Obama’s Feisty Stimulus Rhetoric Continues

What sent the economy into a tailspin a few years ago were the morons trying to get rich quick flipping houses with mortgages they couldn’t afford and should never have assumed. Having secured his own house under suspicious financial circumstances Obama probably is totally unaware of this.

RE: “First of all, I found this deficit when I showed up.
He’s ignoring the fact that this bill will add to the deficit.
Second, he can insist the bill be free of earmarks by threatening to veto it if it has any earmarks in it. His party has the majority in both houses.

I would add that a tax credit for homebuyers is silly. The market for housing was and is overinflated. There’s nothing wrong with letting it come down to the level it is supposed to be at.
State and local governments are in trouble in part because they just padded their own budgets when the windfalls from property tax revenues were flowing in.

the real obama has arrived—I am really scared for this country as this man has no clue—he is no leader–no inspiration at all

Adding a Tax Break and Giveaways to first time homebuyers will only make the Housing Market worse, Back to Square one People will go out and Buy houses they cant afford because it will be Easy for them, The Republicans want to Pratically give the house away.Why cant the Republicans try new things then the tired old Failed REGAN TAX CUT THEORY! WE TRIED IT IT HASNT WORKED

Lisa’s right: the proposal Cantor offered Obama was very very different than some of the amendments Senate Republicans have been proposing the past few days.

Angie wrote: “My President is Right! you go Obama he tried to Be nice he tried to work with the Republicans,ENOUGH IS ENOUGH The country voted for obama and change, not the same old tired Failed Policies that has got us here in the First Place!If we wanted the Republican ways and Ideals then John Mccain would have one!”…………The political game of calling out the Republicans is a fun one to play for president Obama and it may garner him some support from ignorant Americans from Maine to California but anyone paying attention realizes the Democrats can write this bill ANYWAY they want to, pass it in an unedited form and have the president sign it into law. With a majority in both houses of Congress there is NO NEED for Republican votes. So come on Democrats! Why can’t you get it together? Could it be you’re covering your own butts in case this plan is a complete failure? You want some Republicans on board to share the blame?

Obama is soooo arrogant!!!

He’s right, first fix the obliterated economy, then the ballooning deficit. You can’t do it the other way around, there is nothing but continued devastation in that direction. It doesn’t mean anything though without the federal reserve & treasury on board. If they keep selling bonds and sucking money out of the system then these infusions of borrowed money are just going to be part of a wild goose chase to fix the economy, and the gov may start to default if it fails. At least at that point it will have no choice but to legislate new money to save itself.

Angie from Pa wrote: “Adding a Tax Break and Giveaways to first time homebuyers will only make the Housing Market worse, Back to Square one People will go out and Buy houses they cant afford because it will be Easy for them, The Republicans want to Pratically give the house away.”………..It isn’t a tax break for “first time homebuyers”. It is a tax break for homebuyers and current homeowners and no, it won’t make the housing market worse by creating buyers. That would, in fact, cause home values to rise but more importantly, a tax break isn’t going to cause a rush on purchasing of new homes. Maybe you haven’t noticed but there isn’t much capital readily available for unqualified buyers. You know, the types of buyers the democrats forced banks to loan money to and promised to back up the bad debt with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? The free market meddling the caused the entire mess?

DAN
Please get your Facts straight the Tax break is for first time Homebuyers to give them an Incentive to Buy but why would you want to rub salt in the wounds so to speak?

Angie,
Apparently you didn’t read a thing I wrote. The point was there is no need for bipartisanship so get on with it democratic party. If the Messiah is soooooo interested in bipartisanship (ooh, I threw up a little) then why is he now whining that the republicans aren’t giving him what he wants? So he wants the republicans to be bipartisan by accepting his idealogy without question. Please. Your messiah is an arrogant, angry, unqualified embarrassment. His administration will one day be seen as worse than the Carter White House.

DAN
I believe the Former Administration is all the things you listed and so does Half the country

From the CBS poll:
“Eighty-one percent of Americans say the stimulus bill should be a bipartisan effort. Just 13 percent think it is okay for a bill to be passed with only the backing of the Democratic majority.
There are signs that Americans are receptive to Republicans’ push to increase the proportion of tax cuts in the stimulus bill: Asked whether higher government spending or tax cuts for business would be more effective in ending the recession, 59 percent choose the tax cuts. Just 22 percent prefer more government spending.”
So if Obama is really interested in doing the right thing he will rework the bill and take an extra week to get it right.
Act in haste repent in leisure.

“I believe the Former Administration is all the things you listed and so does Half the country”………I don’t care. The former administration is just that. FORMER. You and your Obama worshipping cohorts need to realize that you can’t just keep falling back on grousing about Bush. Bush ain’t in office darlin’. Obama is. You got what you want. Live in the present. You all remind me of jilted lovers who just can’t move on even in a new marriage. Pitiful really.

Question :
What do you feed a malnorished economy.
Answer :
Good old fashion USA Grade A pork. The economy is loosing weight by the tens of thousands of jobs. All the doctors(economists) agree that the main problem right now is loss of body tissue. The fancy supermarket (wall street and banks) is out of stock, all empty shelves. Farmer Sam, better known as Uncle Sam is our only hope. Uncle Sam needs to dish out the pork to get the good old USA back up to fighting weight. So we can squable about the fat content in the pork but understand this: We need this meat to build this economy back to Health!!

Actually, I found the joke about AF1 to be inappropriate considering the subject matter of his speech and the dire economical situations of many Americans. Another clueless moment for Obama and his speechwriters.

“Obama gave me Hope tonight,”
Instead of Obama giving you hope, why dont you give yourself thinking.
Go read the Bill or the summaries. There is very little infrastructure build out in there.
The tax rebates are just that- one shots. There is no change to the tax code that would cause business to increase investment.
There are some good things in there (like the grid upgrade) but those are over shadowed by the money that will be wasted. Al this money has to be paid back, which means it is going to be taken out of the economy again.

“Give ‘em hell, Barack! Great speech tonight. An inspirational and visionary leader taking charge. This is exactly what our country needs.
God bless President Obama, and may we all be wise enough to trust him. The Republicans want to push the same garbage that created our economic downfall; who with any sanity would listen to them now?”…….Great question. If Obama and his worshippers think the republicans destroyed the economy over the last eight years why would Obama and his disciples suddenly want republican ideas and votes on this legislation. As I already pointed out he doesn’t need the republicans involved at all so tell them to take a flying leap. If you’re angry at someone it ought to be the obstructionist democrats preventing your majesty’s bill from being passed as is. On one hand you dems say the republicans ruined the economy but now you blame them for not playing a role in fixing the mess. Fascinating.

Mr. Tapper writes:
“Obama – who had said in the past that his economic stimulus bill would be free of earmarks – downplayed the importance of an earmark free bill.
‘When was the last time that we saw a bill of this magnitude move out with no earmarks in it? Not one, he said.”
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I think you have misunderstood what President Obama said. He was saying that there’s “not one” earmark in the bill; he was asking when was that last time that’s happened. He was not “downplaying the importance of an earmark-free bill.”
In fact, ProPublica has noted, “In theory and publicity, the package is ‘earmark-free.’”

Any so called stimulus bill that has in it “gifts” to 15,000 cities for parks and atv trails that will produce “dozens of jobs” when we are losing half million jobs per month is a total joke. Obama wants the Republicans on board with this so when it is a failure and the 2010 elections are looming, then the Democrats can point to the Republicans and say, they signed it too.
I am a Democrat, but I think the worst thing to ever happen to the party or the country was to elect Queen Nancy, who wants to run the country her way or no way. This bill should be concise, comprehensive, and include nothing but tax breaks and funding that will immediately and directly create at least hundreds of thousands of jobs, and let all the little special interests fend for themselves. When you are dealing with billions, sometimes it is easy to lose sight of where we are wasting millions, but it adds up quickly and remember, this is money our great grandchildren will still be paying back with interest.

We need MORE and BETTER tax cuts, and we need to DEREGULATE, DEREGULATE, DEREGULATE!! Get the government off the businessmen’s backs!!!
Ooops, we tried that.

The best solution is to invade Iraq.

What happened to the $800 Billion that Bush & Paulson gave to Wall Street?

The root of the crisis is solved if we require a balanced budget with zero deficit, prevent gay marriages and outlaw all abortions.

“Go read the Bill or the summaries. There is very little infrastructure build out in there.”
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Infrastructure projects account for 90 billion, and that’s a conservative estimate. But then when you compare it to 275 billion for tax cuts, it does seem very little with tax breaks exceeding infrastructure projects by about 300%.

Rush said liberals are bad.

Everyone has a different opinion of the Stimlus Package, I say put it out so the entire citizenship of the United States can see it for themselves, all we get on the Natl. News is bits & pieces of this so call Package that is going to give jobs to the millions of umemployed, help home buyers & “jump start” the economy. It was said that just about all of the foreclosures were that people bought homes they could not afford, I for one know that its not just for that reason that foreclosures are taking place, the economy of today take a working wife & husband but things occur that depleys a families money, such as one working person in the family loses his/her job, large medical bills & some of the jobs people have are not good paying jobs, administers & teachers in the public school system “for instance”, raises are very far apart because most of the budget cuts done by States & our Democratic politicans are in the education sector. The Democratic Party is known for tax increases so what did you people think would happen with a majority Democrat Senate & a Democratic President? Why didn’t these Stimlus Packages have certain amounts of money going to the citizens of the United States, we could have paid large bills, paid off our homes, vehicles & when all large bills were paid off, the remainder of their money could be spent throughout the United States & that would have really stimulated the economy. But what do I know, I’m just a citizen & voter in the United States & it seems that our voices have been drowned out by the yelling coming from the Senate & the President. The President said in a speech that his workers in the Oval Office were very tired & it was past time to past the Stimulas Package, did he & his employees think they were going on vacation by being in the Oval Office & White House, “wake up” the vacation was when you worked elsewhere.

“Infrastructure projects account for 90 billion, and that’s a conservative estimate.”
So 10%.
Is it fair to sell this as an infrastructure bill when only 10% of it is actual infrastructure?
Everyone’s impression is that Obama is putting people to work rebuilding crumbling roads.
But thats not really the case at all.

“Don’t you mean which deregulations. Actually, what you’re suggesting needs a complete Jeopardy category of say, Deregulations Leading to Recession. Come to think of it, a whole show would be needed with categories like Reaganomics, Wall Street Caveats, and Trickle Downers. The bonus question could probably have something to do with credit default swaps; that is, if a question could even be framed around such elusive things.”……..So the deregulation policies (which you still haven’t really enumerated) of the Reagan administration led to the recession today? How would one explain the Clinton era of world record economic growth? Is that typical of the negative effect of deregulation? That before the economy goes boom before it goes bust? And if that is the case then is it possible to isolate the evil deregulation that caused the boom and seperate it from the sinister bust deregulation?

Or if you thought I was making up any of the quote you could have pasted a few lines into google and relieved your anxiety
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Nope, Bertie — your postings tend to make me laugh, rather than setting off any anxieties.

“Rush said Obama is a socialist. Sarah Palin said it too. We were warned.”……….’Obama caps CEO salaries at $500,000′—Yeah Collins you make a great point. The president dictating salaries in private industry. Nothing socialist about that. Did you have any real arguments or just poorly formed, mindless snark?

I say that the bs that the House put in the bill needs to be taken out … all of it and only the real stimulative measures that will help THIS year be left in this is not campaign season anymore… I saw Chris Mathews say that Obama is really good at reading a teleprompter thats the truth… however I have said it so mucch now that its beginning to bore me that the ball is in Obamas court now to actually get things done and not “leave it to the legislators” to write things! Sec Gaithner is going to lay out a plan to separate the stimulus from the other junk thats in the bill on Monday! wait till then!

Rush said Obama is a socialist. Sarah Palin said it too. We were warned.
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Excuse me, you left out Joe the Plumber. Don’t ignore other influential figures.

obama is right that we need to stop having it a battle of ideologies just so some faceless nameless bloggers for Rush or whoever can sit back and take pleasure at what hey claim to have done is bogus! THe president apparently didnt havea position he let pelosi,Reid, et al in their humorous personas craft the bills and that was another disaster…GO FIGURE!

“Excuse me, you left out Joe the Plumber. Don’t ignore other influential figures.”……..Let’s see here, I can be on the side of Joe the Plumber or I can choose to stand with Jeremiah the Racist and Bill the Terrorist. Yeah, you’re right, clearly Joe the Plumber is the most offensive of the three.

yea Joe the Plummer didnt know his 15 minutes of fame ended after his first photo op apparently it was admirable for all the Obamabots(not asssociated with The President as he now is) to think that they could just go in and chage cultur in washington from Day 1 is laughable… I mean the president is a good change from Bush but beyond that its basically a bunch of unemployed people seeking handouts… how bout somethign for people that go to work evey night and dont get credit for anything and underpaid and not insured etc!

BertieW
Honestly Maj Leader Reid is like in the old movie, “Fletch”…Reid is “either dead or extremely sleepy!” Sec Clinton prob wanted to be Majority leader and Obama wouldve gotten everything he wanted through both houses bar none and it wouldve worked but its a bunch of leaders that are hanging on to power that caused the mess in the last two yrs!

Kathy
did you ever stop to think that it was the President and VP that were satirized on SNL this past saturday and will be from now on until they stand up to some wayward Dems who just want their fame etc

Housing prices have dropped dramatically, and you can pick up some foreclosed properties for a song. Yet the Stimulus includes a perk that the $7,500 first-time homebuyer tax credit (included in the Bailout last year) be an out-and-out credit that doesn’t have to be paid back to the rest of us taxpayers.

Obama said, “It is a spending package!”
And it is a huge, obscene spending package put together in a foolish haphazard way by Pelosi and company.
Obama has been AWOL except to continue his campaign style rhetoric in an arrogant, obfuscating, manipulative, fear-mongering deluge! :(
This package is over-reaching beyond belief, and this at least matches Obama’s style!
Obama is not a leader! He just follows Pelosi and the far left-wing dem power block. Maybe he has been listening to his mentor Michelle for too long!
So much for change America can believe in!

Obamas plan may work but may I remind you people his “Plan” isnt going to be announced till Monday by Treasury Sec Gaithner(who helped create the old mess) THe President apparently trusted Pelosi,Reid, et al to put some kind of sensible legislation forward and that was the very first mistake… which is the one I hope he was referring too earlier this week other than the Dachle thing! Everyone needs to ring their congressperson, and senators phones off the book to stop the nonsense and pass something that will help THIS year… and you have a right to tell pelosi what to do too… at “speaker.gov” apparently only UFOs can reach Sen Reid!

Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary is AWFUL. Where did they get this corncob? He thinks he’s funny when he is not and is disrespectful to the press. How do we get rid of him?

Feisty? Are you kidding? He was out of control and an embarrassment to the office he holds. What a complete loser. He will fail miserably.

Write it out Obama. 1,000,000,000,000.00
See if only then it sinks in as to the size of this waste.
Those of you that wanted his presidency to be historic, you’re on your way to getting what you want. Largest pork bill ever brought forth.
I can’t believe I voted for this…. I was duped!

I have a question here that I would like an answer to. Why aren’t any of our elected officials calling for an investigation so we can understand how we got here. Dems the Repubs did it over the last 8 years, Repubs say that the Dems did through the Community Reinvestment Act and Fannie and Freddie Mac. It is important that something get done as far as a stimulus package goes but it is even more important to understand how we got here so we don’t repeat it. My guess is that nobody in the government wants this investigation because too many official would get caught with their hands in the cookie jar. We are all a bunch of suckers.

Hey KellyT, I was just wondering if you were saying the same thing when Bush wanted to spend 750 billion? I know I wasn’t.

The economy got to the shape it is in because of Government policy in particular Freddie and Fannie type housing deals. Matters were not helped with Politicians such Dodd, Frank and Schumer taking advantage of their positions and being cozy with the bankers.
Obamas message clearly indicates to me that he doesn’t think that the American people know how to handle their own money and that he and the Politicians in DC know better.
I’ll bet the average hard working men and women think differently.

Well, if the government was so good at managing money then we wouldn’t be in this situation, and medicare and social security wouldn’t be on the edge of insolvency. Why let the facts get in the way though? Too many Americans are looking to the government to fix everything and they have placed all their hope in Pres Obama.

The Electoral College results gave Obama a mandate from the American voters to change the direction. He is right to bring this up. Folks that don’t get how truly serious this is will continue to spout cliches as if this was last September. GOP Senators running in 2010 will vote for it…just watch.

Thinking, let our policies lose then. Remember, if the Dems push this through then they are:
Going against Obama’s pledge of bipartisanship. Bipartisanship is not telling the other side that “I won.” Also, it is not jamming a bill down the throats of the other side. Finally, there is no bipartisanship if no Repubs vote for it. So much for that pledge.
Next, he and the dems will be going against the wishes of the citizens that elected them. Why do you think the phone lines are jammed at the capital? It certainly isn’t people calling in to say what a great job they are doing up there. Have you seen the polls on this thing? And the last thing is he is going against his own words. Pres Obama said last night that we don’t need to try these old policies. Did he mean recently old or really old because a lot of this stuff was tried back in the 30′s and they didn’t work.

“that “patriotic” Americans are rooting for the leader of this country to fail”
So, anyone who disagrees with Obama is unpatriotic? I see no one rooting for the country to fail, do you? Show us an example of a Republican who wants our country to fail.

“People like me don’t want to rush into something.”
And people like me don’t want to be called a racist or unpatriotic if I disagree with Obama’s policies. This seems to be the new MO of the left, unfortunately.

All you commentators think highly of yourselves! Instead of praying for your leader and become a source of edification, you use your tongue like a serpent without control, mercy and respect.
If your leader does not succeed, who will suffer? Is it not your nation, hence you people? I shake my head in disbelief, on how most of you expressed your first-class ungratefulness. God is giving your nation a respite thru this appointed leadership. But watch out! Because God ears are never shut, He may readily change His mind and give you people what you deserve.

Bush bashing is not a strategy. Let’s just look at the alleged stimulus package and see how much of it is actually dedicated to stimulus and how much is dedicated to pork. All this requires is basic math skills and reading comprehension and, unlike, Pelosi and BHO, I actually believe the American people are able to understand that we are getting royally screwed if this passes both Houses. Printing money leads to inflation. Cutting taxes stimulates the economy.

Obama reminds me of a first year teacher coming in trying to be cool and everyone’s buddy.
Then when he realizes he has lost control of the classroom and no one respects him–he tries to get tough.
It is no wonder he is having a terrible start.

Obama was his usual arrogant sarcastic self when speaking before an adoring crowd that will cheer and laugh at anything.
He does not come across as a leader but an immature brat that couldn’t get his way.
He should have sat down and let President Pelosi take over.

TruthSeekr, nobody wants to see this country fail. We live here, we raise our families here, we work here. What kind of statement is that?
People like me don’t want to rush into something. We don’t want to spend a ton of money and increase the debt that we are already passing down. We also don’t want to give away free money, which by the is our money.
As far as your statements go about advisors and economists. You failed to mention the 200 economists that feel this shouldn’t pass either. You fail to mention the business leaders that don’t want this to pass as well.
We as a country need to learn a lesson here. I am not saying that we need to let the economy fail. What I am saying is that it is more important to understand how we got here then to try and plug holes in a dam. If we as a country don’t figure out what led to this mess then we are just failed to repeat.
Posted by: WillyTee | Feb 6, 2009 8:35:41 AM
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I’m glad to hear that not all Republicans are rooting for Obama to fail. If Obama fails, it could severely cripple this nation…
You’re right, WillyTee, I didn’t mention those 200 economist, because, in the grand scheme of things, they make up a very small (but vocal) portion of economic thought. The overwhelming majority of economists, including 387 economists (some of which are Nobel Laureates) who drafted a letter in support of a stimulus, believe that a stimulus is the best, maybe even the last, shot we have at getting the economy on track.
Economics is like all the other social and pure sciences. It has a prevailing laws and theories (what the majority of the field says), as well as alternative theories (what a minority of the field says). Prevailing laws and theories tend to have more empirical (research-based) support, that’s why they are supported by the majority of professionals in the field.
We can listen to the alternative theories of a few. Or, we can go with the prevailing economic laws and theories that say that the best way to get the economy back on track is to inject a large amount of money — stimulus through spending — to get our country out of a recession.
Personally, I think we should go with the ones who have more data and information to back up their proposals. Those happen to be the people Obama has chosen to go with.

“that “patriotic” Americans are rooting for the leader of this country to fail”
So, anyone who disagrees with Obama is unpatriotic? I see no one rooting for the country to fail, do you? Show us an example of a Republican who wants our country to fail.
Posted by: Sigmonde | Feb 6, 2009 8:34:26 AM
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I didn’t say that anyone who disagrees with Obama is unpatriotic. I’m saying that people who root for the President of the United States to fail are unpatriotic.
You asked for an example:
Rush Limbaugh (January 16, 2009 radio show): “I hope he (Obama) fails.”

“He has 37% approval for his package…”
Not so. Today, Gallup says quite clearly on their gallup.com site “A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds 52% of Americans in favor of Congress passing a roughly $800 billion economic stimulus package, identical to what Gallup found a week ago, and essentially the same as at the start of January.”
The only thing that has changed notably has been the noise level from those whining about the stimulus package.

A little over two weeks and we’re hearing how tired his staff is and how he inherited this problem and yada yada yada.
Seems the President thought this would be a personality parade. He was elected by more than 50% and support for this spending bill is less than 40%, yet it’s not his fault.
Not the President Cool I thought I knew.

Rush Limbaugh (January 16, 2009 radio show): “I hope he (Obama) fails.”
Posted by: TruthSeekr
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However, when you put it in the correct context, where he said he wanted him to fail ONLY if it meant socialism …. doesn’t seem so bad does it!! Heck, if socialism is his answer, I want him to fail too! I’m not interested in becoming North Korea thank you very much!
Posted by: Obama, the second coming | Feb 6, 2009 9:41:22 AM
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Rush Limbaugh wasn’t referring to “socialism” in his initial comments. He only said that later when he was trying to cover his butt because he was starting to get fire for his unpatriotic statement.
Yeah, by the way, it does still seem pretty bad. He’s rooting for the President of our country to fail! And you’re willing to follow Rush off that cliff?? Wow.
And you talk about North Korea, but you fail to realize that you’ve been indoctrinated by Dear Leader Limbaugh. It’s dangerous to forsake critical thought for the sake of comfort.
If you have a problem with Obama, that’s your prerogative. In fact, it’s the American way to challenge our leaders, to hold them accountable, to make our voices known when we think they’re off track. But it’s another thing entirely to wish failure upon them. For one, it makes no sense. They don’t operate in some bubble where their successes and failures only affect them. Their successes and failures are our successes and failures as a nation.

Does Rush Limbaugh know the meaning of SOCIALISIM?

>>>>Rush Limbaugh (January 16, 2009 radio show): “I hope he (Obama) fails.”
Typical Obot – twisting the Truth!
Limbaugh wants Obama’s NON-stimulus bill to fail – and all the other pork in future bills.
Obama has already FAILED to place his post-partisan campaign rhetoric into action as president.
Posted by: joseyj | Feb 6, 2009 9:58:08 AM
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LOL “Obot”… I love the name-calling!
Perhaps, you spend more time researching how a stimulus bill works, instead of thumbing through your Book of Insults. If you did a little research, you would know that a stimulus should include large amounts of spending; a plan of tax cuts won’t get the job done. The primary goal of a stimulus is to quickly get money into the economy. That’s exactly what the “pork” you and Dear Leader Limbaugh love to rant against are slated to do.
By the way, talk about twisting words… Obama’s never talked about “post-partisan” (or “post-racial” for that matter) anything. He’s talked about a different tone, an emphasis on bipartisanship, but he seems to understand that some people will continue to prefer obstruction to results. Some people will continue to prefer political point-scoring to action.

If you have a problem with Obama, that’s your prerogative. In fact, it’s the American way to challenge our leaders, to hold them accountable, to make our voices known when we think they’re off track. But it’s another thing entirely to wish failure upon them. For one, it makes no sense. They don’t operate in some bubble where their successes and failures only affect them. Their successes and failures are our successes and failures as a nation.
Posted by: TruthSeekr
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Please read carefully!!
I don’t wish him to fail. In fact, my liberal friends (up here in NY) have cheered me for my open mind about Obama, and his chances to succeed.
However, if he leads us down the path to Socialism (note, I said, path, because he won’t be able to totally get us there in eight years), then – yes – I want him to fail. I want nothing to do w/ socialism!! Nothing!!! It is a failed ideology. Not because it doesn’t mean well, but because, eventually, you run out of people to take money from and – yes – everybody will be equal then …. equally poor and desperate!! There are no long-term successful socialist societies to speak of. They are either in complete dire straights, or have failed!! Even in Europe, they have somewhat realized the errors of their ways and …. gasp – lowered taxes on businesses. Oh the humanity!!!
Please, if this spending scheme of Obama’s works, great. I’m all for it. I don’t want people to fail. But if short-term success ends up coming at the expense of hard working people and businesses (socialism) then – no, I don’t want that. I would think even liberals wouldn’t want socialism, or even seeing the U.S. go down that path toward it?

Does Rush Limbaugh know the meaning of SOCIALISIM?
Posted by: Angie | Feb 6, 2009 10:02:59 AM
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Yes he does …. do you?

“We can say all we like that support is at 52%, but the figure is obviously closer to 37%. Why? Because Reid DOES NOT HAVE THE VOTES!”
So, you’re saying that a statistical poll of the American people doesn’t represent American public opinion… but that 41 Republican Senators do?!
Um. Okay. That’s really pretty ignorant. Rethink that statement and try again.
Oh, and keep in mind that Reid said he has the votes to pass the bill, and that he doesn’t need sixty votes in order to pass the legislation. That’s only to prevent fillibustering… and given that eight Republicans are currently working with the Democrats to craft a compromise bill, I kinda don’t think a fillibuster is all that likely.
What it comes down to is that the Democrats *WANT* to pass this thing with at least a few Republican votes, so that they can show they’ve really tried to include the Republicans on the plan. They just don’t want the hijinks that happened in the House, where Repubicans fought for a bunch of changes to the legislation, only to reneg on their promises to support the legislation because they’re too beholden to feeding at the RNC trough.
They weren’t being strong. They were being whipped… because *ALL* of them depend on the RNC in order to get reelection funds and support for passing their pet projects.

I see a lot of people drinking Rush Limbaugh’s Kool-Aid Obama is less than a month and yet he is facing so much criticisms when he has not even be given a chance to do anything. The Republicans only want him to fail because they want to regain power forgetting that if Obama fails, the United-States fails too. As far am concerned, he has not made any mistake yet.He is doing his best to make the stimulus succeed and IT WILL WORK. The only wounds Obama has are self-inflicted wounds from the appointments of Tom Daschle and others but it only matters because he set those standards for himself. He has the right to appoint whosoever he wishes. Tax-cuts to the wealthy will not create any job. The Republicans are calling spending on Americans pork-projects and the American public are buying the lies. Spending on Americans should never be considered PORK and all those inputs in the bill are inevitable. Money will still have to be spent on those programmes.

” … so that they can show they’ve really tried to include the Republicans on the plan.”
The Puppet’s “bipartisanship” seems to have exhausted itself with the audience at the big house, Kobe beef and vodka … and choosing some worn-out Republicans for His cabinet.
The bad thing about the “post-partisan” (formerly Democratic) “leadership” trying to run the country as a personality cult is that their corporate figurehead doesn’t actually HAVE much of a personality, and is more grounded in electioneering than in principled Democratic politics.
In the 2012 “election”, some pleasant-sounding “moderate” from the Republican Party is going to clean the presidential clock with the greatest of ease. After whatever Congressional slaughter is coming up …

Kinda scary when the “Mr. Cool Postpartisan” mask drops, isn’t it? Obama needs to work on his bipartisanship. Yes, it is immensely helpful (yes, I’m serious) to invite members of Congress from both parties over to the White House for drinks and to visit the Republicans on their own turf to listen to their concerns. These were steps in the right direction to build a nonpartisan coalition and I was heartened to see them. But there was matching substance to go with the symbolism. Yes, he listened to Republican concerns about the bill being a giant grab-bag appropriations bill rather than a well-targeted stimulative spending/tax relief bill. But he did not follow up that “listening” with meaningful action. If he wanted bipartisanship, rather than simply to have the Republicans fall in line and vote for whatever he presented them, he would have taken several key Republicans along and moved down the hall to Speaker Pelosi’s office, where he would have insisted that Obey, Schumer, Pelosi, et al. included the Republicans in the crucial work of crafting the legislation . Pelosi’s insistence on shutting not only Republicans, but Blue Dog Democrats, out of the process is doing far more harm than good. Compromise is called for, and Obama should pave the way toward true compromise. Labelling the Republicans as obstructionists with “tired arguments and worn ideas” when many of them, including Susan Collins and John McCain, are trying desperately to make this a true stimulus package, is not helpful. After all, the tired and worn meme can be applied to the House Democrats’ approach as well– throw money at things we’ve wanted to fund for ages and slap a stimulus label on them to get them pushed through during a crisis.
Spending money on projects that are unrelated to stimulus, just because the democrats who want them are finally fully in charge, is not helpful. If you want to fund Pell Grant increases and conversion box coupons and smoking cessation programs and afterschool programs, fine, strip them out of this bill, put them to a vote in their own bills and move on. But do not lambaste people who rightly point out that such spending is not stimulative and not related to getting us out of the economic ditch.

>>>If you did a little research, you would know that a stimulus should include large amounts of spending;
TruthSeekr – agree – but NOT for Dems pet projects that deserve discussion.
Obama is like Bush all over again – fearmongering to start a war – but this time fearmongering to pass a bill with all kinds of NON-stimulus pork!
Posted by: joseyj | Feb 6, 2009 10:41:07 AM
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I’m glad we can agree on what a stimulus needs to be, joseyj.
We can also agree that whatever is in that bill should undergo intense scrutiny. However, the bill does not contain “earmarks.” No Congressperson is getting special money for his or her “pet programs”. The money would all go to legitimate areas/programs. The problem is that some of the projects stimulate the economy in indirect ways, so they’re more open to attack and accusations of “pork.” But, take pretty much anything that’s been attacked — STD prevention: doctors/nurses/counselors are hired to conduct seminars, money is spent for pamphlets, transportation, etc.; weatherizing homes: construction workers are hired, people buy raw materials, etc.; broadband internet: people are hired to lay fiberoptic lines & setup homes/business for the net, electricians are hired… Those are just a few examples. But, that’s the case with much of the “pork” that’s in the bill; it creates jobs or gets money out there some way.
And, by the way, we keep hearing the argument that some projects are better than others. The Washington Post has an interesting article up about how ANY spending can be stimulative. The point is to get money into any and every sector you can as soon as possible.
Oh, and about the “fear-mongering”… We’ll have to disagree on that one. Look at the unemployment figures that came out today. We’re at a 7.6% unemployment rate now! And it’s projected to get worse, some economists are saying double-digits. There’s also a general sense among economists that, because our credit markets have seized up (liquidity has been reduced) and because many other nations are having severe financial woes, we are headed toward a depression if we don’t move quickly enough. That is scary. But, that’s not “fear-mongering,” it’s the frightening truth.

Wanting this bill in its current form to fail and wanting the president to fail are two starkly different things. I do not want this bill to pass unless it undergoes major overhauling, which it seems there is a determined group of moderates in the Senate from both sides of the aisle working to make happen. We were told by Obama on the campaign trail that he would go over the entire federal budget line by line to make sure every bit of spending was justified and being used effectively and efficiently. But he does not insist on that level of scrutiny for this crucial, currently bad, bill.
I’m tired of people pulling the “well, your side did it in the past” trick when someone brings up that pet projects are stuffed into this bill. That does not make it right and does not matter at this point. We have to move forward and in doing so, we have to concentrate in this bill on spending that will create jobs, that will put money to work quickly on projects like infrastructure construction. Let the worthy projects like afterschool snacks and smoking cessation projects be defended as necessary at a separate time and place, in bills that go through normal channels after we have gotten past the immediate problem of passing a STIMULUS bill.

After hearing David Obey in an interview on NPR this morning about the lack of accountability in the grants, I have to say earmarks sound great! Obey got mad at the reporter when she tried to figure out who was able to oversee the spending and what it was for.

This would have been a great opportunity for Obama to be a real leader, and prove to the country he meant what he said…………Instead, our fears have been confirmed….He is an ego driven arrogant fool….
Com’on now………even those of us that don’t have any experience in the world of politics can see this is tooooooo much to do in one fell swoop…
If this proves to be the fiasco I fear…..Can’t we make it just a 3 or 4 billion dollar mistake?
If Obama truly thought this package was soooooooo crucial to America’s well being….he would be in their slashing whatever he needed to in order to make it acceptable to THE OTHER HALF OF THE COUNTRY…..but then…….he does’nt need too….the democratic controlled congress and O’TVstar…will shove it down our throats….
Its clear the Democrats intend to use these two years they have in power to rape and pillage America….
Thats why we should never let one party have all the power…..Republicans will be helpless.
There’s only one way to stop them…and thats public opinion….You have to be vocal….you have to let them know they will be fired in two years…
All it takes is an e-mail….or phone call to your congressmen…both republican AND democrats…
Orrrrrr….you can just rant HERE….where it makes no difference at all.

Publius is correct. Democrats like Barney Franks (who should be in jail) and Dodd (who should be in jail) were responsible for the housing scandal and now the democratic-controlled Congress of the past two years tries to pretend they had no hand in this mess. Obama is clueless and we are dangerously at risk because of his irresponsible cabinet picks and irresponsible ideology.

Why are we so surprised? OMG! Obama is’nt doing what he promised!
Was’nt he elected to the Senate for Illinois?…..did he do THAT job well?
Voting “present” and using most of that time off campaigning……..Did he really keep whatever campaign promises he made to the state of Illinois?
Just asking………

“If Obama truly thought this package was soooooooo crucial….he would be in their slashing whatever he needed . . . to make it acceptable to THE OTHER HALF OF THE COUNTRY”
Except that the other half of the country is only 38% who are opposed to the stimulus, and that Republicans and Democrats are already working on a compromise that will pass.

“Democrats like Franks and Dodd were responsible for the housing scandal”
If you researched the video of Franks & Dodd defending Fannie incompetence, you’d find that they came from the 2004 investigation of Clinton appointee Franklin Raines, and that Fannie had virtually no subprime exposure in 2004. The VAST majority of its involvement in subprime loans / derivatives happened in 2005-2007, when it was run by Daniel Mudd, a Bush / McCain supporter appointed by a Republican-controlled oversight board.
“Fannie Mae reported that loans from 2006 and 2007 accounted for almost 60 percent of its second-quarter credit losses.”

UMMMM Mark……I’m glad my post was worthy of all that attention….i’m flattered….but the invitation was to comment on the article….weather you agree with my post is not relavant….

“the invitation was to comment on the article….weather you agree with my post is not relavant….”
If you’re posting here, you’re opening your comments to criticism.
The Republicans have added over $100 Billion to this bill, so if the plan does get slashed from about $900B to $800B, that means that the Republicans are essentially controlling over $200B of this bill. And that’s happening without Obama interfering in what is, ultimately, a Senate decision.
If giving Republicans control over a quarter of the entire stimulus plan isn’t enough to win over even a tenth of the Republicans, it makes me wonder whether they’re just being arrogant obstructionists.
Watching the Republicans grandstanding on the Senate floor is frankly infuriating. The country expects them to work with the Democrats to create the best legislation possible, but the simple fact is only eight Republicans appear to be doing this. The rest are off in cloudcookooland, talking about more tax cuts, primarily targeted to the people who absolutely don’t need them!