The alarm call sent out by governors last week was heard in the White House, and this weekend, President Obama sent a letter to Congressional leadership, calling for critical aid to states.
President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid "massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters" and to support the still-fragile economic recovery.
In a letter to congressional leaders, Obama defended last year's huge economic stimulus package, saying it helped break the economy's free fall, but argued that more spending is urgent and unavoidable. "We must take these emergency measures," he wrote in an appeal aimed primarily at members of his own party.
The letter comes as rising concern about the national debt is undermining congressional support for additional spending to bolster the economy. Many economists say more spending could help bring down persistently high unemployment, but with Republicans making an issue of the record deficits run up during the recession, many Democratic lawmakers are eager to turn off the stimulus tap.
"I think there is spending fatigue," House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said recently. "It's tough in both houses to get votes."
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The House last month stripped Obama's request for $24 billion in state aid from a bill that would extend emergency benefits for jobless workers. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) hopes to restore that funding but with debate in that chamber set to resume this week, he acknowledges that he has yet to assemble the votes for final passage. Obama's request for $23 billion to avert the layoffs of as many as 300,000 public school teachers has not won support in either chamber.
This was one of the predictable pitfalls of the White House agreeing to the demands of the deficit peacocks and establishing the deficit commission. It helped reinforce the message that the deficit was a paramount concern when, at the moment, getting the country out of recession and dealing with unemployment are more pressing for the immediate economic health of the nation. Long-term deficits can't be solved if the country remains in recession and we end up with 10% unemployment lasting for another year or more.
The aid to states Reid is trying to get back into the bill is critical for making sure that more people--tens of thousands of state workers--don't end up on the unemployment roles, something Republicans (and Blue Dogs) pretend isn't a problem.
Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), called the letter full of "contradictions."
"He's calling on Congress to pass a [jobless] bill that will add about $80 billion to the deficit, but then calls for fiscal discipline; he says these measures need to be targeted and temporary, but then calls for extending programs passed in the stimulus more than a year ago," Stewart said in an e-mail.
It's not a jobless bill in that it preserves jobs. Of course, Republicans would also be opposing a real jobs bill as well, so McConnell's argument is pretty specious.