House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed on Friday that she would propose another economic stimulus package to help spur the contracting economy. This hopefully bi-partisan proposal will likely occur in the coming weeks, without even waiting to see any data reflecting if the first economic stimulus package even worked. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama agreed to support another stimulus package, along with an extension of unemployment benefits and a slew of other measures.

The push for the second economic stimulus plan came after a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicating that 80,000 jobs disappeared from the market in March, pushing the unemployment rate to over 5%. Not surprisingly, the Democrats and Republicans immediately began slinging mud at each other on the causes of the job losses, with the Democrats blaming the Bush Administration and Republicans blaming the Democratic controlled Congress for not making the tax cuts permanent.

The Democrats are already pushing many of the failed items from the first economic stimulus plan such as food stamp increases, unemployment benefit expansion and billions of spending on infrastructure. The Republicans are still pushing that the Bush tax cuts should be made permanent to help spur business spending and investing, which would in turn increase employment and wages and keep more money in taxpayer’s pocket.

While the Democrats want to help cushion the blow for those affected by the slowing economy and expand infrastructure for an economic rebound, the Republicans are looking for ways to stop the bleeding.

Senator Chris Dodd-D, Connecticut and chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee said Sunday, “Our economy will never grow in the 21st century unless we expand and repair the deteriorating infrastructure needs of our country,”

On the opposite side of the aisle, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas said, “Everything I hear coming from my friends on the other side of the aisle is, `Let’s have the federal government spend more money’, and that money comes from your pocket and mine. And I think we ought to be careful.”

Wall Street remained mainly unchanged on Friday as many investors had already predicted the report of job losses. According to the report, the sectors with the highest job losses were construction, manufacturing and professional and business services. Not surprising in the wake of a housing slowdown, credit crunch and spending contraction, which is probably one of the reasons Wall Street was unaffected.

Many feel that instead of increasing our deficit spending even further, the government should instead focus on helping to keep daily costs down for consumers, starting primarily with the price that indirectly affects just about everything: gas prices. The Energy Department announced Friday it would continue to build up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve instead of allowing those barrels of oil to remain in the market in an effort to keep supply up and prices down. From May 2006-April 2007, President Bush halted delivery of oil to the Reserve to help starve off increasing gasoline prices. As a result, prices remained under $3 a gallon in that time period, falling to as low as $2.16 a gallon.

There have also been talks that the Fed will again cut interest rates in their next meeting on April 30 to further encourage consumer spending, which requires the creation of more currency and leads to higher inflation and devaluation of the dollar.

The Democrats would like the new stimulus package to give more aid to those who they feel are in need, while the Republicans are desperate to save the slipping economy before it is too late, however both will likely compromise on a new plan in the coming weeks. President Bush stands against a second stimulus bill until seeing the results of the first. Should the planets align and both sides come to an equal compromise, the second economic stimulus plan has the potential to finally slow down the oncoming recession and benefit us all, and could be the shining bi-partisan achievement of the 110th Congress.
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