House Majority Leader open to second stimulus bill

[OnePimpTiger]

House Majority Leader open to second stimulus bill

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...

...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.

What is this guy smoking...and where can I find some?

[Star_Cards]

I'd support it only if if came in the form of an income tax holiday. However, the politicians would never use a trickle up type of stimulus. That takes all the power of spending that money out of their hands. How else will they get more favors and more political donations when they can't force legislation to benefit specific groups???

[OnePimpTiger]

Good point...I could be in favor of a stimulus bill if it involved tax cuts, tax holidays, tax breaks on certain income, etc. But as you mentioned, the government won't let us decide how to spend our money, they think they can do a better job of it...and we see how that has worked out.

[tutall]

I agree.. if it gave something back to the people who were working and paying in i would maybe be for it... but making false jobs out of thin air and giving money to pet projects that will get us no where will just leave us in much worse shape...

The last stimulus was enough to give each homeowner roughly 26K.... I think a better solution would have been to take 16K and apply it towards each mortgage and put the other 10K in a fund to use for home repairs or making your home better... How would we regulate that... we wouldnt per se but if you put that thought in peoples mind in my opinion it would have got homes back from upside down a little and put money in the banks through the paying down the mortgages and loosening up some credit.