Jan 28 2009
House passes stimulus bill
Without one single Republican vote…
House Passes $819 Billion Economic Stimulus
With no Republican support, the House approved an $819 billion stimulus plan that will serve as the cornerstone of President Obama’s efforts to resuscitate the economy, an early victory for the new president but still a disappointment because of the lack of Republican votes.
The measure passed 244 to 188, with 11 Democrats and 177 Republicans voting against it.
The two-year economic package includes $275 billion in tax cuts and more than $550 billion in domestic spending on roads and bridges, alternative-energy development, health-care technology, unemployment assistance, and aid to states and local governments. It would also provide up to $500 per year in tax relief for most workers and more than $300 billion in aid to states for funding to help rebuild schools, provide health-care to the poor and reconstruct highways and bridges.
Nobody can deny that President Obama tried to work with the Republicans, even going so far as to make a special trip to the capitol building yesterday to meet with their “leaders” and asking the Democratic leadership to either change or remove parts of the legislation to which they objected. Still, not one single Republican voted for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan. Not one.
We now better understand whereof the Republicans speak when the utter the word “bipartisan.” In their lexicon, it means “our way or no way.” For them, it’s party before country every time.
This was a difficult lesson for our new president, but he had to try. He now knows without any doubt whatsoever that trying to work with Republicans is nothing less than a gigantic waste of time.
The Senate will now work on and pass their version of the bill, probably also without any cooperation from the Republicans. A joint committee will then meet to hammer out a compromise bill which will then be approved by both houses of Congress. The goal is to have a bill ready for the president’s signature by the middle of February. With our economy worsening by the hour, it cannot happen too quickly.
11 Responses to “House passes stimulus bill”
Certainly wasn’t bipartisan. I guess Obama failed to bring us together. I understand 11 Democrats voted against it. I guess all Democrats are not Socialist descendants of the French.
@Jhen :
Not by any stretch of the imagination.
I guess you could look at it like that. I choose not to, which you should have gathered from reading my post.
Yes, they did. This, to me, is an indication that Democrats vote their consciences; Republicans just follow their leaders — you know, like sheep.
Really? Please do not inform us about your ancestry. I’m not even the least bit curious.
Stay classy, Jhen.
I believe neither party is in the right here, it just goes to show that “bi partisan” is just a dream and shows that neither party really cares about the average american person. Politicians approved the financial bailout that saved the jobs of and reputations of their top 1 percent friends so they could spend it on bonuses for the people that caused the problem in the first place. So far this has done nothing to bolster the economy and I believe that these companies should have had to agree to make big changes before they got a dime. Obviously the CEO’s and upper management that caused the problems should have been gotten rid of and big pay cuts been issued across the board as the people running these firms weren’t worth what they were making. Republicans always seem to stand together for the wrong things, such as the war in Iraq which we entered because of Bush’s personal vendetta even though it was told and eventually proved that there were no WMD’s in Iraq. Want to talk about wasteful spending, at least the money in the stimulus package would stay in our country. I could go on about the last 8 years, but all one really has to do is look at the state of our union to realize that all the republican ideas didn’t work. As for the democrats, you need to look at some of the pet projects that you are trying to get through at the expense of the average american. Instead of bickering along party lines, I believe you all need to put yourself in the shoes of the people you are representing and figure out what is best overall.
So, now 188 Republicans are on the record as voting AGAINST tax cuts. Well done, fellas.
@ Cary – I tend to think that politicians don’t “care” about the average American person because the average American person doesn’t care about what is going on in Washington.
As far as TARP goes, I don’t think it was necessary. While no one likes economic uncertainty or job losses, it is a natural part of the economic cycle in our country. Many of the failing companies grew too big, and in order to maintain their percentage revenue trends, they engaged in programs that were outside of their core business principals. But just as companies fail, there are other companies waiting to pick up the pieces.
The only company that I think the government was right to go after and bailout was AIG since they back an enormous amount of insurance policies out there. But the banks? No. By bailing them out, all we have done is delayed the date they collapse while increasing our national debt. Other than a small percentage of people who have more than $250K in any one bank account will see any losses by a failed bank.
and a hard, but important, lesson for Americans. Too bad the world had to see how Americans stick together! Wonder what will happen next time, in the house! I’m writing my senator, like he’s going to listen to me… one of the few Dems in Oklahoma!
Obama went out of his way to try to get bipartisan support and was rebuffed. While this was nice to attempt, the Democrats won both houses of Congress and the White House, so they don’t have to beg for Republican support. It would of course be good if both sides could work together and find compromise but this clearly demonstrates that the Republicans would like to go back to their tyrannical ways under Bush which thankfully won’t be allowed to happen.
Why would you expect Republicans to support a pork laden project? Calling it a stimulus bill is a sham with very little money set aside to aid the economy. Instead, we have scores of unrelated add ons, thus the lack of support from across the aisle.
If the president really wanted bi-partisan support he would have make sure that the bill presented was a real stimulus package. Clearly, the house Democrats (except for eleven who opposed it) chose to support something very different.
Hey Len, I’m not sure this is a fair characterization. The first bailout as urged by George Bush got passed and we all know it didn’t work. Our country is being urged to spend hundreds of billions of dollars because people are crying out for action. But Politico reported yesterday that are over 300 economists in the country that believe doing nothing is a better option. Housing values are falling, but first time buyers are finding they can afford housing options again and home sales increased in December. Jobs are being lost, but companies are being forced to operate meaner and leaner, and individuals like me are spending less and paying off credit card debt instead of incurring more. When you have an economy as big as ours that’s been run out of control as all of us have lived outside our means on credit, the bubble has to burst. And there’s growing thought that it needs to. Otherwise, far more money needs to be injected into the economy to support the spending bubble which will seriously jeopardize future generations. It’s better to bite the bullet now and STOP spending, no matter how much it hurts, because prolonging the inevitable is just going to hurt more.
800 billion won’t turn around the economy. It’s a waste of money. In fact, it won’t even see the economy until 2010. then what?
I don’t think this issue is anywhere near as simple as democrat or republican. About a dozen democrats voted against the bill as well, including my Congressman, Heath Shuler, a blue dog from the mountains of North Carolina.
Cheers!
@Matt Urdan :
You should consider yourself very fortunate to have that option. Millions of your fellow Americans do not.
Len,
A few comments. Going down to the Hill for a photo op and to have a meeting from which you are going to release a few “bipartisan” quotes does not constitute concessions or bipartisanship. Just like being black and talking about change doesn’t make you a messiah. I have yet to see anything Obama did after his closed-door (but openly cited by his press team) meetings with Republican lawmakers.
And as far as your response to Matt’s comments, let’s be honest. Americans are the richest people in the world. Would it require a lot of sacrifice? Yes. But could 99.5% of Americans spend less money and still live better than the poor in the rest of the world? Absolutely. People make choices. Buying a house they couldn’t afford was one many Americans made. There are plenty of cheap places to rent. People buy Cheetos and coke when they could buy fresh food to prepare at home and cut their food expenses in half. When you see people using food stamps to buy candy at 7-11, it really puts the “poor” in America in perspective compared to the real poverty that our homeless and the poor overseas face.
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