In an effort to avoid having negotiations between the Obama transition team and Congressional leadership become a zero sum game, the president elect is still reluctant to release specific numerical details of the proposed economic stimulus legislation under discussion in Washington, but his Saturday morning radio address did refer to a 14 page report on job creation from his economic advisers which is now posted on his change.gov website.
The numbers in this report are numbers of jobs the transition team predicts will be generated in different sectors of the economy, directly and indirectly, by the legislation's appropriations and tax cuts once the bills are passed and signed into law. Careful study of the economic assumptions set out in the report, and a little reverse engineering of the math, indicates that the proposed package still totals somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 billion, with 20% allocated for aid to cash strapped state and local governments, 40% for direct spending on infrastructure construction and other state and federal procurement programs, and 40% to cover the expected revenue reduction from the transition team's proposed tax cuts targeted at middle class taxpayers, small businesses, and alternative energy incentives.
Appropriations targeted directly for the construction industry still will total in the neighborhood of $110 billion, expected to create 236,000 jobs in the construction trades, and an additional 142,000 jobs among material suppliers and service providers related to construction.
Some Democratic leaders in Congress are pressing for even larger appropriations for infrastructure construction, especially for alternative energy projects like manufacture and installation of power generating windmills and solar panels, and upgrading of the national power transmission and distribution grid. Representative Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota, in particular, is pressing for increases in the infrastructure appropriation amounts.
The one part of the Obama team's proposals which seems likely to get deleted from the final legislation is the proposed $3,000 tax credit for new hires the team proposed.
Obama's Saturday morning radio address refers to the stimulus package by his new title, the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan," and emphasizes that the program will modernize 75% of federal government buildings, and improve energy efficiency of two million homes - bowing in the direction of both commercial and residential construction sectors. He also mentioned laying "miles of new broadband lines," so oil up those trenching machines.
The report released on the Obama team's website predicts the total stimulus package will create between three and four million new jobs in the next two years, with 90% of them in the private sector. The 10% public sector jobs created or saved from elimination will include mostly teachers, firefighters and police officers. The report anticipates "substantial investments in infrastructure, education, health and energy, with increased gross domestic product of 3.7% expected to generate a total of 3,675,000 jobs in the next two years. According to the report, this will reduce unemployment from an anticipated level of 8.8% without this legislation, to a level of 7.0% if the bills are passed and signed into law.
Predictions include a two year increase of 678,000 jobs in the construction industry, with 88,000 of those new hires expected to be female. The report says that, although construction and manufacturing represent only 15% of the overall American economy, these sectors are slated for 30% of the new jobs, since jobs in these sectors represent more skilled, higher paying union jobs which are less able to be outsourced overseas.
The report is located at:
The numbers in this report are numbers of jobs the transition team predicts will be generated in different sectors of the economy, directly and indirectly, by the legislation's appropriations and tax cuts once the bills are passed and signed into law. Careful study of the economic assumptions set out in the report, and a little reverse engineering of the math, indicates that the proposed package still totals somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 billion, with 20% allocated for aid to cash strapped state and local governments, 40% for direct spending on infrastructure construction and other state and federal procurement programs, and 40% to cover the expected revenue reduction from the transition team's proposed tax cuts targeted at middle class taxpayers, small businesses, and alternative energy incentives.
Appropriations targeted directly for the construction industry still will total in the neighborhood of $110 billion, expected to create 236,000 jobs in the construction trades, and an additional 142,000 jobs among material suppliers and service providers related to construction.
Some Democratic leaders in Congress are pressing for even larger appropriations for infrastructure construction, especially for alternative energy projects like manufacture and installation of power generating windmills and solar panels, and upgrading of the national power transmission and distribution grid. Representative Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota, in particular, is pressing for increases in the infrastructure appropriation amounts.
The one part of the Obama team's proposals which seems likely to get deleted from the final legislation is the proposed $3,000 tax credit for new hires the team proposed.
Obama's Saturday morning radio address refers to the stimulus package by his new title, the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan," and emphasizes that the program will modernize 75% of federal government buildings, and improve energy efficiency of two million homes - bowing in the direction of both commercial and residential construction sectors. He also mentioned laying "miles of new broadband lines," so oil up those trenching machines.
The report released on the Obama team's website predicts the total stimulus package will create between three and four million new jobs in the next two years, with 90% of them in the private sector. The 10% public sector jobs created or saved from elimination will include mostly teachers, firefighters and police officers. The report anticipates "substantial investments in infrastructure, education, health and energy, with increased gross domestic product of 3.7% expected to generate a total of 3,675,000 jobs in the next two years. According to the report, this will reduce unemployment from an anticipated level of 8.8% without this legislation, to a level of 7.0% if the bills are passed and signed into law.
Predictions include a two year increase of 678,000 jobs in the construction industry, with 88,000 of those new hires expected to be female. The report says that, although construction and manufacturing represent only 15% of the overall American economy, these sectors are slated for 30% of the new jobs, since jobs in these sectors represent more skilled, higher paying union jobs which are less able to be outsourced overseas.
The report is located at:
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