Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke testified about the economy today before the House Budget Committee.
Here’s a clip of him being questioned by Texas Democrat Chet Edwards about making permanent the tax cuts from earlier this decade, about short-term actions to boost the economy and about the need for long-term fiscal responsibility by the federal government.
Bill Beach, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis, testified to the Joint Economic Committee yesterday about plans to stimulate the economy. He argued that Congress should let the Fed take the lead on stimulating the economy in the short term and instead focus on the long term.
“Congress should take this moment of slow growth to do what it does best — to set broad economic policy.”
Critics of the Senate’s pending immigration bill contend that it is weak on enforcement, so as President Bush lobbies for passage of the measure, he is challenging that criticism.
“Under this bill, those caught crossing illegally will be permanently barred from returning to the United States on a work or tourist visa,” Bush said in his weekly radio address. “Under this bill, anyone known to have taken part in illegal gang activity can be denied admission to our country. And under this bill, we will be able to detain aliens who are dangerous criminals until another country accepts their return.”
But he also argued that to combat illegal immigration, it is necessary to “take pressure off the border” by improving the visa program and then eventually giving the 12 million current illegal immigrants “an opportunity to get right with the law.” He emphasized, “This is not amnesty.”
Rep. Chet Edward, D-Texas, used the Democratic address to call attention to the House’s vote last week for “the largest increase in veterans’ health care funding in our nation’s history — $6 billion more in 2008, which is $3.8 billion above the president’s budget proposal.”
“For weeks, the White House budget office threatened to veto this bill because it was above their request,” Edwards said. “Fortunately, the president finally backed down on his threat to this historic veterans’ bill, but only after it was clear that Congress would override a veto.”
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