48-member Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, and Asian Legislative Caucus.
Towns introduced the bill earlier this week and has garnered the support of 30 of his colleagues.
"It's critically important that we solve the budget crisis through real shared sacrifice," Towns said in a statement relayed to me by a labor supporter of the bill. "Fair Share Tax Reform will make New York's tax code more equitable and will also raise revenue necessary to protect essential services."
The President will address a joint session of Congress and the nation tonight. The White House has just released this excerpt:
"While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.
"The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don't lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth. Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more."
Will you be watching tonight at 9? If so, will you be playing the newly created drinking game?
UPDATE: Many more excerpts, courtesy of the White House Media Affairs Office, in the extended entry.
You remember John Thain, don't you? He's the thoroughly odious former CEO of Merrill Lynch, the guy who spent $1.2 million bucks redecorating his office as he was laying off employees left and right and driving his once thriving company off the proverbial cliff. He's also the guy who decided to speed up Merill's bonus payment schedule so as to loot what was left of the company before its forced absorption by Bank of America, essentially stealing a whopping $4 billion dollars from you. He's a real piece of work.
Andrew Cuomol rightly decided to look into this naked larceny last month. Apparently, Thain and BoA have decided to tell our Atorney General to stuff it.
New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a motion Monday asking former Merrill Lynch Chief Executive John Thain to provide more information about bonuses paid out on the eve of the bank's merger with Bank of America last year.
Cuomo's office alleges that Thain is not answering the questions under instructions from Bank of America, and as a result, the bank is interfering with its investigation of the bonus payments.
In a deposition last week, Thain refused to answer questions about how the bonuses were determined for certain individuals, citing instructions from Bank of America attorneys.
...
Two weeks ago, Cuomo accused Merrill Lynch of "secretly" accelerating bonus payments last year and giving at least $1 million to each of nearly 700 employees, even as the brokerage was amassing billions of dollars in losses.
The bonuses stirred controversy because Merrill's bigger than expected loss prompted Bank of America to seek more government bailout money to complete the acquisition. The government agreed to give Bank of America an additional $20 billion in January to absorb Merrill, which Bank of America agreed to buy last September amid the credit crisis.
Cuomo's office is focusing on allegations that the timetable for the bonus approval was accelerated given the $15 billion fourth-quarter loss at Merrill, sources said.
Meet Aubretia Edick, Wal-Mart employee for 8 years, of Hudson, NY.
"I'll take a sandwich to work and that's about it," says Aubretia Edick, who is 58 and works in the pharmacy department of a Wal-Mart in Hudson, New York. "I drink a lot of tea. Once in a blue moon I'll go into Save-A-Lot and I'll get some meat. Eggs is kinda like a luxury kind of thing."
Edick first landed a $6.40-an-hour gig at Wal-Mart back in 2001, and over time her wages inched upward, reaching $10.50 last year. But with inflation factored in, it isn't that much better than when she first started. To make matters worse, while Edick was technically full time, her manager often slashed her hours due to the slowing economy. In mid-2008, she was grossing roughly $297 a week-$195 after taxes and deductions.
...
Edick's monthly take-home pay-about $800 at the time I visited-doesn't go far either. She lives in a tiny apartment with a broken stove and mostly empty fridge that barely works. Rent and utilities run about $450 a month; when it's cold outside, she often sets the thermostat to 50 degrees to lower her bill. Gas and car insurance cost another $160 or so, depending on prices at the pump. And then there are the doctor visits, covered only after a $1,000 deductible-plus medicines for a thyroid problem, chronic anxiety, and osteoporosis.
To balance the budget, Edick often skimps on food, some weeks spending little more than $10 on groceries, about one-quarter what the federal food stamp program calculates is needed for three "thrifty meals" a day. She patronizes the grimy discount stores whose prices run even lower than Wal-Mart's, and can tick off their notable sales going back for months. "I had some oranges," she recalls with a self-deprecating smile. "A couple of months ago, they had grapes on sale." And, "If it's less than three dollars for a package of six steaks, that looks like a good deal to me." (She tries not to think too hard about the quality of a 50-cent steak.) Her staples include PB&J, canned ham salad, soup: "I'll get chicken noodle or Campbell's Chunky. There's meat in there. You can pour it over noodles and put butter on it. It's like a delicacy."
...
For her part, Edick, unlike many Americans, hasn't resorted to handouts. (An estimated 28 million people were on food stamps as of last April, up from 17 million in 2000.) "There's times I'm hungry, and I'll look in the refrigerator for something-I'll find a snack pudding. Some leftover rice," Edick says softly. "I'm not starving or anything like that."
So Citigroup (C) has proposed that the US taxpayer and other preferred shareholders convert up to $75 billion of preferred stock into common stock, thus bolstering the company's tangible equity and putting it in less desperate need of a complete takeover.
And what will the US taxpayer get for this preferred stock conversion? 40% of the company for some of its $45 billion of preferred, say reports. The reports add that Citigroup's goal here is to keep the US's ownership under 50%, so this won't be a de facto nationalization.
Well, that's nice for Citigroup...and another ream-job for taxpayers.
Citigroup's common equity is currently worth $10 billion. If the US were to convert all $45 billion of its preferred at the current stock price, it should end up with 80% of the company, not 40%.
For the US to convert $45 billion of preferred to common and only get 40% of the company, Citigroup's existing common equity would have to be valued at $65 billion, not $10 billion, and the conversion price would have to be about $10 a share. Or the US would only be able to convert $4 billion of its $45 billion, which wouldn't help Citigroup's tangible equity ratio much.
So is that what Citigroup is trying to do here? Persuade the US goverment to convert to common stock at a price miles above the current trading price, screwing the US taxpayer yet again?
I'm not sure what exactly these two stories have to do with each other -- maybe nothing -- but, I think most people could look at these stories and come to the conclusion that something is most definitely wrong here.
It was just this past Sunday that we witnessed something rather odd on This Week. Republican Senator Lindsay Graham stated that, though he wasn't thrilled with the prospect, that nationalizing some banks should remain an option. Wingnut wonder Peter King agreed. It was then that Chuck Schumer disagreed and said, "I would not be for nationalizing. I don't think government is good at making these decisions." (He failed to mention that the bankers apparently suck pretty bad at such decisions as well.)
Today, the de facto temporary nationalization of at least a couple of the largest "zombie banks" seems increasingly likely. Bank of America and Citi seem to be the likeliest targets and their stock has lost about a quarter of its remaining value today, making the prospect of being temporarily seized even greater.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) believes that failed "zombie" banks, no matter what their size, should be taken over by the government, which should then wipe out shareholders, fire management, clean up the banks and quickly resell them into the marketplace. Such a move, he cautioned, should come only if the "stress tests" being conducted by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner determine a bank to be insolvent.
...
There is a good type of nationalization. I think that the [Treasury] Secretary was wise to do these stress tests," he said. "They're going to find some banks that are hopeless, that are zombie banks."
Those zombie banks, once discovered, he said, should be nationalized.
"Instead of keeping them alive for a long time," he said, "I do agree with people like Roubini or Mishkin -- and I think people would support this -- that the government should come in. And what the government would do would be: wipe out the shareholders, put in new management -- wipe out the old management and put in new management -- and then let the bank run sort of independently without day-to-day government intervention."
The fact that Schumer has turned the corner on this issue is pretty much the clearest signal one could possibly have that this is indeed going to happen. Given that today is Friday and the last day of the week is now becoming known as "bank failure Friday", it could happen sooner than most folks think.
The Progressive States Network is one of my favorite orgs. I mean, how can you not love an entity that describes itself thusly:
The Progressive States Network was founded in 2005 to drive public policy debates and change the political landscape in the United States by focusing on attainable, progressive state actions. PSN advances this agenda by providing coordinated research and strategic advocacy tools to forward-thinking state policymakers, legislative staff, and non-profit organizations. We function as a meeting space for progressive legislators, activists, and citizens, and serve as a hotbed of information exchange. We track legislation in all 50 states, helping to spark change across the country. We make it easier for people to learn more about how to get good ideas passed into law-and take power into their own hands.
They exist to empower state legislators across the country to make real progressive change. They produce great scholarship on policy, write model progressive legislation and are at the forefront of fostering real citizen participation in their own state governments. They are huge proponents of transparency and accountability. They also do wonders in the arena of enabling legislator to legislator communication across all 50 states. In short, they rock.
PROGRESSIVE STATES NETWORK LAUNCHES NEW INITIATIVE TO HELP STATE LEADERS IMPLEMENT RECOVERY ACT
New online hub will offer comprehensive resources to help state leaders meet the economic and political challenges of investing for recovery
Poised to receive billions in federal grant money amidst unprecedented budget shortfalls, state governments across the country face a host of difficult decisions over how to identify and allocate the resources they need to turn their ailing economies around. Amidst this daunting backdrop, Progressive States Network, in partnership with a broad coalition of advocacy organizations, today launched an initiative to assist state legislators in understanding funding guidelines and identifying progressive policy priorities as they move forward to implement the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
According to PSN Interim Executive Director Nathan Newman, "We stand at a historic crossroads where states can play an instrumental role in turning this country around. We want to make sure that state legislators and advocates have every possible resource at their disposal to introduce bold legislation that will not only help alleviate the current crisis, but also put our country on track toward sustainable and shared economic growth for years to come."
Central to the initiative is the announcement of an online resource hub at progressivestates.org/stimulus that will host policy guidelines, model legislation, information about where federal funding is being directed, and links to resource organizations in a host of key issue areas, including: transparency, unemployment insurance, infrastructure and transit, health care, clean energy, and increasing access to and adoption of broadband.
A quick perusal of what's available at the link reveals some really sharp and extremely valuable analysis and advice. It should mandatory reading for both lawmakers and staff as well interested citizens.
PSN will be hosting a call next Thursday that "will bring together progressive state legislators and policy experts from across the country to answer questions and share strategies for using the stimulus as an opportunity to effect lasting progressive change."
Kudos to the Progressive States Network. This is really great stuff.
In this down-the-rabbit-hole economy in which we live, it seems somehow strangely fitting to come from a meeting yesterday, where professors of the humanities were rousing themselves to call for bank nationalization after reading The Nation....
To stories about Alan Greenspan recommending nationalization of banks in The Financial Times:
The US government may have to nationalise some banks on a temporary basis to fix the financial system and restore the flow of credit, Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, has told the Financial Times.
In an interview, Mr Greenspan, who for decades was regarded as the high priest of laisser-faire capitalism, said nationalisation could be the least bad option left for policymakers.
"It may be necessary to temporarily nationalise some banks in order to facilitate a swift and orderly restructuring," he said. "I understand that once in a hundred years this is what you do."
Hey, are those 100-year bank events like the 100-year floods-- you know, happening every five years or so now that global climate change is kicking in? Good point made over at LOLFed-- that
Alan Greenspan has himself been alive for one hundred years, so this is why he would say such a thing.
So, hey, if big bad banks were nationalized, would their employees get big enough bonuses to keep NYS's tax revenues high enough to avoid draconian budget cuts?
Handing the new administration a big win, the House Friday passed President Barack Obama's $787 billion plan to resuscitate the economy.
The bill was passed 246-183 with no Republican help. It now goes to the Senate where a vote was possible late Friday to meet a deadline of passing the plan before a recess begins next week
.
All but seven Democrats voted for the bill - a 1,071 page, 8-inch-thick measure that combines $281 billion in tax cuts for individuals and businesses with more than a half-trillion dollars in government spending. The money would go for infrastructure, health care and help for cash-starved state governments, among scores of programs. Seniors would get a $250 bonus Social Security check.
Obama claims the plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs, but Republicans said it won't work because it has too little in tax cuts and spreads too much money around to everyday projects like computer upgrades for federal agencies.
Another way to put this, and it bothers me that this hasn't been more of a talking point, is that every Republican member of the House has just voted against the largest tax cut in history. Later today, all but two or three Republicans in the US Senate will follow suit.
The final version of the package comes in at $789 billion, which is less than the bills that passed both houses of Congress over the past week.
According to Sen. Schumer, New York will get a healthy cut of the package. The state will receive $12.6 billion in Medicaid funding spread out over the next nine quarters. Of those monies, $8.6 billion will go to the state, $2.8 billion will go to New York City, $929 million will go to the upstate counties and $292 million will go to Long Island. The Medicaid relief will go directly to the localities so they will see immediate benefits.
Usually, the federal government pays a percentage of the state's Medicaid costs. In New York's case, that percentage is 50 percent. But under the stimulus package, that percentage is closer to 60 percent. That means the state will have to put less money into Medicaid.
New York will also receive $2.7 billion in education funding, although this money is considered a "stabilization fund" and will be used to make up for cuts already made to education programs. There is no money for school construction in the bill, which was something included in the House package but taken out in the Senate deal. But there is $800 million for special education funding.
Schumer said that the Senate will start debating this package tonight and could vote on it as early as midnight. He did warn, however, that if a senator chooses to place a hold on the package, they won't be able to act on the bill for 36 hours. So at the latest, it won't be voted on until the weekend. Schumer added though that he didn't see anyone placing a hold on the bill.
So how good is this package? It's not perfect, Schumer argued. But it's good enough.
"We couldn't let the perfect get in the way of the very good," Schumer said.
Schumer complimented and thanked Governor Paterson for his role in lobbying senators and being a proponent of the package. Paterson reminded the media during the call that the state faces tough fiscal times ahead and that this bill doesn't mean we can sit back and relax.
"We have not found the bottom of the floor of the deficit," Paterson said, warning that there will still be cuts and there still will be action taken to address the state's growing deficit.
New York got a bigger piece of the pie than expected. There are a lot of benefits here. I'm awaiting the final summary of New York's part of the package. I should have that later.
There's been much whining and gnashing of teeth from the House GOP in recent days about how they have been excluded from deliberating on a bill that they couldn't muster a single, solitary vote for. House Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter sets the record straight.
As Chair of the House Rules Committee, I must clear up untruths regarding the economic recovery package.
We've heard a lot of noise across the aisle about how partisan the development of the bill was --- that Republicans were blocked from being involved. This is entirely false. In fact, this was one of the most open processes a bill this large has had in over a decade.
They are being disingenuous, or worse. These are the facts:
The bill, as it came to the Rules Committee, the last stop before the floor vote, already incorporated 12 Republican amendments. The Rules Committee then added the 11 amendments: 6 Democratic and 5 Republican, in addition to a complete Republican substitute, and a motion to recommit. They were unable to muster the votes necessary and lost on bipartisan votes. House Republicans may have come together to vote against the final bill, but they split on their own amendments with 40 to 60 Republicans voting with Democrats. Some Republicans even voted against their party’s alternative bill, and it failed on the floor.
Handing the new administration a big win, the House Friday passed President Barack Obama's $787 billion plan to resuscitate the economy.
