economic stimulus

Obama talks tough on the need for investment

“We can’t embrace the losing formula that says only tax cuts will work for every problem we face; that ignores critical challenges like our addiction to foreign oil, or the soaring cost of health care, or falling schools and crumbling bridges and roads and levees. I don’t care whether you’re driving a hybrid or an […]

Whose idiocy is worse?

Here's an exchange from Obama's interview on CBS the other night:

Couric: Sen. Mitch McConnell said over the weekend that surely you're privately embarrassed by some of the product that came out of the house version and let me just mention some of the spending in this package: $6.2 billion for home weatherization, $100 million for children to learn green construction, $50 million for port modernization water and wastewater infrastructure needs in Guam, $50 million for the NEA, the National Endowment for the Arts. Even if some of these are a legitimate use of taxpayer dollars, Mr. President, why are they included in this bill designed to jumpstart the economy and create jobs right now?

Obama: Lets take that example. I'm stunned that Mitch McConnell use this as an example.

Couric: We actually got these examples, so you can't necessarily blame him

Question: Which would be worse, that Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell thought those were hi-larious examples of non-job-creating uses of public money ... or that a major news organization like CBS thought so?

Discuss.

Obama's answer beneath the fold:

Senate centrists eye cuts to green items in stimulus bill

The Senate is currently voting on proposed amendments to the economic stimulus bill. The one amendment everyone has their eye on is an offering from centrist senators Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) that could cut as much as $100 billion in spending, including a large chuck of green funding. TPM has a draft […]

Will Barbara Boxer back a big increase in highway funding in the stimulus bill?

Transit advocates are irate at reports from Capitol Hill that Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, might support an increase to highway funding in the economic-stimulus bill. The news comes on the same day that Boxer unveiled a rough outline for climate legislation that she intends to push through […]