Saturday, January 10, 2009
At the urging of his fellow Democrats, the president-elect Barack Obama agreed to make modest changes in its proposed tax cuts, then to invite legislators to give ideas to revive an economy that loses jobs at an alarming rate.
Democrats in Congress officials said that Obama advisers had agreed to increase the 10,000 million dollars originally provided tax incentives for energy, although it remained unclear what the final figure.
Two officials said they would be at least 20,000 million dollars, but others indicated that the total would be higher.
There were no details available, but Obama has said on other occasions to increase tax incentives for the production of alternative energy sources such as wind.
The terms of energy taxes represent a small part of the huge economic stimulus initiative, which would reach 800,000 million dollars in two years and that leaders in Congress hope to approve by mid-February.
Given the fact that more than 11 million Americans are unemployed, Obama pressed Congress to take urgent action and said the country goes through "a devastating economic crisis will be more difficult to contain with time."
His warning was emphasized by a government report showed that unemployment in December reached its highest level in 16 years, from 7.2%.
But Democrats in Congress are making it clear they want to make modifications to the plan, despite the inevitable delays that would entail. Some ideas of Obama as a tax credit of $ 3000 to create jobs, could be discarded.
Many Democrats do not love the tax cuts for businesses raised by Obama and regretted that not enough money in the proposed project, such as building roads or water infrastructure. Others argue that the measure should provide tax credits to promote renewable energy.
Beyond the differences that have transcended the opening _y with which many Democrats are criticizing some ideas Obama_ highlights the daunting task of structuring a very complex and controversial plan in just weeks. The insistence of lawmakers for changes could delay the recovery plan beyond the mid-February deadline set by the leader of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
At a press conference, Obama sought to play down the importance of differences.
"There is no disagreement on the fact that the economy is in a very precarious situation," he said. "There is no disagreement on the need to create jobs."
Some Democratic leaders said that there is more agreement on the main differences of the recovery plan: to help state governments that need cash, cuts of between 500 and $ 1000 to taxes paid by most workers and marriage working, and a huge expenditure package that combines traditional public works projects to help the poor and the unemployed.
Obama said that he appreciated the views of legislators from both parties.
"If members of Congress have good ideas, if they can help identify a project that creates jobs in an efficient manner, that long-term harm our ability to control our deficit is good for the economy, I will accept it," said the president-elect.
"What we can not do is just keep postponing this when we saw the loss of half a million jobs," he added.
