Obama’s $2-3-Trillion Political Gamble

That they had no real alternative to the stimulus won’t prevent Republicans from slamming the president daily every time another round of unrelated bad economic news hits the wires.
http://www.political-buzz.com/

Oh Wow! Not. Just report will you?
Are you betting that the economy will not turn around? IF not then why is it a gamble? Why can’t you slant it to say the GOP is taking a big gamble by apposing the stimulus?
Will not the GOP beheld to account if things fail while they fight each and every program? Why can’t I say that it failed because things were given up to win some GOP support? Why can’t I say that things failed because the GOP opposed every program that may have helped?
It has been my experience that Naysayers do not last long. Those who repeat what they say usualy go with them.

I don’t know if it will work not being an expert but I do know that it is a pile of money to take such a short time to decide on how to spend it (not to mention the creepy healthcare parts that are being slipped in).
Being that I admit I am no expert are there any experts who knows who exactly withdrew 500 billion from money market accounts last September? Or better yet why did the Government pay (loose) 78 billion in the first round of bailouts? Am I mistaken Geithner was in on this first round since the criminal bankers were from his district?
ABC, you have a lot of work for Mr. Ross to do if you would let him get to it.

young_voter: “Whatever happened to Obama’s BS calling, when he was running, “It’s not Washington who can solve our problem, it’s the people.”"
Typically quotations are used to indicate the person said some specific words. Obama never said that. What is his ACTUAL quote that you are paraphrasing and twisting through your partisan bias?

George says: “…It’s the biggest spending bill of it’s kind”. George, come on! It must be fatigue but I am taken aback that you can’t even make the distinction between “IT’S”, which is short for “it is” or it “it has” and “ITS” the possessive pronoun! That being said, the success or failure of this big gamble will indeed define his re-election or the coming back of the GOP

old conflict of interest Georgie Steppypuppylous, Still being the Democrat talking head huh?

WOW….two TRILLION dollars. There are approximately 300 MILLION people in the USA….but let’s just bump it up to 400 MILLION to include the illegals and the funny math that congress likes…………..I think that comes out to $500.00 for EVERY man, woman, and child……….now that is STIMULUS YOU CAN BELIEVE IN.

I’m not a fan of Mr. Stephanopoulos, and I loath the partisan media, but I have little respect for an uninformed public that clings to partisan politics. Each party has strengths and weaknesses, but the positive side of the parties is lost in the diatribe.
The media should stop capitalizing on every negative story, that’s not news, news would be the media telling the truth without hiding behind a Federal court ruling that the news does not have to contain facts… stop acting like scavengers looking for the next dead body with a story to embellish, and just report the facts. Editorialism is the news in this country, so drop the pretense.
I haven’t seen one story about the corruption that lead us into this crisis. The home builders raking in 200% profits, living for the fiscal year and selling away our future on artifical property values, or the banks looking to capitilize on quick turn mortgages that were sure to fail (musical chairs with the taxpayers insuring the losers), mortgage lenders using a pulse as the only qualifying factor for credit (insured with taxpayer dollars), or corporations paying execs millions for preserving profits in the economic downturn by laying off working class Americans. Ugly stories, some in Rupert Murdocks backyard, but the news media supposedly carries a responsiblity to keep the citizens properly informed.
Regarding the stimulus package, it may very well stem the downward track our economy is on, and allow some return to economic growth, but it will not be President Obama (whom I like and respect) or the Democrats in Congress who ‘save us.’ This is a multi-trillion dollar gamble that our children will pay for. I hope for everyone’s sake, every American, that this stimulus works as intended.

pragmatist, I see the point you are making about the possessive pronoun, “its,” and the contraction, “it’s.” But, do you think that might have been a typographical error from the pinting company? Actually, I do not see any quotation caps attributing it as a direct statement from Mr. Stephanopoulis

As President Obama said in his speech Monday, there are some big holes in the economy. I like to look at this like a Roadrunner cartoon. Like the Coyote we dug a big hole in the road buying houses we could not afford. The banks tried to make it look nice by covering the hole with a blanket painted to look like the road and coming up with ways to keep the bad loans rolling and make a quick buck. We assumed we could be the Roadrunner with economy and housing market just zipping along as we flew right over the hole. The problem is, we are the Coyote. We saw the Roadrunner zip right over the trap, and started to think it was not a trap at all. We walked out onto our nice rug painted like the road, and we all know what happens next. We fell right through. The big issue is, will the Stimulus fill in that hole, or just put another blanket over it to make it look better for a while. The economy goes in cycles, up and down over and over. If the stimulus works there will be a new hole eventually ( that Coyote never did learn ). If it does not, next time we will not just fall into the hole. We will have spent so much money this time we will not be able to get out, which will be like adding to the trap by balancing that big anvil over the hole. As we all know, that big anvil will then fall onto our heads. Our credit will be so maxed out and the damage still left from this time will make anything we are able to do like holding up that little umbrella. There will only be one difference, it won’t be funny.
http://federalistblogs.wordpress.com

Hey George, regarding your article — “DUH!” Get out of the Democratic Party’s pocket and stop the clandestine talks with the President prior to your “reports”. Maybe then you’ll have some worth as a “reporter”.

HA! MEXICO HAS GOT TO BE LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK!!! AND WHO WILL ACTUALLY BE WORKING ALL THE NEWLY CREATED INFRASTRUCTURE JOBS? THE SAME PEOPLE WHO DO NOW … ILLEGAL ALIENS! DID THEY EVEN THINK TO PUT STIPULATIONS IN PLACE THAT ONLY ‘LEGAL’ U.S. CITIZENS CAN HAVE THESE JOBS AND ANY EMPLOYER HIRING ILLEGALS WITH STIMULUS MONEY WOULD LOOSE FUNDING AND BE PROSECUTED? NO … I’M SURE THEY DIDN’T. $311 BILLION STRAIGHT TO MEXICO!!!!

Mr. Stephanopoulus: I listen to you every sunday and love your show. I think you try to fair to everyone and bring out many good points in your interviews. I would like to say this: I think President Obama has done a great job in only three weeks. He has passed the Ledbetter bill making it possible for women to earn the same as a man, the children’s health care bill and the promise to close Guantanomo, and most importantly, stood up to the banks. Now the stimulus package. No one knows if this will be the answer but at least President Obama is taking ownership which is something the Republicans have not done regarding the last eight years. The problems came during their watch and they neglect to mention that it was known that we were in recession last year and one one owned up to it. So….give the guy a chance. He is working hard and trying to work for the little people for a change not big business with the trickle down economy which did not happen.

“And the White House and Democrats say this bill meets President Obama’s original demand to create or save 3.5-million jobs. ”
———————————–
And that is indeed where the “magic/voodoo” starts!
Now that the rush to pass it is done, and given our experience last year with TARP, let us all hope that a few different groups, left, right and independent will REALLY tear this beast apart to see what is in there.
What loopholes did everyone leave open in this rush? How much pork is in there?
But i believe the most important thing the American people need to know is for each appropriation in there, HOW many jobsare expected to be created and how many will be saved?
The president tells us it will create/save 3.5 million jobs. WE need to be able to track it and verify that.
Too much is at stake here for real accountability that is NOT filtered by either party!
I would like to think that even those from the left that bang heads with here would agree that having estimates of the expected created/saved jobs will help us to know what provisions in the bill are working, and which are not.
Since the administration and the congress beleive 3.5 million is the total, it should be not be a difficult matter to produce these estimates.

Yeah I geuss if?,we are all awed by the magnitude of Obama’s Stimulus plan,then our great american public,that has been gifted??, with a ’15 second!’ attention span shall never ask what???,gives this beast’s! life!,and more importantly the creature of government’s composition. Just like the Nazi, this new Regime has promised reform. Manor of shape Obama’s correction to our economy ‘reared’ it’s inhumane head in the outline of a brand new bureaucracy National Coordinator Of Health Information Technology, which if ever fully realized?, shall become this nation’s 21st century equivalent of the Auschswitz death camp. If?,our media is content in not!, doing their 4th estate thing,what else will ‘america’ continue to be ignorant of. First off! how about that ‘capitalism vs.communism’ debate. Let us recall?, that owner of a Georgia Peanut Butter operation,who kept taking the ’5th!’,when being questioned by our Congress. Well in China that man’s lack of business ethics would have won him a trip before a firing squad! Now America who’s??,demostrates integrity. Remember the Soviet Union, a few weeks back some Russian banks whom had experienced some troubles “$$$’s” showed up at the Mecca of Communism aka the Kremlin hoping for what gets in Washington i.e.,a hand-out Putin and the gang gave them a extreme! cold shoulder. Who???,are the hands off capitalist now America,not you! Our new President,who campaigned on the premise off smart deployment of U.S. Forces has gotten off on the wrong foot by using a Predator Drone to attack suspect target and do so! from the Pakistan side was a real idiot’s move!, only driving locals to the Taliban’s call to arms. GWB, who for 8 years was depicted as a person of low mentality, never order the Predator to strike invading Pakistan’s airspace. Betrayal! of american servicepersons is quite evident by Obama’s own choice not to pursue prosecution of the murders of U.S.S. Cole’s Sailors, or perhaps he is just making good on a political debt to his benefactor Nadhmi Auchi,Billionaire UN ‘OIL FOR FOOD’ bureaucrat,and former Hussein-era intel chief. Infinitely! as vexing is ‘AG’ Eric Holder’s, who while Assistant ‘AG’ during Clinton-era ’1993 to 1998′ learned from a reliable source that in Feb., 95′ Singapore Police used employed isolation,induce hypothermia & beatings! to routinely get! confessions from detainees guilty of over staying a visa,spitting on sidewalks,& vandaliam. Holder in his official position at that time offered no opposition to the above state interrogation methods then,so why is Holder ‘acting’ with such a pretense now? Finaly getting back to the ‘chosen one’s’ stimulus plan, on a cold & clear April in 1912, they rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic…,it didn’t work then!, it won’t work now!

Christa
yes you are probably right about some illegals getting some of these jobs so call your congress people and have them add this in. We as citizens can help stimulate the economy by buying USA made products. I know there are not many around.
SearamblerOne get a life. If McSane and the puppet had gotten in office we would be worse off than we are now.

Above, “fempharoh” states the recession has not hit the media. Also, it has not hit the sports people. None of the folks in ESPN or in major leagues getting unemployed. So, this shows the best kept secrets in American Economy.

Sorry first for the bad english, but this what i think President Obama should say instead and also what have not been said regarding the Stimulus Bill. President Sarkosy of France said about PM Brown of England that he ruined his country but cutting taxes, it didn’t work and it broke the entire UK economy , and now there are in a serious recession, you bet Brown did not like it, but they did that because their economy is essentially based on the banking system and consumer spending and they have vey little if not less factories, manufacturies, i mean not much of industrial sector to stimulate, but unfortunately for him (Brown), it was just the truth, Sarkosy says instead he would build bridges, hospitals, schools, revive the automobile industry, invest in science and technology, education, and that at the end of the tunnel what you have are assets, something upon which you can build up.
So instead of President Obama saying if my plan doesn’t work you will have a new president as he said lat time, he should say that if my plan doesn’t work, we will have assets :new schools, secure bridges, best water system, best hospitals but also assets in the people: which means better educated people, more healthy because of a much improved heath system, better formed people because of investment in technology and so on…, those things that we don’t have now. And of Course this would create jobs, because you need teachers, workers,…
As president Sarkosy said, if you give tax cut to someone, he would not spend because he is scared for his job because of the bad economy, he would keep that money for bad times in case he loose his job, in contrary if we invest in infrastructure and people, we have tangible assets but we also have assets in the people themselves. So we wiil be better armed and better off today with those assets to look forward in the future if the economy does not improve and remains as it is now.
So here no gamble, in the worst case scenario we have the most important in our people and for us.

Unfortunately for President Obama he
bet his money on Nancy Pelosi and
Harry Reid when he allowed them to
run roughshod over the Stimulus Bill!
The final result does not create nearly
enough jobs in a short time and is
loaded with too much pork!
Additionally the massive amounts of
money being spent will cause high
rates of interest and inflation
within a couple of years.
Put this together with Obama’s
clueless foreign policy ideas and
you’re looking at Jimmy Carter Part 2!
Obama will be a one-term president.

This is just a ploy for power. We the taxpayer will pay the price. Taxes will go up, don’t be fooled. This will do nothing to help the economic Growth. They know that and they don’t care. Remember the Government is non productive they don’t produce anything.This Countries strength comes from the private sector of free market and production. Everthing the Goverment runs is inefficient and poorly managed. FedEX vs post office. Look how they’ve managed the TARP money 78 billion unaccounted for. Now we are giving them 800 billion to manage. This is nuts.

Some Stimulas, the Democrates CUT Out the Tax Cuts even more!!! What Happened to Obamas ” The People Are Hurting And We’ve Got To Help Them!” ???….. Instead of 500 dollars a person tax cut , it’s now 400. Gee, Thanks…. Cut the essentials and Leave the Pork! Very Brillant Democrates…It’s going to be a LONG 4 Years!!!

from now on imma call this the obama plan 1 he owns this

Trillions of $$ spent is just a drop in the bucket for what the Bush era spent on a prefabricated war that is still costing taxpayers a billion $$ a month! Do the math! The Republicans are screaming about a Recovery package that helps millions of American families! You can’t tell me they did not have time to read the full package, they have never read any bill, they have their aids do their work for them. Most of them have 8-10 aides or more to do this work for them. Sad to say, they each could not read 100 pages from 12:30 pm until the vote at 5:30 pm. Of course, they do not know how to multi task like most 21st American people do. Wake – Up America this package is the vision of the American People!

THE AL CAPONE GOVERNMENT AT ITS BEST — PERJURY, TAX EVASION, CONSPIRACIES, BRIBERY, FRAUD — GOODBYE AMERICA AS I KNEW YOU!!!
MAJOR TRIUMPH FOR OBAMA — MAJOR CATASTROPHE FOR OUR COUNTRY
A 160 million dollar inauguration wasn’t enough of a slap in the face to a hurting nation. Now he flies all over the country at taxpayers’ expense.
President Obama will sign the spending package but maybe he should add that members of Congress, both Houses should have an income freeze as quickly as they spend our money without even reading the spending bill created by lobbyists.
Where is representative government?
Everyone needs to stay engaged — pay attention and inform your family and friends of what is happening. We have elections coming in 2010 to set things right. We need to replace our members of Congress. In the meantime, speak up to your local and state officials — often!!!!

Yep, Republicans will only be able to take credit for creating the mess in the first place, not for attempting to lessen the damage. And how does that work on election day? Thanks a lot, Washington Republicans. You evidently feel no responsibility to clean up the mess you created.

The stimulus package needed to be as large as possible (without the ridiculous pork spending elements) in order for it to be of any significance to the ailing economy. If youre going to go for it you might as well make it as historically big as you can. Lets see what happens.

Barry the socialist is doing exactly what he said he would do. He is growing the size of the federal gov’t and by doing so, greatly increasing its power. He is going to take from the rich and give to the poor. I can’t wait to resemble france- BONJOUR!

Assuming you were ever an OK guy, when did you sell out?

fyi bet you won’t cover this. So much for transparency. Another Obama broken promise.
# djia Says:
February 19th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
posted this in the last article yesterday and it didn’t seem to get any notice….but I know with as fast as posts happen here things do get easily missed; but seeing as this forum has been steadily calling for a INVESTIGATOR ….this should be of great interest to this forum. so i am reposting it here.
The RAT hiding deep inside the stimulus bill
By Byron York
Chief political correspondent 2/19/09
The far-reaching — and potentially dangerous — provision that no one knows about.
You’ve heard a lot about the astonishing spending in the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, signed into law this week by President Barack Obama. But you probably haven’t heard about a provision in the bill that threatens to politicize the way allegations of fraud and corruption are investigated — or not investigated — throughout the federal government.
Photographers take pictures of the economic stimulus bill after President Barack Obama signed the document during a ceremony at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in Denver, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
The provision, which attracted virtually no attention in the debate over the 1,073-page stimulus bill, creates something called the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board — the RAT Board, as it’s known by the few insiders who are aware of it. The board would oversee the in-house watchdogs, known as inspectors general, whose job is to independently investigate allegations of wrongdoing at various federal agencies, without fear of interference by political appointees or the White House.
In the name of accountability and transparency, Congress has given the RAT Board the authority to ask “that an inspector general conduct or refrain from conducting an audit or investigation.” If the inspector general doesn’t want to follow the wishes of the RAT Board, he’ll have to write a report explaining his decision to the board, as well as to the head of his agency (from whom he is supposedly independent) and to Congress. In the end, a determined inspector general can probably get his way, but only after jumping through bureaucratic hoops that will inevitably make him hesitate to go forward.
When Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, a longtime champion of inspectors general, read the words “conduct or refrain from conducting,” alarm bells went off. The language means that the board — whose chairman will be appointed by the president — can reach deep inside a federal agency and tell an inspector general to lay off some particularly sensitive subject. Or, conversely, it can tell the inspector general to go after a tempting political target.
“This strikes at the heart of the independence of inspectors general,” Grassley told me this week, in a phone conversation between visits to town meetings in rural Iowa. “Anytime an inspector general has somebody questioning his authority, it tends to dampen the aggressiveness with which they pursue something, particularly if it’s going to make the incumbent administration look bad.”
I asked Grassley how he learned that the RAT Board was part of the stimulus bill. You’d think that as a member of the House-Senate conference committee, he would have known all about it. But it turns out Grassley’s office first heard about the provision creating the RAT Board last Wednesday, in a tip from a worried inspector general. It wasn’t until Friday morning — after the bill was finished and just hours before the Senate was to begin voting — that Grassley discovered the board was in the final text. “This was snuck in,” Grassley told me. “It wasn’t something that was debated.”
Snuck in by whom? It’s not entirely clear. “I intend to get down to the bottom of where this comes from,” Grassley vowed. “And quite frankly, it better not come from this administration, because this administration has reminded us that it is not about business as usual, that it is for total transparency.”
Maybe not this time. When I inquired with the office of a Democratic senator, one who is a big fan of inspectors general, I was told the RAT Board was “something the Obama administration wanted included in this bill.” When I asked the White House, staffers told me they’d look into it. So for now, at least, there’s been no claim of paternity.
The RAT Board has all sorts of other things wrong with it. For one thing, it’s redundant; there is already a board through which inspectors general police themselves, created last year in the Inspectors General Reform Act. For another thing, it could complicate criminal investigations stemming from inspector general probes. And then there’s the question of what it has to do with stimulating the economy.
But none of that matters now. It’s the law.
Last Friday, when he learned the RAT Board was in the final bill, Grassley wanted to voice his objections on the Senate floor. But there was no time in the rush to a vote, so Grassley’s statement went unread. “It’s fitting that the acronym for this board is RAT,” he was prepared to tell the Senate, “because that’s what I smell here.”
Byron York, The Examiner’s chief political correspondent, can be contacted at byork@dcexaminer.com. His stories and blogs can be read daily at examinerpolitics.com.

I would have preferred more analysis of how the stimulus package will address our long-term economic problems. With increased globalization of the economy, it’s clear that other countries such as China have benefitted from our economy the past few decades. To the extent that the stimulus pumps more money supply into our economy, and to the extent that such infusion benefits other countries, it seems appropriate to have other countries share tbe burden of our federal government’s debt. I would like to see President Obama exercise some Economic Diplomacy to augment the federal government’s resources from other countries to payoff a portion of the debt associated with the economic stimulus package. Any other ideas on this suggestion?

ffor info

The stimulas is dead
they bailout and the market dives
they bailout again and it dives deeper faster, they bailout again and the market drops like a rock see the pattern
since where heading to the bottom we should have let the market correct itself and save all the money instead of throughing it down the Obama Hole because the stimulas hasnt and wont work. and all Obama has done is reward the ceo,s and give the bankers one hack of a bonus at our exspense and I still here the calls from Obama Bailout here bailout there bailout the banks bailout the auto industries.NO let them fail and the little guys can pick up there assets just like its suppost to be And quit playing favorits There is no such thing as to big to fail ( JUst like Obama Has )

All of you need to stop bashing Obama… He is simply doing what he promised! He promised to be the President of change, and when he’s done, that’s we’ll have! We’ll all have change in our pockets.