NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - President-elect Barack Obama is trying to rally Congress - and the public - around a two-year plan to create 3.7 million jobs and revive the economy.
No doubt about it, it will cost a lot. And economists from left and right are convinced it's what the country needs. But how much better off will we be by 2011?
Watch: Breaking down Obama's tax plan
The likely answer, unfortunately, doesn't involve a ticker-tape parade and a booming job market.
Obama's desire to create or save at least 3 million jobs is "a very concrete way of saying we want to ease as much of the pain as we can," said economist Christina Romer, a coauthor of the analysis and Obama's choice to head the Council of Economic Advisers, in a video address released this weekend.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - As lawmakers head into the second week of debate over President-elect Barack Obama's proposed economic stimulus plan, new details continue to shed light on what promises to be a sprawling and complex piece of legislation in American history.
Though many details are still lacking, the aim of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan is clear: rejuvenate the economy and create jobs by spending hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure, state budget relief, safety nets for the needy and tax cuts.
A recent analysis by Obama economic advisers Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein suggested that the proposed plan could save or create 3 million to 4 million jobs by the end of 2010.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Congressional Democrats were notified Friday afternoon by the White House that they could get a request soon for the remaining $350 billion of funds from that massive $700 billion financial bailout package, a Democratic leadership source confirms to CNN.
According to this Democratic source, who did not want to be named because no decisions have been made, Democratic leaders are not sure if the votes would be there to block President Bush from accessing the funds.
Although there is widespread criticism of the way the Bush administration has handled the rescue program, the source said that if President-elect Obama signs onto the Bush request, it may make it easier for Democrats to vote yes.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Barack Obama now says his plan to pump up the ailing economy could create or save three to four million jobs, more than the 2.6 million jobs the government says were lost last year.
In his weekly radio and YouTube address, the President-elect gave details on a report released by his transition team. The report details the types of jobs that would be created or saved by Obama's stimulus proposals, officially known as the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan."
"The report confirms that our plan will likely save or create three to four million jobs. Ninety percent of these jobs will be created in the private sector – the remaining 10 percent are mainly public sector jobs we save, like the teachers, police officers, firefighters and others who provide vital services in our communities," says the President-elect.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Top Obama aides Larry Summers and David Axelrod heard a barrage of criticism late Thursday about the stimulus plan at a closed-door meeting for all Democratic senators, according to several participants who spoke afterwards.
Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa said he was “concerned about the way Mr. Summers and others are going on this.” In particular, he dismissed the tax breaks for individuals as a return to “trickle down” economics that won’t work.
Harkin said the Obama aides were “non-committal” about whether they would change their plan.
(CNN) – CNN has been paging Dr. Gupta for years, but now it may the Obama administration who is calling. In the latest installment of CNN=Politics Daily, Jason Carroll talks about our resident neurosurgeon as a possible pick for surgeon general.
And: It’s a power lunch like none other. President Bush hosts President-elect Barack Obama, and three former presidents - George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter - Wednesday at the White House. CNN’s Elaine Quijano has the story on what the former chief executives may discuss during their elite and historic meeting in the Oval Office.
Plus: Roland Burris insists he is, by law, the junior senator of Illinois, but the recently appointed former state attorney general was turned away from the Senate door Tuesday. CNN’s Jeanne Moos takes a look at Tuesday’s antics - the “Burris circus.”
Finally: Get ready for the “T” word. If Barack Obama’s stimulus plan passes in the Congress, it could approach the trillion dollar mark. That’s more than the government spent on some major events in our nation’s history, including the construction of the atomic bomb, the race to put a man on the moon, and the New Deal during the Great Depression. But if the stimulus plan doesn’t work, what is Obama’s ‘Plan B’? CNN’s Jim Acosta reports.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN what he hopes to get out of the Senate and House bipartisan leadership meeting with Obama on Monday, after his appearance on ABC’s ‘This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
The most powerful Republican in the Senate wants the president-elect to give Republicans more of a voice in regards to the stimulus package. He proposed an immediate 10 percent tax cut for the middle-class, and financial help to states in the form of loans rather than grants.
“We ought to pass, in my view, an immediate tax relief for the middle class. This is something that I think there will be bipartisan agreement on. Currently the middle class tax rate is 25 percent. I think it ought to be brought down to 15.”
Regarding state assistance, the Kentucky senator proposed the same approach used in the financial rescue package to bail out financial institutions on the verge of bankruptcy.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – A new national poll suggests that most Americans favor an economic stimulus package even if it comes with an $800 billion price tag, but that support doesn't indicate that the public wants to see a new era of big government.
Fifty-six percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Tuesday said they favor the stimulus package that President-elect Barack Obama is proposing; 42 percent were opposed. Obama is pushing Congress to pass the plan soon after he's inaugurated on January 20, to help jump-start an economy mired in a deep recession.
The poll also indicates that two-thirds of the public thinks the stimulus package will do just that, with 17 percent saying it will help the economy a lot and another 50 percent feeling that it will help the economy somewhat. Twenty-one percent say the stimulus package won't help the economy very much and 10 percent say it won't help at all.
(CNN) – CNN has learned that Vice President-elect Joe Biden will chair a meeting of the transition team's top economic advisers on Tuesday, as the incoming administration ramps up its efforts to piece together an urgent economic recovery package and try to sell the expected $775 billion plan to Congress.
Two Democratic officials told CNN the meeting at the Washington transition headquarters will include Lawrence Summers, President-elect Barack Obama's pick to chair the National Economic Council, a key policymaking arm within the White House that will be charged with formulating the new administration's response to the financial crisis.
The fact that Biden is leading the meeting suggests the incoming Vice President will play a key role in helping to pass the stimulus package. That's significant because Biden's low profile in recent days has sparked speculation that he will be sidelined in the new administration, especially since his strongest asset - foreign policy - is going to be largely handled by Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton.
(CNN) – An Obama transition official says reports that the president-elect will release a stimulus plan with a trillion-dollar price tag are overblown, and that the actual figure being discussed is far smaller.
Some outside economists have pushed the trillion-dollar figure. One recent report suggested the transition team was working with an $850 billion plan. But this official describes the amount Obama advisors are currently considering as significantly lower than both.
Obama and his economic team met for four hours yesterday. They are still working on the package, which will not be announced before the president-elect returns from Hawaii later this month.
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