President-elect Barack Obama is proposing an emergency $800 billion economic stimulus plan that would use government spending and taxing power to help pull the faltering U.S. economy out of recession.
美国总统当选人奥巴马提出一个8000亿美元紧急刺激经济计划，这个计划将用政府支出和减税来帮助低迷不振的美国经济摆脱衰退。
The president-elect said only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift the economy out of deep recession. In a January 10 radio address, Mr. Obama said his plan to inject billions of dollars into the economy will create three to four million new jobs over two years.
总统当选人奥巴马说，只有政府能够提供从深度衰退中提升经济所必须的短期推动举措。奥巴马在1月10号的广播讲话中说，他计划向经济注入巨额资金，在两年内将创造300万到400万个新工作。
"90 percent of these jobs will be created in the private sector. The remaining 10 percent will be in the public sector, mainly jobs that we save like teachers, police officers, firefighters and others who provide vital services to our communities," he said.
他说：“这些工作中有90%将在私营部门创造出来。余下的10%将在公共部门，我们保住的工作主要是教师、警察、消防队员和为我们的社区提供重要服务的其他职位。”
The Obama stimulus plan will be a combination of government spending and tax cuts, proposals that will soon be debated in congress. A year ago the Bush administration and Congress implemented a much smaller $168 billion stimulus that did boost economic growth for a short time, before the economy resumed the slide that began in December 2007. That first stimulus plan, combined with big spending on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has pushed the government budget into deep deficit. Even before the planned Obama stimulus, the U.S. government was projected to be incurring a $1.2 trillion deficit in the current fiscal year. That is an amount equal to eight percent of economic output. Kevin Hasset, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, believes government spending is out of control.
奥巴马刺激经济计划是政府支出和减税齐头并进，是即将在国会辩论的提议。一年前，布什政府和国会实施了一个规模小得多的1680亿美元刺激措施，确实在短期推动了经济增长，之后经济再度进入2007年12月开始的下滑状态。第一个刺激计划结合了伊拉克战争和阿富汗战争方面的大量支出，使政府预算深深地陷入赤字当中。甚至在实施计划中的奥巴马刺激方案之前，美国政府就打算在目前的这个财政年度承受1万2千亿美元的赤字。这个赤字的数额相当于经济总产值的8%。美国企业研究所学者凯文.哈塞特认为，政府支出失控了。
"The deficit next year, if we pass the Obama stimulus plan...will be larger than the size of government when Bush was elected, in nominal dollar terms," he said.
他说：“如果我们通过奥巴马的刺激计划，明年的赤字会比布什当选总统时的政府财政开支还要多。这是去除通货膨胀后的算法。”
Martin Baily, chief economist to former President Bill Clinton, worries whether foreigners will continue to buy the Treasury debt needed to fund the rapidly growing government deficit.
美国前总统克林顿的首席经济学家马丁.拜里担心外国人是否将继续购买美国国债券。美国出售国债所得将用于抵偿迅速增加的政府赤字。
"I think that is a danger. I said at the beginning of my comments that it is quite uncertain where the economy is going. It is possible that it will turn around more quickly and strongly than the current [Bush] administration's economic advisors think it will. In which case, the Fed [central bank] will be scrambling like crazy to rein in some of this money it has put out there," said Baily.
他说：“我认为，那是个危险的事情。我在我开始评论的时候就说过，经济向何处去还很不确定。经济复苏可能比现任的布什政府的经济顾问们所认为的更快更强劲。在这种情况下，联邦储备委员会发疯似的急着去管控它已经投放的这笔钱。”
At a [Monday] conference on the stimulus plan, speakers including Hassett and Baily, expressed concern about the eventual inflationary impact of both greatly increased government spending and rapid increases in the money supply. Most economists, however, agree that the unprecedented severity of the credit squeeze and global slowdown requires extraordinary measures to maintain consumer purchasing power.
在星期一举行的讨论刺激经济计划的会议上，对于大大增加的政府支出和迅速加大的货币投放量最终产生的通货膨胀冲击效应，包括哈塞特和拜里在内的发言者们表示了关切。不过，多数经济学家同意，要因应信贷紧缩和全球经济放慢，就必须采取非常措施来维持消费者的购买力。 |