Comments on: House passes stimulus bill

By: Z

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:59:42 +0000

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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By: Len

Len — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:39:16 +0000

@Matt Urdan :

individuals like me are spending less and paying off credit card debt

You should consider yourself very fortunate to have that option. Millions of your fellow Americans do not.

By: Matt Urdan

Matt Urdan — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:04:03 +0000

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!

By: Matt Keegan

Matt Keegan — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:50:15 +0000

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.

By: Rich Dansereau

Rich Dansereau — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:49:36 +0000

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.

By: storybeader

storybeader — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:17:19 +0000

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!

By: U.S. Common Sense

U.S. Common Sense — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:09:42 +0000

@ 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.

By: fromUnderTheQuabbin

fromUnderTheQuabbin — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:47:52 +0000

So, now 188 Republicans are on the record as voting AGAINST tax cuts. Well done, fellas.

By: Cary

Cary — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:26:37 +0000

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.

By: Len

Len — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:23:45 +0000

@Jhen :

Certainly wasn’t bipartisan.

Not by any stretch of the imagination.

I guess Obama failed to bring us together.

I guess you could look at it like that. I choose not to, which you should have gathered from reading my post.

I understand 11 Democrats voted against it.

Yes, they did. This, to me, is an indication that Democrats vote their consciences; Republicans just follow their leaders -- you know, like sheep.

I guess all Democrats are not Socialist descendants of the French.

Really? Please do not inform us about your ancestry. I'm not even the least bit curious. Stay classy, Jhen.