Today, President Obama traveled to a Washington-based plant that produces windows. He told the workers there that, "We will not rest until we have fully recovered from this recession." Does that entail new promises for the year?
Perhaps. Hours before Obama's visit to the plant, Congress was informed by the chairman of the Federal Reserve that it will take several years until the unemployment rate leveled off to a more normal, stable level. According to NY Times, it is believed that Obama will "face relatively high unemployment rates for the rest of his term." This is not surprising, seeing as how majority of the vast problems in America take a considerable amount of time to be acknowledged and concentrated on. Take gay rights, for example. While Prop 8 and DNDT were repealed, homosexuals are still not given all of the same rights as everyone else, and this battle for those rights will most likely continue for a long period of time (unfortunately).
But, back to the issue of unemployment. It is said that Obama is currently considering whether or not to restore the corporate tax system by eliminating numerous tax breaks and then using the money that is saved to further cut business taxes. AKA his plan is to just cut a large number of taxes. As a result of these tax breaks, investment and job opportunities would open themselves up to the public, which would help with the issue of unemployment.
Thus far, Obama has constructed a "two-year stimulus package" that includes the following: "increases for education, research, and work-training programs", "stronger financial industry regulations," the overturn of the health care system, and the tax cuts (the ones last month where Obama made a deal with the Republicans, which was seen as either weak or understandable, depending on how you view the whole issue). However, people are expecting Obama to find a way to strongly depend the contents of his stimulus package, seeing as how some Republican lawmakers who have recently come into power are challenging the foundation. The lawmakers want to eliminate the plans for cutting down spending initiatives, new administration rules and regulations, and the health care law, as well as the financial regulations that are associated with it. But, you know, it does not come as a surprise that there is opposition towards Obama's stimulus. That was to be expected. However, Obama, though not a direct response to the Republicans' ideas, did emphasize the fact that he would be focusing on "measures already on the books." He stated that, "Part of this team's mission in the months ahead will be to maximize the steps we've taken to spur the economy." Obama then proceeded to encourage companies to make investments now instead of in the future, so as to help economic growth.
In any case, it should not be news to anyone that unemployment is still a problem. Many people in America personally face the hardships that come with being laid off and not being able to find another job, for whatever reason (frictional unemployment, structural unemployment, seasonal unemployment, cyclical unemployment). While some people might be angry that it has been taking a while to really attack this issue, it must be understood that all things take time, especially when it comes to new policies (though I'm sure most of us believe in some things that ought to change right away).
Overall, I think it will be interesting to see what actually happens as far as how Obama will face the issue of unemployment (and, of course, other problems) and if he will follow through with his plans or not.
Friday, January 7, 2011
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