HR 7110 and you

[Guest SUNTZU]

I have been laid off of work since the end of November. I have placed my resume online at careerbuilder.com. In joining, there is a website called Brightfuse.com that is a networking site, basically, that allows you to link up (similar to linkedin.com) with people in your area of expertise. I joined some construction discussion groups over there and met a lawyer based in Chicago who works primarily in construction cases. He has been keeping me updated on HR 7110. He sent me this general breakdown of the bill, which has some interesting points. Here is his email to me...

The blueprint for the Obama administration's economic stimulus package was drawn up quite a while ago. Though the dimensions may change, the basic structure is already determined, and the final result, although perhaps larger, will look just like the rendering we have in our hands now. The basic structure of the legislation is set out in HR 7110, which passed the House September 26, and has already had its first reading in the Senate. Once the transition team and the leadership of both houses can agree on the numbers, the Senate will pass an enlarged version, and the bill will go quickly to a conference committee, which will hammer out the last differences and send the appropriations back to both houses of Congress for quick passage. Unless the members of the conference committee are not up to the task at hand, expect the enrolled bill to be on President Obama's Oval Office desk within minutes after he is sworn in on the steps of the Capitol, and look for him to sign it before leading Michelle onto the dance floor at the inaugural ball. What a dramatic gesture to start a new presidency!

Here are the details already in HR 7110:

o General terms:

§ Federal money pays 100% of program costs - no state or local matching funds required

§ Priority goes to projects which can be let for bid and awarded within 120 days after the bill is signed into law

§ State and local governments which don't start spending within 180 days of receiving the money will have to give it back and the cash will be reallocated to other states and localities

o Spending breakdown:

§ $600 million for airport construction

§ $12.8 billion for highway and bridge construction

§ $500 million for Amtrak capital construction

§ $3.6 billion for local transit capital construction

§ $1 billion for transit energy assistance, but only for

· fare reduction

· expanded routes

· avoiding fare hikes and service cuts

· clean fuel or alternative fuel busses

· increased commuter subsidies

§ $7.5 billion for clean water construction

· $6.5 billion for pollution control construction

· $ 1 billion for safe drinking water construction

§ $2.5 billion for flood control

· $500 million for the Mississippi River basin

· $2 billion for Corps of Engineers operation and maintenance

§ $125 million for water reclamation construction

§ $3 billion for school modernization

· cannot be spent on maintenance or stadium building

· cannot reduce or replace state aid to schools

· construction must use U. S. produced steel

· 25% must be spent on green construction

§ $1 billion for public housing construction

§ $500 million for renewable energy demonstration projects

§ $100 million for electric grid upgrade construction

§ $1 billion in loan guarantees for advanced battery development

§ $400 million for job training programs

The legislation also extends an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits temporarily through August 27, 2009; increases Medicaid matching to the states by 1%; increases food stamp benefits by 5% through September 30, 2009; and prohibits payments of any money under these programs to illegal immigrants.

These projects will generally entail several million each. I'd just like to get your viewpoints on HR 7110.

Here is another link about HR 7110.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-7110

[Guest bkelm18]

So where do these trillions of dollars come from?

[Fadex]

So where do these trillions of dollars come from?

Since I have never known the government to make a profit on anything...take a good look at your wallet...that's where it's gonna come from.

[Guest bkelm18]

Since I have never known the government to make a profit on anything...take a good look at your wallet...that's where it's gonna come from.

Haha, jokes on them! They can't take what I don't have. Oh wait....

[poak]

So where do these trillions of dollars come from?

Same place all the financial institution's bailout cash came from... straight off the printing presses.

Turns out we can print as much of it as we want. Surely it won't effect our currency's value. Just ask Post-WWI Germany.

[Guest SUNTZU]

I just received this email update on the stimulus package (keep in mind, this email deals primarily with the construction industry)...

Republican Governors Lobby For Stimulus Legislation

Breaking ranks with their party's Senate leadership, a chorus of Republican governors can be heard in Washington pressing for passage of President Obama's economic stimulus legislation in the Senate. Sarah Palin of Alaska [yes, that Sarah Palin] is meeting over this weekend with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Senators to explain how much her state needs these appropriations. Florida's Charlie Christ has been on the telephone with that state's Congressional delegation, and Jim Douglas of Vermont, who is also Republican Vice Chairman of the National Governor's Association, will be in D.C. Monday, February 2, to deliver that organization's call for Senators to pass the bill promptly.

Three Republican governors have hinted they may not accept the federal appropriations for their states due to "strings" attached to the money. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana have opposed the legislation, but all three will be hard put to turn down the money once the bill passes and 47 other states start spending the cash and creating high paying construction trade jobs across their borders. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota put it best, saying "If we are going to go down this path, we are entitled to ask for our share of the money."

President Obama once again used his Saturday morning radio address to press for quick passage of the stimulus bill in the Senate, reminding the nation that this measure may not be the last one required to get the American economy back on sound footing. With white collar unemployment at 4.6% and blue collar unemployment at 11.3%, the working families who elected Obama are feeling the pinch all across the country. The Congressional Budget Office conservatively estimates that as the legislation is now formulated, $525.5 billion would be injected into the economy in the next two years, including the entire $153.3 billion for construction which the law requires to be spent or returned to federal coffers for redistribution within 24 months after the bill is signed into law.

CBO predicts the federal bureaucracy will become clogged up with cash and have trouble pushing so much out into the real world in just two years. Go figure! I predict the demonstrable organizational skills of the Obama team will be brought to bear on that problem, and the profit opportunity of $7.5 billion or more for the construction industry will be absorbed significantly more quickly than the not for profit CBO can presently comprehend.

Here is the report on Foxnews.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/01/31/republican-governors-urge-congress-pass-stimulus/

Edited February 1, 2009 by SUNTZU

[Mark@Sea]

The price tag for that (estimated) 7.5 billion in construction is well over 800 billion dollars. Most of it going straight into cherished socialist goals. ACORN gets 5.3 billion out of it.

This 'stimulus' package stimulates and grows the government. Any reflection of that in the civilian job market will be minimal, and at best, short-lived. Government creates jobs in 2 sectors of the economy; defense and 'civil service'. Neither adds to GDP, both are long term drags on the economy.

Economists figure that FDR's policies extended the great depression by at least 7 years. Obama is making all the same mistakes FDR did, and is coming up with new ones. In place of Social Security, he wants drastically expanded gov't health care.

Talk about a deal with the devil... Where's Dan'l Webster when we need him?

http://readthestimulus.org/

Edited February 1, 2009 by Mark@Sea

[Guest SUNTZU]

More on Republicans who support stimulus package...

From James McConnell

"What happened behind the closed doors of that Senate caucus room last week to provoke three particular, desperately needed Republican Senators to cross the aisle and pledge their votes in favor of the Nelson-Collins compromise version of the Senate's stimulus bill? Buried deep in the middle of the measure, under Title VI, Homeland Security, is a $450 million appropriation for construction of land side facilities in support of a new Coast Guard icebreaker. The legislation does not specify, but I'm willing to wager dollars to doughnuts that this new seaport will be built somewhere along the rocky coast of Maine [senators Collins and Snowe], and though there is nothing in this bill for construction of the icebreaker vessel itself, my money says it will be built in the Philadelphia shipyard [senator Specter]. So much for President Obama's "no earmarks" pledge. "

http://chicagoconstructionlaw.blogspot.com/

[Guest bkelm18]

Well yeah, he's already broken a few campaign promises so why should he stop now?

[Guest SUNTZU]

HERESY!!!

[Guest bkelm18]

HERESY!!!

Oh lawdy lawd, fo give me fo mah sins oh heavenly Obama!

[Guest SUNTZU]

Stimulus yo.

[Guest jackdog]

Haha, jokes on them! They can't take what I don't have. Oh wait....

Actually our children and grand children will be doing the paying.

And when the US dollar is devalued by the world market our inflation rate will be astronomical.

Make no mistake this will cost each and everyone of us. I think it is a failure that is going to happen.