WPA Part I: We Work Again is a US government civic-minded film aimed specifically at the unemployed African American population in the wake of the Great Depression.
WPA Part II: A clip from a short government film about the the Works Progress Administration, one of the New Deal programs started during the Great Depression. This clip shows road, bridge, and airport construction, as well as water and sewer projects. Posted by David Burns for the Fasttrack American History Project.
Pres. Obama likely to endorse using bailout funds to create jobs, Gibbs says
President Obama is likely to endorse using a portion of the government's $700 billion financial bailout for a new jobs creation program during a speech about the economy next week, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Friday morning.
"The president thinks we should and must do everything in our power to create an environment for job growth and job creation," Gibbs said. When asked whether Obama will talk about the use of TARP funds on Tuesday, Gibbs said, "I think that's likely."
About $139 billion of the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP, remains unallocated and available to the administration. Banks have paid another $10 billion in interest and dividends to the Treasury and returned about $71 billion in aid, the Treasury reported in November. This week, Bank of America announced it would repay its $45 billion package.
As recently as this week, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has said he wants to dedicate much of the unspent TARP money to reduce the national debt. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) and other top Democrats have been crafting a jobs bill that would tap the bailout program. The size of the repayments from once shaky banks may make it possible to accomplish both goals.
White House officials would not provide details of the president's plans ahead of the speech. When asked whether the president endorses Pelosi's ideas to use a portion of the bailout money, Gibbs said: "It's certainly being looked at, yes."
Gibbs said the president is likely to talk about multiple ideas for job creation, some of which would require congressional approval. The Tuesday speech at the Brookings Institution follows a day-long jobs summit Thursday and a trip to Allentown, Pennsylvania on Friday to highlight the plight of workers. The unemployment rate is near a 26-year high, though the Labor Department reported Friday that the rate actually fell to 10 percent from 10.2 percent in November.
A senior Democratic aide said House Democrats are still mulling the shape of a jobs bill, but that its parameters came into sharper focus this week, particularly at a meeting of the rank-and-file on Thursday. The package is likely to include another extension of safety-net programs, such as unemployment insurance, health benefits for jobless workers and food stamps. Because those provisions respond to the economic downturn, they would be considered emergency spending, the aide said.
As soon as this month, House Democrats also hope to vote on a package targeted directly at job creation. That package, which would be financed with unused TARP money, could include as much as $70 billion in transportation and infrastructure projects, as well as new tax credits aimed at encouraging small businesses to hire new workers. Democrats are also considering additional aid to state governments, which face massive deficits over the next few years, to preserve public sector jobs and avert state tax hikes, which could hamper the economic recovery.
The aide said Pelosi has yet to decide the size of the overall package and how much of it would be paid for.
TARP remains hugely unpopular. Many lawmakers have decried the initiative -- proposed by the Bush administration and continued under Obama -- for using tax dollars to aid big financial firms that triggered the crisis in the first place. A firestorm erupted when the administration revealed that multimillion-dollar bonuses were being paid to executives of firms such as American International Group that got massive bailouts.
Some Republicans agree with Geithner's proposal to use the unspent funds for debt reduction. Other lawmakers want to kill the program altogether. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) introduced a bill that would end TARP altogether on Dec. 31.
The Treasury, however, is all but certain to extend TARP for another year since it is still in the process of rolling out programs to help community banks, small business lenders and homeowners who are struggling to keep up with their mortgage payments. The original legislation grants the Treasury secretary the power to extend the program until October of 2010, two years after TARP was signed into law.
Sources: Washington Post, MSNBC, Wikipedia, Youtube
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment