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WASHINGTON (Reuters) — A fiscally conservative Democrat who chairs the U.S. Senate’s budget committee on Wednesday said he supports extending all of the tax cuts that expire this year, including for the wealthy.

“The general rule of thumb would be you’d not want to do tax changes, tax increases … until the recovery is on more solid ground,” Senator Kent Conrad said in an interview with reporters outside the Senate chambers, adding he did not believe the recovery has come yet.

Conrad’s comments are sympathetic with Republican arguments against raising taxes amid a fledgling economic recovery. They frame a debate gaining steam over whether stimulus to bolster the economy’s recovery, or deficit reduction, should be the top policy priority.

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Kent Conrad, Senate Budget Chairman, Wants To Extend Bush Tax Cuts Without Paying For Them

Vice-President Joseph Biden said on Sunday that the administration understood the need to pass a larger stimulus package upon entering office but chose to scale down their ambitions in order to win GOP votes.

Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” Biden endorsed the viewpoint held by Keynesian economists like New York Times columnist Paul Krugman (who he referenced by name), acknowledging that the stimulus passed was likely too small. But, he added, there would have been no package at all had it not been made smaller and, subsequently, more palatable to moderate Republicans.

“There was a reality,” Biden told host Jake Tapper. “In order to get what we got passed, we had to find Republican votes. And we found three. And we finally got it passed.”

“I think it would have been bigger [if not for that],” he added. “I think it would have been bigger. In fact, what we offered was slightly bigger than that. But the truth of the matter is that the recovery package, everybody’s talking about it [like] it’s over. The truth is now, we’re spending more now this summer than we — I’m calling this … the summer of recovery.”

The notion that the stimulus was, in all likelihood, too small for the crisis it was supposed to mend is hardly controversial among sober-minded political and economic observers. The White House, after all, continues to press Congress for additional (marginal) stimulus packages — underscoring what the president clearly feels is an additional need to jolt the economy.

But Biden’s comments are already being jumped on by Republican strategists, who have spent the past year ridiculing the stimulus as a massive, wasted, $800 billion check. Kevin Madden, a longtime consultant and confidant of Mitt Romney, predicted television ads attacking the White House for Biden’s remark.

As for the argument that the stimulus (even undersized) hasn’t had its desired effect, Biden cast blame on a miscommunication campaign that has kept the public in the dark.

“People don’t know a lot of what’s going on in the Recovery Act,” Biden said. “Understandably, because there has been so much stuff that has been flowing our way.”

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Biden: White House Wanted Bigger Stimulus; Republicans Howl Immediately (VIDEO)

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Haitians Press On Amid Slow Pace Of Quake Recovery : NPR

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) looked uncomfortable when MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan introduced him Tuesday afternoon to talk about unemployment benefits and Wall Street greed. Brady’s discomfort proved well-founded.

Ratigan tore into the Texas Republican, who voted against the extension of unemployment benefits but for the Wall Street bailout known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Brady repeatedly attempted to deflect Ratigan’s harsh line of questioning on the nature of Wall Street by arguing that potential — not actual — tax increases are stifling capital investment and thus job creation, but the MSNBC host didn’t let up.

“I know you have an issue with the government, but I’ve got an issue with a private industry that’s using the government to rape my country of its money, and I’d like to try to put a stop to that,” Ratigan said.

“We are facing higher taxes in energy and income and capital and dividends,” Brady argued, not for the last time. “All those tax proposals are what’s keeping our recovery from gaining steam–”

“That’s a lie. That’s a lie,” Ratigan shot back. “What’s keeping our recovery from gaining steam is the fact that the financial industry is stealing America’s money, depriving this country of any investment whatsoever, and that is the entire basis of our system, and the government has converted it from an investment vehicle into a vehicle for it to steal money for its rich friends.”

The MSNBC host ended the segment on a frustrated note, complaining that Brady simply retreated to his talking points. “I’m done with you,” Ratigan said, after he challenged Brady to answer his questions and his guest resumed talking about possible future taxes.

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Dylan Ratigan Rips GOP Congressman Kevin Brady Over Wall Street Greed

TORONTO — World leaders must work together to make sure the global recovery stays on track, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Saturday.

Geithner made his remarks as President Barack Obama has warned his counterparts from the Group of 20 nations to not reel in measures to stimulate their economies too quickly. The United States fears doing so could endanger the global recovery.

Nations like Germany, Britain and others are shifting their focus on cutting deficits – especially in the wake of Greece’s debt crisis, which rattled world markets.

Asked if the global economy could slip back into another “double dip” recession, Geithner said the answer to that question hinges on decisions made by world leaders. “It is within the capacity of the people who are going to be in those rooms together in the next few days to avoid that outcome,” he said.

But Geithner’s insistence that nations continue stimulus spending to avoid another global recession was not bolstered by America’s own actions at home.

On Thursday, Senate Republicans defeated a jobs bill that included unemployment extensions, provisions for the elderly and poor, state funding for medicaid, and various tax cuts. Republicans threatened to filibuster the legislation and because Democrats were short of the 60 votes needed to overcome the legislative block, they did not vote on the bill.

But Geithner did not mention the failed stimulus bill at home as he told politicians from the world’s largest economies that global economic recovery depended upon government spending.

Geithner told the Toronto audience that one of the mistakes made in the 1930s was that countries pulled back their recovery efforts too soon, prolonging the Great Depression, he said.

He said the United States doesn’t want to see that happen again. “What we want to do is continue to emphasize that we are going to avoid that mistake,” he said. “It’s only been a year since the world economy stopped collapsing … it will take some time to heal.”

Although the world economy has recovered from the worst financial and economic crisis since the 1930s, many challenges remain, Geithner said.

“The scars of this crisis are still with us,” Geithner told reporters. “If the world economy is to expand at its potential, if growth is going to be sustainable in the future, then we need to act together to strengthen the recovery and finish the job of repairing the damage of the crisis.”

Read Geithner’s G-20 remarks:

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U.S. G20 Message: Stimulus Money Is Vital To Economic Recovery, Don’t Pull Back Yet

Here’s a good article from The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com

Talk to the banking and brokerages types with bullish leanings and they’ll tell you in no uncertain terms that you’ve got to be bonkers to pay heed to anyone forecasting a double-dip recession. Those who rule out a double dip generally insist the economy is on the upswing and that two biggest economic worries — the housing bust and high unemployment — will take a decided turn for the better before year end. They also seem to share the thinking of former Federal Reserve Chief Alan Greenspan, who argues that a double dip is unlikely.

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Dan Dorfman: 2010 Recovery Could Be a Mirage

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Dan Dorfman: 2010 Recovery Could Be a Mirage

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U.S. Retail Sales Decline in May

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U.S. Retail Sales Decline in May

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday he is hopeful the economy will gain traction and not fall back into a “double dip” recession.

“My best guess is we will have a continued recovery, but it won’t feel terrific,” Bernanke said.

That’s because economic growth won’t be robust enough to quickly drive down the unemployment rate, now at 9.7 percent, he said in remarks to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a nonpartisan research group.

The economy grew at a 3 percent pace in the first quarter of this year. That’s good growth during normal times. But coming out of such a deep recession, the economy must grow much more strongly to make a dent in the jobless rate.

Fears have grown that the recovery could be derailed if Europe’s debt crisis turns into a broader financial contagion, crimping lending in the United States and around the globe. The situation has spooked investors, sending Wall Street into fits of panic.

Bernanke said the Fed is monitoring the European crisis carefully, and he believes European leaders are taking the right steps to deal with the problems.

Asked when the Fed will start raising interest rates, Bernanke quipped “in the future.”

The Fed has pledged to hold rates at record lows to nurture the recovery. A growing number of economists now believe the Fed won’t start to boost rates until next year given the European crisis and high unemployment.

Bernanke didn’t offer new clues about when the Fed would reverse course and start to tighten credit. However, he did say the Fed won’t be able to wait until the jobs market is fully healed before it pushed rates up.

The Fed chief’s remarks came during a question and answer session Monday night sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson “International Center for Scholars. Reporter Sam Donaldson, who is affiliated with the group, asked most of the questions. A few came from the audience.

Observing the economy, Bernanke said the news so far is “pretty good.” Both consumers and companies are spending sufficiently to keep the recovery moving forward. The private sector, he said, is “picking up the baton” as government stimulus, which mainly powered the recovery in its earliest stage, starts to fade.

On relations between the United States and China, Bernanke said there is a real desire between the two superpowers to work together to ease trade and economic tensions. Both countries sort of understand there is a “co-dependency relationship,” Bernanke said. The United States snaps up Chinese goods and the Chinese is a major buyer of the U.S. government’s debt.

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Bernanke Predicts Continued Recovery, Not Double-Dip Recession, ‘But It Won’t Feel Terrific’