If you have been paying attention to the news, as many of us have, since the election of our new President of The United States, Barack Obama, you must have heard of the new stimulus package that he has been so eager to have passed by the two houses of Congress. President Obama’s first legislative victory took place on February 17, 2009, when both houses passed his $787-billion stimulus package. Although the Republican Party was not very supportive of this bill, the efforts to start stimulating our nation’s economy will soon begin.
What does the Obama Administration Say About this Act
Create or save more than 3.5 million jobs over the next two years
Take a big step toward computerizing Americans’ health records, reducing medical errors, and saving billions in health care costs
Revive the renewable energy industry and provide the capital over the next three years to eventually double domestic renewable energy capacity
Undertake the largest weatherization program in history by modernizing 75 percent of federal building space and more than one million homes
Increase college affordability for seven million students by funding the shortfall in Pell Grants, increasing the maximum award level by $500, and providing a new higher education tax cut to nearly four million students
As part of the $150 billion investment in new infrastructure, enact the largest increase in funding of our nation’s roads, bridges, and mass transit systems since the creation of the national highway system in the 1950s
Provide an $800 Making Work Pay tax credit for 129 million working households, and cut taxes for the families of millions of children through an expansion of the Child Tax Credit
Require unprecedented levels of transparency, oversight, and accountability.
What You Will Receive
Aside from the obvious benefits that our economy will receive such as large sums of money going into assisting automakers, insurance companies, transportation, energy conservation, environmental services, and more, individuals within the U.S. will also begin seeing benefits from the stimulus package. Unlike the stimulus package from 2008, individuals and families will not be receiving a check from the IRS this time around. The reason for this is that instead of stimulating the economy, many households saved this money so that it didn’t achieve what it was supposed to. Instead, individuals and families will start receiving a tax credit. There will be a $400 tax credit if you make less than $75,000, and if you are a couple that makes $150,000 you as a couple will receive an $800 tax credit. You will begin to notice that you are getting this money in that you will receive an average of about $8 to $10 more per week in your paycheck. Now, obviously, you may think that this is not something you would see as helping you or your family out, but in reality, it was meant to start stimulating the economy in different ways. You may not necessarily grab a hot cup of coffee in the morning from your nearest fast food restaurant because of it not being in your budget, but once you start seeing you have a few dollars extra each week, then President Obama hopes you will start.
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Other Benefits Not only will you begin to start seeing a little extra cash in each paycheck, but President Obama has also made sure that if you lose your job, you will still receive insurance through COBRA and that the government will be covering 65% of that cost for up to nine months. He also hoped to either save or create in upwards of 3.5 million jobs in the next two years. The number will differ from state to state, and the larger the state, the more jobs will either be saved or created. Experts have also indicated that it may take awhile before you see this stimulus package having any sort of effect on the economy. Unfortunately, you may only get the indication that things are working out just through seeing that the news of the bad economy is not as bad as usual.
Summary
There are many supporters and many detractors to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act but it is widely accepted that the government needed to do something to stop the US and Global economies from going deeper into the current recession. Now that this Act has been passed, combine that with lower gas prices which is an even bigger stimulus package and now hopefully the President, Congress and business leaders can begin to speak positively about the future of the US economy and raise the confidence of the average consumer.
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