Remember When: Congress Passes $1.4 Trillion Economic Package
By Jon Perr Saturday Feb 07, 2009 5:00am
As President Obama finally starts to fight for his economic stimulus bill, roadblock Republicans in the Senate continue to decry the price tag. While John Thune (R-SD) described how many times $1 trillion worth of $100 bills would circle the earth, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) proclaimed "Americans can't afford a trillion-dollar mistake." Of course, back in 2001, the GOP had no qualms (along with some invertebrate Democrats) in passing George W. Bush's much larger $1.4 trillion tax cut package. And as today's unending sea of red ink and unprecedented upward redistribution of wealth attest, the Republican Party is simply calling for more of the same.
Unlike the 7.6% unemployment rate and $1.2 trillion deficit Barack Obama inherited, George W. Bush arrived at the White House with a federal budget surplus and joblessness at 4.2% - and no mandate. But as every sentient being outside of the mainstream media will recall, Bush promised to slash taxes for the wealthiest Americans, including an end to the estate tax (lovingly rebranded by GOP spinmeisters as the "death tax."). And despite his loss of the popular vote to Al Gore and facing a 50-50 Senate, President Bush and his team made clear there would be no search for common ground with Democrats in pursuit of the 10-year, $1.6 trillion package. As Vice President Dick Cheney put it on December 17, 2000:
"As President-elect Bush has made very clear, he ran on a particular platform that was very carefully developed. It's his program, it's his agenda, and we have no intention at all of backing off of it. It's why we got elected.
So we're going to aggressively pursue tax changes, tax reform, tax cuts, because it's important to do so. [...] The suggestion that somehow, because this was a close election, we should fundamentally change our beliefs, I just think is silly."
For his part, Bush presented the tax cuts as the cure for whatever might ail the economy, both a tasty dessert topping and a floor polish.
Later proclaiming the tax cuts "vital" for economic growth, at first President Bush announced they were essential for emptying the flush treasury (and not a recession) he had inherited from Bill Clinton:
"'The surplus is not the government's money. The surplus is the people's money. And I'm here to ask you to join me in making that case to any federal official you can find."
And listen they did. In Congress, the Republican leadership insisted the Bush tax cut package proceed as designed, a point echoed by the White House. As the New York Times recounted on January 23, 2001:
Mr. Bush discussed tax cuts today in his meeting at the White House with Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Senate's Republican leader. Afterward, Mr. Hastert said he and Mr. Lott would work to complete something very close to Mr. Bush's plan as fast as possible.
"We're going to work with the president to get it through both the House and the Senate the best we can and try to keep to the president's principles and parameters," Mr. Hastert said.
Mr. Bush's spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said the president would "fight for the package that he ran on."
Which is exactly what happened that spring. With only minor changes (the tax cuts were not permanent, the estate tax was lowered and not eliminated), the 2001 Bush tax cuts passed both houses of Congress with substantial numbers of Democrats voting in favor. While the House backed the original $1.6 trillion, the Senate (where Bush faced the opposition of John McCain and soon-be-ex Republican Jim Jeffords) initially voted for "only" a $1.2 trillion. Ultimately, the compromise conference bill came in $1.35 trillion and brought numerous Democrats along for the ride:
The bill passed the House by a vote of 240 to 154, with 28 Democrats and an independent joining all Republicans in voting yes. The Senate then passed it by a vote of 58 to 33.
Twelve Democrats joined 46 Republicans in support of the bill in the Senate. Two Republicans - John McCain of Arizona and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island - voted against it on a day when some members of Congress had already left town for the holiday weekend.
The rest, as they say, is history. Along with the second round of tax cuts passed in 2003, the Bush program as predicted eviscerated the Clinton-era budget surpluses as well as the $5.6 trillion surplus forecast by the CBO by the end of the decade. An analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) in 2006 estimated that the Bush tax cuts were responsible for 51% of the mushrooming federal deficit. (Making them permanent, the Center for American Progress concluded last year, would blow another $2 trillion hole in the budget over 10 years.) And as critics warned, President Bush handed a massive windfall to the wealthiest Americans who needed it least. That result, as software makers are fond of saying, was a feature and not a bug: as was reported last week, the income share of the richest 400 Americans doubled over the past decade.
As for his party's wavering in opposing the dangerous and irresponsible Bush tax cuts, Democratic Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) had this to say after the June 8, 2001 signing ceremony at the White House:
"Every day it looks like a better and better decision. In many respects, I think politically I helped the party. We Democrats would have been in trouble in 2002 just saying no to every one of the president's proposals.''
The lesson for Barack Obama, the right-wing amen corner and the mainstream media alike seem to agree, is this. Bipartisanship is not reaching out to the other side - pleas for post-partisanship, larding the bill with business tax provisions he opposed, meeting three times with GOP leaders and a rare presidential trip to Capitol Hill. Being bipartisan, as George W. Bush taught, is to marshal absolute party unity, proceed with your bill essentially unaltered and bring just enough turncoat Democrats along for the ride.
Alas, as President Obama is now learning the hard way, it apparently only works for Republicans.
UPDATE: MSNBC and ABC are now reporting a tentative deal has been reached in the Senate on a $780 billion compromise stimulus package.
(This piece also appears at Perrspectives.)
Login or Register to post comments.
Tax cuts will cure anything from halitosis to sub zero weather. Just ask your local moron.
Another truism - If you take out and out lies and myths out of the mix, Republicans would have nothing to say. They are truly mentally and morally bankrupt.
tax cuts on the lower/middle classes yes, would solve a lot of short term needs. It would get some money directly into the economy.
On the upper, to stratospheric-upper class? Not so much.
...the Republicans are not interested in tax cuts for the little people., they will only waste it on things like food, medications and heating oil. If they give the wealthy tax cuts, the wealthy can then trickle upon the little people - thus keeping them warm. Food and medications can always be gathered in the woods.
Yet with 46% of the vote, they managed to shove corporate fascism down our throats, wipe out working people, and steal the country blind.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, dimbocrats who won the largest political mandate in many decades (with majorities the republicans could have only dreamed about), have to have the most conservatard idiot DINO man in the Senate beg three republican's to accept a B.S. stimulus bill- in order for them to get passage.
If Obama doesn't come out swinging ,(no longer pushing bipartisanship horseshit in his speech), and call the republicans out on all their American hating bullshit propaganda, and point out how THEY (the GOP) destroyed our country; then on Wednesday, I will dump the democratic party. This is crap!
They need to announce a bigger stimulus, force the republican's to filibuster for real, and then during debate, point out how the GOPer's have no trouble stealing trillion's for themselves and their corporate cronies, but the American people can go "F" themselves! Let the American people get an eyeful of what their "fetus loving" right wing nuts actullay think of them.
I watched in disgust for 2 years as Bush (the 26% president psychopath) shoved shit down Nancy and Harry's throat. Now, with an electoral landslide, 80+ House seats, and soon to be 59 Senate seats (why haven't they seated Franken yet?), these fuckers are letting Ben Nelson, BEN FREAKING NELSON (that republican tool) lead our push for change?
And now, Obama's Sec. Treasury is continuing Paulson's B.S. policies by publicly sayinmg private bankers are much better at running the financial system than Government institutions - more of the "we get the bill, they get the profits" game! Are you freaking kidding me?
This asshole (Geithner) should have been fired the minute he walked off the podium for making that idiotic, corporate-fascist statement.
Since Ted Kennedy went down, is their not one freaking dimbocrat that will stand up in the Senate chamber and scream from the top of their lungs that the repukes are lying, American hating, hypoctite-fascist goons who HATE the average American.
You can wrioe an email to White House if you want. Who knows if they even read them though.
These guy make it as clear as it can get, Krugman's explanations don't even come close to their detail. They tell you what will work too.
Peter Schiff: Stimulus Bill Will Lead to "Unmitigated Disaster"
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/...
Marc Faber: Stimulus will be a disaster
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy1NFhOtNNY&fe...
People who are for it are letting their emotions get in the way of logic, remember the question we asked of Bush and the GOP? How were we going to pay for the war? They couldn't answer.
It's more relevant question today.
And still the politicians can't answer.
In an electronic bank run - that the MSM has not covered.
at 2:20 into the clip he makes the revelation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INAGMSARPYw
transcript:
Money was being removed electronically.
The treasury tried to help with $150 Billion.
But could not stem the tide.
It was an electronic run on the banks.
The treasury intervened but had they not closed down the accounts they estimated that by 2 PM that afternoon. Within 3 hours. $5.5 Trillion would have been withdrawled [sic] and collapsed and within 24 hours the world economy."
Now...
do you REALLY think this new appropriation is going to go where they say it will go? Or will this amount just get sucked into the abyss like the $500 Billion the Congressman reveals?
So who was withdrawing funds? Surely, electronic withdrawls are traceable. The fact that the treasury intervened and closed accounts for even a hour AND no one reported on it is a primary reason why MOST people don't have the information to have an opinion - on peanut butter or government.
I want to know who was behind the run on banks. I can guess, but I think it should be proved.
None of this is going to get fixed without an investigation de-crediting the Bush & Cheney co.
Didn't Clinton learn the lesson of letting Bush Sr. escape charges for Iran/Contra hoping for bipartisan support? Got him a witch hunt and charges of a navy blue dress. Their mantra is "our way or no way".
Torture, pot, surveillance, bail-out, stimulus. What mandate? Are the Republicans still in power or is something else going on?
people should stop calling them irrelevant when they have this much influence with minority representation.
you forgot Predator strikes, renditions, ally intimidation, ignoring the rule of law (torture), and Henry Kissinger missions...
I don't think the BushCo actually left office.
you are correct the list is incomplete,
and thanks for the link above TBT. Watched the clip. Unbelievable. The woman's voice at the beginning of the clip is difficult to listen to, but she is actually well informed and her near panic is justified and being felt by a lot of people right now.
of course the republicans are still in power! obama and most of the dummy crats are actualy repigs in sheeps clothing, the repigs wanted no investigations into crimes they commited since and before 911! they wanted war for profit ,they got it and it continuies today under the new repigs in this administration, they wanted the destruction of the unions ,and social security , the destruction of familys liveing off thier retirement funds that they worked a life time earning,thier going to get it, this scam obamas sponcering is the last piece of the plan to destroy the middle class, wake up and smell the pork being served by this government, obama is no lincoln nd hes no FDR hes the guy the news whores sold you in the stupid primary debates, and hes a one term president, the repigs didnt want to win this last election, they threw it because they had the guy you voted for in thier hip pocket, thier was no need to rig the election with die bold or cageing , they like liber douch love the new repig party!
N-U-C-L-E-A-R ... O-P-T-I-O-N.
If he is not willing to threaten the republicans with that, maybe Democrats should vote him out and pass the leadership on to someone with a backbone.
I have a dog. I do not usually bark commands at him, I talk to him like I would to a person (not necessarily all republicans), except when he strays from what is right, I may bark at him. He then does what I want him to do.
Sen. Reid - You are me - the republicans are the dogs, and I love dogs.
Does the Nuclear option on a dog mean you put em to sleep?
Marc Faber on CNBC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBI2mCx3b4A (2:43)
Inflation through the roof, dollar collapse. Print, print, print, print.
Only way to not default on the debt, is to inflate.
2 years ago, Faber wrote the article: Will America become a banana republic. Decide for yourself:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/faber2.html
Sounds like BushCo. And maybe ObamaCo. Oh man are we screwed!
No qualms spending trillions on the Iraq war. What is the latest bill on that drainhole?
That bill is only going UP.
Obama is going to spend $14 billion more in 2010.
The so-called decline, wasn't really a decline. It just wasn't as much as the pie-in-the-sky generals wanted/submitted. But it is still an increase none-the-less.
Glen Greenwald debunked that earlier this week.
Halliburton is running a special: Iran, invade now and receive a 20% rebate on the cost of your next genocide.
Do we still have those disastrous bush the worst tax cuts?
After two bush the worst recessions and two failed bush the worst military occupations; why are we still even listening to what these regressive clowns have to say?
Why?
because the ruling elite want a collapse. This isn't "accidental" or "who could have seen this coming" crap.
This is outright war on the middle/lower class.
It's time you got your head wrapped around this.
It's pretty obvious that the two parties are only One party, having a Big party at our expense!!
Because the Bush family crime syndicate still runs "the Club," and we ain't in it. You and me, we ain't in it!- G. Carlin
to or believe anything that the McConnell creature has to say, needs to take a long walk on a short pier.
I must admit that the house Dems had the right idea when they told house repugs to go screw themselves. I am sick to death of these chicken shit Senate Dems who have caved to the repugs, to only end up with a bill that has 42% tax cuts that won't do shit for this economy falling into the ocean. To top it all off, the repugs aren't going to vote for it anyway, they are going to use it to say, Obama and Dems failed to fix the problem. For repugs this is all about them regaining control of congress in two years. I can't believe Democrats are this stupid.
I can believe they are this stupid.
Stupid?
How can you possibly ascribe that to these people? They didn't get to be government officials, ELECTED officials by being stupid.
These people are cunning, manipulative, and so many other attributes...
It's staring you right in the face, and you want to describe it as stupid?
cause they are killing the goose that laid the golden egg. They have lost the confidence of the people who elected them.
They are definitely this stupid, plus a whole lot more.
They have much larger majorities than anything Bush the "annointed" had, and yet, the GOPer's got everything they wanted (except S.S. privatization)!
These dems are useless! If they had 64 Senate seats, they would be worrying about holding onto 5 bluedogs to get closure!
These clowns better wake up fast and realize that rage and anger is almost to the boiling point in this country. As more and more people lose their jobs, homes and savings this anger and rage will soon reach the surface. People voted for change and we are not getting it with congress. When and if this anger and rage reaches the surface, cities will go up in smoke all across this country, and we may then see the beginning of the end of this great country.
that preceded the French Revolution. The American Aristocracy, with private jets, hookers paid by company credit card, multiple homes and worldwide bank accounts have no empathy for the increasing numbers and despair of the poor and newly poor. France was burdened by a huge deficit from a war of choice, ruinous financial system and a justice system for the rich. The American Aristocracy is lucky that so far the food distribution system is still working.
It still takes 60 votes in the Senate to get anything done, regardless what Obama does.
Republican Senators up for re-election in 2010.
* Richard Shelby of Alabama
* Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
* John McCain of Arizona
* Mel Martinez of Florida -- will not run
* Johnny Isakson of Georgia
* Mike Crapo of Idaho
* Chuck Grassley of Iowa --
* Sam Brownback of Kansas -- will not run
* Jim Bunning of Kentucky
* David Vitter of Louisiana
* Kit Bond of Missouri -- will not run
* Judd Gregg of New Hampshire
* Richard Burr of North Carolina
* George Voinovich of Ohio -- will not run
* Tom Coburn of Oklahoma --
* Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania --
* Jim DeMint of South Carolina
* John Thune of South Dakota
* Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas -- may retire to run for Gov.
* Bob Bennett of Utah
That's 19 of them. Almost half the 41 Republicans in the Senate.
I'm paying attention to Arlen Specter. He's from Pennsylvania.
Steel country. If he doesn't sign or votes against this stimulus bill. He'll never get re-elected. Vitter will be out. Coburn will be ousted. Bennett I'm not sure of. He'll probably stick around.
Don't bet on Coburn getting voted out. Remember he is from Oklahoma.
It was a long shot. I keep thinking that those folks will wake up. Then you said Oklahoma. They can't all be so fubar. This is my last comment for awhile Capt'. I getting on the road for a few days. hasta.
Have a good trip and be careful!!!!
Those wack jobs in Oklahoma would vote for Charles Manson if he had an "R" next to his name. Though that would be an improvement.
there is no way to comment on the next thread.
{It's being addressed. Thank You. SiteMonitor}
...are sociopathic hypocrites. "These people" enthusiastically vote for unlimited spending on d & d (death & destruction; i.e., war) in not one but two other countries. But they oppose getting American kids healthcare and repairing our roads. Infuckingsane.
...of Repugnican hypocrisy. Jeez I love to strongly dislike these A-holes!
I loathe them with every fiber of my being. They are PURE evil!
Tax cuts don't help when you don't have a job. My hours at work have been cut 50% so even my gross pay doesn't pay the bills. I am literally about 2 months from being homeless. I don't watch any news for more than 5 minutes because I get so mad.
Have all republican supporters kept their jobs? Are they still stupid enough to believe this taxcut bullshit?
..is nobody is loudly making this point about all those tax cuts, i.e., if you don't have a job, you can't take advantage of the tax cuts. the GOP obstructionists are imbeciles and that point ought to be made loudly as well.
I guess the dimbocrats are all too busy worrying about that one last vote they need in the Senate.
Seven of my wife's eight brothers and sisters voted republican in 2008. They are ALL unemployed, or small business owners who went bust. They walk around with a look of terror on their face about what tomorrow may bring. Yet, all they do is bitch about unions and democrats.
Yet, until the repukes took over in 2001, they were all making money hand over fist.
They are soooooo fucking stupid, it boggles the mind.
Can somebody please send this to President Obama. Or somebody close to him.
No comments on the next topic. It has to do with Amato's keyboard I think.
{ Thank You, I'll forward the information. SiteMonitor}
...thought I'd try to get a response here.
In regard to the GOP using talk radio to get their message out, it's ALWAYS bothered me that the right has so many radio airheads and we have so few.
I have a two part question for anyone who may have the wisdom or knowledge to help me understand: 1) Besides Air America and NPR, what/who do we have to listen to? And 2) Why is there so much right-wing radio interest/bias and so little liberal radio?
I mean, it's painfully obvious how ridiculously slanted it is. Is it that we (liberals) don't listen to radio as much? Really, what's the reason? I don't get it. I'd think it'd be more balanced than it is.
.
The reason liberal talk radio does not prosper is that we liberals dont need to be told what to think. The right gets their marching orders from Rush, Hannity, Levin and whole spectrum of clowns from that side of the aisle. We liberals tend to seek out information and make informed decisions based on our own research. Its not that we on the left dont enjoy lib talk, we just dont need to flock to it to find out what our position should be.
On the Video Café there is a good topic about Paul Krugman to Joe Scarborough: You've Got Some Mythical Image of What a Modern Conservative Is. There is a lot more over there as well. Check it out and you can even be the first to comment on a few topics.
Your poster is very informative but may I suggest a revision---the money your party and other willing syncophants spent on the Iraq debacle would stretch for over 1100 miles.
Funny how you hypocrites had no problem throwing money at that problem but go insane when we spend money to help re employ working people. You party chases its tail like a mad dog because the stimulus program is not solely tax cuts---a trickle down theory of voodoo economics that has a proven track record of failure---just like your party.
Small wonder you cheap shot bastards got bounced in November. You better get ready for a similar result in 2010.
..promise not to electrocute any of our troops?
This was a REPLY to:
: P\|/ New
Sat, 02/07/2009 - 05:48 — curtilingus
Halliburton is running a special: Iran, invade now and receive a 20% rebate on the cost of your next genocide.
we should quote Dick Cheney.
Once a Political Hack (Always) a Political Hack.
I cant believe the people of South Dakota would send
a person who creates more Problems than he Solves back to
Washington.
Comments are now open for the next topic
Republicans:
Boldly applying the same solution
to every problem for nearly 40 years.
That's the Neocon way. Rigid, lockstepping backward looking idealogues with a bankrupt philosophy. The same boastful, arrogant jerks that said they "won" in November by losing.
Now that's insanity.
and in fact should have had all prior taxes on the wealthy reinstated with a special levy to help defray the costs of job creation and lessen the deficit impact.
That's what I'm going to write Bill Nelson...'If there is tax breaks in the bill for the rich, vote no' because they don't do anything except drive us further in the hole.
They need to retroacitvely tax the rich. That should be a cornerstone of Obama's policy. Those bastards can afford it! Let McAsshole sell 5 or 6 of his mansions. The remaining 6 (or whatever) he would have should be enough!
" "As President-elect Bush has made very clear, he ran on a particular platform that was very carefully developed. It's his program, it's his agenda, and we have no intention at all of backing off of it. It's why we got elected.
So we're going to aggressively pursue tax changes, tax reform, tax cuts, because it's important to do so. [...] The suggestion that somehow, because this was a close election, we should fundamentally change our beliefs, I just think is silly."
Is telling because it is exactly what the Democrats ARE NOT doing...
Why is it not shouted from the top of the roofs that this economical disaster came from Bush's administration and the republicans.
Republicans greatest factors in creating this disaster was the "TAX CUT" to the corporations and wealthy , the war in Iraq and their sending our manufacturing plants and jobs overseas..
I believe this economical disaster was a planned policy to delete their payment to workers wages/health benefits/retirement programs , unions and force this country into excepting the destruction of our social programs with no way to get around it..
If they steal the money and jobs from this country there would be no way of paying for it and it would be destroy with no fight...
We have paid and aided the corporations in their movement to foreign countries a step at a time that made it a success for them...
not so fast there.
I am willing to acknowledge the crimes of BushCo., but to say they are solely responsible for this is a gross error.
The Bush-41 AS WELL AS Clinton's policies ALL made this happen.
I really don't understand why the democrats don't start framing these bills into 'Job Creation Act' or 'Get America back on Track' act and see how the rethuglicans can vote against them. The rethugs were good at framing the argument with things like 'No Child Left Behind' and did exactly the opposite in the bill they proposed. Except in this case the democrats don't need to do the opposite, just frame them in a way that the rethuglicans are afraid to vote against it.
Hey, let's remember that Congressional Democrats made the Bush tax cuts happen, and the Iraq War, and most of the other things that I personally detest about the last 8 years. The fact that Republicans won't compromise should doom them with the American people, but I'm not counting on it. It didn't hurt Dems to vote wrong.
Republican leaders are practicing a degree of hypocrisy and guerilla obstructionism that is more about destabilizing our economy for purposes of political exploitation than it is about trying to stop the bleeding their leadership and their policies created and continue to exacerbate. They are using arguably conflicting economic theories as a smokescreen to conceal their real agenda, which is to undermine a Democratic president. The percentage of money in the stimulus package that Republicans have tried to “disproportionately sensationalize” is relatively miniscule. All of a sudden Republican leaders care about pork? I don’t buy that BS at all. No one wants money going into unnecessary programs, but I’d rather that some pork exist than block the funds to areas critical to our countries financial survival. That’s the way things have always been done in American government. It’s the normal give and take inherent to a Democratic system. It’s human nature to want more for your people. That’s why rules/laws, oversight, enforcement and accountability are so critical to effective government. But, the Republican leaders are attempting to hold those critical funds hostage right now. I don’t mind that Republicans and Democrats argue over where the monies go. But I do mind that Republican leaders are acting like the Democrats have suddenly invented pork projects after the years that Republicans were in the majority and the Democrats were forced to swallow voluminous quantities of pork because it was shoved down their throats, and in fact has helped to create today’s financial crisis. The Iraq invasion and occupation wasn’t even part of the budget for god’s sake. The money to pay for it doesn’t exist. Where the hell is that money going to come from? When Bush entered office, he had a $128 billion surplus. The federal budget deficit will reach at least $1.2 TRILLION this year thanks to Republican fiscal policies. And Republican leaders are acting like their incredibly irresponsible/suicidal/misguided leadership had nothing to do with that fact. The Republican Party is now the minority Party. The majority of voters have rejected Republican governance/policies because they believe they have failed them on multiple levels. Now Republican leaders are trying to cause Democratic governance/policies to fail, which I see as Republican leaders purposefully trying to sabotage Obama rather than doing what’s in the common good and best interests of our nation at a critically dangerous time. And they won’t even admit that they created the crisis! Republican leaders are still doing whatever they can to create vague/philosophical/subjective arguments that no one can agree on in order to disrupt and deny rather than formulate and agree. They don’t want unity, they want chaos. They want fear and hatred to divide our nation for strictly POLITICAL purposes because they do not have the power of the majority. That’s how they gained power, and that’s how they’re trying to get it back. They will fail, but they will continue to do severe damage. I don’t see that as being the loyal opposition. I see it as being an enemy within whose political biases have lowered their moral and ethical standards. It’s not about right or wrong or fact or logic or good or bad. It’s about power and control and doing whatever it takes no matter how destructive it might be to prevent Democrats from succeeding. I want our country to succeed. If Republicans would rather make the opposition fail than see our country succeed what choice do conscientious leaders and voters have but to condemn and or ignore them? It’s one thing for a political party try to win on its merits; it’s another thing entirely to try to deliberately undermine and cripple their government for partisan political purposes. At least it is in a democracy where it is assumed that our elected representatives place the good of their country ahead of the good of their political party. I wish I felt otherwise, but I don’t feel that Republican leaders give two shits about their country. Their lack of constructive actions and their deliberate destructive actions don’t support any other conclusion………..in my humble opinion.
[Paragraphs are the readers' friends-Sitemonitor]
Thank you. No disrespect, osage, you express many of my feelings quite eloquently and are, I believe, accurate in your assessment; but your lack of paragraphs makes your post above difficult to read.
No offense intended.
I think you summed it up better than anything I've read in a long time.
There's a time for partisanship and disagreement on things but I don't believe this is one of those times. with things very bad in this country with the economy in terrible shape, you'd think the GOP would be more willing to work with the Dems and Obama on coming up with solutions. instead they get in the way and frame the debate their way. sure, some of the bill can be stripped of pork but that small presence doesn't mean the 'entire' thing is suspect. yet with their hue and crying youd think it was. theyve lost two consecutive elections for a reason, but with the way theyre behaving they dont care about finding out why. go reinvent yourselves, GOP, and stop playing politics as usual. electing Steele is a good start but if youre unwilling to change more than just what he represents then youre only going to get smaller.
how much of a tax cut do you get? Great idea a-holes, let's put a cast on the foot when we need brain surgery.
before its even voted on, is very telling. can u you be more partisanly transparent, Mitch ol boy? and Boehner instructing his GOP colleagues to all vote 'no' BEFORE Obama met with them, well, what more does one need to know? no more. the GOP lost the last two elections for many reasons. the American people are tired of them and their lack of ideas and policies that only favor the wealthy. hey GOP, if youre not with us (Americans) youre against us. get outta the way, because things are gonna happen with you or without you.
During the Reagan years there was a massive deficit. They were regarded as a major threat to the budget and the economy. I recall ads of representatives like Phil Crane making a commercial emphasizing the importance in getting the deficit under control.
So, in order to get the public to grasp how much a billion was, they came up with all kinds of analogies. Like the one above and others.
You know things like,"If you lay a billion dollars in 1 dollar bills end to end, it would reach Venus, come back to Earth, bounce off Earth, go past Venus and wedge in Uranus". Well, something like that.
Now they're doing the same crap again, as illustrated above. Yup, the Republicans are the party of new ideas as George Bush once said. I say, "duh yup".
I think that should read "Bush presented the tax cuts as the cause for what is ailing the economy". Not collecting taxes on those who could pay, excusing taxes on corporations that owed the government and ignoring royalties owed by oil and lumber companies has gutted the treasury.
I don't know of a better definition of the word treason.
Pessimism makes things worse
President Obama and his economic team, and even the entire political class in this country, are suffering from collective myopic vision in viewing and tackling the current economic downturn. 2009 is not 1932 but they are trying to apply 1930's prescription to tackle the 2009 problems when the country had undergone a sea-change in its economic activities during the intervening seven decades. During the earlier era, almost everything this country's population needed - even articles like bedspreads, towels, pillowcases, children's clothes and toys etc. were manufactured within the country. Today nearly 90 per cent of the items sold in WalMart and Target stores come from China and elsewhere. Add to them all the consumer electronics, home furniture, etc. Any money which will be put in the hands of the general population by way of tax cuts and rebates will straightaway go into purchase of goods manufactured in other countries and will, possibly, ameliorate the economic situation in China, Mexico and other countries and certainly not here. The manufacturing jobs that had gone overseas are gone for good; they will never come back, let us have no illusions about it. No amount of exhortations, like King Canute stopping the tide, will bring them back. This country, at the prevailing per hour labor costs, cannot afford to manufacture most of the everyday items and even other more expensive durable goods within the country any more. This applies also equally to the services sector like software development and maintenance. As for the stimulus which is sought to be induced by building/renovating highways and by spending billions on creating other infrastructure, they may all be completed within 2-3 years from the date they are started. After that, what next? What will happen to the jobs which are now created in such shot-gun scatter-shot fashion? Are we going to tear down the roads and buildings already built and re-build them again? Or, are we going to begin building bridges to nowhere?
There should be a completely revolutionary change in the mindset of the "experts" who are now entrusted with the task of lifting the country out of the economic morass into which it has fallen. Otherwise, the trillion+ dollars of the stimulus plan will inevitably go down the drain.
Login or Register to post comments.