Help President Obama and Congress pass the economic stimulus plan!

by: Progress Michigan

Mon Jan 26, 2009 at 14:18:24 PM EST

Now that President Obama has been in office for nearly a week, it’s time to get the ball rolling on that economic stimulus plan. With a planned vote in Congress that could take place as early as this week, it’s become more imperative than ever that we here in the Great Lakes join together with the voices of the nation in support of the proposed $825 billion economic recovery package, especially after watching our own economy tailspin downward while our jobless rate topped record highs of 10.6%. With billions promised to help improve the state of our roads, health care, and jobs: in fact, the unemployed and taxpayers could build a cutting-edge clean energy economy, making the passage of the economic stimulus plan absolutely critic to us in Michigan.

We need President Obama and the members of Congress to step in and fight for our economic future. Unfortunately (or, perhaps, tragically), some members of Congress think we should keep doing the same thing – tax cuts for the wealthy – that got us into this mess. To derail the stimulus, the right-wing whack jobs have started spreading myths and rumors. It’s time we all caught up to the latest misinformation from the right and corrected them. Here are some corrections to the myths you might hear about the proposed stimulus package, courtesy of thinkprogress.org:

MYTH 1 -- SPENDING IS NOT STIMULATIVE:
Conservatives on Capitol Hill like to claim that an economic stimulus plan will not help pump fuel into our economy. Nothing could be further from the truth. For every dollar invested in specific types of spending, like on roads, clean energy, and health care, the boost in real GDP is more than $1.30. Financial analysis institute Moody'sEconomy.com also noted, "A well-timed, targeted, and temporary stimulus could in fact cost the Treasury less in the long run, since a debilitating recession would severely undermine tax revenues and prompt more government spending for longer." Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's and former adviser to Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) presidential campaign, released his analysis of the House plan on Wednesday, and concluded that it would "provide a vital boost to the flagging economy," without which full employment would not return until 2014.

MYTH 2 -- STIMULUS WON'T CREATE JOBS:
False, again. As former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich explained, "The stimulus plan will create jobs repairing and upgrading the nation's roads, bridges, ports, levees, water and sewage system, public-transit systems, electricity grid, and schools." By investing $100 billion in clean energy infrastructure alone, the Center for American Progress (CAP) has estimated that 2 million jobs can be created in the next two years, and Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Christina Romer and Vice President Biden aide Jared Bernstein estimate that "30% of the jobs created will be in construction and manufacturing." A total of 2 million jobs could be created or saved, according to NPR.

MYTH 3 -- PERMANENT TAX CUTS ARE THE BEST STIMULUS:
You know how conservatives are with their tax cuts. Only for the wealthiest one percent, naturally. CAP's Will Straw explains, "The track record for such steps is poor in general, but they are particularly ill-suited for a recessionary period. After all, the reason that businesses and individuals are not investing at the moment has little to do with the taxes they may pay in the future and everything to do with a fear of losing money because there is no demand in the economy."
If tax cuts by themselves were enough, we would not be in this situation now.

Few states can say they’ve been hit as hard by the economic downturn as the Great Lakes state: we hold the nation’s highest unemployment rate, at a staggering 10.6%, and thousands of hardworking families all over the state are struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table.

More now than ever, we need the economic stimulus plan proposed by President Obama. Don’t listen to the voices of dissent that aim to keep us stuck in the past. Take action today and tell the members of Michigan’s congressional delegation to speak up for Michiganders everywhere. Go to http://progressmichigan.org/page/s/obamaplan and make your voice be heard. Members of Congress need to hear from you now.

Don’t hesitate: act now!