The Washington Bureau will cover panel discussions at the Newseum about “On Message: Voter Persuasion in the 2008 Election.”

The House Appropriations Committee held a hearing today on “The Need for an Economic Recovery Bill.”

“These are very difficult times for the American people. The U.S. lost almost 2 million jobs in the last year. Growth in population force mean unemployment has expanded even more – 3.1 million. One in eight persons in the labor force is either unemployed or underemployed,” said Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wisc). Obey discussed the need to increase federal spending in order curtail the effects of the recession.

“States will face a budget gap of $100 billion in each of the next two years; the gap is roughly 15 percent of state operating budgets,” said Obey. “If states raise taxes and cut important investments it would add substantially to the downward momentum of the U.S. economy.” Most state are required to balance their budgets, and may have to call on the federal government to fill their budget gaps.

Three governors testified to the budget cuts that their states are being forced to make and how they will continue to have to make tough decisions concerning which programs and funding that they will have to reduce or eliminate.

“This economic crisis is unprecedented in recent decades..the projected drop in revenue…leaves us facing our largest budget gap ever — $5.4 billion over the next two years, or 17 percent of our biennial budget,” said Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle. “I could cut the [government] workforce for the state of Wisconsin..in half and we still wouldn’t be dealing with the full scope of the deficit we now face,” said Doyle to illustrate how drastic his budget gap was.

States all throughout the U.S. are experiencing drastic problems related to the recession. “The use of our food banks are up over 30 percent in client usage,” said Vermont Gov. James Douglas. “Applications for unemployment is so large that we had to shift 150 people out of other departments to actually deal with the ongoing crisis of servicing those that are applying to unemployment,” said Douglas. “It is time for us all to pull together, join hands together, be partners, address this, not only to stimulate the economy but to service the basic core needs of our communities.”

Governor of Vermont James Douglas testifies before the House Appropriations Committee on the need for federal and state governments to work together to offset the effects of the recession. (0:54)

 

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UN Correspondent Tala Dowlatshahi is attending the United Nations Lecture series on Emerging Thinking on Global Issues – “Human Rights: The Second 60 Years” by Dr. Thomas Pogge, Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University. The Washington bureau is also covering a House Appropriations Committee hearing on “The Need for an Economic Recovery Bill.”

Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, explains what the inherent problems the U.S. has in energy and says that nuclear energy is linked to these problems. (1:29)

 

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Patrick Moore, Co-Chairman of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition and Co-Founder of Greenpeace, says that nuclear energy is the U.S. only option going forward. (2:24)

 

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Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, said that using more nuclear power plants to advance U.S. energy would be “inherently proliferation prone.” Patrick Moore, Co-Chairman of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition and Co-Founder of Greenpeace, countered saying nuclear power was “one of the safest technologies ever invented” and “You’d have to take over the United States of America to steal this stuff.”

At a debate today, Moore claimed that nuclear energy is clean and does not emit greenhouse gases. He also stated that “nuclear waste” is 95 percent reusable which can lead to recycling potential energy. He remarked that nuclear energy is the only type of alternative power that can “effectively replace fossil fuels.” Makhijani believed that using other forms of energy like wind and solar would allow the U.S. to be free of energy carbon emissions in 40 years.

Moore said that wind and solar energy are “inherently intermittent” and these types of energy can disappear “three or four days at a time” while nuclear energy is “reliable.” Makhijani stated he would rectify this problem by allowing for “some storage” of these types of energy so people could use it whenever they wanted. Makhijani also questioned Moore’s statements about power and cleanliness of nuclear power saying that if they were true, Wall Street “would be lining up” to build nuclear power plants. Makhijani joked that Wall Street thought it was okay to give out subprime mortgages, but they felt nuclear power was “too risky.”

Makhijani felt that using wind energy would be cheaper than nuclear energy, and one must take that into account in this economic crisis. He also said that the U.S. has the capacity to do it within its borders. Moore submitted that it would cost more presently but nuclear power eventually “pays for itself” and Moore added that solar energy presently would cost five times what nuclear energy costs.

A number of Congressmen have expressed ire with the Treasury Department’s management of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), citing a lack of oversight, a failure to mitigate the housing crisis and credit market, and an overall sense of deception over Paulson’s last minute decision to help successful financial institutions rather than failing ones.

“If there’s one thing I regret, I regret attempting to be cooperative in providing to treasury the flexibility to deal with out economic crisis,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) during a House Financial Services Committee on “Oversight Concerns Regarding Treasury Department Conduct of the Troubled Assets Relief Program”.

“We don’t have any systematic way to help homeowners modify these loans, the treasury has refused to use the dollars to buy up the non performing assets, and the money has basically gone as equity investments in banks who are not putting the money back out so that our consumers can have access to credit,” the Congresswoman said.

Acting Comptroller General Gene Dodaro of the Government Accountability Office recounted recommendations from a recently issued report, including the need for the Treasury Department to limit executive compensation and confirming that the use of funds complies with the legislation “To date, Treasury hadn’t finalized their strategy for monitoring these very important initiatives.”

Neel Kashkari, the Interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability, appeared before the committee and defended many of the Treasury Departments decisions.

Essentially dismissing the allegations of a inadequate oversight, Kashkari discussed the formation of the Oversight Board the, the law required the first [Oversight] board meeting to take place within fourteen days. We moved very quickly, and the Oversight Board met within four days…The law requires the Board to meet once a month, but it has already met five times in the just two months since the law was signed.”

Kashkari also defended the choice to offer financial aid to healthy banks, “if we have a dollar, and we give this one dollar to a healthy bank or gave that same dollar to a failing bank, the healthy bank is in a much better position to turn around and make new loans…they’re the ones who are in the best position in this time of economic disruption to step up and make new loans.”

The Assistant Secretary said that this choice would help restore confidence overtime.

Neel Kashkari, the Interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability, defends the Treasury Department’s decision to fund healthy banks, comparing it to an individual who receives a stimulus check being more likely to spend it if they are in a healthy financial condition. Karshaki goes on to say that this decision is imperative to bringing confidence back to the credit market (0:27).

 

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Acting Comptroller General Gene Dodaro of the Government Accountability Office discusses a reported recently issued by his office that judged the Treasury Department did not have a strategy to limit executive compensation or confirm that their spending complied with legislation (0:44).

 

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