US House and Senate negotiators hoped to seal agreement yesterday on a final version of an US$800 billion economic stimulus package that US President Barack Obama says is urgently needed.
The negotiations began on Tuesday within hours of the Senate approving its US$838 billion economic recovery bill by a 61-37 margin, but with only three moderate Republicans signing on and then demanding the bill’s cost go down when the final version emerges from negotiations.
Also on Tuesday, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner unveiled the administration’s much-anticipated plan to rescue the US banking system at a cost that could hit US$2 trillion.
That unprecedented figure would include a mixture of government and private sector money designed to rid bank balance sheets of toxic investments and thaw frozen credit markets.
“Right now critical parts of our financial system are damaged,” Geithner said. “Instead of catalyzing recovery, the financial system is working against recovery and that’s the dangerous dynamic we need to change.”
But a lack of detail about the bailout program announced by Geithner and questions about whether the private sector could be enticed to sign on sent stocks tumbling 382 points on Wall Street.
In a sign of the urgency the administration attaches to the economic stimulus package, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and other Obama aides met in the Capitol late on Tuesday with Democratic leaders as well as moderate senators from both parties, whose support looms as crucial for any eventual agreement.
Negotiators were working with a target of about US$800 billion for the final bill, lawmakers said.
“That’s in the ballpark,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said of the US$800 billion figure late on Tuesday.
Obama’s negotiating team insisted on restoring some lost funding for school construction projects as talks began on Tuesday in hopes of striking a quick agreement, but by late in the day it appeared resigned to losing up to US$40 billion in aid to state governments.
Baucus had said earlier that US$35.5 billion to provide a US$15,000 homebuyer tax credit, approved in the Senate last week, would be cut back.
Geithner explained his complex banking rescue plan shortly before the Senate voted on the US$838 billion bill.
“This strategy will cost money, it will involve risk and it will take time,” Geithner said in announcing the plan.
He said it would attack the financial collapse on three fronts: restarting the flow of credit, removing bad debt from the books of troubled banks and providing assistance for ordinary Americans and small businesses.
Geithner said the administration intended to: ensure that banks’ balance sheets are “cleaner and stronger;” establish a fund that combines the resources of the US Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance corporation and the private sector that could reach US$1 trillion to stimulate spending, particularly in real estate; and set aside US$100 billion from the bailout fund to support US$1 trillion in lending under a Fed program that was announced in November but has yet to begin operations.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS