Big changes to Obama stimulus plan

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Emerging from a two-hour meeting in the Capitol with Obama advisers Lawrence Summers and Jason Furman, Senate Democrats praised the President-elect's team for agreeing to make changes to its stimulus proposal based off of concerns senators raised last week at a meeting with the president-elect’s senior aides.

The Obama team told about 35 Senate Democrats gathered at Sunday’s meeting that it would grow the size of an energy-tax incentive package and modify proposed tax credits for individuals and for businesses that hire new employees, according to meeting attendees.

...

“It’s very clear they’ve listened, they’ve heard and that they’re moving to respond,” said Sen. Kent Conrad, chairman of the Budget Committee, who questioned previously whether the tax credits in the stimulus package were enough to encourage new jobs. “It was very, very healthy. They’re not defensive, not arguing back, they’re listening, they’re attempting to hear and they’re responding.”

...

“I’m not frustrated at all,” said Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), a member of the Finance Committee who last week criticized Obama’s initial proposal to give companies a $3,000 tax credit for new hires. “I think they’re moving effectively to the issues that we raised the other day, and there are significant changes put in place and being contemplated in the next hours, they’ll be making some judgments with respect to a lot of that.”

Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) both said that Obama’s team signaled that their new proposal would double the funds dedicated to energy tax credits, to at least $20 billion.

“They’re moving in our direction,” Boxer said, adding that the Obama team assured Democrats that the money given to state governments would reach cities and counties suffering from budget shortfalls.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17335.html

[bhajishah 4]

Economy is worse and changed faster than we thought. so im sure the plan has to duck and punch with the rolling tide. hopefully he is quick on feet instead of just waiting for the crapz to hit the fan . (as we are use to cough past 8 yrs or so) I think we need to take the wheel barrow down to that white house and haul his azz out a fe days earlier. ####### cheney needs to become a carnival worker at the state fair or something.