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White House: No second stimulus being considered
President Barack Obama delivers remarks at Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana, August 29, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Jim Young
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House stressed on Thursday that no second economic stimulus package is being considered as part of new measures under review by President Barack Obama's team.
Obama said on Monday he and his advisers are discussing further tax cuts for businesses to help create jobs, as well as an extension of tax cuts for the middle class, rebuilding U.S. infrastructure and increasing investments in clean energy and research and development.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the business tax cuts could be potentially worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
"There have been a lot of reports and rumors on different options being considered -- many of which are incorrect," said White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage.
"The options under consideration build on measures the president has previously proposed, and we are not considering a second stimulus package. The president and his team are discussing several options, as they have been for months, and no final decisions have been made," she said.
Obama is expected to outline in the coming days and weeks several targeted initiatives to help spur the recovery and hopes Congress will approve them before stopping work to focus on November 2 elections.
Obama is to travel to Milwaukee to speak to a labor rally on Monday, the Labor Day holiday, and is to visit Cleveland on Wednesday. He is to hold a White House news conference on September 10.
Obama is under strong election-year pressure to increase U.S. job growth after an $814 billion stimulus plan he and his Democrats pushed through Congress in February 2009 saved or created millions of jobs but has not reduced the U.S. jobless rate of 9.5 percent.
Experts say a Labor Department report due on Friday could show an uptick in the U.S. jobless rate in August to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent in July. Obama is expected to comment on the figures on Friday.
The Washington Post reported that among the options under review by the Obama team are a temporary payroll tax holiday and a permanent extension of the research and development tax credit.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Alister Bull; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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You can also read this story as saying. Obama understands that his stimulus bill did not have the desired/promised effects on the economy. Quite the contrary, the deficit has many businesses and economist scared for what the future may hold. The stimulus failed and will not be repeated.
They’ve seen the train wreck in Massachusetts where costs have soared after that state’s comprehensive reform.
Insurance prices were supposed to stabilize and even fall. Instead they’ve SOARED beyond all other states and there is no end in sight. The loss of Kennedy’s vacant seat to a Republican tells that story in the clearest possible terms.
If you owned a small business would you hire right now? These business owners don’t even know if they’re going to be able to hold on to the employees they already have.
They, and large businesses too, aren’t going to turn loose of a single cent they don’t have to until they see, in actual practice, what costs are going to be associated with healthcare. Unfortunately that involves a wait of several years.
It’s all a first rate economic disaster courtesy of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid along with the rest of the Democrats who’ve taken a bad situation and made it inestimably worse.
Their smug attitude about their “success” on healthcare is in direct proportion to their mental, and yes emotional, vacuity.
In simpler terms: they’re stupid.
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How very Republican of them.
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