10 Reasons to Whack Obama's Stimulus Plan

That's why I feel such a sense of urgency about the recovery plan before Congress. With it, we will create or save more than 3 million jobs over the next two years, provide immediate tax relief to 95 percent of American workers, ignite spending by businesses and consumers alike, and take steps to strengthen our country for years to come.

This plan is more than a prescription for short-term spending...

LTRT wrote:Support for Stimulus Package Falls to 37%
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/economic_stimulus_package/support_for_stimulus_package_falls_to_37

50% Say Stimulus Plan Likely to Make Things Worse
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/economic_stimulus_package/50_say_stimulus_plan_likely_to_make_things_worse

He won, shut up and sit down.

Cincy Fan 44 wrote:

LTRT wrote:He won, shut up and sit down.

Now stop that LTRT! You're just being difficult.

"He reduced himself from being president of all the American people to being the partisan leader of the left," former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said of Obama's Thursday night speech. "The first month of your presidency is not a very good time to give a campaign speech."

LTRT wrote:In Stimulus Debate, Obama Drifts Into Campaign Mode
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/02/06/stimulus-debate-obama-drifts-campaign-mode/

"He reduced himself from being president of all the American people to being the partisan leader of the left," former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said of Obama's Thursday night speech. "The first month of your presidency is not a very good time to give a campaign speech."

What do expect from a community organizer.

Bman wrote:

LTRT wrote:In Stimulus Debate, Obama Drifts Into Campaign Mode
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/02/06/stimulus-debate-obama-drifts-campaign-mode/

"He reduced himself from being president of all the American people to being the partisan leader of the left," former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said of Obama's Thursday night speech. "The first month of your presidency is not a very good time to give a campaign speech."

What do expect from a community organizer.

Wow ... having Newt say that HURTS and I am totally shocked that Fox News would report. lol

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., said the agreement was a bipartisan effort and cited the work of Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

"We trimmed the fat, fried the bacon and milked the sacred cows," Nelson said.

Collins said negotiators cut more than $110 billion in "unnecessary spending" in the compromise package.

"Is it perfect? No. Every compromise reflects choices that are necessary to bring people together," she said.

In addition to Collins, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he would vote for the bill, even though parts of it "give me heartburn."

"Under all the circumstances, this is the best we can do and we ought to do it," stating that "the economy would be enormously worse off without it."

floridafun wrote:the neocons are just flailing..they will do this for the next several months on everything that needs discussed or voted on..they are having withdrawal issues from being the power players. think bobby knight having to get a job as a walmart greeter

when the stimulous was originally presented the neocons praised it and seemed eager to work WITH the dems..then they listened to rush and decided they might lose face if they act civil.

floridafun wrote:the neocons are just flailing..they will do this for the next several months on everything that needs discussed or voted on..they are having withdrawal issues from being the power players. think bobby knight having to get a job as a walmart greeter

when the stimulous was originally presented the neocons praised it and seemed eager to work WITH the dems..then they listened to rush and decided they might lose face if they act civil.

Markwes wrote:

floridafun wrote:the neocons are just flailing..they will do this for the next several months on everything that needs discussed or voted on..they are having withdrawal issues from being the power players. think bobby knight having to get a job as a walmart greeter

when the stimulous was originally presented the neocons praised it and seemed eager to work WITH the dems..then they listened to rush and decided they might lose face if they act civil.

Well, looky here. FF is following Bman's lead and going with the sour apples approach. Um, yeah. Questioning $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters is flailing. Questioning a $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film is having withdrawal issues. I didn't have to listen to Rush to find to find all the pork in this bill. I could find it on CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/02/gop.stimulus.worries/index.html

Even Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California voiced opposition to the bill on Friday, saying it wouldn't do enough to stimulate the economy.

floridafun wrote:were the neocons for it before they were against it?

Markwes wrote:

floridafun wrote:were the neocons for it before they were against it?

I think you need to clarify who are the "neocons" that you refer to. As for myself, I was against it from the first time I heard what it was about. However, I fail to see why it matters who was for or against it at the beginning. It's crap regardless.

The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective.

LTRT wrote:Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_mccaughey&sid=aLzfDxfbwhzs

The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective.

So much for privacy, eh? Real stimulus there, yeh this will bring lots of jobs to the country.

National Health Care here we come

OBAMA: "I know that there are a lot of folks out there who've been saying, 'Oh, this is pork, and this is money that's going to be wasted,' and et cetera, et cetera. Understand, this bill does not have a single earmark in it, which is unprecedented for a bill of this size. ... There aren't individual pork projects that members of Congress are putting into this bill."

THE FACTS: There are no "earmarks," as they are usually defined, inserted by lawmakers in the bill. Still, some of the projects bear the prime characteristics of pork - tailored to benefit specific interests or to have thinly disguised links to local projects.

For example, the latest version contains $2 billion for a clean-coal power plant with specifications matching one in Mattoon, Ill., $10 million for urban canals, $2 billion for manufacturing advanced batteries for hybrid cars, and $255 million for a polar icebreaker and other "priority procurements" by the Coast Guard.

Obama told his Elkhart audience that Indiana will benefit from work on "roads like U.S. 31 here in Indiana that Hoosiers count on." He added: "And I know that a new overpass downtown would make a big difference for businesses and families right here in Elkhart."

U.S. 31 is a north-south highway serving South Bend, 15 miles from Elkhart in the northern part of the state.

OBAMA: "I've appointed hundreds of people, all of whom are outstanding Americans who are doing a great job. There are a couple who had problems before they came into my administration, in terms of their taxes. ... I made a mistake ... I don't want to send the signal that there are two sets of rules."

He added: "Everybody will acknowledge that we have set up the highest standard ever for lobbyists not working in the administration."

THE FACTS: Two of his appointees, former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle for secretary of health and human services and Nancy Killefer as his chief compliance officer, dropped out after reports they had not paid a portion of their taxes.

Obama previously acknowledged he "screwed up" in making it seem to Americans that there is one set of tax compliance rules for VIPs and another set for everyone else. Yet his choice for treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, hung in and achieved the post despite having belatedly paid $34,000 to the IRS, an agency Geithner now oversees.

That could leave the perception that there is one set of rules for Geithner and another set for everyone else.

On lobbyists, Obama has in fact established tough new rules barring them from working for his administration. But the ban is not absolute.

William J. Lynn III, tapped to be the No. 2 official at the Defense Department, recently lobbied for military contractor Raytheon. William Corr, chosen as deputy secretary at Health and Human Services, has lobbied as an anti-tobacco advocate. And Geithner's choice for chief of staff, Mark Patterson, is an ex-lobbyist from Goldman Sachs.

OBAMA: "The plan that we've put forward will save or create 3 million to 4 million jobs over the next two years."

THE FACTS: Job creation projections are uncertain even in stable times, and some of the economists relied on by Obama in making his forecast acknowledge a great deal of uncertainty in their numbers.

Beyond that, it's unlikely the nation will ever know how many jobs are saved as a result of the stimulus. While it's clear when jobs are abolished, there's no economic gauge that tracks job preservation.

"A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe."
-- President Obama, Feb. 4.

WASHINGTON -- Catastrophe, mind you. So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared "we have chosen hope over fear." Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill.