US News
US House, Senate approve 2010 budget outline (Roundup)
Apr 3, 2009, 4:20 GMT
Washington - US lawmakers on Thursday approved a 3.5-trillion-dollar budget outline for 2010 that closely mirrors President Barack Obama's priorities for the country.
The vote in the House of Representatives was 233-196, largely along party lines, and came after weeks of polarizing debate that exposed deep differences between majority Democrats and opposition Republicans over how to resuscitate the US economy.
The Senate voted 55 to 43 on a slightly different version of the 2010 budget proposal, which will require lawmakers from both chambers to forge a compromise in the coming weeks.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid said that 'responsible' budget 'will start cleaning up the mistakes of the past and make critical investments in our future.'
The budget outline, which is non-binding and serves as a guide for lawmakers, includes middle-class tax cuts and spending on education, energy, health care and the financial sector that Obama has said is key to the long-term health of the US economy.
'The Senates budget reflects the fundamental priorities proposed by President Obama and recognizes that we cannot recover unless we make health care and education better and more affordable and reduce our reliance on oil,' Reid said.
'Staying true to these priorities will help turn around the economy for the many Americans who are underwater right now. But we won't settle for simply getting back to sea level - we will to prosper once again,' he added.
The White House issued a statement calling the House vote 'another step toward rebuilding our struggling economy.'
In the statement, President Barack Obama, who spent Thursday at the G20 summit in London, was quoted as saying: 'By making hard choices and challenging the old ways of doing business, we will cut in half the budget deficit we inherited, within four years.'
Republicans charged that Obama's plans raise the US deficit to dangerous levels and have countered with their own version, pledging tax cuts across the board, incentives for business and a spending freeze over the next five years in all areas except defence.
John Boehner, the top Republican in the House, slammed the Democratic budget as a 'roadmap to disaster.'
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in US
- 1. Mitt Romney Addresses Tea Party Summit Pictures
- 2. Seven injured as US Navy plane crashes into apartments
- 3. At least three injured in US Navy plane crash
- 4. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, others to face death penalty trial
- 5. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, four others to face death penalty trial
Older Talkback
page: 1
It's more than obvious the US will still be in the depths of the Second Great Depression long after Europe and Asia have recovered.
The US Dollar is backed by nothing. The Federal Reserve has been burning up the printing presses, flooding the world with what for all practical purposes amounts to counterfeit money. In the mean time, Congress is happily spending this fiat money like drunk hookers on welfare payday.
None of the money is going to the benefit of consumers, who account for 2/3rds of the US economy. In fact, the massive tax burden being created ensures consumers never will recover from this debacle.
Perhaps the most frightening aspect of what is taking place is the spin being put on everything by the US media. At least in China, the state run propaganda machine makes no bones about what it is. US citizens enjoy no such transparancy and disclosure. Here, most citizens are under the impression the state run propaganda machine is a 'free press'.
Here, the worst housing numbers for a February on record is billed as a 'sign of recovery' for the housing market. Forget that January is always the worst month of the year for housing, and that January was the worst month on record in the entire 50 years such data has been collected. And, forget that we're talking about years where the US population was half of what it is today. The January and February numbers, unadjusted, were about half of what you'd see in a bad year since the early 90s.
126,000 construction workers lost their jobs in March. Anyone figure that's a sign housing has turned the corner?
The headline unemployment number is now at 8.5%. The not seasonally adjusted number is at 9%, which is supposedly up .1% from February. Unfortunately, weekly new claims data indicates some 900,000 jobs vanished in March, which should have bumped up the unadjusted number to something in the neighborhood of 9.4%, and the adjusted number to around 8.9%.
Incredibly, the Dow is up 1500 points from recent lows, in an economy where the underlying fundamentals just fell off another cliff. So, say goodbye to the USD. The bill is due on the 80 year experiment in abandoning a gold standard.
Hey Idiot stick,
If your boy had run a lemonade stand, he would have forced that into bankruptcy also.
page: 1
SP4: 1.2 trillion deficitApr 3rd, 2009 - 15:15:44
...in a single budget...makes Bush look like he ran a lemonaide stand.
Report this comment