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Copper Catcher
Administrator
USA
2092 Posts |
 Posted - 07/04/2009 : 20:24:25
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The above picture is from USA Today Source: You must be logged in to see this link.
Notice the halo effect!!!
I can't help but shake my head and wonder what is coming next. If cap and trade passes we are all in for such a drastic change in the way we live it will be unbelievable. Look what has happened so far!!
ENACTS THROUGH LANDMARK STIMULUS PACKAGE
AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT
Less than a month in office, signs into law the $787 billion stimulus plan, the largest spending bill in the country's history. The package garners three Republican votes in the Senate, none in the House.
Major elements include infrastructure spending, expanded unemployment benefits, increased food stamps, aid to states to pay for Medicaid and tax breaks for individuals and businesses.
Estimates the bill will result in 3 million to 4 million jobs saved or created.
• Senate passes $787 billion economic recovery act
DEEPENS GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN BANKS
BANK BAILOUT
Secures release of the second half of $700 billion allocated for the Troubled Asset Relief Program before taking office. Announces broad outline of Financial Stability Plan in February, a revamp of how TARP money will be used. Offers outline on plan to buy toxic bank assets, then later reveals details on how its new public-private investment program (PPIP) will work. Conducts stress tests to assess big banks' ability to absorb losses if economic conditions worsen. Taps Fannie Mae CEO to oversee TARP.
• Treasury unveils 'bad asset' plan
• Bank bailout: What's in the plan
• Is the stress test stressful enough?
• Bailout tracker
LENDING
Launches $1 trillion program to increase lending to consumers and small businesses. Fed also begins buying Treasurys, driving down interest rates further.
• $1 trillion to boost lending
• To TALF or not to TALF?
REGULATION
Calls for establishment of a single regulator to manage risk in the financial markets and to regulate firms – both banks and non-banks - whose failure could be catastrophic for the economy.
• Geithner calls for new risk watchdog
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Holds meetings with G20, G7, IMF and World Bank to discuss how to coordinate efforts in combating economic and banking crises.
• Geithner: Economic decay easing
CREDIT CARD ISSUERS
In addition to the Federal Reserve and Congress, the White House presses credit card companies to adopt more consumer-friendly policies.
• Obama: Stamp out credit card abuses
EXECUTIVE PAY
Announces executive pay cap plan for companies receiving government bailout funding. The new rules will cap annual cash compensation at $500,000 for those CEOs. Still deciding whether to apply the rules to participants in the Fed's term asset lending facility (TALF).
• Bank bailout: What's in the plan
DEEPENS GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN OTHER COMPANIES
AIG
Offers insurer its third revamp of its bailout deal and commits another $30 billion to the company, bringing to $182 billion the total federal monies committed to the insurer since September 2008. Tries without much success to quell public outrage over $165 million in bonuses paid to AIG employees.
• AIG: Where your money is going
• War over AIG bonuses die down
• U.S. takes another crack at AIG
AUTOMAKERS
Appoints a task force to oversee the restructuring of the Big Three automakers. Taps autoworkers czar to help direct federal funds to those hardest hit by the industry's meltdown
Grants GM and Chrysler billions more in federal loans to stave off bankruptcy. Replaces GM CEO Rick Wagoner. Tries to broker a deal between Chrysler and Fiat and with the automakers' creditors and unions to avoid bankruptcy.
• GM goes for broke
• Chrysler wins union concessions
• Time running out on Chrysler
• Ford loses $1.4B
• Detroit's downfall
COMMITS TO MORE ACTION ON HOUSING
FORECLOSURE PREVENTION
Announces $75 billion Making Home Affordable Plan in February; six banks sign up to participate by April. The two-part plan calls for servicers to reduce monthly payments to no more than 31% of eligible borrowers' pre-tax income or to refinance eligible mortgages even if the homeowner has little or no equity. The plan also includes incentives for loan servicers to modify mortgages for at-risk borrowers.
• Obama launches mortgage rescue plan
FANNIE AND FREDDIE
To help reassure mortgage investors, doubles to $400 billion the money the government stands ready to commit to keep mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac solvent. Increases the size of their mortgage portfolios and amount of debt they may have outstanding.
• Fannie taps lifeline
• Freddie asks Treasury for $30.8 billion
• Fannie, Freddie to fund part of plan
PUTS FORTH FIRST BUDGET
SPENDING PLAN
Outlines budget request for 2010 that calls for $3.6 trillion in spending. Sells budget as one with two-pronged mission: reduce the $1 trillion-plus deficit he inherited to $533 billion by 2013 and make big investments in the future that can curb health care costs and make the country more energy efficient.
The $3.5 trillion budget resolution agreement from the House and Senate reflects most but not all of the president's major requests, but the agreement isn't expected to garner much Republican support.
Separately, commits to cutting $100 million in federal agency spending, a sum equal to 0.006% of this year's deficit.
• Obama unveils first budget
• Congress passes $3.5TR budget outline
• Reality check on Obama's deficit plan
• What cutting $100 million really means
PURSUES PROMISES ON TAXES
NEW TAX BREAKS
Two-year stimulus package includes Obama's signature campaign promise – the Making Work Pay tax credit, which returns to low-, middle and upper-middle-income workers $400 ($800 for couples) in their paychecks. President's budget request calls for provision to be made permanent.
• Stimulus: How it may affect your wallet
• Obama unveils first budget plan
EXPANDED TAX BREAKS
Stimulus package includes expanded credits for low-income workers and families with children. President's budget outline would make expansions permanent.
• Stimulus: How it may affect your wallet
• Obama unveils first budget plan
BUSH TAX CUTS
Calls for Bush tax cuts to be made permanent for everyone except high-income households, on which he wants to raise the top income tax rates in 2011.
• Tax fairness: Good luck with that
• Where taxes are headed
FUNDING FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM
Calls for health care reform to be deficit neutral. But meets resistance from Democrats and Republicans on his proposal to limit itemized deductions for high-income earners as a way to pay for health care reform.
• Health tax break: Sacrosanct no more
RAISE REVENUE
Creates a tax panel to find ways to raise revenue and to find ways to close corporate tax loopholes.
• Obama tax panel on treasure hunt
AIMS TO REFORM HEALTH CARE, EDUCATION, ENERGY
HEALTH CARE
Proposes $634 billion health care reform reserve fund. Democrats may move healthcare reform under a fast-track process called budget reconciliation. That means the Senate can pass it with a simple majority rather than the 60 needed to avoid filibuster. In essence, it could pass without Republican support.
• Health tax break: Sacrosanct no more
• Health crisis: 'A bankruptcy every 30 seconds'
EDUCATION
Increases in a key tax credit for college students in stimulus and proposes to make increase permanent in his budget. Calls for federal guaranteed student loan program to be replaced with an expansion of the Direct Loan Program. Stimulus package also includes funds for education infrastructure.
ENERGY
Signs directives on clean energy and includes several energy-related provisions in stimulus package. Directs the Environmental Protection Agency to review a California application to regulate greenhouse gases and calls for the establishment of a cap-and-trade system to control carbon emissions and to raise revenue for other initiatives.
• Obama budget would boost green spending
• Global warming vs. unemployment
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Kurr
1000+ Penny Miser Member
2906 Posts |
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Copper Catcher
Administrator
USA
2092 Posts |
Posted - 07/04/2009 : 20:34:06
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| Kurr...my wife leaves the room if I turn on Glenn Beck. It makes her worry so much she feels bad too hearing all the crazy things going on. |
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Country
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
3121 Posts |
Posted - 07/04/2009 : 20:40:21
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This weekend, our family will join millions of others in celebrating America. We will enjoy the glow of fireworks, the taste of barbeque, and the company of good friends. As we all celebrate this weekend, let's also remember the remarkable story that led to this day.
Two hundred and thirty-three years ago, our nation was born when a courageous group of patriots pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the proposition that all of us were created equal.
Our country began as a unique experiment in liberty -- a bold, evolving quest to achieve a more perfect union. And in every generation, another courageous group of patriots has taken us one step closer to fully realizing the dream our founders enshrined on that great day.
Today, all Americans have a hard-fought birthright to a freedom which enables each of us, no matter our views or background, to help set our nation's course. America's greatness has always depended on her citizens embracing that freedom -- and fulfilling the duty that comes with it.
As free people, we must each take the challenges and opportunities that face this nation as our own. As long as some Americans still must struggle, none of us can be fully content. And as America comes ever closer to achieving the perfect Union our founders dreamed, that triumph -- that pride -- belongs to all of us.
So today is a day to reflect on our independence, and the sacrifice of our troops standing in harm's way to preserve and protect it. It is a day to celebrate all that America is. And today is a time to aspire toward all we can still become.
With very best wishes,
President Barack Obama
July 4th, 2009 |
---> Come to the new and improved realcent: http://realcent.org
The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
– Theodore Roosevelt
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fb101
Administrator
USA
2856 Posts |
Posted - 07/04/2009 : 22:00:21
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I don't understand the point of that post. Can someone explain it?
I get confused especially where it starts to sound like the liberal version of the Gettysburg address and where we shouldo share a forced poverty.
I admit I strongly object to the notion that those of us who work should be forced to suffer because some are too lazy or too stupid (by choice, wasting the free educational opportunities we have) to work.
Maybe I'm hearing the wrong message. |
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The media halo love fest!
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