This blog printed on 100% recycled electrons.
The stimulus bill has passed; President Obama will sign shortly. By closing ranks and opposing fast action to fight the recession, the Republicans have made clear we're in for four years of partisan trench warfare. So be it. I think President Obama can lead the free world and wrassle Republicans at the same time. It would be easier if he didn't have to... but I guess you can't blame a party in decline for going down swinging.
But hey, we've got stimulus coming! Fire up the spreadsheets and the bulldozers; we've got an economy to fix!
RIP Quincy Jones
-
Probably one of the greatest music producers EVER! I have to tell you, I
have been beside myself, I get it, he was old, but everything you listened
to deca...
6 hours ago
GOP has not put party first, it has put country and people first.
ReplyDeleteO is putting his political life first. Pelosi is giddy with delight about putting all her party wants (not needs, but wants) first; that's her priority.
If O wasn't concerned more with his political life and the power of the Dem party, they wouldn't be planning to run the census themselves; O would have honored his campaign pledge to have at least 48 hours time to review all bills before having to vote on them; and O would have honored his campaign pledge to have all bill information transparent to the public.
O had promised bipartisanship. Inviting Reps for coffee and meeting with them but shutting them out of any part of the process and not even giving them time to read the bill is NOT bipartisanship. He is reaping exactly what he is sowing. And don't look for Reps to forget this.
Republicans put party first? Oh really? It seems to me that the republicans have put the country and the tax payers first.
ReplyDeleteThe Bush hating democrates did nothing but criticize Bush about his Trillion dollar increase in the deficet in his eight years as president. OBama has added another trillion in debt in less than one month. Typical democrate double standard. Where is the money for this going to come from?
I think it is interesting that Obama approval rating has dropped 16 points in 1 week, and nothing is said about this in the media and on this blog
[sort of off-topic -- FireBird: maybe the media (at least the responsible media) have been too busy actually reading the stimulus package? If you ascribe any significance to such numbers, consider that (a) Obama's job approval has stayed steady since day one of the Administration; (b) his initial rating, 68%, ties Eisenhower and falls behind only Kennedy, and Obama's numbers comes in bad economic times; (c) the drop to which you refer was the difference between is pre-inaugural rating and first week rating, which I would suggest reflects the difference between rating a guy who's managing a transition team and a new President who is now actually responsible for policy and the way things are going in the free world. But I think that's enough attention to something Sarah Palin wouldn't pay attention to, don't you?]
ReplyDeleteAnon@11:54-good grief. Of course the republicants put the Grumpy Old Party, first. Frank Rich said it best; they made themselves even more irrelevant.
ReplyDelete"Republicans will also be judged by the voters. If they want to obstruct and filibuster while the economy is in free fall, the president should call their bluff and let them go at it. In the first four years after F.D.R. took over from Hoover, the already decimated ranks of Republicans in Congress fell from 36 to 16 in the Senate and from 117 to 88 in the House. The G.O.P. is so insistent that the New Deal was a mirage it may well have convinced itself that its own sorry record back then didn’t happen either."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/opinion/15rich.html
What's REALLY is the localism of what's happening in this Second Great Depression. Our timid leaders at state and local levels are, for the most part, acting like either nothing's happened or if this is like their father's recession with a turnaround is around the corner.
ReplyDeleteState and local republicants worship at the shrine of timidity when it comes to making substantial, substantive, long term cuts to government costs and improving efficiencies in services. They are advocating RAISING taxes. County and municipal hacks are increasing pay from 3 to 9% when revenues are falling. Like the republicants in the FDR era, they too shall be thrown out.
Anon 11:54 and FIreBird: Yes, Republicans are putting party first. Republican Arlen Specter says so.
ReplyDeleteI think both parties failed when nobody read the entire 1000 page stimulus bill. Politicians today are only interested in media approval and public approval ratings, regardless of the social costs to taxpayers. When a trillion dollars of debt goes on the books in the first three weeks of President Obama's term and nobody from either party knows that they approved, we're in for serious concern.
ReplyDeleteCorey:
ReplyDeleteSpin it any way you want Obama is still down 16 points in approval.
Spector is nothing more that a 'rino' and does not speak for the republican party.
This entire stimulus, and I say that lightly, package is based on irresponsibility. Irresponsible of Pelosi to stick all her wish list in it, irresponsible of O to demand that it be on his desk by a certain time and to scare people into thinking it needed to be rushed thru, irresponsible to saddle future generations with debt, and especially irresponsible of all those voted for it without even reading it. Shame on you all.
ReplyDeleteSo Anon 1:10, what's your alternative plan?
ReplyDeleteAs for scaring and rushing, didn't Congress and the Bush Administration pass the Patriot Act with more fear-mongering and less honest debate in response to a threat that pales in comparison to the collapse of the American economy?
Actually, no surprise. I still favor tax cuts instead of just doling out money for all the Dem pet projects. If you want to get money back into people's pockets immediately, then forgive income taxes up to a certain amount for people for a year or two. The thing is here though that if you don't pay income taxes, you of course can't be forgiven taxes and get some back. And community organizers wouldn't be getting money. And the little mouse in Florida wouldn't be getting his own subsidy. And on and on and on.
ReplyDeleteThis would get money directly into the pockets of hard working Ameericans and stimulate buying and business.
Of course, this would not buy Dem votes for the next election.
And do NOT rush this thru with threats of the sky is falling. We fell for that once with Bush and his bipartisan rebate bill. And the Dems fell for it again with O.
Allow plenty of time for congress to look at the bill. Make it a simple less than 10 page document, simply stating X amount of income taxes or X percentage of income taxes are forgiven for a year or two. It couldn't possibly cost as much as this so-called stimulus and would funnel money directly back into the economy very simply.
I disagree that tax rebates or breaks are a better stimulus mechanism alone, Anon. The stimulus package includes tax breaks, but some portion of that money (maybe a big portion, given consumer attitudes right now) will go into savings rather than spending. I think savings are great, but the economy needs a jolt. At the moment, if it's stimulus you're after, government spending is a more immediate jolt. They buy goods, they hire workers, pow! Stimulus now. I know, it's our money, but right now, we aren't spending it. That's why the government is the economic booster of last resort.
ReplyDeletePart of the reason we aren't spending is the doom and gloom being spread by the media, O, and the Dems. This is simply tossing money around, probably with lots of strings but very little oversight, and I doubt that it will have any longlasting stimulative effect.
ReplyDeleteBesides, O is already asking for more money to help people with mortages; in other words, my kids should just stop paying their mortgages because they will now be paying their mortgages besides the mortgages of others, lots of whom should never have been given loans to begin with. Somehow this isn't fair.
Then they are still talking abuot more money for the auto industry, more money for the banks, and on and on and on.
You know, there is going to come a time when we taxpayers are going to say no more. And I don't think it will take much more.
As long as the Barney Frank's of the world have committed tax fraud with no consequences, why should the little people be expected to play by the rules?
Fine, Anon, don't file your tax return. Put up or shut up.
ReplyDelete"Doom and gloom": come now, Anon. Do you seriously want to play John McCain and contend that the fundamentals of the economy are sound, that we're just imagining ourselves into a recession? I'm just one guy, but I can tell you I'm not imagining the absence of extra money in my checking account, or the absence of a raise in next year's salary. Conservatives, please, stop imagining that the world is something other than what it is. You can't live in your imagination, pretending that Barack Obama and Barney Frank are monsters come to rain tyranny (tyranny!) upon us all. They're just Americans trying to solve a problem... which is more than I can say for the Republicans Arlen Specter mentioned.
Less money in your paycheck. Same here. No raise either. What about your daughter's paycheck? That is where it will really be felt. And forget Social Security. Just saw on TV that the US owes an amount of debt equal to what the entire world's GNP is! We will never be able to pay this back, and neither will our kids.
ReplyDeleteAnd unlike Barney Frank, I might sputter about my taxes, but I do pay them.