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John McCain says he will vote against the stimulus package

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It didn't take long for Barack Obama's bipartisan buddies to obstruct his first big plan to help our desperate country. On FNS this morning, John McCain said that he would not vote for the stimulus package that would try to breath life into our suffocating economy which is suffering because of the conservatives that just lost the election.

WALLACE: Let's talk about the economy. We'll get to national security in a moment. The president is pushing an economic stimulus package of $825 billion that raises some of the issues that were at the heart of your campaign against Barack Obama. $275 billion in tax breaks, including money for people who don't pay income taxes. $550 billion in spending, including $200 million to resod the national mall, $360 million to fight sexually transmitted disease. As that package now stands, can john McCain vote for it?

McCAIN: No. We need to make tax cuts permanent and need to make a commitment that they'll be no new taxes. We need to cut payroll taxes. We need to cut business taxes. We need to have a commitment that after a couple of quarters of GDP growth that we will embark on a path to reduce spending to get our budget in balance. We're going to lay an additional $2 trillion of debt on future Americans. Is there going to be a point where foreign countries such as the Chinese stop buying our debt? Look, we've got to eliminate the unnecessary spending. There's got to be some kind of litmus as to whether it will really stimulate the economy and whether it will in the short term. Some of the stimulus in this package is excellent. Some of it has nothing to do -- those projects and others you mentioned -- six billion for broadband Internet access. That will take years. There should be an end point to all of this spending as well. Say two years. If we need to stimulate the economy in a short period of time, let's enact those provisions --

WALLACE: You're talking about a major rewrite as it now stands.

McCAIN: The plan was written by a Democratic majority in the house primarily. So, yeah, I think there has to be major rewrites if we want to stimulate the economy.

WALLACE as it stands, you'd vote against it?

McCAIN: Look, I am opposed to most of the provisions in the bill. As it stands now, I would not support it.

The Republican fetish for tax cuts is astounding. Doesn't McCain remember that the American people rejected his "tax cut" mentality when he lost the election? I'm actually glad that Republicans are acting this way. The more they obstruct him the better it is because hopefully it will push him to be less inclusive with the people that have almost destroyed this country. The American people will not stand for it this early in his term. I've written many times that Obama should not appease them to get things done. They may pay lip service to Obama because he won, but they want him to fail.

But they underestimate the power of his bully pulpit. If he goes on air and tells the country he tried to work with the Republicans but they refused to do the things he deems necessary to kick start this economy, it will resonate and they will pay another huge price. So, keep at it boys and girls. Obstruct away.



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54 comments

McCain must not agree with the seasoning on the pork.
The stimulus package, not the bailout, is a good idea. But by the time it makes it past "bipartisan ship" it will have been ass-raped by special interests into something unrecognizable.

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thats exactly right curt, the rich will figure out how to capitalise on these programs and take the lions share like they allways do, and im wondering about who will set the wage scale on the construction jobs ? will a laborer be paid the same pay as a pipefitter or an electrician ? and how content will a laborer be recieveng less when it costs him just as much to live on as an electrician, i think that the construction unions arent going to be very happy seeing the jobs and pay scales they worked so hard to get destroyed by useing scab labor , thier will be riots and pickets out by men who see thier unions being destroyed by the us government , not only that thousands of retired union members will lose thier pensions just when they need them to survive you might as well destroy thier social security while your at it, the truth is while everyones crying over jobs being threatened by the bad economy and the demise of thier unions thier are more construction union jobs that will be lost then auto workers , looks like its going to be a dog eat dog in americas future!

It hasn't.

When will a Republican finally claim that taxes should be completely eliminated? All taxes do is maintain government which is the problem and every Republican knows it should be drowned in a bathtub.

That might happen to the federal government as their revenue from the little people goes away because we are either unemployed or begin working under the table because they no longer want to support a corrupt government.

Incidentally, that would be the best way to bring about revolutionary change; defund the government. Refuse to pay your taxes. Businesses started it a long time ago.

It's the only form of protest that seems to have potential anymore. After marching in the streets with millions against the invasion of Iraq, writing to legislators in opposition of Telecom immunity, human rights abuses done in our name and redistributing our nation's wealth into the hands of a few corrupt banks, it seems no other forms of protest work.

The only thing that may work is protesting with the purse.

That nicely sums up the Repu'ublicist position.

Enough with the Unity 08 bullshit, President Obama. Ignore the Republicans, they are so yesterday.

Your family is in huge debt and in danger of going bankrupt. Yet you want to cut your income but wait six months until you think about cutting your expenses.
Does any of this make any sense? Will the GOP's actions stop the implosion of the US economy?

Please, can we now dispense with the "Tribute Dinners" and other unearned and unreciprocated ass-kissing of this *sshole? There's a reason he lost the election: he's a mean-spirited, narrow-minded jerk. Let him fade into a well-deserved place of ignominy and failed ambitions.

McRichie-Rich was born into wealth, married into wealth and has so much money he doesn't know how many homes he has. He's got it made in the shade and couldn't care less about the rest of us.

AND

He has never had a job outside of Government. He was born sucking Uncle Sam's tit and is still sucking Uncle Sam's tit. He's just a welfare queen.

Right from how we should cut taxes today to we can't put debt on our children. Idiot

Let those obstructionist bitches block everything but let's shine a spotlight on their every move. Filibuster? Go right ahead, we're going to run every bit of it on the news. And you're right, Obama owns the bully pulpit now - daily news conferences to expose their BS. Let's just keep holding them accountable - the honeymoon is officially over.

Other than MSNBC, who would bother showing the Republican obstructionists? ABC, Fox?

It might make the back page of the NY Times under Bill Kristol's column on how Obama wants to raise our taxes and rape our children.

can't say i disagree that 200mil to resod the national mall is a bit much (can't possibly believe, though, that this is all the $200 large is for...), but...

it's completely inappropriate that "$360 million to fight sexually transmitted disease" be lumped in with a couple other, possibly superfluous expenditures. public health should be #1 priority. and since we're hardwired to f@!k, spending money on sex education and STI prevention is hardly superfluous.

Now after losing the election he's a master at Economicts and will block a plan to help Americans who are struggling.
Every corrupt bill Bush/Cheney wanted John McCain and other Republicans passed it as they were ordered. Now Rush Limballs is right the GOP have to block the package because it will succeed and that just can't happen. The GOP voters can wait for help and others need to stop believing in Obama for Republicans to get back control. Now if McCain/Palin had won Wall Street would have been given that money and America would be building Pottersville's camp now for the workers. Let's just see how this GOP evil plan works?

That does seem to be a great slogan for the GOP:

"I know nothing about economics"

followed by:

"We want government to fail!"

. . . economic policy than about retaining some position within the GOP--i.e., the Church of Ridiculous Economic Policies.

"Let the obstructionism BEGIN!"

[Deleted. Banned spammer-Sitemonitor]

If so, fuck `em. So long as this is a good package and isn't a stimulus package that means heaps of money to Wall Street, no strings attached, then the Repugs will pay a huge cost for obstruction and not supporting it.

Obama's stimulus package is already riddled with crabs.

gee

Gee .. i wonder who Mc Pander is sucking off still ? He even looked kinda lifelike after he recovered from the loss and campaign. Brains still on dead though.

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i wonder who Mc Pander is sucking off still

I believe he is just showing his autofellatio talents. Let's not forget about McCain's sugar wifey, those tax cuts are pretty sweet if you've got $100,000,000.

Just lookin' out for number 1.

Funny you should mention sucking off, see my link below. It's how things are done in Washington.

This video explains how the doubters were convinced to pass the bail out package. It was proposed as the "only way."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynAzBVsWXUI

....I think that one Representative (whose name escapes me) reported on the floor of the House that the Repugs threatened that Martial Law would need to be imposed immediately if the bank bailout wasn't passed post-haste. But, the result is the same.....

The GOPigs are NOT going to work with him. They are going to obstruct, obstruct, obstruct. These are "people" (to use the term in its loosest possible sense)who don't give a shit about America, it's people, or Barack Obama. Unless Obama wakes up, finds his balls, and starts shoving back, he's going to find his Administration being discredited at every turn. Hell, we already see capitulation to the Reichwing in the stimulus plan. Do you know what Obama's health care plan is? Giving tax credits to people who are continuing their coverage under COBRA. Anybody who has ever been unemployed knows what a joke COBRA is, and "tax credits" are a typical GOP solution. I'll say it again - wake the fuck up, President Obama!

I think he is following a carefully constructed PR plan. He is first going to be magnanimous by meeting with the neocons, trying to persuade them nicely to be bipartisan for the good of the country. When they selfishly obstruct and the country starts faltering, he will let the GOP have it publicly and make their obstructionism very obvious to the American people. I think Obama has balls but will wait for the right moment. Wait and see.

Oh, so much for "bipartisan" McCain.

He's back in campaign mode.

Maybe John should'nt have voted to pass the bailout, the stench of hypocrisy wouldn't be so strong.

Why do guys keep worrying about taxes? It's foreign debt that is the issue here, In 2005, U.S. interest payments on foreign debt topped the $100 billion mark for the first time – coming in at $114 billion dollars. That breaks down to $310 million per day, or more than $1 per day for every man, woman, and child in America.

Economically it didn't matter who got elected or if we raise or lower taxes if America, does not stop living on borrowed money.

Wake up C&L

With what money?
Where is the money going to come from?

Hello?

Vegas, it's being printed. The effect of this will be inflation, making the value of the - what must now be at least - $2/day much smaller.

Research how many fiat currencies have survived throughout history, if that doesn't make you think twice I don't what will.

This is our current US Base Money (1919 - November, 2008)
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/fredgraph?s[1][id]=AMBNS

Look at that and then ask yourself how we are going to deal with that? If you aren't sure what I mean, look up 'parabolic rises' and see what almost always follows them.

A printing press is not solution to our problem, it's a whole new can of worms. Mike Maloney’s book (an advisor to Robert Kiyosaki) “Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver”, the title doesn’t do it justice because it is really more about this crisis and the history of money. It leans heavily on Robert Kiyosaki’s book “Prophesy” written in 2002 which covers the ERISA act of 74 and the problems the baby boomers will cause when they retire. It’s important to note Mike’s book was published on August 28, 2008 before the big stock slide so far 100% dead on detail in which has pegged this crisis to this point is very significant. This is pages 112 to 116.

Soon the world will wake up to the fact that though mortgage backed securities (MBS) are a big problem, there is an even bigger problem looming out there, the zero-down loan. MBS are the big problem for the financial sector. MBS only speed up the global transmission of problems through the banking sector. It’s the zero-down loan that threatens to suck the world economy into a black hole.

In the end, I think we’re in for a wild roller coaster of ride, with a few whipsaws thrown in. First the threat of deflation, followed by real deflation, and then followed by hyperinflation.

This scenario is the one that fulfills predictions made by Robert Kiyosaki, and several other people I have great respect for. I think that our current subprime fiasco will turn into a larger problem than it is now, and as the real estate sector begins to plummet, and the credit currency that was borrowed into existence begins to evaporate, the threat of deflation will loom. Then Ben Bernanke will come to the rescue and bail us out by orchestrating another helicopter drop of currency.

In his book “Rich Dad’s Prophesy”, Robert Kiyosaki predicted that one of the greatest stock market booms in history was yet to come, and would last at least until 2007. This was amazing considering that the book was written back in 2002. The country was still reeling from 9/11 and the financial scandals like Enron, while the Dow was finishing a three-year brutal bear market, and many analysts were predicting a bear market for years to come. But Robert made his ultra-bullish prediction in the midst of all that bearish sentiment based on fundamentals of the baby boom demographics and their retirement needs. The so-called experts called Robert a lunatic. Current events reveal he is a genius.

The day of reckoning will come when the millions of baby boomers reach the age where they have to take mandatory distributions from their IRAs. As they find the investments they were counting on for their retirement, their homes and their IRAs full of mutual funds, have actually lost value, that the amount of stuff they can buy from the proceeds if they sell their home is actually less than when they bought their home. And as they realize their dream of comfortable retirement was just that, a dream, all those baby boomers will get scared and pull in their horns. They will stop spending. They will start selling off their assets. And Rich Dad’s second prophesy, the greatest stock market crash in history, will unfold. More and more boomers will panic and sell. I believe this will also be accompanied by the greatest real estate crash the world has ever seen.

This perfect storm of bankruptcies and foreclosures will cause the currency supply to contract as the giant credit bubble pops, and all those big spenders become big savers. When people save their currency, it stops circulating. The economic engine runs out of oil and the whole thing locks up. This is Bernanke’s worst nightmare. This is real deflation, and poor Ben is about to discover the true scale of the horrors of a credit bubble implosion.

When that happens, Ben “burn the currency” Bernanke will once again send out his armada of money-dropping helicopters, but this time something will be different. Something will have gone horribly wrong. The bombs will have been defused. The Fed will try pumping the banking sector by buying every kind of debt they can get their hands on, but to no avail. They will go to extraordinary measures they had said they were prepared to go to. They will buy every mortgage, MBS, and any other type of debt that panicky investors and banks are trying to sell, but nothing good will come of it. They will start buying stocks to buoy the markets, but retail sales will continue to plunge. They will try broad-based tax cuts, but it won’t jump-start the economy. They will work with foreign central banks to buy each other’s debt, but the global economy will continue to plummet. People will finally see through the veil. They will what Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Lion, and the Tin Man saw. That the Wizard of Oz is really just a dopey old guy frantically puling levers.

Remember when we talked about how during WWI the Germans increased their currency supply by 400 percent yet there was no price inflation because of the public’s anxiety over the war and the uncertainty of their future? Imagine the anxiety 75 million baby boomers will feel as they approach retirement, only to find their homes and mutual funds are now worth next to nothing. The nest egg, ladies and gentlemen, has just cracked. When they get the tax rebates from Ben, are they going to buy that new big screen TV and the latest cell phone? I think not. I think they are going to save every dime they can get their hands on. Just like in Germany during the war.

But there will be a point at which a threshold is reached. For each income class it will be different. It will be the point where they feel they’ve finally got enough saved for retirement. For some it will be $100,000, for others it will be $1,000,000 and for others still it will be $10,000,000. Ben knows that there is a point where they’ll feel safe enough to replace that aging computer, and maybe get that new TV. At this point the boys at the Fed will buy enough government debt to fund tax rebates for all the taxes paid in the previous year, but still nobody will buy that new car. The threshold the Fed is looking for will not be reached.

Then in not so quiet desperation, Ben will say, “Screw the helicopters. Send in the bombers.” And as the shadows of millions of stealth currency bombers darken the skies, currency will begin to fall like rain in the desert. As Joe Six-pack and John Q. get tax rebate checks in the mail for all the taxes they paid during their entire lifetimes, fear will be temporarily alleviated and some of that currency will come out of hiding, just as in Weimar Germany. Prices will rise quickly and dramatically as all the stored-up currency energy is released. In a panic, “B2 Ben” (as I predict his new stealth bomber nickname will be) will call back the bombers, but it will be too late. There’s nothing Ben will be able to do to stop it now, because the hyperinflation will have already begun. The Dow will begin an invisible crash of epic proportions, and gold prices will shoot to the moon. If you were wise enough to moor you boat in the safe harbors of gold, silver, and other commodities, you will weather the storm. It won’t be pretty but at least you’ll be safe.

At this point, confidence in currency will fall faster than it can be created. Cost of living will increases for government employees and the cost of all government projects, the subcontractors, the labor, the materials, will all skyrocket. And each time more currency is created to pay for the increases, the value of the currency will fall even faster.

In times like that, governments have only two choices: shut down the government and all of it projects and services, send everybody home without pay, turn off the printing presses, and wait for the free market system to discover levels that account for the quantity of currency in supply; or print the currency into oblivion. Governments have always chosen the latter.

But the stored-up energy of excess currency creation doesn’t have to take place within the United States, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be in the future. In fact, there is an abundance of stored-up currency just waiting to be released right now. As I mentioned earlier, all the dollars we sent overseas to other countries to buy their goods are now sitting in their bank accounts, just waiting to be spent. Eventually, the world economy will lose faith in the U.S. dollar and will want to dump it by buying up goods. This will of course, cause the price of goods to rise, and could, and probably will, trigger a scenario much like the one I have finished describing.

Throughout history economists have suffered from what I like to call “this time syndrome”. This time they’ve become masters of the economic universe. This time they’ve figured it out. This time they’ve tamed the economy. This time they’ve mastered the art of infinite currency amplification. This time a fiat currency will work!

History gives this probability of zero. Each time we sailed toward economic doom the greatest financial minds in the world were at the helm. Do you really think we should continue letting them steer the ship?

McCain says "after a couple of quarters of GDP growth" -- WTF, when is that gonna be, like in 2018??? Without some emergency life-support, this economy will be in the dumps for years.

Tax cuts -- the Republicans don't like to recall that the time when the American economy was actually working best for the average person (not just the top 5%) were the 25 years following WWII. This was the period when taxes on corporations were much higher than they are now. Oh wait, I forgot, Republicans don't care what works well for the average person...

We're going to repay the debt by cutting taxes. They seriously still think this actually works. Amazing... Simply amazing.

So they are going to make more money (for millionaires) by depleting topline revenue? That will get the same result as their laissez-faire approach to regulation---disaster. But go ahead John, keep on shilling for failure and ultimately, oblivion. You and your party will get there.

Enough with the "nice". These Torture supporting, Valerie Plame CIA agent outing traitorous cowards have no say in what America stands for, its values or its future.
They have brought this nation to the brink of destruction. We voted them out because we want a new direction; not bipartisanship policies with known failures.

vote for it and then say the president should veto it

worked last time

mcfuckhead is right back to putting his hand
up his ass again to make more room for his head.

the gop are all about their agenda for their party
and not for the country. they are making themselves
more irrelevant everyday.

John who?

I am finally convinced the Republicans will sacrifice The United States of America and its People to regain power. It is time to wage Political War.

Why

does MKKKain hate America?

If Obama wanted to remove a gun that was about to fire into his senile head, McCain would probably vote against it.

Unless someone from his own party explained it to him -- always assuming anyone would make the effort.

McCain is probably stuck in Sept/Oct mode, where he declared the economy "fundimentally sound."

/it is for he and his crowd.

Have any of you looked at the stimulus packag?. I am not against stimulating the economy but I am against spending millions of dollars to buy sod for the main mall of the White house when thousands of people are losing their jobs, retirement funds, insurance and their homes. Democrats and President Obama should be ashamed of themselves for putting in items such as money for main mall fix ups and condoms in an emergency package to help people save their homes and jobs.

umm

Who do you think are going to get hired to lay the sod?

These proposals create jobs, some short term, some long term, but all of them are needed.

McCain was for the "bailout" for his suffering rich friends, but he's against the stimulus package for the working people?

The right man won the election.

It's not the Government's job to resuscitate dying businesses.

It is the job to provide enough welfare to keep people from starving or having to give up their homes during a Depression.

All the TARP money should be rerouted to unemployment funds to prop up the states that are hardest hit.

Secondly, SBA should be transformed into a microfinance venture capital agency to help the individual build 21st century small businesses and employ people going through the transformation of America.

that mccain states that there must be an endpoint to the stimulus package and spending. i seem to remember that he was for unlimited spending (and americans dying) for the iraq war...for a hundred years! so why the great fiscal turnaround? curious isn't it that the great hypocrite is so concerned now after voting to give the banks money without oversight and a time frame to put it back into circulation for ordinary citizens. oh, and no taxes paid because of offshore accts.

Cut taxes, cut taxes, cut taxes = vote for me, vote for me, vote for me.

Republicans on government: what's government?

Idiots.

Paul Krugman debunks many of the wrongful arguments here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/opinion/26k...

McCain doesn't want anybody taking away his permanent tax cuts for the rich, like him.

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