Stimulus plan heads for Senate after passing House
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Michigan moved one step closer to getting an estimated $4.6 billion in federal funds Wednesday after the U.S. House of Representatives approved President Barack Obama’s $819 billion stimulus package.
The House passed the package by a 244-188 vote. The U.S. Senate will take up the proposal early next week.
Economics professor Charles Ballard said the proposal could be approved and passed to Obama’s desk before Feb. 16, when Congress goes into recess.
Still, Ballard said it’s possible that positive effects of the stimulus won’t be felt for months.
“There’s a good chance that sometime late this year, things will look much more stable than they are now,” Ballard said. “The amount of damage done is huge. You can’t take a sledgehammer to the workings of the economy the way that we did and then immediately fix it.”
About $30 billion of the plan will be devoted to infrastructure, including roads and bridges. Another $6 billion could go to higher education infrastructure.
East Lansing officials are in the early stages of applying for a portion of the stimulus for various road repair projects.
Infrastructure improvements could provide incentives for companies to locate in Michigan, said state Rep. Mark Meadows, D-East Lansing.
“(The package) would get money back into the system and people back to work,” he said.
No Republicans voted to approve the measure.
U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, opposes the bill for several reasons, said Sylvia Warner, Rogers’ press secretary.
Warner said the number of jobs the stimulus could create is not specified, and it contains too many measures that won’t stimulate the economy.
Those measures include more than $200 million for new sod at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and about $650 million for digital TV coupons, Warner said.
“There are a number of … other things they’ve put into it that have nothing to do with creating jobs,” she said.
History and political science junior Bobby Wells said he thinks the government needs to do as much as it can to be proactive.
“I don’t think we can just … hope that everything will get better; that all of a sudden, some magical hand or force will save us all,” he said.
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WHO IS ACCOUNTABLE?
(01/29/09 6:23am)Report
WHO IS ACCOUNTABLE?
If this fails — will “The Messiah’s” pension be affected?
OF COURSE NOT. HE COULD GIVE A RIP.
BHO says “everyone has to have skin in the game.”
Where’s his?
PORK, PORK, PORK.
LIE, LIE, LIE.
MSU YCL
(01/31/09 4:21am)Report
Mr. Wells is correct no invisible hand will save us, overall it is a problem in the system as capitalism finds itself weakening as a result of its own contradictions.