House Majority Leader open to second stimulus bill
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/05/19/art.stenyhoyer2.gi.jpg caption="Steny Hoyer said Tuesday that he would be open to a second stimulus bill but thinks the first bill needs to be given more time to be judged."]WASHINGTON (CNN) - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday he would consider supporting a second economic stimulus bill, but said people need to give the package that passed in February more time to work.
The second-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives said Republican complaints that the nearly $800 billion measure has failed to boost the U.S. economy are premature.
"Certainly, I don't think we can make a determination as to whether or not that's been successful - certainly as successful as we want it to be, certainly not as quickly as we want it to be," Hoyer, of Maryland, told reporters. But he added, "I think we need to be open to whether or not we need additional action."
Hoyer said it was too soon to say the February stimulus bill - which passed without a single GOP vote in the House and only three in the Senate - is not working. He said job losses have "substantially decreased" in recent months, and that the recovery package has prevented many people from being laid off from their jobs.
"In fact, we believe it is working," he said.
No legislation has been put forward so far.
In pushing for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Obama administration said it would be paid out quickly to save or create 750,000 jobs by early August. Without it, administration officials argued, unemployment could top 9 percent by 2010.
Federal jobless numbers already have overshot expectations, rising to 9.5 percent in June. Many leading Republicans say the measure has been a waste of money, while some economists - like Nobel Prize winner and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman - argue the original measure was too small.
Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged Sunday that the administration "misread how bad the economy was," but he told ABC's "This Week" that the pace of the program would be increasing.
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@Mike in MN July 7th, 2009 4:55 pm ET
I love how the right blames the left for ruining the economy and then forgets that it was their guy who got us into the current predicament…
***
Ummm ... Barney Frank is a Democrat...
Dem til death,
At our current pace, days of reckoning are coming and they will not be happy ones for fans of this administration. At the rate we are going, you are gonna have to stay in a blue state full time in the future. Otherwise, someone is gonna prove you correct about that handle.
(panem et circenses July 7th, 2009 4:49 pm ET
This is good news. It is now becoming PAINFULLY obvious that the liberals have NO FREAKING CLUE how to run a country.)
Typical GOP response. It's great that the country is tanking just as long as it's the Democrats fault. Boy, what patriotism.
This time a stimulus bill should be passed with a progressive tax increase added to restore the tax rates to 1960 levels.
A stimulus bill should also include a reversal of the foreign investment tax credit that rewarded rich people that wanted to take advantage of cheap labor abroad. It's high time that we recognize that bloated executive/management compensation is the main cause of the failure of American product sales and no recovery can truly occur until we change our tax system to correct this failure.
There is almost no way of confirming jobs saved or gained by the stimulus. Any talk otherwise is just hot air. What we can do is count the direct jobs being effected by the stimulus as well as documenting what has or hasn't been accomplished so far. We can also debate what can or can't be done differently. We all should know that things were going to get worse before they get better.
What is more important then all of this is determining why we got in the position we did and take action to make sure it doesn't happen again. We have not done a good job with that so far.
Does this come as a surprise, the first Obama effort although costing close to $1 trillion is the failure the republicans said it would be and so the libs, thinking the only way they know how are ready to throw another trilliion of working peoples money at George Soros, ACORN and the unions. These people are such evil, disgusting hypocrites. Support your local TEA parties and lets get these criminals in jail.
Bring back bobby lee and the army of northern virginia..and no you foolish leftist weenies.mthe civil war DID NOT start over slavery..it started over the federal government telling the states what to do..READ the constitution hoyer and pelosi..closer than you read the porkukus bill..I have an idea obama..buy a house in moscow..you will fit right in over there
Are these guys crazy???? I actually think they are. Absolute power corrupts absolutely!
If you want to visualize where the current federal government spending policies are taking us you need to look no further than California.
Larry – You just depicted the scenario INHERITED by Obama, because if you trully believe that 1 to 11 happened in the past 6/7 months... get back to your meds.
Ok, no name calling or insinuations...
The point is that you depicted many of the problems that were thrown on the President's lap the moment he became a president, because they existed BEFORE he was the president. Wether it was him, McCain or Ross Perot (was he in the ballot?) or that R Paul (the Libertarian dude) it would not matter, those problems would be there awaiting for the next guy in charge to face them.
And he is facing them.
As for a 2nd stimulus bill... MAN this guy is nuts! The ammount used from the first (and last) bill so far is about 16%. Spend, wisely, the whole 100% of the money or at least half of it (which would be a good time to realize that you might or might not going to need another bill) before you start to ask for more.
Spending more money on what? This isn't stimulating anything but creating a bigger deficit.
Maybe we can all apply for jobs at the treasury to help print all the counterfiet money they are printing.
The tax payers still have money? Lets spend it quick, before they wake up.