All along, there has been this sense of rushing to pass some sort of stimulus bill, any sort, in a whole big hurry so it could be signed by the phony deadline of President's Day. Debate in both houses had to be limited to put it through. The conference committee's deliberations had to be rushed. And then, when the final bill was ready to be voted on, they had one night in the House and less than 24 hours in the Senate to read the whole thing. Ohio's Senator Sherrod Brown had to be flown back from his mother's memorial service in order to cast the deciding vote on Friday. But what was the big hurry? As the New York Post points out, President Obama has gone out of town to Chicago for Valentine's Day and won't be back to sign the bill until Tuesday. Certainly, given that this is the largest spending bill in our nation's history, there could have been enough time allotted for them to actually read what they were voting on? But no. They had to hurry it up and forget about reading the thing.
Perhaps the hurry was so that Nancy Pelosi could catch her plane to Italy Friday evening. Or maybe they were just afraid to let the bill sit out there for a long weekend while politicians and journalists pored over the thing and kept holding up a boondoggle here and a boondoggle there for public ridicule that such items are being counted as emergency stimulus. Maybe they were afraid of losing their one-vote margin in the Senate if more people actually found out what was in the bill. On Friday we were facing a three-day weekend with the federal government shut down. They could have voted on Tuesday and sent the bill to President Obama on Tuesday just as it is going to go now. But nooooo, we had to have this whole manufactured rush to get this turkey passed without people reading the thing just so it could sit around for three days waiting for the President to come back to town and sign it.
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16 comments:
But if you order NOW, we'll throw in a set of Ginsu knives!
It's getting close to time for pitchforks, tar and feathers....
Pitchforks, tar and feathers for whom? And who's supplying them? The 28% of the people who think W was a good president? Lots of credibility there.
Was the stimulus package rushed? Yes. Does it contain some wasteful spending? Of course.
Despite some boneheaded moves, Obama's already backed repubs into a corner. Even if the economy hasn't yet bottomed out, it will start to improve in a year or so. Obama and dems will be crediting the stimulus (rightfully or not). Repubs will be saying it would have happened anyway (rightfully or not). Who do you think the majority will believe? The repubs, with one leader saying he hopes Obama fails, and another who said nobody should trust Republicans (thanks, Michael Steele)? The same repubs who tried to cover up the billions that have been wasted and stolen in Iraq? Don't think so.
$.8 trillion spent here in the US vs. a projected $1.6 trillion spent in Iraq. Guess again, Cato.
Saul Alinsky would be proud.
I like guys like Mark. They are an object lesson. Mark starts with the canard of the Bush popularity polls, but, curiously, leaves out the Congressional approval ratings. But, even then, it would behoove Mark to actually explain why anyone's approval ratings have any bearing on the goodness or badness of the "not so much" stimulus bill.
Mark agress the bill is rushed and that it includes wasteful spendings. One waits in vain for Mark to actually make anything of that. Instead, he votes "present".
The economy may improve in a year or two, but it might well not. This is a global problem and European banks are in much worse shape than even our banks. The US has lost 2 million jobs. China has lost 20 million. Mark foolishly claims the Iraq was cost $1.3 trillion, but he does that by estimating all future cost based upon leftist analyses. Then, he turns around and claims the "not so much" stimulus bill is only ,8 when even the shallowest analysis has to include the cost of borrowing. Such an analysis would also have to include the permanent increase in the baseline allocation for all those programs getting additional increases. Such an analysis brings the cost of the "not so much" stimulus to over $3 trillion.
But, what is really missing from Mark's analysis is the additional cost for keeping our banking system alive. Without even considering that cost, the deficit this year will move from 3%, or less, of GDP during the Bush years to 15%, or more, of GDP under Obama. It is clear that neither Bush nor the Democrats have any idea of the long term damage that will do to this country. But, never fear, Mark knows that he is right even if he doesn't understand anything at all about the problem.
Rick
Mark:
Pitchforks, tar, and feathers for the 12% who think the (Democratic since '06) Congress is doing a good job. This is the congress which was warned by Republicans in '06 that Fannie and Freddie were going broke. The congress which writes the federal budgets....
Pitchforks, tar, and feathers for the people who minimize 1.1 trillion (with interest paid). Several generations from now, we will still be paying this off. At least the money spent in Iraq went towards a positive goal: eliminating a madman in Iraq who killed thousands of his own people, de-stabilized the entire region, and had a history of attacking nearly all of his neighbors. I don't know about you, but the pictures of the mass graves in northern Iraq reminded me of the pictures from an earlier time: Germany in 1945. Or is it that you don't really care about the slaughter of thousands of people ? Are you really comparing the two expeditures ?
Pitchforks, tar, and feathers for those who blandly accept this theft from our children and submit them to a lifetime of lowered expectations and standard of living.
Pitchforks, tar, and feathers for those who reject a capitalist system which created the most innovation, wealth, and highest standard of living in world history. What we are doing now resembles the actions of socialist nations which have failed everywhere, endlessly.
Pitchforks, tar, and feathers for those who accept the idea of rushing through this legislation so fast that virtually no one had time to read what they were voting on.
And lastly, pitchforks, tar and feathers for "leaders" who then rush off to their private jets (paid for by taxpayers) to get out of town and enjoy a nice weekend while us middle class idiots work to pay for it all.
Kind of reminds me of rushing through the homework on a Friday afternoon to make time for playing ball all weekend as a kid - only on a vastly greater scale which will affect our grandchildren.
Guess again Mark.
The Iraq War made people free.
Obama's budget will make people serfs to the Federal government, unions and community organizers.
"$.8 trillion spent here in the US vs. a projected $1.6 trillion spent in Iraq. Guess again, Cato"
Guess again yourself. .8 + .7 already commited for finance bailout, and as Obama and the Democrat Congress keeps repeating, this is just the start.
Davod,
Yeah, that $.7 trillion is on W's tab. But no doubt Obama will be racking up many more billions in debt. Just part of the price of cleaning up after 43 (just like Clinton had to clean up after 41). Although I doubt Obama will be able to leave 44 (Sarah Palin?) the nice surplus left by Clinton.
Leave it to repubs to bash the bill for containing "pork", then boast about the "pork" that will benefit their constituents.
WASHINGTON — Rep. John Mica was gushing after the House of Representatives voted Friday to pass the big stimulus plan.
"I applaud President Obama's recognition that high-speed rail should be part of America's future," the Florida Republican beamed in a press release.
Yet Mica had just joined every other GOP House member in voting against the $787.2 billion economic recovery plan.
Republicans echoed their party line over and over during the debate: "This bill is loaded with wasteful deficit spending on the majority's favorite government programs," as Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., put it.
But Mica wasn't alone in touting what he saw as the bill's virtues. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, also had nice things to say in a press release.
Apologies. Palin would, of course, be 45. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Yeah, Mark. I'm sure *you* are the sort of person who would rely upon a Chicago politician to clean up after anybody. :P
*snicker* ^~^
Or did you mean "clean up" as in "make a fortune" since so many Democrats are so expert at becoming millionaires while on a public payroll? o_O
*snicker, snicker* ^~^
And isn't it typical of you and your fellow Dhimmicrats that you would feel that unquestioned patronage money for yourselves is somehow a better cause than defending America? ^O^
The failed Obama administration and its Dummycrat supporters will continue to be a treasure for those who like to laugh at the hypocrisy, greed and folly of you libs for many years to come. I wonder what it's like to be Mr. Obama and to know that he is to be punished for his hubris by having to struggle for 4 years as the living embodiement of the Peter Principle? Sucks to be him! ^_~
BTW, Mark. Before you praise this "stimulus" package shouldn't you try to read it first? o_O
That would make you better than the Democrat Congresscritters since none of them ever bothered to read it either. What's with that? Is this a manifestation of the fact that they respond to the pleas of Nigerian Finance Ministers for money without a 2nd glance and are in the habit of publicly posting their credit card numbers on the Net without worrying about consequences or should we congratulate Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha and Charles "Chickenhawk" Rangel for having been elected to high office without ever having learned to read and write? o_O
Hmmm, this would go a long way towards explaining why Rangel and Greither were unable to fill out an income tax form, wouldn't it? ^_~
Putting lipstick on the pig does not change the fact that it is an extremely fat Democrat pig.
I'm not too sure that the "Chickenhawk" label applies to Rep Rangel as he served four years in the Army and was a decorated member of the 503rd Artillery Battalion. That battalion covered the retreat after the Chinese crossed the Yalu and found itself surrounded and had to abandon and spike their pieces and sneak back to the UN lines. Literally hundreds of the artillerymen were captured and disappeared by providing covering fire till the last moment.
Side note-After the utter collapse of the 24th Infantry Division, which included the 503rd, the practice of having segregated units with white officers was replaced by either having black units dispersed throughout the 8th Army or promoting and assigning black officers to lead the most black troops of, in this case, the 503rd Artillery. In many cases white officers simply left their command without a single word but some of the smaller units with either black junior officers or non-coms held their cohesion.
Rangel may be corrupt but he, unlike the president, actually risked his life for the country rather than simply complaining about it.
That's the 24th Infantry Regiment not division!
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