Obama to Campaign for Stimulus Package
By Susie Madrak Wednesday Dec 31, 2008 11:00amAbsolutely a smart thing to do. I've been saying for years that the reason Democrats have so much trouble pushing their agenda is they think too literally: They lay out the problem and state the proposed solution without selling it to the public.
This is where the Republicans have always excelled, because they come from a sales and marketing culture and average citizens are conditioned to be consumers. So if this is how the Obama administration is going to operate, it's very good news:
President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to lead a full-scale marketing blitz to pass the massive new stimulus package that he says is needed to revive the slumping economy and put the nation on the course he laid out during his campaign.
Obama will move to Washington this weekend, checking into a hotel with his family. In the remaining weeks of the transition, and after he is sworn in, he will use the bully pulpit to make the case for passage of a stimulus package of up to $775 billion, an aide said.
Obama, now in Hawaii on vacation, may travel outside Washington after Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, while others in the new administration scatter across the country to explain in minute detail the scope and purpose of the stimulus plan, said David Axelrod, a senior advisor to the president-elect.
"We'll fan out, and this will be a public process," Axelrod said in an interview. "We'll make clear to people why we need to do what we're doing, why it's the size it is, what the individual component parts are, and why they are an important part of the equation in terms of short-term recovery." Obama, he said, "wants the American people involved in this discussion."
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Izzat what they call free samples of Viagra?
everybody else got a bailout, at the tax payer's expense. as long as we're paying off all of corporate America's debt, we deserve a damn bailout too.
The Republicans are already pissing and moaning about this. All of a sudden they are fiscally responsible and all that jazz.
Or they got the clap from some of those nasty ol' underaged pages.
The Republicans are already pissing and moaning about this. All of a sudden they are fiscally responsible and all that jazz.
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and democrats are embracing record deficits and all that jazz.
Both parties are hypocrits
The Gremlins from the Kremlin have struck again!
we all know this will be years of difficult ecomony
and that the reichwingnuttia will obstruct at every
chance they get except for bailouts for their criminal
corporate friends.
it has been mentioned that a possible season(years) of
civil unrest between the classes is coming. if the
fucking gop religious hypocrites don't stop their
class warfare, discrimination and racism, they may
make themselves the object of discontent from
all the American public.
I still insist that if we in the US think that we can make service economy work (service as in do you want fries with that) all we will accomplish in the long run is going deeper and deeper in to debt. Without manufacturing as the basis of a sound economy all we do is buy without selling. The only thing in the world we sell at this point is guns. Our strong economy was a product of strong unions, strong tariffs, strong borders, and strong infrastructure. We are left today because of 30 years of Reaganomics with none of these tools for a sound economy. A stimulus package can take care of the infrastructure but the international race to take advantage of slave wadges will continue and it will be a long time before the world runs out of poor people to take advantage of.
Unless we bring manufacturing back within US borders, we'll never repair the economy.
Obama needs to get some focus on highly skilled crafts, which even 30 years ago were having to be imported from places in Europe, Germany being one of the primary centers.
With budget cuts to tech and crafts training/apprenticeships for decades, young America doesn't even KNOW that such high-paying jobs exist elsewhere.
Some of our tax money should be used to bring in teachers to take apprentices through rigorous training and make sure they all get good jobs in America with companies who'd be willing to have the work done here rather than overseas. Or send them on work-study programs to European and even Asian manufacturing centers. They can expand their horizons, learn a new culture and language along with their new skills, and return enriched to enrich us all. There is much we could do to bring America back to a reasonably self-sustaining standard.
The US economy of recent year is based on warmongering, so you'll do just fine ....
from the link, subtitle:
His administration 'wants the American people involved' in talks -- but Republican lawmakers say they're still waiting to be consulted themselves.
boohoohooo whaaaaa...
When ask about a stimulus package Republicans were heard to say: "We are willing to lower taxes on the top 5% inorder to help poor people".
...line and sinker!!
exactly why any wpa would fail to pick america up from where we are today, we !meaning the corporations have sent most of our jobs to china india and mexico, thiers little left to buy thats made in america, the corporations have sold us out, the little ammount of money a guy would make off of obummurs wpa will be barely enough to feed your family, let alone raise you out of poverty,its a bandaid placed on a artery gushing blood ,wake up folks this aint the 30s and obummers no fdr!
I remember the neo-con-men repeatedly saying they never pay any attention to the polls.
That worked about as well as a marketing guy who doesn't listen to the customers.
stimulous = debt.
A credit bubble is what has gotten us to where we are. More debt is just an attempt to keep pumping air into an already burst credit bubble.
A dollar is someones debt. As each dollar created comes with an interest charge, aggregate debt can never be repaid. Thus the amount of debt must keep growing in order to have the money to pay off already existing debt. Eventually, a parabolic rise in debt fails.
The FED is running a zero interest rate policy, which is something that occurs at a time of deflation.
The FED and the government are working to hide bad debt, but the bad debt still exists. Japan tried this and it did not work. There is no transparency when bad debt is hidden, instead of being defaulted on and losses taken. The pretense is that we don't have to take no stinkin losses. The reality is that they will be forced at some future date, anyway. We just don't know yet when that date will be.
The whole game plan is to keep driving until the car hits the brick wall.
The excesses need to be corrected for. It is not an option.
Excessive debt, excessive consumption, excessive home building, excessive speculation, excesive number of Starbucks stores.
Excesive debt got us to where we are and more excessive debt cannot solve the problem. The velocity of money is now down to one. It now takes 5 dollars of debt to get 1 dollar of GDP. Debt expansion is becoming ever less efficient.
The car is approaching the brick wall.
Don't look now but the car has already hit the brick wall!!
It sure sounds scary to me but almost every economist, right and left, say that spending money right and not caring about the debt is the way to go. Pretty much every one of the econimists. The only ones who are starting to say anything negative are the right wing diarrhea mouths on the radio and TV.
God Damn George Bush.
will include new wind turbines, which will need blades, and all the other parts, all to be made here, which will need steel which should be made here too. These are all things that have to be addressed.
That's what PEBO has stated he wants to do. That's what I believe he has planned for part of the stimulus package. He has stated that some of the jobs he wants to create and keep that can't be out sourced to foreign countries would be these types so that would have to be manufactoring.
Steel for bridges must come from U.S. companies.
Cement, likewise.
Electronics, ditto
... etc. etc.
That's the only way to jump-start heavy industry -- which MUST be done or it all turns into a giant flopperoo.
And THAT means allowing permits for new (and rather dirty) plants, hopefully with full EPA compliance. Maybe even a new gas refinery or two.
Listen for the screams and gnashing of teeth. Especially from Republicans who see their monopolies being gutted.
I think most of the components in your computer are made in Taiwan/China and there are no factories or even the inkling of factories for those types of things in the US. It would take years for new factories to be built, not to mention the incredible expense of the American worker vs the overseas worker.
Somethings make sense, like Steal and Cement, but the amount of investment in creating a manufacturing base for RAM/Processors/Motherboards would be very high. Especially since few people have experience working those types of factories here.
Good idea, but not practical.
Is a damn good man on Obamas HHS transition team to help sell damn near anything of liberal consequence to the public.
Check out C Span 2, he's teaching the young-uns how to do this.
A smart cookie.
Well that's life for ya
If I was carrying a stimulus package the cops would pull me aside.
Our strong economy was a product of strong unions, strong tariffs, strong borders, and strong infrastructure. We are left today because of 30 years of Reaganomics with none of these tools for a sound economy.
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Our strong economy was the product of the destruction of production capacity in Europe and Asia, while maintaining our own production capacity during WW2. After the war, the U.S. became producer to the world.
Europe and Asia have rebuilt production capacity, thus what was our advantage in the decades after WW2, is now gone. Thre is now global production overcapcity, as can be seen by cars piling up at the ports of long Beach and Bremerhaven.
It is not Reaganomics, but the filling of a world production vaccuum.
Inflation and deflation complete a cycle. Period. Reaganomics is a tree. The inflation/deflation cycle is the forest. You miss the forest for the trees.
The reeason that cars are sitting at the storage lots is because of the decline in wages and the increase in prices of everyday needs. Obviously, you don't have a clue. If everyone in the world has a decent income, there will always be a demand for product.
...and forests, it only takes one tree to create a forest. That's why we're in the mess we're in. That fukin tree was diseased IMO
This stimulus needs not to just hand americans a blank check, but hand them money to start businesses and create jobs. Throwing money at a black hole does nothing, throwing money at the underlying American individualism and work ethic would help a bit. I've said for a long time that the problem is that getting money to start up businesses has gotten too hard, forcing people into shitty corporate jobs that just sustain this never ending consumption orgy. The only people making things are Silicon Valley, and the only people still providing services are consumption services for chinese made shit. The key is providing money to start ups for businesses pertaining to energy efficiency, alternative energies, and such. Obama stated this very early on in his campaign. So we've built more houses than we have people with jobs paying high enough so they can move into them? Get the people working on making all those new houses, and upgrading the millions of homes we already have, into being more energy efficient and self-sustainable. Stop giving corporations tax breaks to send jobs overseas, and put caps on the amount of salary and bonuses their executives can make. Then, restructure 401k's so they're not a pool being fucked in by Wall Street, but that the employees invest and own shares in the company they are working for, so that they have motivation to see it succeed.
Of course the rich will hate this. We should be obedient workers with no stake in anything other than our measly paycheck that barely pays the bills, and we should also be in credit debt to them because its the only way we can buy the cheap chinese-made shit. All the while feeling totally unsatisfied in our work and lives, no matter how much shit we own.
Allow Americans to feel satisfied and achieve something greater in there jobs more than just a bigger paycheck depending on who's ass they kiss the most, and you fix America.
Couple this with zero safety nets and constant discouragement, and you have what's brought down every Fascist and Communist nation to date. Americans don't leave their shitty jobs working for the man because they're too scared to loose their insurance. They're also living paycheck to paycheck, so they have no savings to be able to support themselves while they get there business going. Our economy is failing because all the small business is failing. WAKE UP!!!
The introduction of universal health care would relieve business, the states and, most importantly, people. Come on! It's not that hard. To see how this is funded in Australia see below:
http://tinyurl.com/8v2unz
She
If the deficit is invested in this country and it goes into roads, schools etc then it's a true investment instead of a give away to rich people.
The day of helping the middle class through proxy of the rich is OVER
$775 billion sounds like the total revenue from the federal personal income tax.
Why not just eliminate 2008 federal income taxes for anyone below a certain income level?
That would REALLY stimulate the economy.
Hell, I'd get a pretty nice lump sum out of it, wouldn't you?
...all that would solve is people giving the money back to the banks and buying cheap crap from China
Because it isn't just about stimulating the economy, it is also about improving/repairing our crumbling infrastructure.
Its going to be much more than infrastructure. Watch.
I'd be happy with some light rail transit and a transition to renewable energy. Perhaps even an infrastructure for sustainable EVs.
Oh yeah, and how about some of that single payer healthcare pipe dream while I'm at it?
Without some sort of cooperation, this thing isn't going to get passed, so I have to hope that we actually learned something from the New Deal -- For all those who bitch about "welfare" and "entitlement", isn't it better to have people work for that government money? Create more jobs, et voila, the economy starts to grow, etc.
I just wish people wouldn't conflate Paulson and Bernanke's horrible horrible banker-orgy bailout with a job-creation based economic stimulus package. Paulson's 3 page travesty never created nor saved a single job, with 52% going somewhere besides where it was intended to go and huge "performance bonuses" still being handed out.
We really *do* need infrastructure help. About 27% of our bridges are failing, our levees still suck and we're blowing money building huge boondoggle bases.
No doubt the Obama team will be out with their message helping to promote confidence in the future. But if Obama is really listening to what the people have to say, you have to wonder if he'll have the votes to do it?
Yes, we need a stimulus package and some say it should be at least one trillion. Krugman says whatever the number is double it. But let's get back to basics.
If your asking where all this money for jobs and infrastructure improvements is going to come from, look no further than the governments printing press. When you create dollars out of thin air, the cost of everything goes up because your inflating the currency and more dollars are chasing after fewer goods. That's what inflation is all about. Unless wages go up at the same rate as inflation which has never happened before, your still behind the 8 ball.
If we're going to start spending as Obama would like to do, you have to get back to a manufacturing model and dump the service society model. Unless you produce something of value that the rest of the world wants, you've got nothing.
Obama's heart is in the right place, but just give it a couple of weeks and hopefully his team will be honest with us. This isn't going to be one of those snap your finger moments and everything will get back to what was perceived as normal. It is going to take years and Obama knows it. Hopefully he can turn things around, but it's going to be a long time in coming. That's just the reality of just how bad things really are.
These people are so god damn smart it will make the Republican's head spin. When all is said and done the Republican Party will be lucky to be a footnote. After this is laid out before the Joe Sixpacks and Betty Wineboxes they will understand and be on board and the John Gibsons and the Rush Limpdicks and the Shun Hannitys and the Billy "The Bloody" Kristals and the Britney Humes will be trying to stop whatever the Democrats have sold to the public and the public will have had enough of these slime balls. Just you wait!!! And all the while Norm Coleman and co. are trying to steal the Senate election in Minnesota. Hahahahahahahhahahhahhaha
How's this for a stimulus package?
http://mielofon.com/model/bettie_page/betty-p...
or the Space Plane, much easier to take off & land. Wouldn't do any harm, and lots of good, to place an observatory on the moon, starting with a computer-robot-run, eventually having a human staff. The advances in technology & knowledge would be astronomical. Pffft! on more and more cars.
That's what we need.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAk2BBhQm1o
One has to wonder how Obama can find the time to offer an economy recovery package while remaining absolutely mute concerning the slaughter of innocent Palestinian civilians by Israeli bombs which have been supplied by the United States. Is Obama fearful of repercussions by AIPAC if he dares to criticize the murderous actions of Israel?
After everything else he has cowered on this is the last straw for me, Elitist Twerp.
the plan as outlined is unlikely to provide much stimulus at all. Most of the money will almost certainly be used to reduce household debt and have no stimulus effect whatsoever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDRImv7Sx1w
Dear Mr President,
Now that we helped you reach the mountain top, it seems like you are looking down and trying to 'reach out' to the folks on the other side, who just until recently, were trying to beat you to the top!
It is a good gesture; but make sure that they don't pull you down and you end up with neither their support nor ours - -
Since 1932 and specially after 1980 the 'other party' has continued to abandon the ways of some of their stellar leaders like Lincoln and T.R. and have become more and more rigid and inflexible. We don't need to remind you that it was 'the other party' that colosally mismanaged their duties and responsibilities and got us into all this mess, just as during the Great Depression.
Over 70% of us, the ''ordinary citizens'' have faith in you and have given you the mandate to end the war and to help main-street get back up on its feet; we don't see how you can even consider giving more money to Big Banks and Wallstreet, when they havn't been forthright and forthcoming about how they spend the first $350 billion and without even a faint improvement in the pulse of the economy !
They fooled you and the congress once; don't let them fool you again because the shame will definitely fall on you and we will never forgive or forget - -
Like you have said often, this is the moment ! You M-U-S-T overcome the 'pull and pressure' of the old Corporate Monarchy and boldly strike out in a new direction, where We on Main-Street who supported and shored you up on your tumultuous way to the nomination and the presidency, had hoped that we would have our voices heard, at long last !
The bail out should be overwhelmingly directed toward LOCAL Small Businesses and Institutions, relief with toxic mortgages etc etc.
We hope you are enjoying the view from the mountain top, while we still languish down here, in the valley - -
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