The real Grand Bargain

[ProSense]

The real Grand Bargain

By Steve Benen

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The White House appears to have reached the same conclusion. With President Obama set to unveil a new economic plan in a few weeks, the administration appears likely to push for a real Grand Bargain: Obama will push for long-term debt reduction beyond the Super Committee’s $1.5 trillion goal and push for measures intended to boost the economy in the short term.

The point, of course, is to package the two objectives. As the president said yesterday, “We can’t afford to just do one or the other. We’ve got to do both.”

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The measures include ideas that are no doubt familiar to those following the debate — infrastructure, payroll tax break, etc. — but there’s one proposal in particular that’s worth keeping an eye on.

The jobs package that President Obama plans to unveil shortly after Labor Day could include tens of billions of dollars to renovate thousands of dilapidated public schools and a tax break to encourage businesses to hire new workers, according to people familiar with White House deliberations. <…>

The elements of Obama’s plan remain under debate. But backers of the school renovation plan and the tax credit for hiring new workers think the proposals could attract Republican support. At the same time, they think that if the debate becomes a public confrontation, the ideas would give Obama the upper hand in a battle for voters. <…>

Supporters estimate that each $1 billion in school construction work would generate up to 10,000 jobs. A $50-billion program, for example, would underwrite half a million jobs by that calculation.

The average U.S. school building is 40 years old, and many are suffering from neglect — poor ventilation, energy inefficiencies and mold. A report by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2009 gave the nation’s public school facilities a D grade.

This is referencing a bill called the Fix America’s Schools Today Act (FAST Act), which would be a school-based infrastructure measure, putting people to work improving public school facilities. Progressive economists love it, and if the White House incorporates this into the plan, it’d be very good news.

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[ananda]

1. No new revenues, eh?

Same ol same ol.

That's what you get when your "economic" advisers are CEOs.

[ProSense]

2. This was about the jobs bill, but the President did address

revenue yesterday: Remarks by the President in a Town Hall Meeting in Atkinson, Illinois

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Q Thank you Mr. President. My name is Justin Hubbs (ph). My question was just about revenue. I see a lot of the Republican presidential nominees signing pledges not to raise taxes. I was wondering if you could make a pledge that any deal will have a revenue increase.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, here’s -- it’s just math. If you have a deal that does not have revenue in it and you still want to close the deficit by, say, $4 trillion, which is what the experts say is required in order to stabilize our debt and our deficit -- and this is over a 10-year period -- if you have no revenue, then the only way to do that is you’ve got to drastically cut things like Medicare. You have to -- there’s no two ways about it. You’ve got to drastically cut Medicare; you’ve got to drastically cut Medicaid; you’ve got to cut back on education support in significant ways that affect schoolkids right here in Atkinson and all across the country.

So since I’m in Wyffels Hybrids, it’s like eating your seed corn. You are cutting back on the things that are going to help you grow and help this country succeed over the long term. It’s just not a smart thing to do. It’s not how you would run your own family business. And so I think it’s also important to understand that we can raise the kind of revenues we’re talking about without having an impact on middle-class families who are already struggling and haven’t seen their wages and their incomes go up in over a decade now. It can be done. (Applause.) The tax code is full of loopholes. Close those loopholes. (Applause.)

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[NYC_SKP]

4. "The tax code is full of loopholes. Close those loopholes."

:thumbsup:

[Enrique]

3. Benen is being too credulous here

yes, the school building plan sounds great, but how could it "attract Republican support"? Where has Benen been the last two years? And if the GOP opposes it, what is the % chance that Obama will fight for it?

At this point, the wide-eyed innocence in Benen's post is just a lie, imo.

Oh, and when it doesn't come about I'm sure Benen will be among the first to say we never should have expected it. Anyone who does just wants ponies.

[ProSense]

5. Hmmm?

"yes, the school building plan sounds great, but how could it "attract Republican support"? "

It can't pass?

What do you suggest the President do?