Warren Buffett Calls for Second Stimulus

(AP)

As folks in Washington and the rest of the country grumble about the depressed job market and underwhelming consumer spending reports, the calls for a second stimulus continue.

"I think that a second one may well be called for," Warren Buffett , the widely respected investor, said Thursday morning on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"Our first stimulus bill... was sort of like taking half a tablet of Viagra and having also a bunch of candy mixed in," he said, "as if everybody was putting in enough for their own constituents."

Indeed, new reports show the money from President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus package is potentially being doled out unevenly. An analysis from the New York Times shows rural areas are receiving a disproportionate amount of funds for transportation projects.

"Two-thirds of the country lives in large metropolitan areas, home to the nation's worst traffic jams and some of its oldest roads and bridges," the Times reports. "But cities and their surrounding regions are getting far less than two-thirds of federal transportation stimulus money."

Additionally, USA Today reports that counties that supported Mr. Obama in the presidential election have so far received twice as much money per person from the stimulus package as those that supported Republican John McCain -- though that likely has more to do with bureaucracy than politics.

"That aid — about $17 billion — is the first piece of the administration's massive stimulus package that can be tracked locally," the newspaper says. "Much of it has followed a well-worn path to places that regularly collect a bigger share of federal grants and contracts, guided by formulas that have been in place for decades and leave little room for manipulation."

Still, only a little more than 10 percent of the money has been distributed. Vice President Joe Biden will be in Cincinnati, Ohio today to highlight the progress of the stimulus. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) has criticized the slow pace at which the stimulus money is being distributed. Meanwhile, the Ohio Department of Transportation has already approved 52 stimulus-funded road and bridge projects at a cost of nearly $84 million, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

Other Republicans are taking Boehner's lead in criticizing the stimulus effort. Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) will go so far as to introduce a bill today called "Reducing Barack Obama's Unsustainable Deficit Act," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The bill would repeal the remaining unspent money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and recall any unobligated money authorized by the Troubled Asset Relief Program. With Democrats in charge, the bill has virtually no chance of moving forward.

[TheMasses0009]

swin5 July 11, 2009 10:37 PM EDT
Agree to a point but you have one thing backwards. Buffet is not the rubber stamp for Obama - it's the other way around. Buffet's the billionaire, not Obama.
---------------------
Yes, but they ARE both criminals.

[ibsteve2u]

"House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) has criticized the slow pace at which the stimulus money is being distributed."

That makes me reluctant to criticize the system that is in place to distribute the funds, because a pretty darn reliable rule of thumb is that any position that a prominent Republican takes is going to make his friends a lot of money by doing something horrible to America.

[swin5]

You better believe that Warren Buffet knows that if more government money is spent then a good share will end up in the back pocket of guess who? - Warren Buffet. This man is not looking out for the United States and he is not looking out for the common man - he is looking out for Warren Buffet. I wonder how many American workers were laid off, how many American factories were closed, and how many American jobs were outsourced to sweat shops in foreign countries in Warren Buffet's path to being a billionaire. Don't forget that Buffet supported BO for the presidency, so it looks like now he's cashing in his chips.

[sjc_1]

No second stimulus is needed. The $140 billion in checks that just went to Walmart was a waste of money. People will have to ride this one through with their family, friends and neighbors. The government will have to watch the private sector more closely so all the people are protected from the recklessness of a few.

[smoknmirrors]

The government will have to watch WHICH sector more closely so all the people are protected from the recklessness of a few WHAT? The government constitutes the reckless few we need protection from! The government put us in this hole in the first place, using double entry bookkeeping, moving encumbered funds from where they existed to where they wanted them to be, encouraging even to the point of requiring banks to give money to people who couldn't afford to pay it back, incentivizing oil companies to raises their prices and withhold their production, move their wealth to foreign countries, driving American companies out of America with the government's Cloud Nine regulations, and sending wave after wave of American lives to an untrue war in Iraq so America could be the "foreign power defeated by the great Iraqi people." Don't be depending on the government to pull us out until they get hungry. And I don't have to tell you what's for dinner.

[jangelo490811]

CBS:

Unfortunately Buffett is an icon that folks relate to! But he is NOTHING more than a rubber stamp for OBAMA. Buffet actually admits that the first stimulus was poorly conceived, badly planned, and even worse with the implementation. In his own words he suggested that it became a 'tool for satisying the constituentecy of politicians"..Buffets day has gone...he is now being recognized as an OBAMABAT and I wouldn't listen to anything he says...he just wants approval from the socialistic democratic party to have his place in the new WORLD order...even to support Obamna as he does makes him ANTI-GOD!

Johnny

[swin5]

Agree to a point but you have one thing backwards. Buffet is not the rubber stamp for Obama - it's the other way around. Buffet's the billionaire, not Obama.

[ma2_ciws]

ARE ALL OF YOU PEOPLE ON BOTH SIDES MAD. THIS WOULD BE OUR THIRD STIMILUS. Did you all forget the free money sent out last year and the whopping eight bucks Obama gave you to give to the oil companies. Use your brains and stop listening to the media and people who are old enough to know Fred Fintstone personally! You are about to see our country so bankrupt it's not even something to laugh about.

[gramto8]

I thought it was a blast how the Repubs are raising Cain about how slowly the monies are being dispersed, and then turning around and proposing that the durned bill be repealed!

[rerunz]

he didn't call for one. he merely stated that a second one might be necessary. bad headlines lead to poor understanding.

[dennisall77]

BUFFET KNOWS NOTHING! He needs to stick to singing songs about margaritas!

Oh, wait... he is the RICH ONE! Jeeeeeez, maybe he knows what the H is going on. More so than ANYONE HERE, wouldn't you say?

[TheMasses0009]

He's no Warren Moon ...............