Obama pleads for $50 billion in state, local aid

[IndianaGreen]

Obama pleads for $50 billion in state, local aid

By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 13, 2010

President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid "massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters" and to support the still-fragile economic recovery.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Obama defended last year's huge economic stimulus package, saying it helped break the economy's freefall, but argued that more spending is urgent and unavoidable. "We must take these emergency measures," he wrote in an appeal aimed primarily at members of his own party.

The letter comes as rising concern about the national debt is undermining congressional support for additional spending to bolster the economy. Many economists say more spending could help bring down persistently high unemployment, but with Republicans making an issue of the record deficits run up during the recession, many Democratic lawmakers are eager to turn off the stimulus tap.

"I think there is spending fatigue," House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said recently. "It's tough in both houses to get votes."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/12/AR2010061204152.html?hpid=topnews

[freddie mertz]

1. k & R. And good for him! I hope they deliver on this one.

We are sliding into recession again, and fast.

Schools and other services very much under threat.

[IndianaGreen]

2. Steny Hoyer is useless as usual!

He is not Pelosi's man, that's fer sure.

[freddie mertz]

5. "Spending fatigue"?

Then stop the god-damned wars.

And raise some frakking taxes on the corporations.

[mzteris]

3. but I thought Obama hated teachers

and just wants to FIRE THEM ALL!!!

[freddie mertz]

6. Can't we just support this for once?

It is pleasant to be able to agree.

[mzteris]

20. I posted the request for education funding for teachers

several times.

Some of the "teachers" on DU are so entrenched in their "hate Obama" mindset they refuse to even consider they might be wrong about him. this is just another tool to abuse teachers in their book.

[freddie mertz]

21. Teachers have some good reasons not to be happy with the administration.

As a University teacher, I share their disappointment and anger with Sec. Duncan and the president's expressed support of mass firing of unionized teachers.

You can understand that, right?

But at the same time that I have serious doubts about their approach to education (not to mention unions!), I support him here, and am willing to say so.

It's nice to be able to, frankly.

[mzteris]

22. actually,

I disagree with the statement "expressed support of mass firing of unionized teachers" - it really is a matter of interpretation and I DO interpret it differently than the outrage expressed by a lot - but not all - teachers.

I also most vehemently disagree with the characterization of Obama and Duncan as "corporate sell-outs" who care nothing for children nor for education. While you - and they - may disagree - with their methodology (though really I don't comprehend why "yall" don't get it) - IMVHO, to paint Obama as a "child-hater" who wants to "destroy education" - is laughable and incomprehensible.

I don't hate traditional schools.
I don't support vouchers nor tax breaks.
I do support alternative forms of education.
I do support homeschooling.
I do support charter public schools. (I do not like the "for profit management companies that manage both TRADITIONAL and charter public schools. It should be noted, however, that those for-profit management companies "manage" only about 10% of all charter schools - around 500 altogether - and that percentage gets smaller every year.)

edit - removed a mistyping that completely changes the tenor of this post in the first sentce. Edited within seconds of posting.

[freddie mertz]

23. Well, I didn't say anything about child-hating of course. I support unions.

Goes back in my family four generations.

So that is where the line is for me.

Union-busting, mass-firing of unionized workers, including teachers?

Not good. Not the Democratic party as I have known and supported it.

PS: I do not support home schooling.

Send the truant officers.

Sorry.

[mzteris]

25. I support unions

I don't support when a union considers it's "own interest" above that of it's constituents, though.

And may I ask why you're against homeschooling?

[freddie mertz]

26. Not enough quality control. Can't fill the socializing function of a school....

With other students from different backgrounds.

I grew up Catholic in a Jewish neighborhood.

I also went to school in Britain for a year, and attended a racially integrated Middle School during the 1960s.

I got to know people of all backgrounds and religions, ethnicities, political persuasions.

I dated a girl whose dad had been in a Concentration Camp.

I have taught some very bright Home-Schooled University Students, and many of them seem to have significant gaps in their knowledge or experience.

I tend to think the more varied and different kinds of people you get to know, early on, the better.

I support public schooling, properly funded and managed.

[mzteris]

27. in my experience - and in the experience

of those who hs for reasons not related to religion -

you actually have MORE variety in your environment. You aren't stuffed into a classrrom of kids +/- 1 yr in age, etc. You have real interactions with real people, including adults, in all walks of life. You geget a "real world" education in addition to "book learning". You learn to manage your own time. To be curious and to follow that curiousity. You have the ability, the freedom to really dig deep into a subject and comprehend it in ways you can never even begin to in a "regular classroom".

Even if you have a "gap" in your knowledge, I can guarantee you that the hs student is better equipped to

A) realize that there IS something missing;
B) figure out what that something is;
C) go and find it out;
D) apply it to what they already know.

The kids I know - and there are - um - quite a few - are much better socially adjusted. Much more socially and politically liberal, too. Of course, they have better critical thinking skills! They're asked constantly, "what do you think?" not "can you color in the bubble for the correct answer"?


I support public schooling, too. Along with charter public schools. And other alternative educational models. One size does not fit all - and government bureaucracy has never been one to be flexible enough to meet the needs of the "non-average" person.

[freddie mertz]

28. My experience has been quite different.

And many of the HS students I have encountered are in fact products of profoundly limited religious HS situations.

I live in a very conservative part of the country.

[mzteris]

29. how many hs students?

And you admit you ARE in a "very conservative" part of the country - so you're probably seeing those who hs for "religious" reasons - and NOT Educational ones.

Believe me, there are VERY compelling reasons that some choose to homeschool. For some, sitting in a classroom would be like DEATH.

Please don't paint all hs'ers with the "they're all ignorant fundies" brush.

We have a hs'er group here on DU. they're pretty quiet, but I think you'll find that most are quite exceptional children who had no other viable choice.

[freddie mertz]

30. I take your point and shall try to look into it further.

I had an HS student some years ago who did not what party the president (then Bush) belonged to, and had never heard of Mao, Stalin, or Lenin, for starters.

This was a BRILLIANT student too.

Super big scientific brain.

Now an accomplished medical researcher.

Her parents were certifiable lunatics, however.

That is what I meant about standards....

[mzteris]

32. of course it may be that

even if the child had been in a "regular school" - they may still not have known the answers to those questions.

Sounds like they were pretty aspie and hyperpfocused on science. Anything outside of that realm probably didn't really exist for them.

OR it may be that if child had been in a "regular school" - it would have squelched that "big scientific brain" by insisting that knowing things like "what party", etc - just HAD TO BE DONE!


The parents were probably on the spectrum, too. Traditional public schools just do not work for spectrum kids - without substantial tweaking and investment on the part of teachers, parents, and admin. And even then, it has to be a pretty special damn school.

[freddie mertz]

33. Well, this was a particularly gifted young woman, from a truly weird upbringing.

Parents had them living in vans, joined a new cult every two years or so, then had to flee them for some reason.

Like some crazy film script you would never believe.

Maybe not the best HS model for evaluating the movement as a whole, I admit!

[DJ13]

4. "I think there is spending fatigue,"

Bullcrap.

Its election worries from spineless Democrats who are afraid of the tea baggers.

[IndianaGreen]

7. Herbert Hoover tried to cut spending, in the middle of the Depression

Today's GOP, tea baggers, and conserva Dems, are advocating Hoover's failed recipe for the Great Recession.

[DJ13]

8. Maybe the MIC wants to foster another depression?

The worse off the country is the better their chance to convince the desperate that war solves all our problems?

Or our Reps really are just ignorant.

(I pick #2)

[Hydra]

12. The depression was ordered

and perfectly timed. For what, we don't know yet.

[KansasVoter]

9. Out of control spending! That is the worry!

[IndianaGreen]

10. There is always money for wars and for Wall Street

There is hardly ever money to invest in the American people and in our crumbling infrastructure.

[Jamastiene]

11. K&R. More power to him. I hope he gets it too.

This is most definitely one thing you would never see a Republican president do.

[Hydra]

13. $50 Bill is a start

We need 100x that rolled back into America just to get the motor running again.

[Go2Peace]

14. Actually, 50 Billion at this timing would be a very helpful thing

It will not be good to have a mass of layoffs right as the economy is tetering. That is enough to keep many states on "life support". This is a very good idea.

[Hydra]

16. Sure

But how long to we want to do life support?

I suggest we fix the problem.

It would never happen, since this is deliberate, but just sayin'

[Go2Peace]

31. I agree, ultimately we have to get prosperity back in the hands of all people, not just the rich

[depakid]

15. Krugman July 2, 2009

O.K., Thursday’s jobs report settles it. We’re going to need a bigger stimulus. But does the president know that?

et’s do the math.

Since the recession began, the U.S. economy has lost 6 ½ million jobs — and as that grim employment report confirmed, it’s continuing to lose jobs at a rapid pace. Once you take into account the 100,000-plus new jobs that we need each month just to keep up with a growing population, we’re about 8 ½ million jobs in the hole.

And the deeper the hole gets, the harder it will be to dig ourselves out....

Wait — there’s more bad news: the fiscal crisis of the states. Unlike the federal government, states are required to run balanced budgets. And faced with a sharp drop in revenue, most states are preparing savage budget cuts, many of them at the expense of the most vulnerable. Aside from directly creating a great deal of misery, these cuts will depress the economy even further.

So what do we have to counter this scary prospect? We have the Obama stimulus plan, which aims to create 3 ½ million jobs by late next year. That’s much better than nothing, but it’s not remotely enough. And there doesn’t seem to be much else going on. Do you remember the administration’s plan to sharply reduce the rate of foreclosures, or its plan to get the banks lending again by taking toxic assets off their balance sheets? Neither do I.

All of this is depressingly familiar to anyone who has studied economic policy in the 1930s. Once again a Democratic president has pushed through job-creation policies that will mitigate the slump but aren’t aggressive enough to produce a full recovery. Once again much of the stimulus at the federal level is being undone by budget retrenchment at the state and local level.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/opinion/03krugman.html

depakid Tue Feb-10-09 09:15 PM

Nice job cutting federal revenue sharing out of the stimulus

Leave it to the Senate to find a way to muck up one of the better portions of the stimulus bill.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3729356&mesg_id=3731562

[butterfly77]

17. Hoyer is another bluedog...

[Jakes Progress]

18. That's what a good president does.

Shine the light on the need and shame the cruelty of the republicans and republican-democrats.

Fully supported.

[Bryn]

19. K&R

Thank you, Obama :applause:

[golfguru]

24. The pain of layoffs

should be shared equally by public & private employees.
If public employee's jobs are saved, how are private jobs
going to be saved also?

Why not split the stimulus money for both type of employees.