Obama: Stimulus package prevented another depression
By Raw Story
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 — 3:13 pm
On the anniversary of his huge stimulus bill, President Barack Obama admitted Wednesday that millions of Americans had yet to feel the economic recovery, but insisted he had staved off a depression.
Obama also lashed out at Republicans he accused of misrepresenting the aims and achievements of the $862-billion mix of tax cuts and government spending, which he said had saved or created two million jobs.
“One year later, it is largely thanks to the Recovery Act that a second depression is no longer a possibility,” Obama said, at an event marking the anniversary of the day he signed the bill last year in Denver, Colorado.
“We acted because failure to do so would have led to catastrophe.”
Obama’s remarks came the same day as the New York Times‘ David Leonhardt reported that the “best-known economic research firms” agree the stimulus package created somewhere between 1.6 million and 1.8 million jobs, with the final tally expected to be around 2.5 million.
Lieberman is the name and double cross is the game, but this should be no surprise to anyone who has, for the last eight years, watched this whiney little rat bastich stand up for the corporate government while disguised as a Democrat. That he is still in office, tells me that the corporate government still rules and that Obama, like any other POTUS, is the leader of this country in name only.
Holy Joe wouldn’t give up his government health care for any thing, with the exception of maybe the excellent health care system of Israel, for which he qualifies.
Israel, in fact, has a superior health plan to the US. So here we are suffering the Health Care Lies of Lieberman while Israel is still collecting billions of dollars in aid. It was all put in place before Barack, (a good friend to Israel) Obama was officially in office.
U.S. President Barack Obama will not cut the billions of dollars in military aid promised to Israel, a senior U.S. administration official said Wednesday.
The $30 billion in aid promised to Israel over the next decade will not be harmed by the world financial crisis, the official told Israel Radio. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Obama Administration however expects the next government of Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu to continue peace negotiations with the Palestinians, he said.
Israel has been a pioneer in the contemporary concept and practice of Public Health and as a result has one of the world’s healthiest populations. The country’s success in pursuing effective Public Health policies is reflected in the fact that a nation of immigrants, who have arrived during the past 54 years principally from North Africa, the former Soviet Union and Central Europe, has one of the highest average life expectancies in the world.
This has been accomplished despite the fact that Israel has absorbed Holocaust survivors and a large proportion of immigrants suffering from tuberculosis, malnutrition, heart disease and every type of cancer. At present, 25% of all cancer patients in Israel are newcomers from the former Soviet Union including tens of thousands from parts of the Ukraine and Belorussia who were exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear plant melt-down in 1987.
According to the Ministry of Health yearbook for 2001, the life expectancy for males (76.6) years) was topped only in Japan. Israeli women live longer than men, but do not fare as well in international statistical comparisons
What is public health?
Whereas medicine treats the health needs of an individual, public health (a discipline also known as public medicine or social medicine) deals with the health requirements of society as a whole. In fact, public health was a more popular concept in the 19th century when physicians realized that matters such as sewage amenities, cleanliness and a balanced diet would improve the health of the population . But as sanitary and dietary conditions improved and with such medical. discoveries as penicillin in the 20th century, much less emphaisis was placed on public health.
International community acknowledges importance of public health
Public health returned to the global agenda in 1975 at the WHO meeting in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, in the former Soviet Union. Leading health officials from every country in the world signed a covenant proclaiming that the health of the people and the provision of medical services must be the responsibility of national governments. Only the United States refused to sign the covenant, insisting that individuals rather than their governments must be responsible for the provision of health services for themselves and their families.
Of course most nations simply do not have the necessary resources to offer their citizens adequate health services. Even in developed and relatively affluent countries like Israel, the essential challenge facing public health policy is effective distribution of limited resources.
Israel emphasizes public health
The Zionist Movement in pre-state Israel, which combined the traditional Jewish concern for all people with an emphasis on societal needs, regarded public health as a top social, political and economic priority. By the time Israel declared its independence in 1948, a national health infrastructure was already in place. Mother-and-child care centers (Tipot Halav) administered the necessary vaccinations to new-born babies and advised parents on proper care of infants. Health insurance funds (Kupot Holim) offered day-to-day consultations with doctors and specialists, and insured members for hospitalization.
The National Health Insurance Law
Despite Israel’s commitment to providing health services for all of its citizens, by the early 90’s some six percent of Israelis were not insured through one of the four existing health funds – Kupat Holim Clalit, Maccabi, Me’uhedet and Le’umit. In 1994, the National Health Insurance Law was enacted and it was implemented the following year, rectifying this situation. Since then, all citizens have their health insurance paid by a tax on income (up to 4.8%) while their employer’s portion is collected by the National Insurance Institute, and passed on to the health insurance fund of the individual’s choice.
National expenditure
Israel’s national expenditure on health is typical for a western country. In 1999, the country spent 8.3% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health, down from a peak of 8.8% in 1994; the United States spent13.6% of its GDP on health care, Canada 9.5%, Japan 6.9% and the UK 7.6%. Of the Israeli expenditure, 41% was for hospitals and research, 39% for public clinics and preventive medicine and 9% for dental care. Israel spent $1,555 per capita on medicine.
This article was originally from Rolling Stone magazine, and is here shown in a blog from somethingawful.com. It seems that Henry Paulson was the former CEO of Goldman Sach’s, a time honored vampire that has sucked the life blood of the sheeple. Even in the times before the Federal Reserve.
Omnislash
May 25, 2004
This isn’t really an exclusive, but aside from a scanned PDF copy of the physical magazine, the complete article isn’t online anywhere I can see thanks to Rolling Stone being completely retarded, so I OCR’d it. This is one of the best articles he’s written yet, and even as cynical as I am, I was still sick to my stomach by the time I finished the last section.
quote:
THE GREAT AMERICAN BUBBLE MACHINE
From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression – and they’re about to do it again
By MATT TAIBBI
The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it’s everywhere. The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled-dry American empire, reads like a Who’s Who of Goldman Sachs graduates.
Read the whole article ~here~, or click the link at the top for a PDF file of the original article in Rolling Stone magazine.
Well, as you probably already know, Fox News makes me feel like losing my groceries, but I had to show this video attack on Congressman Alan Grayson. This repulsive dude, Neil Cavuto, is attempting to take on the appearance of authority to trick him into giving him an absolute number on an argument that doesn’t really call for anything but a relative example.
What Alan is dealing with here is known as The “Cavuto mark”. Following a satirical segment proposing it on The Daily Show on September 13, 2006, the word “Cavuto” is sometimes used to refer to a question mark “used to turn any statement, no matter how outrageous, into a simple, seemingly fair, question.”
Barney Frank: “This is presumably a psychological disorder”
House Republicans did their best Wednesday to battle Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) on the House floor and wound up on the receiving end of some classic Frank jabs.
The bill at issue, authored by Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), would cap executive compensation at bailed-out financial institutions and it puts the GOP in a tough spot: after expressing outrage over the AIG bonuses, it’s tough to vote against the bill.
In announcing their opposition, Republicans such as Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) took to the floor to decry the fact that the stimulus allowed the bonus payments to be made. They excoriated Democrats for not reading the full stimulus bill but said they objected to the bill on the floor that would fix the loophole that had been in the stimulus.
Frank had a field day with it.
“This is really extraordinary,” he said. “What you have just heard is a denunciation of something the Congress did a few weeks ago and a refusal to undo it. I’ve never seen people, Mr. Chairman, so attached to something they hate. This is presumably a psychological disorder which I am not equipped to diagnose. The objection of the gentleman from Texas was that when the recovery bill was passed, it was passed too quickly [and it] included a provision that shouldn’t have been in there. This bill takes it out.”
I just spoke with Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), a freshman on the House Financial Services Committee who’s become a fast-rising star thanks to his tenacious advocacy for transparency in bailout lending by the Federal Reserve.
Grayson joined fellow Democrats as well as Republicans in blasting AIG for its refusal to give up hundreds of millions of dollars in bonus payments. He painted the government’s choice as a stark one, using the metaphor of treating a wound versus amputating a limb.
“It’s not clear to me at all that we’re taking the correct approach by allowing AIG to continue to operate, regardless of who owns it,” Grayson told me. “At this point, ownership is becoming an amorphous concern when comes to a company that borrows millions and millions without any prospect of paying it back. … Do we continue to allow the bleeding or not?”
Converting AIG from a ward of the state in all but name to an outright arm of the government would be a politically controversial move, given the level of apprehension in Washington over calls to nationalize failing banks.
But Grayson views the dilemma facing lawmakers as a common-sense decision: AIG executives who made more than a million dollars while running the company into the ground should immediately be fired. “The people who caused the problem are not going to be able to solve it,” he said.
The Bank of England’s extraordinary decision to create £75 billion to fight the credit crisis has won praise among the press as a bold, if risky move.
~$~
Risky indeed folks. After repeatedly slashing the prime lending rate to a near zero now they are going to be buying more government bonds so they can increase the money supply by increasing debt. This is much like the the US government is doing, except that the UK is admitting that they are printing the money. How can we believe that Helicopter Ben is not doing the same?
75 billion = 675 billion available for lending and then portions get deposited etc…..
“Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money.”
Sir Josiah Stamp, Director of the Bank of England (appointed 1928). Reputed to be the 2nd wealthiest man in England at that time.
WASHINGTON — The notoriously slow Congress passed the $787 billion economic stimulus package in a matter of weeks. President Barack Obama signed it into law less than one month into his presidency.
So, just how soon will Americans start reaping the benefits of tax cuts in it?
By April 1, according to the president.
“Never before in our history has a tax cut taken effect faster or gone to so many hardworking Americans,” Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address.
He said the Treasury Department has begun directing employers to reduce the amount of taxes withheld from people’s paychecks in accordance with the new law, and that in six weeks, a typical family will start taking home at least $65 more every month.
Obama says his signature “Making Work Pay” tax break will affect 95 percent of working families.
The $400 credit for individuals is to be doled out through the rest of the year. Couples are slated to get up to $800. Most workers are to see about a $13 per week increase in their take-home pay. In 2010, the credit would be about $7.70 a week, if it is spread over the entire year.
Check back here at 2:30 PM ET for live video of Obama signing the stimulus bill.
President Barack Obama is ready to sign into law the most sweeping economic package in decades, a rescue plan meant to reinvigorate job creation, consumer spending and public optimism. Add the bill to an ever-growing deficit.
Capping the biggest victory of his month-old administration, Obama will sign the economic legislation Tuesday in Denver.
The setting, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, is meant to underscore the investments the new law will make in “green” energy-related jobs. It also allows Obama to get away from Washington, where the bill’s passage was a mostly partisan affair, and be among people who may benefit from the huge government intervention.
On Wednesday in Arizona, Obama will unveil another part of his economic recovery effort _ a plan to help millions of homeowners fend off foreclosure.
But first comes the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, which tries to attack the nation’s economic free fall on multiple fronts.
Rep. Alan Grayson asked Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit about the terms of the government assistance his firm received, and read comments from several angry constituents. He is one of the more Progressive Democrats on the Obama team and should prove to be a real asset, especially on issues of accountability.
Grayson also has a record of combatting war protiteering and waste concerning the Defence Industries, as he points out, “the money we have thrown away on war profiteers could go a long way on the domestic front”.
Because of his track record suing defense contractors, Grayson is completely uninterested and unintimidated by ridiculous arguments about secrecy and national security. He thinks that war crimes have been committed, that people need to be put in prison, and that we absolutely cannot let bygones be bygones with the 2000-2008 era.
I really like this guy. Here he is defending Obama from the attacks of right wing media spin, as Rush Limpballs gets a perspective from the other side of the mirror.
“Rush Limbaugh is a has-been hypocrite loser, who craves attention,His right-wing lunacy sounds like Mikhail Gorbachev, extolling the virtues of communism. Limbaugh actually was more lucid when he was a drug addict. If America ever did 1 percent of what he wanted us to do, then we’d all need pain killers.”
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Joe Lieberman & Public Health Care
Posted in 15 Worst People In America- 2008, AIPAC, Bailout, Barack Obama, Commentary, Conservatives, Criminals In the White House, Economic Crisis, health care, Healthcare, Israel, Joe Lieberman, Obama's Inauguration, Political News, Rahm Emanuel, Republicans, Right Wing, Stimulus Bill, Tea Bag Revolution, Universal Health Care on September 3, 2009| 3 Comments »
Lieberman is the name and double cross is the game, but this should be no surprise to anyone who has, for the last eight years, watched this whiney little rat bastich stand up for the corporate government while disguised as a Democrat. That he is still in office, tells me that the corporate government still rules and that Obama, like any other POTUS, is the leader of this country in name only.
Holy Joe wouldn’t give up his government health care for any thing, with the exception of maybe the excellent health care system of Israel, for which he qualifies.
Israel, in fact, has a superior health plan to the US. So here we are suffering the Health Care Lies of Lieberman while Israel is still collecting billions of dollars in aid. It was all put in place before Barack, (a good friend to Israel) Obama was officially in office.
U.S. official: Obama won’t cut military aid to Israel
By DPA 11/03/2009
U.S. President Barack Obama will not cut the billions of dollars in military aid promised to Israel, a senior U.S. administration official said Wednesday.
The $30 billion in aid promised to Israel over the next decade will not be harmed by the world financial crisis, the official told Israel Radio. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Obama Administration however expects the next government of Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu to continue peace negotiations with the Palestinians, he said.
Public Health in Israel
Increasing life expectancy
Israel has been a pioneer in the contemporary concept and practice of Public Health and as a result has one of the world’s healthiest populations. The country’s success in pursuing effective Public Health policies is reflected in the fact that a nation of immigrants, who have arrived during the past 54 years principally from North Africa, the former Soviet Union and Central Europe, has one of the highest average life expectancies in the world.
This has been accomplished despite the fact that Israel has absorbed Holocaust survivors and a large proportion of immigrants suffering from tuberculosis, malnutrition, heart disease and every type of cancer. At present, 25% of all cancer patients in Israel are newcomers from the former Soviet Union including tens of thousands from parts of the Ukraine and Belorussia who were exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear plant melt-down in 1987.
According to the Ministry of Health yearbook for 2001, the life expectancy for males (76.6) years) was topped only in Japan. Israeli women live longer than men, but do not fare as well in international statistical comparisons
What is public health?
Whereas medicine treats the health needs of an individual, public health (a discipline also known as public medicine or social medicine) deals with the health requirements of society as a whole. In fact, public health was a more popular concept in the 19th century when physicians realized that matters such as sewage amenities, cleanliness and a balanced diet would improve the health of the population . But as sanitary and dietary conditions improved and with such medical. discoveries as penicillin in the 20th century, much less emphaisis was placed on public health.
International community acknowledges importance of public health
Public health returned to the global agenda in 1975 at the WHO meeting in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, in the former Soviet Union. Leading health officials from every country in the world signed a covenant proclaiming that the health of the people and the provision of medical services must be the responsibility of national governments. Only the United States refused to sign the covenant, insisting that individuals rather than their governments must be responsible for the provision of health services for themselves and their families.
Of course most nations simply do not have the necessary resources to offer their citizens adequate health services. Even in developed and relatively affluent countries like Israel, the essential challenge facing public health policy is effective distribution of limited resources.
Israel emphasizes public health
The Zionist Movement in pre-state Israel, which combined the traditional Jewish concern for all people with an emphasis on societal needs, regarded public health as a top social, political and economic priority. By the time Israel declared its independence in 1948, a national health infrastructure was already in place. Mother-and-child care centers (Tipot Halav) administered the necessary vaccinations to new-born babies and advised parents on proper care of infants. Health insurance funds (Kupot Holim) offered day-to-day consultations with doctors and specialists, and insured members for hospitalization.
The National Health Insurance Law
Despite Israel’s commitment to providing health services for all of its citizens, by the early 90’s some six percent of Israelis were not insured through one of the four existing health funds – Kupat Holim Clalit, Maccabi, Me’uhedet and Le’umit. In 1994, the National Health Insurance Law was enacted and it was implemented the following year, rectifying this situation. Since then, all citizens have their health insurance paid by a tax on income (up to 4.8%) while their employer’s portion is collected by the National Insurance Institute, and passed on to the health insurance fund of the individual’s choice.
National expenditure
Israel’s national expenditure on health is typical for a western country. In 1999, the country spent 8.3% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health, down from a peak of 8.8% in 1994; the United States spent13.6% of its GDP on health care, Canada 9.5%, Japan 6.9% and the UK 7.6%. Of the Israeli expenditure, 41% was for hospitals and research, 39% for public clinics and preventive medicine and 9% for dental care. Israel spent $1,555 per capita on medicine.
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