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Nearing a trillion dollars, and a lot of
pork. Rejected by almost all Republicans.
In a major victory for President Barack Obama, Democrats muscled a huge, $787 billion stimulus bill through Congress late Friday night in hopes of combating the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Republican opposition was nearly unanimous.
After lobbying energetically for the bill, Obama is expected to sign it within a few days, less than a month after taking office.
The legislation, among the costliest ever considered in Congress, provides billions of dollars to aid victims of the recession through unemployment benefits, food stamps, medical care, job retraining and more. Tens of billions are ticketed for the states to offset cuts they might otherwise have to make in aid to schools and local governments, and there is more than $48 billion for transportation projects such as road and bridge construction, mass transit and high-speed rail.
In a bow to political reality, lawmakers included $70 billion to shelter upper middle-class and wealthier taxpayers from an income tax increase that would otherwise hit them, a provision that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said would do relatively little to create jobs.
In the House, all 246 votes in favor were cast by Democrats. Seven Democrats joined 176 Republicans in opposition.
This must be a record. Less than a month in office and already we’re instantly $787 Billion behind. Will this help any of you? Maybe you qualify for some of that $70 Billion for wealthy taxpayers.
I think it says a lot that not even a single Republican was in support of it, and some Democrats weren’t either…
#30–RMXJGU==what does it “say?”
Trust. It’s all about trust. Hope doesn’t mean squat. Do you feel like you can trust that the government will do the right thing or do you hope that it will. Big difference.
If you had the chance and were not forced to pay taxes would you invest in our government? Would you trust that it would not squander your investment and actually do the things that make our society better; defense, public works, justice, etc.? Cause if you wouldn’t invest in our government than you don’t trust our government. Not that I’m saying that’s a bad thing, after all our forefathers began to distrust the King of England. Maybe we will have to start all over again?
Turn out the lights the party’s over, they say that all good things must end,
Let’s call it a night, the party’s over, and tomorrow starts the same old thing again.
The spam filter has blocked my post. I’ll need to break it up.
#32, ‘tempt,
That’s a flat out lie and you know it. As you are so fond – provide links proving that lowering taxes does not work.
Coming from you, this is one of the funnier things I have heard lately.
2/3s of Corporations, many very successful, don’t pay income taxes as it is.
http://tinyurl.com/cretsu
Unfortunately, there is no reason to believe these tax cuts will do much to boost the ailing economy and plenty of reason to think they will wind up proving very costly down the road.
http://tinyurl.com/d57yuk
When interest is figured in, the cost to create 4 million temp jobs is: $462,500.00 per job.
#45, Cow-Patty,
Perhaps you could explain how you arrived at that number. Isn’t that the same number that renown economist Rush Limbaugh is using?
You might also read Paul Krugman. He thoroughly debunked the Republican claim of $275,000 per job, I’m sure that also applies to your claim.
http://tinyurl.com/bek2r2
Mr. Fusion,
I sincerely would like to thank you for your posts on this thread. You actually have links to facts supporting claims.
With that in mind, I still cannot stand this bill, TARP, or any of the bailouts. The only thing I could support right now would be a modern WPA and massive funding to the sciences, ala BubbaRay.
Oh yeah, I pay a whole lot of taxes and I am totally against cutting taxes right now with the deficits we, our children, and our grandchildren face.
Reversing welfare reform and eliminating work requirements is not good for the economy or anything else.
The tax cut was something they would have passed anyway, since it was a fix for the AMT that gets passed every year. It was just in here to make it look like the price tag was more tax cuts.
# 46 Mr. Fusion said, “Perhaps you could explain how you arrived at that number.”
Total cost of the bill divided by # jobs Omama says it will create.
Isn’t Paul Krugman the head of the politburo?
I think there is a marked difference between “pork” to a Republican and “pork” to everyone else. Republicans seem to consider any sort of social program aimed to benefit the less fortunate as “pork”, but Republicans seem to fail to recognize “pork” when it’s corporate kickbacks, government funding, or other stupid shit like an Alaskan bridge that cost thousands of dollars to connect an island to the mainland so that a resident population of 50 people can go back and forth. Republicans dont like programs aimed to help others, they only like programs aimed to help themselves. Go Obama, and f those♠ repubs if they dont like it!@
#43 Mr Fusion
After going through your links I discovered all were the writers opinion not actual fact pieces. Even the one about two-thirds of corporations don’t pay taxes is misleading. No Corporation pays taxes. The costs are passed on to customers so the customers pay the taxes not the corporation.
In actual practice lowering taxes and lowering government spending is the first-best step toward a healthy economy.
Obama’s plan is like going out with ten credit cards and maxing them out. Great now but what happens next month when the bill comes due. You are royally screwed and are now the slave to the credit card company. The Obama plan is financial slavery.
Of course we also have to consider that’s just the way the government likes it. It explains why this bill was rushed through before anyone had a chance to stop it.
oh for crying out loud. Many of the provisions in this bill were things that were on track already and just got bundled in. (rolling back AMT, for one extra large example) Everyone in congress knows what’s in this bill–it did time in committee.
I am worried because this bill is too RIGHT WING. It is 44% tax cuts (GAO analysis says so, look it up) I don’t want the government to borrow money for tax cuts–it’s absurd.
Moody’s, otoh, said the best actual stimulus was food stamps and unemployment benefits, as these funds get spent right away and enter the economy where it will do the most good.
Can we can the fake outrage for a little while?
The 1071 page bill will only make economic matters worse but guess what else it does?
If you are 55 years of age or older kiss your major medical goodbye. If you get cancer or heart disease you’ll go to the back of the line. The surgery waiting list for this age group will be 18 to 24 months.
Doesn’t matter if you have private insurance, this is now policy. Wealth Americans will flock to Central America or Europe for health care while the middle and lower classes will be left out in the cold.
Guess what else…
Dem’s Use “Stimulus” as Cover for More Gun Control
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/8460
How about instead of wasting money in short term fixes that may or may not help, why no put it towards long term infrastructure that can save people money on a daily, monthly, and yearly bases. Put the money towards things like solar energy so that we have a cleaner environment to live in as well as cheaper energy. Put some of it towards creating a system of bullet trains that can move people and good for far less than our current systems. A country smaller in land mass than half the states has had one for a long time why can’t we? A nation many times its size. I’m sure if I put more thought into it I could think of other things that could be included, but those are just a couple examples. The whole idea though is don’t create economic prosperity through smoke and mirrors create it through the advancement of technology. Make things like the monthly utilities to be cheaper, or a car less necessary for those who may not be able to afford one or just make it so it cost less to drive a car. Give us something that will create jobs in the short term with building projects, and help in the long term by making it cheaper to live our daily lives.
The SSI/Welfare scammers neighbors who live behind me will make out like bandits again… Jeez.
The SSI/Welfare-scammer neighbors who live behind me will make out like bandits again… Jeez.
The stimulus bill that isn’t, the stimulus bill is actually a Democrat power perpetuation bill. A lot of the provisions of the bill steer money to Democrat organizing entities, ACORN for example and other similar organizations.
Two factors combine to make a powerful base. President Obama wrote executive orders that make government project contractors, virtually union shops only. The looming “Employee Free Choice Act.” (aka card check),. The card check provisions eliminate secret ballots to establish unions at non union companies.
The “Employee Free Choice Act.” makes union organizing much easier due to the intimidation factor. Employees can be coerced into signing cards but cannot be intimidated when a secret ballot is conducted by the NLRB.
President Obama and the Democrats are laying the ground work for a massive unionization surge. A majority of the new jobs created by the Stimulus Package will be union jobs. The new government jobs will be unionized. The massive government projects built by government contractors will subject Obama’s executive orders and will be unionized as well.
The more union members there are the more union dues the union collects. The unions, both public sector and private sector spend hundreds of millions of dollars to influence elections. The unions effect school board elections to presidential elections. The unions almost always endorse democrat politicians and policy. Money flowing through unions often ends up back into political campaigns and pockets.
If the “Employee Free Choice Act.” passes the union’s first target will be Walmart. With close to 2 million employees Walmart unionization would mean about a half a billion dollars in union dues paid per year, that’s a lot of influence.
President Obama is pushing very hard to get this stimulus bill passed quickly by scaring the public so that he and the Democrats will have a rich political machine well into the future. The number one priority of President Obama and the Democrats is to stay in power not the U.S. economy.
It would have been better if they kept in the provision that all companies getting money from the stimulus use E-Verify for their workers. But someone in the conference think it was more important ta give jobs to illegals.
Well all your first link says is that most corporations don’t pay taxes, and is not relevant. Your second link is talking about a few specific tax cuts and the writer seems to be saying that capital gains taxes are very helpful. Form your second link:
Furthermore, while a modest-sized stimulus package may be cost effective, there will be a diminishing return to any stimulus plan as it grows in size, regardless of whether the plan is implemented through tax cuts or spending increases. The current bidding is at $775 billion and the cost could rise to $1 trillion or more.
Congress would be well advised to err on the side of caution and take time to ensure that the stimulus policies being advocated are likely to work. U.S. lawmakers should focus on the most effective and most appropriate infrastructure spending. They should seek to improve those tax policies that adversely affect the most taxpayers.
The title of Paul Krugman’s column, Bad Faith Economics is very appropriate for his columns, as he argues based on the political party that is making the proposal. His New York Times column doesn’t represent serious economics, and has been shown to be as partisan as Ann Coulter.
The Repubs can’t get over It’s not their show anymore. Thanks W !
ENOUGH pork to buy EVERYONE a $10 happy meal.
Short-term this bill will help me. Ive been unemployed since December (Layoff) and still dont have health insurance. I couldn’t afford the $680 a month for COBRA but this bill subsidizes COBRA for laid off people from Sept 2008 to Dec 2009. Rather than pay $680 mth, I will only have to pay $340. Still expensive but better than no insurance at all.
Long-term will this help me, probably not. The more we add to the national debt the more it will hurt us in the future.
#65–monkeyboy==do you/your family have immediate healthcare needs? Lots of people go bare and rely on emergency room just for care that can’t be avoided.
If you do get cobra with existing conditions, beware because if you are a day late in your monthly payment, you will get dropped even though there is supposed to be a warning period.
Its cut throat out there.
@bobbo,
My wife and I are healthy in a sense that we do not goto the doctors except for yearly checkups. We do have preexisting conditions, which caused us to be declined by 3 major health insurance companies. Its a shame that only people who have a clean bill of health can get insurance.
As for COBRA dropping you for a late payment, I pay my bills a week in advance.
The problem with people like Mr. Commiefusion is he believes in the false left right paradigm. Republican vs Democrat is modern American Mythology.
The hypocrisy is highlighted in this article.
How Will Obama’s Deficits Be Financed?
http://vdare.com/roberts/090212_obama.htm
The second Revolutionary War is on the Horizon.
Some states are finally getting some brass.
http://gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2009/HCR0006.html
Will you be lead to a FEMA death camp or fight for Liberty?
I’m not sure if it makes sense. Economies go through cycles and recession is part of the cycle. I read a good article on the history of cycles at
http://www.recessioninfocenter.com
#68 Stars & Bars.
That New Hampshire link is awesome!