Obey also said (0.00 / 0)

"I would not be surprised to see us go further on some of these programs down the line."

and that

"[people should not view the package] as a salvation for the economy [but rather] the largest effort by any legislative body on the planet to try to take government action to prevent economic catastrophe."

-Roll Call

Now I agree that it should be bigger from the start. It sounds like Representative Oberstar has a number of infrastructure projects that are ready to go that were not included and Im sure some other investments could be increased.

But it sounds like Obey is saying this is a major effort that will likely be expanded down the road. Just because something wasn't included in the stimulus doesn't mean it won't be funded at all. I would guess there will be significant further investments in transportation and alternative energy infrastructure in the near future.

Also as far as FDR goes, wasn't he known for experimenting to see what worked? It seems to me that if an $850 billion package shows some signs of working but not doing enough, Obama and the Democrats in Congress could have a solid justification to fund a second round of those areas that worked best. Now if a $1.3 trillion plan barely passes to begin with and does not produce the expected results, it will be much harder to justify doing the same thing down the road.

"Never separate the life you live from the words you speak" -Paul Wellstone

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by: DFLer @ Thu Jan 15, 2009 at 19:02:17 PM CST

FDR had some room to experiment (4.00 / 1)

Does Obama? In a very different media environment and when Obama has - I believe - smaller majorities in Congress?

I also wonder how likely a second stimulus will be. Obama's probably only going to get one bite at this apple. Republicans and Blue Dogs will put up a huge fight if another one is attempted, whereas they're likely to roll over now.

There is every reason for Obama to get it right this time - and hardly anyone seems to think this plan gets it right.

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by: Robert in Monterey @ Thu Jan 15, 2009 at 22:10:02 PM CST

[ Parent ]

CFA action you linked to is quite weak (0.00 / 0)

The Campaign For America email action which you linked to in your post is not really consistent with the points you made in regarding the inadequacy of Obama's plan. The CFA action basically says that congresspeople should support Obama's plan.

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by: larryca @ Thu Jan 15, 2009 at 19:16:47 PM CST

making corps pay their taxes might be a start, no? (0.00 / 0)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

A majority of America's largest publicly traded companies and the U.S. government's largest federal contractors -- including some receiving millions in federal bailout money -- use multiple subsidiaries in offshore tax havens to conduct business and avoid paying U.S. taxes, a new report finds.

The new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, released today by Sens. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), lists Citigroup and Morgan Stanley as having set up hundreds of tax haven subsidiaries, along with American International Group and Bank of America. Also in the tax-haven list are well-known companies and such federal contractors as American Express, Pepsi and Caterpillar.

GAO, searching publicly available data filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, determined that 83 of the 100 largest publicly traded corporations and 63 of the 100 largest federal contractors maintain subsidiaries in countries generally considered havens for avoiding taxes. Dorgan and Levin said they requested the updated report from one several years ago because they are focused on combating offshore tax abuses, which they estimated cause $100 billion in lost U.S. tax revenue each year.  ...

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by: amberglow @ Fri Jan 16, 2009 at 15:20:15 PM CST