House Dems Strip Stimulus of $200 Million Provision to Refurbish National Mall

The Dems seem willing to compromise and cave to Obama’s demands to please the Republicans. Republicans and compromise? Not so much…

Well, there’s a small victory for the American taxpayer. I am still waiting to see many more deletions from this bill. I am not holding my breath though. It won’t be long till we are all holding our ankles and having this “stimulus package” shoved someplace very uncomfortable.

Here’s more info on all the amendments the Rules Committee agreed to for tomorrow’s stimulus debate in the House:

“I would say for a lot of my colleagues, it’s perhaps an unrequited love between them and the president. He’s — you know, he’s a cool customer. You know, I think that there are some of us that, you know, maybe try to report on our feet a little bit more than on our knees and he doesn`t necessarily know what to make of us all the time.”
Great quote, Jake. I know it’s a non-sequitur, but I had to say it.

Please Republicans?
Give me a break.
This bill is junk. No one can say if it would create a single job. Nancy Pelosi thinks infanticide will create jobs, euthanasia is likely next as a cost-savings measure.
Little of the money will be spent this year, in spite of Democrats shrieking that this thing has to be passed immeidately.
$4 billion for ACORN?
Good grief.
This is nothing but the Orgasm of Pork.

$4 Billion for ACORN?
This canard is being foisted by Limbaugh, FauxNews and other right-wing filth peddlers like American Spectator, trying to work McCain voters into a lather over nothing. $4.19 billion is proposed for “neighborhood stabilization activities,” which they (Faux and the others) are claiming ACORN “could be eligible for.” If the ongoing voter fraud investigation finds any impropriety on the part of ACORN (which it won’t because the mistakes made were hardly of a criminal nature), there is NO WAY they (ACORN) will be approved for even a fraction of that money…which is all they have at stake in any scenario.
It’s $4.19 billion for which ACORN *could* be eligible for a small part of, assuming they’re cleared in the voter fraud investigation. Totally theoretical. Just $4.19 billion not going straight into the pockets of the rich, that’s all.
The fact that you feel the need to peddle this ACORN “tripe” as alarming says it all.

This week Congress will vote on a stimulus package that, as I have previously written, is more package than stimulus.
Worse, I fear that this short term plan could do long term damage to the economy. And I’m not alone in this. In a recent edition of Forbes, economist Bruce Bartlett warns:
“Thus the argument really boils down to a question of timing. In the short run, the case for stimulus is overwhelming. But in the longer run, we can’t enrich ourselves by borrowing and printing money. That just causes inflation.”
http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/22/stimulus-keynes-taxes-oped-cx_bb_0123bartlett.html
By pouring nearly a trillion dollars into the economy, we are almost certainly risking a rise in inflation. Why worry about inflation? Because inflation taxes everyone. When the price of goods goes up, we all pay for it.
That’s just another reason for President Obama to think through the stimulus plan before signing it. We don’t need a cure that’s worse than the illness. RH

Angie – Don’t give the dems too much credit. Remember this crisis came about because of a 35 year bubble inflated during both dem and rep administrations.

matt-maybe it’s because the bill is loaded with pork, why compromise on pork? I have to give it to the Repubs this go around all of the things that they are asking to have removed are reasonable, this is a stimulus bill and that it should be, we have to all be willing to give credit where credit is due regardless of party, that’s the reason why we haven’t been able to get anything done, as a Dem I don’t choose to see my side and my side only. I choose to see what’s right for the American people because we are all in this together and I have to side with the repubs on this, when are the people going to see these funds? we need to get rid of all of the waste and get to the point.

Seems foolish to cancel the project. It’s a project that would employ a number of people, and business would benefit from the purchase of the materials to do the job. It’s no different than any other infrastructure job. It employs people.
Too bad the republicans can’t think past tax cuts and think they’ll win political points by obstuction alone. There’s a lot of good to be done. This is not the time for political games. I think most Americans, if given the choice would prefer a job with a steady paycheck over a tax cut for the wealthy.

Kenya: “maybe it’s because the bill is loaded with pork”
Claiming a stimulus bill is loaded with “pork” is like claiming Lake Michigan is filled with water. Duh. BY DEFINITION A STIMULUS BILL IS LOADED WITH ‘PORK.’
The restoration of the mall was a perfectly reasonable stimulus program that would have helped employee a large swath of Americans (you don’t import a Caterpillar bulldozer and sod from China). But Obama is brutally pragmatic. Just like he didn’t make a national issue over wearing a flag pin, if Republicans are going to throw an irrational tantrum over fixing a park in DC, fine. The man has survived his kid’s terrible twos and from his deft handling of Republicans it’s clear he learned a thing or two. Pick your battles and don’t try reasoning when they’re throwing an irrational tantrum.

Republicans and Democrats need to both realize we are sick of wasted money going to political pork. They both want there share and they have got to wake up that we are all sick of our money being spent on garbage. Maybe a change in Washington will be good, if they finally realize we at home buy a dryer when it goes out, we pay our bills to not be late, we sacrifice to send our kids to college and do not spend, and still they have to take out a loan to pay for everything that we can not match, we shop with coupons and sales at the store and grocery. We worry about health care expenses, and we rob Peter to pay Paul on a on going basis. We are the middle class and poor. We pay the taxes, and we are all sick of Washington.

It’s about time we had a pragmatist in charge who can stand above all the petty partisan games. The GOP ran to the media over a million dollars in a multibillion dollar stimulus package? Ok. So Obama talked to the Dems and asked them to take out the parts that had the GOP leadership screaming. It’s nice to finally have grown-ups in charge.

The National Mall looks best with a couple million people in it. Other than that it’s a shabby excuse for such a famous landmark. It’s grungy.
But I’m happy to trust Pres. Obama with my life every day and I’m sure he and his people will make the right decisions.

I thought Obama said this wouldn’t happen in his administration? Now we find out that his package includes items that have nothing to do with stimulating the economy. Fool me once! I think it is time to slow down this stimulas package and go through it with a fine tooth comb before we let him try and shove it down our throat. I’m not to impressed with Obama so far.

“I thought Obama said this wouldn’t happen in his administration?”
You should pay more attention, Obama said it would happen and thank goodness it is happening.
Very impressed with the man.

This is a joke. They drop the ear marks that they get caught on. How about the CBO assessment. How about the junk economics used in the plan. And TARP 2 is coming. NO NO and more NO.
This is insanity. The government is out of control. If they wont listen to the American people we need a lot of impeachment trials.

ON the one hand, we all know that the ‘moderate’ Republicans aren’t going to vote for the law anyway, and are just trying to insure that it doesn’t work as well as it should.
On the other hand, after this, Obama will have all the proof he needs that he shouldn’t ever listen to the Republicans again.

Don’t worry. The Republicans will find some other “liberal pet project” to whine about and select as the reason they would never vote for the stimulus.

The National Mall is a disgrace, with parts of the seawall by the Jefferson Memorial falling into the tidepool, potholes and broken curbing throughout, disintegrating concrete and areas where no vegetation can root due to erosion and trampling.
The lighting is poor, too.

Obama is playing this smart and in doing so is beating the repubs at their own game. He’s taking out “throw away” parts of the bill that repubs are vociferously objecting to. In doing so Obama gets to claim he’s being bi-partisan, and in the end he’s going to get the important parts of the package that he really wants anyway. In light of Obama’s (and the House Dems’) “concessions” to the repubs, the more the repubs continue to reject the package the more they will be viewed as obstructionists who are playing the same old partisan politics. Haha! I love it! Way to go Mr President!

What doesn’t Obama give the money to the people who need it the most. The American people are the ones suffering, so use your heads about this. My idea is to give every household $100,000.00. that way we could: buy a house or the bank off so it won’t be foreclosed on, buy a car (or 2) instead of trying the fix the old ones, pay the back taxes on our house or pay the mortgage off, or buy new furniture, appliances, whatever. The purpose of this is that we will be BUYING things. The American people are the ones that will boost the economy but we need money to do it. This stimulus package is only a smoke screen of what is to come. Please President Obama and the GOP, consider my idea…..

What a shame that the parsimonious GOP has so little appreciation for a national treasure. They’re playing gotcha on the bill with a very selective interpretation of what a stimulus is.

“Corporations should only make enough profit so they can barely exist.”
Scary quote. Where will the new jobs come from if this is your belief? What about entertainers and athletes. Should they just make enough so they can barely exist? What about authors and lawyers and… politicians?

For the National Mall to become and family planning to become part of the stimulus plan really takes away from the seriousness of an intent to create “4 million good paying jobs” with this package.Furthermore,I’m wondering if all the stimulus plan can create is menial jobs.Are those with higher education supposed to rollup their sleeves and transform into handymen? I hope all of this does not end up being hype.

Obama/Dems are only cutting out the wasteful spending because they were caught by the GOP and American public who are more watchful over how their money gets spent nowadays. Yes, these projects would have created jobs, but what kind of jobs and to who? Surely not sustainable, long-term positions to those who need employment the most. More of the same political games from a new administration touting change.

Come visit America’s Capital City – The Mall is our National Mudhole
It concerns me that out nation’s Capital City remains a national disgrace – the Jefferson Memorial is falling into the Tidal Basin, the Mall has no grass and is now a massive mudhole – mighty inviting for tourists. Guess their money doesn’t count. After busting the budget during their too many years in power and leaving the economy in a shambles, I’m having a hard time understanding why anyone listens to Republicans right now – give the Democrats a chance to do something different – too the neglect of our nation’s Capital City will continue thanks to a bunch of hypocritical whiners.

Republicans complaining about spending and deficits . . . that’s funny
“$200 million” is about half what we spend in Iraq per DAY ($10 billion/month)!
The borrow and spend GOP has been running up deficits since the Reagan years. They like to show they are not big spenders by making a big deal out of same single expenditure, like this. Remember all of the talk about the National Endowment for the Arts. Another drop in the bucket compared to what is being spent on some useless program like Star Wars!
Gimme a break.

Matt – “The Dems seem willing to compromise and cave to Obama’s demands to please the Republicans” Well it’s easy to compromise when most of it shouldn’t have been in the bill in the first place. All the Republicans want is for the bill to do what it is supposed to do – stimulate the economy. Increasing PELL grants & students loans does not create jobs – those increases need to be handled separately. Millions of dollars to study universal health care doesn’t create jobs. Millions of dollars for after school snacks does not create jobs. Should I go on?