What's at stake

Is the President finally getting a backbone on this stimulus thing? Given his recent speech, I think he might be. The way I see it, he tried to play nice with the Republicans (see my earlier post) and what did they do? They all voted no, which is pretty much a big slap in the face! Well, today it seems he's finally putting them in their place...

In the last few days, we've seen proposals arise from some in Congress that you may not have read but you'd be very familiar with because you've been hearing them for the last 10 years, maybe longer. They're rooted in the idea that tax cuts alone can solve all our problems; that government doesn't have a role to play; that half-measures and tinkering are somehow enough; that we can afford to ignore our most fundamental economic challenges -- the crushing cost of health care, the inadequate state of so many of our schools, our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.

So let me be clear: Those ideas have been tested, and they have failed. They've taken us from surpluses to an annual deficit of over a trillion dollars, and they've brought our economy to a halt. And that's precisely what the election we just had was all about. The American people have rendered their judgment. And now is the time to move forward, not back. Now is the time for action.

So while our lawmakers are taking their sweet old time as our economy burns, let's take a look at a few meaningful things in this bill that are being held up with their pissing contest:

• $142 billion for a middle-class tax cut
• $47 billion to extend unemployment benefits
• $16 billion to expand food stamps
• $17 billion in one-time payments to low-income Americans
• $26 billion to expand access to health care
• $87 billion to help states pay for Medicaid
• $24 billion to modernized health information technology
• $46 billion to fix bridges and roads
• $80 billion to improve public education
• $19 billion for school construction
• $14 billion to make college more affordable
• $32 billion for clean energy

There's much more. All together, the Obama plan will create or save an estimated 3 to 4 million jobs and keep our nation"s economy from sliding into a lengthy and severe recession. So what is the real reason the GOP is so opposed to this stimulus package? I think the Huffington Post summed it up best...

The GOP does not want Obama or America to move forward, what else can they run on in 4 years?
Why didn't a single House Republican vote for the recovery package? One high-ranking congressional aide opined to the Huffington Post, "It wasn't because of family planning funds or preserving the National Mall or whatever Rush Limbaugh and Drudge's talking points were. It's because this legislation is the clearest repudiation of Bush and Congressional Republican economic policies yet."

It is, in a way, a public relations coup that the stimulus has been boiled down to, as one Hill Democrat puts it, "funding for the arts, funding for the mall, and funding to fight AIDS." Those aspects of the legislation, as the White House points out, constitute a mere 7/100th of one percent of the entire package.

What about jobs being created and long-term savings by the $6.7 billion for energy-efficient renovations and repairs to federal buildings...

"I don't think people realize what a big deal weatherizing the federal buildings would be. The government wastes millions of dollars every year on buildings that are old and need to be weatherized," said a high-ranking Democratic aide. "We have windows that leak and have bad insulation. These are buildings all over the country and we are going to go in there, weatherize them, create jobs and save money down the road."

The Republican ideology and the Bush years have left this country's economy in such a state of collapse that most economists say we have to think big. This is true on a broad level, where the middle-class saw its purchasing power drastically diminished during the past 8 years as their income remained stagnant while productivity and profits grew! The economic growth of the Bush years was funded by debt on the backs of the middle-class. So what if this bill props up dormant federal programs? The policies of the past eight years were hardly stimulative.

"We cannot move forward without understanding what created this crisis," said Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel. "This recovery package is the beginning of a longer-term investment in America's middle class, our small businesses, health care, renewable energy technologies and a new infrastructure to reinvigorate our economy so that American workers and businesses can compete and win in the 21st Century."

Should We Buy American?

What the hell is wrong with the "buy American" provisions in the proposed stimulus bill? The European Union's panties are all in a bunch because of this...

Under the “Buy American” clause passed by the US House of Representatives, American iron and steel must be used in construction projects that form part of the recovery plan. The US Senate wants to extend the scope of the clause before the Bill goes to the White House for approval.

To me, that is just common sense! If you are going to be using American taxpayer money to fund American construction projects, it only makes sense to use American iron and steel for those projects, doesn't it? I don't think there is a single person in this country that wouldn't be pissed if our tax money was being used to purchase imported steel for these projects.

This isn't the same as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 which raised tariffs on imported goods to record levels forcing other nations to increase their tariffs on US goods causing imports and exports to drop in half further worsening the impact of the Great Depression. Nobody is calling for increased tariffs or anything like that, this is just a stipulation that taxpayer-funded projects use American goods. Actually, now that I think of it, I can't believe this stipulation isn't already a law or something!

Sadly, Obama is already pulling back and signaling he would remove the most provocative parts of the bill. I am an Obama supporter and voted for him, but this is a little disappointing.

A Time To Celebrate?

Polls show that a large majority of the american public wants this stimulus bill, thousands of people are losing their jobs everyday, people's retirement funds continue to dwindle, families are losing their homes, and the Republicans continue to be tone-deaf! Do they just not care about the average american? Nevermind, don't answer that. They're actually celebrating their united front against the stimulus bill according to several articles I've read today.

New York Times:

Republicans profess to be unconcerned. House Republicans on Thursday headed off to a retreat at The Homestead, a Virginia resort, still celebrating their unanimous stand — despite Mr. Obama’s visit to the Capitol to seek their support — against a package that in their view has too much big-government spending and too few tax cuts. Their unsuccessful substitute was entirely of tax cuts.

Washington Post:

The bill passed easily despite the opposition of all 177 Republican House members, but party leaders delighted in what they considered a victory after two straight electoral drubbings and much soul-searching about what the party stands for.

Now did I miss something? Didn't they just lose the presidency and a bunch of seats in the House and Senate? Wasn't a third of the stimulus bill comprised of tax cuts specifically to satisfy Republicans? Didn't President Obama ask Democrats to remove the controversial family planning aspect of the bill and several other items to once again appease the Republicans? Come on now, how much compromise do they expect? Their definition of bipartisan is to concede and give us everything we want!

Didn't we try it their way for the last 8 years, and look where that got us! They had no problem with Bush's $500 billion annual deficit spending for the last 8 years to benefit rich tax cuts! They had no problem spending hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq without any budget oversight! Now all of a sudden they want to be fiscal conservatives! Their spending and 'supply-side' economics got us into this mess, their ideology of deregulation has led to a run-away train of greed and corruption that is still occurring with our bank bailout money! They have gotten us into the worse economic mess since the 1930's and now they don't want to spend any money to get us out of it, and they're proud to say so! I just can't even begin to understand the nerve these guys have.

The Republican party continues to be the obstructionist party, and as long as they keep going on that route, eventually they will be no party at all!

GOP, the "no" party!

House Minority Whip, Eric Cantor says in an editorial in Politico, that his party can't be the "no" party.

"At a moment when the country needs our help, it would be a great mistake for the House GOP to turn inward and simply become the party of “no.” We want our new president to succeed, and America needs our new President to succeed, which is why we will contribute the full force of our ideas to help him navigate the choppy waters. That’s why our leadership met with the president three times to offer him our ideas on the stimulus, including among other proposals a reduction in small business tax liability by 20 percent."

But when it came time to vote on the stimulus bill, that's exactly what they were, the "no" party. All 178 Republicans in the house voted against it! This is after they met with president Obama three times. He listened to their ideas and incorporated some of them into the bill -- including a large amount of tax cuts and even asked the Democrats to remove controversial items the Republicans had issue with.

They might not want to be the "no" party, but they certainly are the party of no new ideas! Their answer to everything is more tax cuts, tax cuts fix everything! If that were true, how come Bush's tax cuts didn't prevent this economic collapse? I already know what they'll say... "taxes weren't cut enough." I grow so tired of the old "Trickle-Down Economics" mantra everytime, look at wage growth during the Bush's years, stagnant, yet corporate profits were up, nothing is trickling down! If you give more tax cuts to corporations, you're just going to help them fund a new plant overseas or pay for that call center in India. It's not going to create many jobs here in the states.

Every leading economist who knows what their talking about says you have to spend money to get the economy going again. It's simple, spend money on infrastructure and other projects and services, which creates jobs, which gives people money to spend on goods and services, which will help businesses grow. It's not rocket science! If you just give everyone a tax cut, that money won't get spent, people will just save it. Everyone is too afraid to spend money right now, that's why the government has to do it.

So let's sum up, so far the GOP is the party of no ideas, no jobs, and most of all -- no clue!