WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 60 to 37 on Thursday to approve another $2 billion for the "cash for clunkers" program, giving new life and money to the federal government's most wildly popular economic stimulus program.
The public's eager embrace of the initial $1 billion program stunned lawmakers, who as recently as Monday doubted that they could muster the votes to keep it alive.
The program, which allows consumers up to $4,500 if they trade in older gas- guzzling vehicles for new models, exhausted its first billion dollars in a few days. People flooded auto dealers seeking clunker money and spurring car sales to their highest levels in many months — and dealers pleaded for the program to be extended.
"The reality is this is a program that is working. Consumers believe it is working. Small business people believe it is working," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
Still, winning approval wasn't easy. The Republican Party of NO tried to put a kibosh on it. However the Democrats were successful in their WIN for the American People!!
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Fred Barnes, Charles Krauthammer, of Fox News "Special Report", and all the guys at the "Weekly Standard" should eat their hats .... also their boots ....please contribute recipes to cook old moldy leather of the Reagan Years.
The "Weekly Standard" a nest of Anti Obama Conservatives, acknowldeges that the Economy is improving and soon to recover.
The "Weekly Standard" is vitriolic and corrosive anti Obama.
On the Mend?
Relatively good economic news could help Obama.
by Irwin M. Stelzer
08/08/2009
Relatively good economic news could help Obama
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/839auebf.asp
Some excerpts :
The name of the game now is to trumpet the nascent economic recovery, and take credit for it.
Here, the president is on firmer ground. In the jobs market, less bad is good. Friday's report showed that the economy lost only 247,000 jobs in July, way down from the almost-750,000 monthly loss in January. The unemployment rate ticked down to 9.4 percent from 9.5 percent, but that was due largely to a reduction in the size of the work force, and so doesn't mean much. Average hourly earnings ticked up by 0.2 percent, and the work week lengthened a bit, both good signs. Even the broader measure of unemployment, which includes those able to find only part-time work and workers too discouraged to continue their job search, dropped a bit, from 16.5 percent to 16.3 percent. Still worrying, but given the favorable trend, some economists are now claiming that the recession has ended.
The housing market also seems ready for a transfer from the intensive care unit. Prices have stopped falling and in some cities are rising, sales of new single-family homes rose 11 percent from May to June, and the supply of new homes available for sale is dropping. Pending home sales (under contract but not yet closed) have risen for five consecutive months, suggesting that existing sales are due to rise.
The rest of the economy is also improving. The manufacturing sector rose in July for the seventh straight month, propelled by a growth in new orders for construction equipment, turbines and electrical equipment. Second quarter GDP declined by only 1 percent, compared to a drop of 6.4 percent in the first quarter, and the economy has likely already started to grow. Banks are on the mend, able to raise capital and to charge more for services now that many competitors are no more. Several have repaid the bail-out money they received at the height of the credit crisis, giving the government an estimated 20 percent profit on those loans. Prices investors are willing to pay for risky loans still on banks' books have risen to 90 percent of face value, the highest level in over a year.
Milenials.com
Vicente Duque
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