White House Pushes for Recovery Package

The White House continued its full-court press Thursday for Congress to approve a massive economic stimulus package, emphasizing the benefits it would have for states and cities throughout the nation.

“It’s our belief that communities across the country – no matter where you are, no matter what your size – will in some way be able to benefit from the recovery plan,” said Melody Barnes, the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, in a conference call with reporters from the South.

Barnes said concerns from rural and poor areas that they will not receive as much funding are misguided. The plan, with its investments in education, tax relief and benefits, is sensitive to the needs of rural areas and includes investments to bring broadband technology to underserved areas, she said.

“We certainly don’t preference urban areas over rural areas but in fact have been thoughtful to what the needs are in rural America as we try to move this bill forward,” Barnes said.

President Barack Obama, who wrote an op-ed that appeared Thursday in the Washington Post, urged Congress to move quickly on the economic recovery package.

“The time for talk is over.” Obama said in remarks Thursday afternoon. “The time for action is now, because we know if we do not act, a bad situation will become dramatically worse. Crisis could turn into catastrophe for families and businesses across the country.”

Obama has planned a news conference for Monday and a possible address from the Oval Office to help push the bill forward.

With unemployment rolls swelling daily, the White House hopes the plan saves or creates 3 million to 4 million jobs over the next two years, Barnes said. The Labor Department said Thursday new jobless claims rose to 626,000, a 26-year high, and the number of claims by people continuing to apply for unemployment benefits reached a new record of nearly 4.8 million.

The White House said the stimulus package will also provide a tax cut for 95 percent of American workers and that tens of billions of dollars will be invested in infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, and modernizing schools and colleges.

Barnes said 75 percent of the bill would be spent in the next 18 months to jumpstart the economy. She said the Obama administration will work with Congress to get money to states and cities quickly.

An $818 billion version of the bill has already approved by the House. The president could sign the plan into law after both the House and the Senate hammer out differences in the legislation. That legislative process is not likely to culminate until at least next week.

Find out what you would get based on the stimulus projection.