In Their Own Words: President Obama on the Stimulus
Rory Cooper /
Yesterday, President Barack Obama was interviewed by several cable and network news outlets on matters ranging from Tom Daschle to the Trillion Dollar Spending Bill. Below are some excerpts of what he said in those interviews, and why President Obama needs to visit readthestimulus.org as soon as possible, so he can learn why this Trillion Dollars would buy America nothing but debt.
“Now, keep in mind that our intention has always been that, in addition to this recovery and reinvestment package, that we’re also going to have a housing bill, that we have also got to fix the banking system, that we’re going to have to make sure that, for example, issues like executive compensation for banks that are getting money through the TARP, that that’s dealt with. So we’re moving on parallel tracks on a whole host of issues.” — President Obama to Chris Wallace (Fox News, 2/3/09)
- Most Americans have yet to be told that the Trillion Dollars currently being debated by Congress is just the tip of the iceberg. Current estimates on debated housing bailouts range from $300 billion to another $1 trillion. Add all of that to a possible $1 Trillion Omnibus Appropriations Bill that may be considered this month, and the FY’10 Budget, and we are already talking about $4 Trillion in Spending. Four Trillion Dollars.
“And most of the criticisms that have been leveled and, you know, that are — that you’ve heard on your show about various pet projects that members of Congress might have put in there, when you tally all those up, amount to less than one percent of the entire package.” — President Obama to Chris Wallace (Fox News, 2/3/09)
- Less than one percent of this bill is currently close to $9 billion, which in itself is staggering. NASA’s entire budget is $17 billion. Less than 15% of this bill goes towards infrastructure. This bill doubles the size of the Department of Education. This bill doubles the size of the Department of Energy. The argument isn’t over which 1% is wasteful, but which 1% we should leave in the bill.
“Not only does it stimulate the economy, but it gives families immediate relief.” — President Obama to Charlie Gibson (ABC News, 2/3/09)
- The alternative plan, the American Option, is the only bill under consideration that will provide families with immediate relief. In fact, under the American Option, disposable personal income for an average family of four would rise by $1,300 in 2009 and quickly rise to more than $4,500 by 2013.
“The AMT has been a problem. I think a lot of the public doesn’t know exactly what’s going on there, but because it wasn’t indexed inflation, you’ve got a tax that was originally targeted towards upper income Americans starting to hit middle class Americans. I want to protect the middle class, but I don’t want that to push out important investments and tax breaks for working families.” — President Obama to Charlie Gibson (ABC News, 2/3/09)
- On this point, President Obama is heading in the right direction. If the AMT isn’t repealed, over 24 million middle-class Americans would be hit with a tax raise in the next year. The American Option calls for a permanent repeal which will immediately provide relief to working families.