SEARCH
House Approves, Senate Republicans Block Economic Recovery Plan for Working Families |
|
The U.S. House voted strongly in favor of an economic recovery plan for working families this evening, with a 264-158 vote that included 41 Republican “yes” votes.
Earlier today, Senate Republicans thwarted a move to send a financial lifeline directly to Main Street today when they blocked a vote on a mirror version of the package. The bill would create jobs for rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, put money directly into the pockets of the long-term unemployed and helped states meet their growing financial crises.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney urged the Senate to work over the weekend to pass a recovery package.
It is an outrage that a minority of senators today blocked a broad-based economic recovery and job-creation program, even though a majority of senators voted to proceed. The Senate must work to pass this crucial program this weekend.
If an economic recovery package is agreed to before Congress adjourns, President Bush has said he will veto it.
But Sweeney warns in his statement:
Without a robust economic recovery plan for Main Street, Americans will not trust any financial bailout for Wall Street.
The 52-42 Senate vote in favor of the jobs and aid package fell short of the three-fifths majority needed to end a filibuster. It came while talks continued between congressional leaders and the White House on a Wall Street bailout that some economists say could end up costing as much as $1.8 trillion.
The price tag for the Senate economic stimulus package was $56 billion, and the House version provides $61 billion, almost all directly aiding working families and the jobless.
Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) were on their way to Oxford, Miss., for tonight’s presidential debate and did not vote on the bill. Obama has called for a second recovery package. But McCain, according to a Wall Street Journal report, is “skeptical of a second stimulus package.” The first stimulus package was passed by Congress and signed by Bush in February.
In letters to the Senate and House today, AFL-CIO Government Affairs Director Bill Samuel said:
Although some of the bailout proposals considered by Congress this week are better than others, they are all deeply troubling because they all propose spending hundreds of billions of dollars of the public’s money to bail out the very people and institutions who caused this crisis and were enriched by the bubble.
Any taxpayer bailout of Wall Street must be balanced with economic relief for ordinary Americans dealing with the economic consequences of Wall Street’s outrageous actions and the government’s own inaction.
Both the Senate and House stimulus packages call for a seven-week extension of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for jobless workers who exhaust their benefits—13 weeks in states with high unemployment. So far this year, the economy has shed more than 600,000 jobs, and more than 9.4 million workers are officially unemployed.
It is estimated that by the end of the year, some 1.1 million jobless workers will run out of both their regular UI benefits and the 13 weeks of extended benefits passed earlier this year.
The House package offers $32.4 billion for job-creating infrastructure projects, including bridge and highway repair, water an sewer projects, public transportation and school repair and more.
The House bill also includes $14 billion to help states pay their share of Medicaid costs.
In his letter, Samuel warns Congress:
The stakes at this time are enormous. If the Wall Street bailout plan ends up squandering hundreds of billions of dollars of the public’s money, the damage will not be limited to the financial system. As a nation, we must address the health care crisis, the infrastructure crisis, the energy and environmental crisis, and the jobs crisis. Our future and our children’s future depend on focusing our nation on these challenges in the real economy.
It is outrageous for President Bush to argue that we need $700 billion tomorrow to save the banks but it is “premature” to have another stimulus program for the real economy.
1 Comment
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Everybody including Organization Labopr separates the Wall Street economy FROM THE REAL ECONOMY. The real economy being the consumer economy that satisfies working peoples needs such as Food, clothing, affordable housing health care etc. If people were paid adequate wages we wouldn’t need a stimulus. We could afford to pay for our needs. If everbody had a decent job with decent benefits our needs would be met. Wall street dosen’t produce anythig but with all its financial maneuvring skims off most of the the money that the real economy produces. I am 86 years old and I rember the time when General Motors didn’t go to the bank for loans but had enough money to finance itself. Wall street is a parasite on our economy. Most of the money it loans out come from workers savings, pensions etc. anyway.