The Clarion-Ledger Editorial, 1/25/9
While we’re talking about President Obama’s proposed $775 billion federal stimulus plan, let’s also note that U.S. House Democrats have proposed a larger $825 billion stimulus package
The House Democratic stimulus package plows ahead with a repeal of the Bush tax cuts but offers about $275 billion in so-called middle-class tax cuts designed to attract Republican and conservative Democratic votes.
But the bedrock strategy of the plan is to create jobs and stabilize rising unemployment before it reaches double-digit levels. With some 524,000 people losing their jobs in December, the U.S. Labor Department chronicled that some 2.6 million workers lost their jobs last year, pushing the jobless rate to a 16-year high of 7.2 percent in the wake of the credit crunch, the subprime mortgage debacle and wildly fluctuating energy prices.
Here in Mississippi, Gov. Haley Barbour and state legislators are carefully watching the federal stimulus proposals as they evolve, for how the state deals with growing revenue shortfalls and the significant budget cuts those shortfalls have triggered.
Magnolia Tribune
