Senator Clinton Urges President Bush to Move Quickly on New Stimulus Package to Jump Start Economy

Nov. 13, 2008 - PRLog -- NEW YORK, NY – Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has renewed her call for a new economic stimulus package to respond to the deepening recession. In a conference call with reporters, Senator Clinton said she had spoken with President Bush Tuesday in New York and delivered a letter outlining measures to help those Americans hit hardest by the current downturn and spur economic growth. Senator Clinton called for major investments in infrastructure projects and clean energy jobs in New York and across the country that could quickly put hundreds of thousands of Americans to work, as well as facilitate long-term economic growth. She also urged the President and Congressional leaders to extend unemployment insurance benefits, provide assistance to cities and states to prevent cuts to critical services, and establish a mortgage modification program that would keep American families in their homes and address the underlying cause of the financial crisis.

“I think that we are in a recession and it demands decisive action. That’s why I’m strongly in support of a stimulus package that I hope we can act on next week when the Congress reconvenes. I met with the President briefly today when I saw him at the Intrepid event. I asked him to work with the Congressional leadership so that we could get a stimulus package, and gave him a letter both making this request and outlining what I thought we should be doing,” Senator Clinton told reporters.

In her comments and in her letter to President Bush, Senator Clinton underscored the seriousness of the economic crisis, especially for New York. More than one million jobs have been lost across the country in the past year and New York State estimates that more than 160,000 New Yorkers may lose their jobs as result of the economic downturn. One recent analysis estimated that New York City alone will lose almost 30,000 construction jobs by 2010, in addition to the tens of thousands of jobs already lost because of the Wall Street turmoil.

A transcript of Senator Clinton’s comments on the proposed stimulus package follows and the text of Senator Clinton’s letter to President Bush is available here: http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statements/details.cfm?id=...&&. Audio of Senator Clinton’s opening statement is available here: http://clinton.senate.gov/audio/11_11_08_stimulus.mp3.


Senator Clinton: I want to thank you for joining this call because the scope and scale of the economic challenges facing New Yorkers and Americans are so significant, and I hear about it and see it every day. The economy has lost more than one million jobs this year alone, and New York City and New York State are at the epicenter of the crisis so that it's projected that about 160,000 New Yorkers will lose their jobs as a result of this economic downturn. I think that we are in a recession and it demands decisive action. That’s why I’m strongly in support of a stimulus package that I hope we can act on next week when the Congress reconvenes. I met with the President briefly today when I saw him at the Intrepid event. I asked him to work with the Congressional leadership so that we could get a stimulus package, and gave him a letter both making this request and outlining what I thought we should be doing. Obviously we have a long way to go but we need to speed investments in infrastructure including $410 million in New York roads, bridges, transit systems. We also should be investing money in training for new jobs in the clean energy economy, something I’ve talked about and legislated on, the so-called green collar jobs. I would like to see us also do more on home foreclosures and I’ve proposed a program that I think would save so many homes and begin to turn the housing crisis around. And we have immediate needs we have to act on. We really cannot wait until President-elect Obama takes office. The expansion of the unemployment insurance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program would provide relief to those hardest hit by the economic downturn. It would also obviously put money into the economy and begin to spur some consumption. We also have to help our states with the overwhelming cost of Medicaid, and I’d like to see an increase in the Medicaid FMAP rate, and do more to begin to stabilize this situation. So I gave the letter with my ideas – I think you have a copy of it – to the President. I know that President-elect Obama has also talked about this, and I hope that we’ll see some action next week because I don’t believe we can wait.

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A Native of New York, Rena writes as a freelance speech writer, ghost writer, journalist, and poet. She has been represented by the Hearst Corporation, Conde Nast, and Random House.