Here's something you might be interested in.
So I don't really see celebrating in the streets after Friday's historic passage of a 1 trillion dollar "stimulus" bill. Remember how we were supposed to be greeted in the streets of Iraq as liberators? And remember that infamous day that George Bush wore his flamboyant flight suit and landed on an aircraft carrier to proudly declare "mission accomplished"?
Call me crazy, but this feels just about the same...except this time only half of the public believes the government. But Barack Obama is hugely popular you say? Well George Bush had a 90% approval rating after 9/11 and a 75% approval rating when he started the Iraq war. And look at how his decisions have irrevocably damaged the Republican party.
(And let me offer this disclaimer...I am registered as "undeclared". I am NOT pushing a Democratic or Republican agenda because both parties are equally yoked to the special interests that created the need for a stimulus. I did think Barack Obama would be the lesser of 2 evils but in the end I voted for Ralph Nadar. Barack received enormous contributions from the big banks and the housing speculators and I could not in good conscience give my support to that sort of politician. The Republicans...its just goes w/o saying that they are tied to big business)
So Obama used his high approval rating and political capital to shove this thing through (much like George Bush did in starting the Iraq war) on the Friday night before the Presidents day weekend. They even provided a private jet to fly in Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) back to Washington from his mother's wake in Ohio. So Obama pushes this thing through with hype and scare tactics on Friday saying there is no time to wait and then proceeds to wait until Tuesday afternoon to sign it.
OK so even if this thing is a HUGE emergency the stock market was closed until Tuesday. Couldn't we have allowed these Senators to at least read SOME of the bill over the 3 day weekend---I mean at least enough time to do word searches in adobe. What were they afraid of them finding in this bill? ...maybe the part where they snuck in the legislation to allow the Federal Government to totally dictate your health care.
"The legislation establishes within the Department of Health and Human Services an Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, which will be headed by a National Coordinator. This is like creating a new FDA, meaning the size of this new branch of government will end up quite large. An overall goal is to have an electronic health record for every American by 2014 " (In other words you can no longer even ask your doctor a question in privacy without the Federal government and anyone they allow to review it).
"Anybody reading this legislation quickly realizes that it is much more than a health IT system. It is a new type of health care with a blank check on expanding its regulatory powers to accomplish anything it deems appropriate. "
"This means that the government is directly telling doctors how to practice medicine, and even what kind of medicine is allowed, contrary to what Senator Cardin told FOX news."
http://www.expertclick.com/NewsReleaseWire/default.cfm?Action=ReleaseDetail&ID=25301
And even if they were trying to cloak the details just to get this thing passed in light of the "emergency" then why in the world did the lobbyists have a copy but congress did not?
Look at this story from the Nation...
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2009/2/12/congressional-offices-dont-have-the-stimulus-bill-lobbyists-do.html
"What's more, staffers are complaining about who does have a copy: K Street lobbyists. E-mails one key Democratic staffer: "K Street has the bill, or chunks of it, already, and the congressional offices don't. So, the Hill is getting calls from the press (because it's leaking out) asking us to confirm or talk about what we know—but we can't do that because we haven't seen the bill. Anyway, peeps up here are sort of a combo of confused and like, 'Is this really happening?'" Reporters pressing for details, meanwhile, are getting different numbers from different offices, especially when seeking the details of specific programs.
"Worse, there seem to be several different versions of what was agreed upon, with some officials circulating older versions of the package that seems to still be developing. Leadership aides said that it will work out later today and promised that lawmakers will get time to review the bill before Friday's vote."
Seriously, this is happening. Why in the world did President Barack Obama push so hard to have Congress vote on a 1 trillion dollar stimulus bill that you and I will be paying for decades to come that NO ONE not even the President himself had even read in its entirety and most people had not read at ALL!!! This is absurd. Its like signing to pay for a trillion dollar credit card bill without even looking to see what's on it.
Who is advising him? Geitner, Summers? Wow that seems like a great idea...Timothy Geitner ran the New York Federal Reserve Bank (aka Wallstreet) for the last 6 years and didnt even know he had to pay self-employment tax. Not to mention these guys were the brilliant architects that created the credit bubble in the first place. Their solution is to rescue the current financial institutions and corporations that committed outright fraud.
Don't believe me...check out this story about a huge Florida homebuilder, Beazer homes, that is currently under Federal investigation and is about to be a recipient of millions and millions of our tax dollars from the "stimulus bill". Retroactive tax refunds for the passed 5 years should not be called "tax breaks". They are "bailouts". The money comes from us. It goes to them and there are NO strings attached. That is a bailout.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/214/story/61336.html
And it should come as no surprise that Geitner and Summers, operating under the same paradigm of the last 10 years are offering up solutions to encourage more fraud and deception in business. We are sending them a message loud and clear...
"Go ahead...do whatever you want...make as much money as you want...hell give yourselves billion dollar bonuses...we need you and we will never let you fail."
The McClatchy Report breaks the money down like this:
What are WE really getting for all this...a paltry $400 at a cost of $62,200...per person. Are you really getting that kind of bang for your buck?
It was not just the House and Senate rules that were set aside to get this vote through quickly. Obama promised voters during his campaign at least 5 days to study legislation.
The country has 90 million tax filers who actually pay taxes. This breaks down to $8,700 per person. Add to that the $700 billion financial bailout (half spent by Bush and half by Obama), and the bailout for the auto companies, this year’s deficit is already at about$1.7 trillion — almost $19,000 per taxpayer.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that from 2010 to 2019 government expenditures for just 20 provisions will increase by almost $2.4 trillion. If we Assume a modest 4.5 percent interest rate, that is the equivalent of about $1.9 trillion today. Adding that to the previous total brings the total to about $40,000 owed per taxpayer.
Additionally, the Obama administration promised another $2 trillion for the financial bailout. The decisions that we are making just this year are adding up to $5.6 trillion — $62,200 per taxpayer.
So, I guess we are supposed to be celebrating the passage of this heroic piece of legislation. I mean thats how they got us to support this thing...right?... by telling us it was the only solution. "Don't let good be the enemy of perfection". Remember that quote again and again? How about.."don't let fear be the enemy of common sense?"
I don't know. I voiced my strong opposition to the package from the beginning. I am just saying the Democrats should not be so cocky right now. Just because we voiced our disdain and disgust for the Republican agenda and overwhelmingly rejected the Republicans in the election, does not mean that we are not ready to pour the same contempt on the Democrats for destroying the US economy beyond repair with something they did not even think was important enough to read.
The following are some good links to media outlets that at least are allowing journalists to do commentaries on the package...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/02/13/DI2009021302615.html
I like Jack Cafferty's comment on CNN on the "criminal" nature of the bill. http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/17/cafferty.stimulus/
So I don't really see celebrating in the streets after Friday's historic passage of a 1 trillion dollar "stimulus" bill. Remember how we were supposed to be greeted in the streets of Iraq as liberators? And remember that infamous day that George Bush wore his flamboyant flight suit and landed on an aircraft carrier to proudly declare "mission accomplished"?
Call me crazy, but this feels just about the same...except this time only half of the public believes the government. But Barack Obama is hugely popular you say? Well George Bush had a 90% approval rating after 9/11 and a 75% approval rating when he started the Iraq war. And look at how his decisions have irrevocably damaged the Republican party.
(And let me offer this disclaimer...I am registered as "undeclared". I am NOT pushing a Democratic or Republican agenda because both parties are equally yoked to the special interests that created the need for a stimulus. I did think Barack Obama would be the lesser of 2 evils but in the end I voted for Ralph Nadar. Barack received enormous contributions from the big banks and the housing speculators and I could not in good conscience give my support to that sort of politician. The Republicans...its just goes w/o saying that they are tied to big business)
So Obama used his high approval rating and political capital to shove this thing through (much like George Bush did in starting the Iraq war) on the Friday night before the Presidents day weekend. They even provided a private jet to fly in Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) back to Washington from his mother's wake in Ohio. So Obama pushes this thing through with hype and scare tactics on Friday saying there is no time to wait and then proceeds to wait until Tuesday afternoon to sign it.
OK so even if this thing is a HUGE emergency the stock market was closed until Tuesday. Couldn't we have allowed these Senators to at least read SOME of the bill over the 3 day weekend---I mean at least enough time to do word searches in adobe. What were they afraid of them finding in this bill? ...maybe the part where they snuck in the legislation to allow the Federal Government to totally dictate your health care.
"The legislation establishes within the Department of Health and Human Services an Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, which will be headed by a National Coordinator. This is like creating a new FDA, meaning the size of this new branch of government will end up quite large. An overall goal is to have an electronic health record for every American by 2014 " (In other words you can no longer even ask your doctor a question in privacy without the Federal government and anyone they allow to review it).
"Anybody reading this legislation quickly realizes that it is much more than a health IT system. It is a new type of health care with a blank check on expanding its regulatory powers to accomplish anything it deems appropriate. "
"This means that the government is directly telling doctors how to practice medicine, and even what kind of medicine is allowed, contrary to what Senator Cardin told FOX news."
http://www.expertclick.com/NewsReleaseWire/default.cfm?Action=ReleaseDetail&ID=25301
And even if they were trying to cloak the details just to get this thing passed in light of the "emergency" then why in the world did the lobbyists have a copy but congress did not?
Look at this story from the Nation...
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2009/2/12/congressional-offices-dont-have-the-stimulus-bill-lobbyists-do.html
"What's more, staffers are complaining about who does have a copy: K Street lobbyists. E-mails one key Democratic staffer: "K Street has the bill, or chunks of it, already, and the congressional offices don't. So, the Hill is getting calls from the press (because it's leaking out) asking us to confirm or talk about what we know—but we can't do that because we haven't seen the bill. Anyway, peeps up here are sort of a combo of confused and like, 'Is this really happening?'" Reporters pressing for details, meanwhile, are getting different numbers from different offices, especially when seeking the details of specific programs.
"Worse, there seem to be several different versions of what was agreed upon, with some officials circulating older versions of the package that seems to still be developing. Leadership aides said that it will work out later today and promised that lawmakers will get time to review the bill before Friday's vote."
Seriously, this is happening. Why in the world did President Barack Obama push so hard to have Congress vote on a 1 trillion dollar stimulus bill that you and I will be paying for decades to come that NO ONE not even the President himself had even read in its entirety and most people had not read at ALL!!! This is absurd. Its like signing to pay for a trillion dollar credit card bill without even looking to see what's on it.
Who is advising him? Geitner, Summers? Wow that seems like a great idea...Timothy Geitner ran the New York Federal Reserve Bank (aka Wallstreet) for the last 6 years and didnt even know he had to pay self-employment tax. Not to mention these guys were the brilliant architects that created the credit bubble in the first place. Their solution is to rescue the current financial institutions and corporations that committed outright fraud.
Don't believe me...check out this story about a huge Florida homebuilder, Beazer homes, that is currently under Federal investigation and is about to be a recipient of millions and millions of our tax dollars from the "stimulus bill". Retroactive tax refunds for the passed 5 years should not be called "tax breaks". They are "bailouts". The money comes from us. It goes to them and there are NO strings attached. That is a bailout.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/214/story/61336.html
And it should come as no surprise that Geitner and Summers, operating under the same paradigm of the last 10 years are offering up solutions to encourage more fraud and deception in business. We are sending them a message loud and clear...
"Go ahead...do whatever you want...make as much money as you want...hell give yourselves billion dollar bonuses...we need you and we will never let you fail."
The McClatchy Report breaks the money down like this:
What are WE really getting for all this...a paltry $400 at a cost of $62,200...per person. Are you really getting that kind of bang for your buck?
It was not just the House and Senate rules that were set aside to get this vote through quickly. Obama promised voters during his campaign at least 5 days to study legislation.
The country has 90 million tax filers who actually pay taxes. This breaks down to $8,700 per person. Add to that the $700 billion financial bailout (half spent by Bush and half by Obama), and the bailout for the auto companies, this year’s deficit is already at about$1.7 trillion — almost $19,000 per taxpayer.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that from 2010 to 2019 government expenditures for just 20 provisions will increase by almost $2.4 trillion. If we Assume a modest 4.5 percent interest rate, that is the equivalent of about $1.9 trillion today. Adding that to the previous total brings the total to about $40,000 owed per taxpayer.
Additionally, the Obama administration promised another $2 trillion for the financial bailout. The decisions that we are making just this year are adding up to $5.6 trillion — $62,200 per taxpayer.
So, I guess we are supposed to be celebrating the passage of this heroic piece of legislation. I mean thats how they got us to support this thing...right?... by telling us it was the only solution. "Don't let good be the enemy of perfection". Remember that quote again and again? How about.."don't let fear be the enemy of common sense?"
I don't know. I voiced my strong opposition to the package from the beginning. I am just saying the Democrats should not be so cocky right now. Just because we voiced our disdain and disgust for the Republican agenda and overwhelmingly rejected the Republicans in the election, does not mean that we are not ready to pour the same contempt on the Democrats for destroying the US economy beyond repair with something they did not even think was important enough to read.
The following are some good links to media outlets that at least are allowing journalists to do commentaries on the package...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/02/13/DI2009021302615.html
I like Jack Cafferty's comment on CNN on the "criminal" nature of the bill. http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/17/cafferty.stimulus/