I Reject Their Stimulus Theories

[rushmc 18]

Obama Fires at GOP: I Reject Their Stimulus Theories

Thursday, February 5, 2009 10:13 AM



WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama fired the sharpest warning of his young presidency at Republicans who are mustered against his$ 900-billion stimulus plan for the plunging economy.


Obama has sought to build bipartisan support for his massive dose of tax cuts and infrastructure spending designed to waken dormant consumption and create between 3 million and 4 million jobs.


But he showed the first sign of impatience Wednesday, bringing up twice what Democrats say are discredited economic policies of president George W. Bush, which they contend helped cause the worst economic crisis since the 1930s.


"In the past two days, I have heard criticisms of this plan that, frankly, echo the very same failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis in the first place," Obama said, before signing a children's health insurance bill.


He took aim at the "notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems" and warned against the idea that the economic crisis could be tackled with "half steps, and piecemeal measures and tinkering around the edges."


Obama also faulted unnamed opponents he said believe "that we can ignore the fundamental challenges like the high cost of healthcare and still expect our economy and country to thrive."


"I reject these theories, and by the way so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change," the president said, in his most edgy partisan language in his two weeks in office.


Republicans, using the stimulus showdown to test the new president's power, did not give Obama a single vote when the package passed the House last week and complain it lacks sufficient tax cuts and is too expensive.


Obama's defeated presidential election foe, Sen. John McCain, welcomed the president's bipartisan attitude but complained it had not produced substantive negotiations on the makeup of the bill.


"No bill is better than this bill, because it increases the deficit by over a trillion dollars," Senator McCain told CBS News, a day after Democratic leaders sent signals that they did not yet have the votes to pass the measure.


"It has so many programs in it that create no jobs whatsoever and it has no provisions to put us on the path of a balanced budget, once our economy has recovered."


While sending public warnings to Republicans, Obama also courted centrist senators from both parties, calling three to the White House to discuss what Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson said were at least $50 billion in cuts.


The president "realizes that some of the pieces of this package need to come out for a variety of reasons because it will take that sort of scrubbing to get the votes on board to pass the package," Nelson said.


Two Republican senators from Maine, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, also met Obama to discuss proposed changes to the bill.


"He recognizes that some of the provisions that were added in the House and some in the Senate as well do not belong in the bill," Collins said.


Moderates on both sides are concerned that the bill contains spending on projects that might be worthy, but are unlikely to stimulate demand: Collins, for example, complained about $8 billion inserted in the measure to upgrage State Department technology.


In the Senate itself, a long sheaf of amendments to the bill were set to come up for a vote, including McCain's attempt to strike out a "Buy American" clause, which U.S. trade partners have branded as protectionist.


"I've got an amendment to try to kill it," McCain told AFP shortly after introducing the measure.


The EU and Canada fiercely have attacked the "Buy American" clause, warning it could start a global trade war.


The measure bars the use of any of the more than 900 billion dollars being debated in the Senate to buy steel, iron or other manufactured goods from abroad for infrastructure construction projects.


A narrower version of the clause, popular in states suffering gravely from the economic downturn, was included in the House bill.


Congressional sources said Wednesday it was still too early to say whether the stimulus plan would come up for a vote by the weekend.


Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate have warned that the congressional recess due to start at the end of next week will not happen unless a joint bill is agreed and sent to Obama.


© 2009 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[rushmc 18]

Even in the face of this.

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Poll: Stimulus Will Do More Harm Than Good

Wednesday, February 4, 2009 9:41 PM






For the first time, a majority of Americans say the Democratic stimulus plan is likely to do the U.S. economy more harm than good. That’s the surprising finding of a new Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,000 likely voters.

The Rasmussen poll asked “How likely is it that the final economic recovery plan passed by Congress will make things worse instead of better?”

Half of those surveyed -- 50 percent – said it is “somewhat likely” or “very likely” that the stimulus deal will make the economy worse. That compares to only 39 percent who thought the mega-spending bill probably would not make things worse. Twelve percent of those surveyed weren’t sure.

A separate Rasmussen poll also showed support for the plan dropped a third straight week.

Three weeks ago, according to Rasmussen, 45 percent of voters thought the stimulus package was a good idea. Last week, the stimulus package approval rating fell to 42 percent.

On Wednesday, the firm released a new poll, showing support for the trillion-plus package has now dipped to just 37 percent. That same poll found that 42 percent are against the bill, and 20 percent are undecided. The Web site reports: “A stimulus plan that includes only tax cuts is now more popular than the economic recovery plan being considered in Congress. Forty-five percent favor a tax-cut only plan, while 34 percent are opposed.


© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[Capt.Slog 0]

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© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

The Bush tax cuts sure kept the economy humming along in great shape.

[rushmc 18]

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© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

The Bush tax cuts sure kept the economy humming along in great shape.

And that makes a poll a lie! Right?

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[JohnRich 4]

I liked how he rejected tax cuts as a means of stimulating the economy, just before promoting his own tax cuts to stimulate the economy. I guess when Bush does it, it's bad, but when Obamer does it, it's okay.

He's been in office for two weeks, and he's already spending a trillion dollars we don't have!

[rushmc 18]

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I liked how he rejected tax cuts as a means of stimulating the economy, just before promoting his own tax cuts to stimulate the economy. I guess when Bush does it, it's bad, but when Obamer does it, it's okay.

He's been in office for two weeks, and he's already spending a trillion dollars we don't have!

I may have to change my mind. I mean, we are loosing 500 million jobs a month!!!! (quote from Pelosi)

If we are loosing 1.3 jobs per capita per month we are fucked!!! (imagine if Palin had said this....... ......... ........3 times)

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[jm951 0]

Here's a novel thought... if spending more money would stimulate the economy, then why not give the people more money to spend, like maybe a tax holiday for 6 months so rather than the gov taking your money and spending it for you, you get to spend it. Only problem with that is the sheeple would see just how much the gov takes from them each check and it'd be extremely hard to reimpose it later.

[rushmc 18]

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Here's a novel thought... if spending more money would stimulate the economy, then why not give the people more money to spend, like maybe a tax holiday for 6 months so rather than the gov taking your money and spending it for you, you get to spend it. Only problem with that is the sheeple would see just how much the gov takes from them each check and it'd be extremely hard to reimpose it later.

I like it and I agree

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[skydiver30960 0]

And you also forget: how would we possibly support the millions of people living off the government teat during that time? What will become of them? Who will pay their bills and allow them to continue not working?



Elvisio "oh yeah, that's our job" Rodriguez

[wmw999 2,123]

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how would we possibly support the millions of people living off the government teat during that time?

What, you mean like the military, police, firefighters?

What about all of the people who work for the government, who would now be either without a job, or really worried?

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[Capt.Slog 0]

From today's San Francisco Chronicle (and I fear it is right on the mark):

"Regardless of election hoopla, Washington is the same one-party town it always has been - controlled not by Democrats or Republicans, but by Kleptocrats (i.e., thieves). Their ties to money make them the undead zombies in the slash-and-burn horror flick that is American politics: No matter how many times their discredited theologies are stabbed, torched and shot down by verifiable failure, their careers cannot be killed. Somehow, these political immortals are allowed to mindlessly lunge forward, never answering to rivals - even if that rival is the president himself."

[freeheelbillie 0]

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© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

The Bush tax cuts sure kept the economy humming along in great shape.

I hope that you are kidding...the DOW hit record highs even in the wke of 911. Are you aware that the dip in the econ shadows the Democrats taking control of the House. Mind you, they have lower approval ratings than Bush himself did! Isn't it interesting that "hope" has turned into "crisis" and "catastrophe" if the taxpayers don't cough it up."
Get on board or youre not partisan! Is this his idea of reaching across the isle? What a joke! This $ will not get spent for 2 maybe 3 years...to have it rammed up the tax payers ass proves how foolish and EGO driven he really is. Our childrens children will be paying this back with interest. I think we owe it to them to make sure its done right. DONT YOU!

Gently pushing comfort zones since 1976...

[wmw999 2,123]

There are enough people in the country that virtually every single item in that bill has people who think it's the best idea in the world, and they can tell you exactly why it will stimulate the economy.

That doesn't mean they're right, but it does mean that no matter what they do, there are going to be unhappy people. In our system, where popularity and publicity gets you elected year after year, the incentive to keep as many people in your district as possible happy is very strong.

There is no one right answer. No matter what they do, it's going to suck for some people, be picked apart, and not work either as well as they hoped, or as poorly as the opposition thinks.

The key is not to get there in the first place, and that's where having a system that doesn't consider money and publicity to be the ultimate incentives and reward would be good.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[SpeedRacer 1]

Quote

I liked how he rejected tax cuts as a means of stimulating the economy, just before promoting his own tax cuts to stimulate the economy. I guess when Bush does it, it's bad, but when Obamer does it, it's okay.

He's been in office for two weeks, and he's already spending a trillion dollars we don't have!

We do now, thanks to Dick Cheney.

Speed Racer
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[loumeinhart 0]

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how would we possibly support the millions of people living off the government teat during that time?

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What, you mean like the military, police, firefighters?

What about all of the people who work for the government, who would now be either without a job, or really worried?

Wendy W.

I pay the Military to defend me. I pay Police to serve and protect me. I pay Firefighters to respond to fires.

The family living off the "government's teat" down the street from me watches TV in A/C all day while texting each other about their new shoes and video games.

[jerryzflies 0]

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© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

The Bush tax cuts sure kept the economy humming along in great shape.

I hope that you are kidding...the DOW hit record highs even in the wke of 911. Are you aware that the dip in the econ shadows the Democrats taking control of the House. Mind you, they have lower approval ratings than Bush himself did! Isn't it interesting that "hope" has turned into "crisis" and "catastrophe" if the taxpayers don't cough it up."
Get on board or youre not partisan! Is this his idea of reaching across the isle? What a joke! This $ will not get spent for 2 maybe 3 years...to have it rammed up the tax payers ass proves how foolish and EGO driven he really is. Our childrens children will be paying this back with interest. I think we owe it to them to make sure its done right. DONT YOU!

So how many of those wonderful Bush years was the Federal budget in surplus?

Bush spent $5 trillion that we didn't have.

If you can't fix it with a hammer, the problem's electrical.

[jerryzflies 0]

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I liked how he rejected tax cuts as a means of stimulating the economy, just before promoting his own tax cuts to stimulate the economy. I guess when Bush does it, it's bad, but when Obamer does it, it's okay.

He's been in office for two weeks, and he's already spending a trillion dollars we don't have!

Obama promised tax cuts, he didn't reject them. How short (or conveniently wrong) your memory is, Mr. Rich.

Bush, of course, pissed away a trillion he didn't have on a useless war in Iraq.

If you can't fix it with a hammer, the problem's electrical.

[loumeinhart 0]

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Bush, of course, pissed away a trillion he didn't have on a useless war in Iraq.

that's a whole different argument.

[piahenzi 0]

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Here's a novel thought... if spending more money would stimulate the economy, then why not give the people more money to spend, like maybe a tax holiday for 6 months so rather than the gov taking your money and spending it for you, you get to spend it. Only problem with that is the sheeple would see just how much the gov takes from them each check and it'd be extremely hard to reimpose it later.

I had exactly the same thought last night... the best, fastest, cheapest, most effective way to get people buying, stop defaults on mortgages, etc etc is to let the people keep their money. It's the most effective means, but like you said, how do you re-impose taxes without losing your ratings later?? Not gonna happen, even IF it is the best way...Pelosi's facelift would give out.

[Gawain 0]

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© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

The Bush tax cuts sure kept the economy humming along in great shape.

Taxes have little to do with what got us here. Increasing taxes now, would indeed cause more problems though.

The credit markets are the problem, and so far the government infusions of cash and nationalization of banks have accomplished z-e-r-o.

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[jerryzflies 0]

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Bush, of course, pissed away a trillion he didn't have on a useless war in Iraq.

that's a whole different argument.

WRONG.

$1T is $1T.

You can spend it helping Americans or killing Iraqis. Maybe if we'd spent it helping Americans we wouldn't be in the shitter right now.

If you can't fix it with a hammer, the problem's electrical.

[piahenzi 0]

I'm sorry, but I don't agree with your thinking either.

[jerryzflies 0]

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I'm sorry, but I don't agree with your thinking either.

Maybe you should think some more until you get it right.

If you can't fix it with a hammer, the problem's electrical.

[jerryzflies 0]

Quote

Quote

Quote

© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

The Bush tax cuts sure kept the economy humming along in great shape.

Taxes have little to do with what got us here. Increasing taxes now, would indeed cause more problems though.

The credit markets are the problem, and so far the government infusions of cash and nationalization of banks have accomplished z-e-r-o.

Which is why it needs to be applied elsewhere. The f&cking bankers got us into the mess.

If you can't fix it with a hammer, the problem's electrical.

[hwt 0]

In the Senate itself, a long sheaf of amendments to the bill were set to come up for a vote, including McCain's attempt to strike out a "Buy American" clause, which U.S. trade partners have branded as protectionist.
_________________________________________________
McCain is a fool and i for one am happy that guy lost.When he supported that big giveaway to the banks, that was enough for me.
We need to have a trade war with China. that would be the best stimulus this country could get. Blue skies!