President Obama and Co. want to push through Congress an $825 billion (plus) "stimulus" package to be "a quick jolt the economy." This is on top of the nearly $1 trillion "emergency economic recovery" package Congress rammed through in 2008 at the behest of former President Bush.
In 2008 it was absolutely "imperative" that the "emergency economic recovery" package be passed because allegedly the economy was in dire peril. The passage of the package was supposed to "unlock the credit markets" and help us avoid a long, drawn-out recession.
Has anyone noticed that it didn't work?
In fact, barely 1/3 of the appropriated funds have been disbursed, mostly to banks which ended up going on a buying spree to merge with other banks that were in trouble.
Yesterday, over 50,000 layoffs were announced. 50,000 in one day.
Hello, recession!
So now Congress and the president want to spend another $825 billion. But what's this from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
In 2009, the new "stimulus" package will result in total spending of barely $26 billion of the $825 billion. That's about 3.2% of the total "stimulus." How is that supposed to jolt the economy?
In 2010 -- the year of the mid-term elections -- another $110 billion will be spent or 13.3%.
So in two years only 16.5% of the $825 billion will have been spent; that leaves 83.5% of the money left to spend in the last 2 years of Obama's administration.
That's a whopping $688.9 billion to spend right before this administration faces a reelection.
The timing is not a coincidence. It is nothing more than a political ploy.
Worse still is what the CBO reports as the benefits of this "stimulus" package. Consider:
Only $30 billion or 3.6% will be spent on roads and highways.
Only 2% will be spent on development of "clean" energy.
Where is the majority of the money going: federal programs -- to buy new computers and replace federal cars with more energy-efficient ones; to help fund Amtrak and buy new uniforms for the TSA; several million is going to NASA and billions are being poured into federal programs that have yet and may never produce one single job.
What the president and the Democrats in Congress are doing is using FEAR to get Americans to support a political power grab that is sure to entrench the Democrats in power for decades to come.
FEAR -- False Evidence Appearing Real
Don't fall for their ploy. Don't accept their false evidence. Demand accountability. Demand real bipartsianship.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Bipartisanship We Can Believe, Part II
Illinois, unlike Washington, DC, has discovered true bipartianship. We can thank Gov. Rod Blagojevich ("Blago") for this.
The governor's impeachment trial begins today at noon in Springfield, IL. The IL State Senate will sit in judgement of Blago for his alleged crime spree which includes his attempt to sell former Senator Obama's seat to the highest bidder. There are other "abuses of power" alleged by the IL House in its impeachment report, most of them spanning both terms of the governor.
It was the attempted sale of the Senate seat that finally spurred the IL General Assembly to action. Well, that and the arrest of Blago in the early morning hours of December 9th. Had the arrest not occurred, I seriously doubt Blago would be facing the state senate today.
In point of fact, however, he's decided NOT to face the state senators. In a bizarro claim of constitutional malfeasance and injustice, Blago is instead making the media rounds today, trying to present his case directly to the people. I doubt most Americans much care what happens in IL, but Blago makes interesting TV and radio. He has a vaunted media team on his side, despite the fact that his primary lawyer basically fired him as a client last week.
What's up with the craziness? First, the conclusion of the IL State Senate trial is a foregone conclusion. Blago will be found guilty, probably by the end of this week, since he is choosing not to mount any defense. The senators will easily meet the informal deadline of removing Blago from office before Lincoln's 200th birthday on Feb. 12th.
Mounting a defense in the state senate is virtually pointless for Blago. At best he might sway 1, possibly 2 votes away from conviction, but that'd be a real long shot. He has no family or friends in that chamber, unlike a sister-in-law in the IL House (she was the only representative to vote against his impeachment).
Better to spend his time making a case about injustice and unfairness via the media. Appeal directly to the potential jury pool that will be called when his federal criminal trial begins later this year or in 2010. It's an absurd attempt, assuming people will remember this months or years from now. But what else has the man got to do in the waning days and hours of his administration?
A better answer is that Blago is instead delivering a calculated message to IL politicians and a few in the Obama administration, too. If he goes down, he will not go down alone. His abuses of power were not solo acts and like any good politician, he knows where more than a few skeletons are buried.
Blago is certain to lose his job as governor -- no amount of threats will stop that. He will certainly be barred from seeking public office in IL again. A worse fate though awaits him in his federal trial: prison.
He will not go down easily or quietly. His demands to be able to call witnesses in his impeachment trial this week like Rahm Emmanual, Valerie Jarrett and Jesse Jackson, Jr. are not so subtle signals to the powers that be that he is more than willing to say anything and implicate anyone else to save his own skin. He knows much and is willing to spill it to get whatever deal he can get.
The Blago drama will not end with his removal from office. That's only Act I in this drama.
The governor's impeachment trial begins today at noon in Springfield, IL. The IL State Senate will sit in judgement of Blago for his alleged crime spree which includes his attempt to sell former Senator Obama's seat to the highest bidder. There are other "abuses of power" alleged by the IL House in its impeachment report, most of them spanning both terms of the governor.
It was the attempted sale of the Senate seat that finally spurred the IL General Assembly to action. Well, that and the arrest of Blago in the early morning hours of December 9th. Had the arrest not occurred, I seriously doubt Blago would be facing the state senate today.
In point of fact, however, he's decided NOT to face the state senators. In a bizarro claim of constitutional malfeasance and injustice, Blago is instead making the media rounds today, trying to present his case directly to the people. I doubt most Americans much care what happens in IL, but Blago makes interesting TV and radio. He has a vaunted media team on his side, despite the fact that his primary lawyer basically fired him as a client last week.
What's up with the craziness? First, the conclusion of the IL State Senate trial is a foregone conclusion. Blago will be found guilty, probably by the end of this week, since he is choosing not to mount any defense. The senators will easily meet the informal deadline of removing Blago from office before Lincoln's 200th birthday on Feb. 12th.
Mounting a defense in the state senate is virtually pointless for Blago. At best he might sway 1, possibly 2 votes away from conviction, but that'd be a real long shot. He has no family or friends in that chamber, unlike a sister-in-law in the IL House (she was the only representative to vote against his impeachment).
Better to spend his time making a case about injustice and unfairness via the media. Appeal directly to the potential jury pool that will be called when his federal criminal trial begins later this year or in 2010. It's an absurd attempt, assuming people will remember this months or years from now. But what else has the man got to do in the waning days and hours of his administration?
A better answer is that Blago is instead delivering a calculated message to IL politicians and a few in the Obama administration, too. If he goes down, he will not go down alone. His abuses of power were not solo acts and like any good politician, he knows where more than a few skeletons are buried.
Blago is certain to lose his job as governor -- no amount of threats will stop that. He will certainly be barred from seeking public office in IL again. A worse fate though awaits him in his federal trial: prison.
He will not go down easily or quietly. His demands to be able to call witnesses in his impeachment trial this week like Rahm Emmanual, Valerie Jarrett and Jesse Jackson, Jr. are not so subtle signals to the powers that be that he is more than willing to say anything and implicate anyone else to save his own skin. He knows much and is willing to spill it to get whatever deal he can get.
The Blago drama will not end with his removal from office. That's only Act I in this drama.
Bipartisanship We Can Believe
From a campaign filled with the words hope, change and bipartisanship to an administration filled with:
"I won."
"I will trump you on that."
"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done."
Wow, what a change a week makes. Well, actually less than a week. I suppose the honeymoon's over before it ever began. And so is all the talk and hype from the campaign to stamp out the partisan bickering in Washington.
Welcome to the reality of the Obama administration. He's actually using a rather clever strategy to isolate Republicans and even some moderate to leaning conservative Democrats (if any exist). The idea is to follow Rule 11 of Saul Alinksy's "Rules for Radicals" (http://www.vcn.bc.ca/citizens-handbook/rules.html):
Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.
Obama is following this tactic to the letter.
Don't allow debate about the actual topic, in this case, the nearly TRILLION dollar "stimulus" package Obama wants to ram through Congress. Instead create a distraction, such as Rush Limbaugh, or polarize it by claiming to be able to trump any opposition. If this doesn't work, then denigrate the private sector. Excoriate Merrill Lynch for spending $1.2 million to rennovate an executive suite, even though such action provided numerous jobs for contractors, designers, laborers, decorators -- all direct stimulation to the economy.
Obama's stimulus plan is truly just a "pork-ulus" plan. The Office of Management and Budget has rejected this plan and says the vast majority of this stuff is not going to get spent 'til after 2010 or 2011, and 2010 just happens to be reelection year.
We've already passed one stimulus plan that has done nothing to rescue the country from recession and now we are getting ready to spend another trillion dollars. Why? Because the government simply cannot understand that it is impossible for them to spend their way to prosperity.
Sadly, Obama is right. He won. He has the votes to pass whatever he wants, despite the lame opposition that Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid voiced. Their bleating that they will not be a rubber stamp for the Obama administration is like dust in the wind. Whatever Obama asks for, Congress will pass.
That's the new bipartisanship in Washington.
I won. So get over it and just give me what I want.
And like the reporters in the White House press room discovered last Thursday, don't dare question the president. "I didn't come down here today to answer questions."
Remember... this is truly an imperial presidency. Obama rules, reporters drool.
"I won."
"I will trump you on that."
"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done."
Wow, what a change a week makes. Well, actually less than a week. I suppose the honeymoon's over before it ever began. And so is all the talk and hype from the campaign to stamp out the partisan bickering in Washington.
Welcome to the reality of the Obama administration. He's actually using a rather clever strategy to isolate Republicans and even some moderate to leaning conservative Democrats (if any exist). The idea is to follow Rule 11 of Saul Alinksy's "Rules for Radicals" (http://www.vcn.bc.ca/citizens-handbook/rules.html):
Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.
Obama is following this tactic to the letter.
Don't allow debate about the actual topic, in this case, the nearly TRILLION dollar "stimulus" package Obama wants to ram through Congress. Instead create a distraction, such as Rush Limbaugh, or polarize it by claiming to be able to trump any opposition. If this doesn't work, then denigrate the private sector. Excoriate Merrill Lynch for spending $1.2 million to rennovate an executive suite, even though such action provided numerous jobs for contractors, designers, laborers, decorators -- all direct stimulation to the economy.
Obama's stimulus plan is truly just a "pork-ulus" plan. The Office of Management and Budget has rejected this plan and says the vast majority of this stuff is not going to get spent 'til after 2010 or 2011, and 2010 just happens to be reelection year.
We've already passed one stimulus plan that has done nothing to rescue the country from recession and now we are getting ready to spend another trillion dollars. Why? Because the government simply cannot understand that it is impossible for them to spend their way to prosperity.
Sadly, Obama is right. He won. He has the votes to pass whatever he wants, despite the lame opposition that Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid voiced. Their bleating that they will not be a rubber stamp for the Obama administration is like dust in the wind. Whatever Obama asks for, Congress will pass.
That's the new bipartisanship in Washington.
I won. So get over it and just give me what I want.
And like the reporters in the White House press room discovered last Thursday, don't dare question the president. "I didn't come down here today to answer questions."
Remember... this is truly an imperial presidency. Obama rules, reporters drool.
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