Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, for your Bills, Bills, Bills

Today we’re going to revisit the Job Bill. Almost a month later after my first Job Bill blog, the House is still working to pass a version of the bill lovingly dubbed by Democrats as the “Jobs for Main Street” bill. Currently, the tab is up to $174 billion, but it includes:

$36 billion for highways and mass transit.
$20 billion to keep Highway Trust Fund solvent for existing obligations.
$23 billion to pay teacher salaries in an attempt to save or create about 250,000 education jobs.
$2 billion for job training, summer jobs for teenagers and for AmeriCorps.
$500 million to retain or hire firefighters.
$1.2 billion to put 5,500 law enforcement officials on the beat.
$2.3 billion to extend the $1,000-per-child tax credit to 16 million poor families.
$24 billion to states for Medicaid for the poor and disabled.
$41 billion to extend emergency unemployment benefits for six months.
$12.3 billion for health insurance subsidies for long-term jobless workers.
$600 million for improvements to airports and seaports.
$2.8 billion for water projects.
$2 billion for housing renovations.

Sometime this week the House will officially vote on the bill as well as voting on a temporary, two-month increase in the national debt of $1.2 trillion. About half of the jobs bill will be financed by the left over or repaid money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP – the Treasury Department’s bank bailout).

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey had some harsh words for critics of the bill who say the price tag is too high, “We make no apology whatsoever for trying to give the same amount of attention to Main Street needs as was given earlier to Wall Street needs.” (Oh! Zing!)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20091215/pl_bloomberg/ahqzpf24e2eg
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091216/pl_nm/us_usa_congress_jobs