Obama on the trememdous waste in the stimulus bill...
"When was the last time that we saw a bill of this magnitude move out with no earmarks in it? Not one."
OK, well, if you managed to make this the first one ever... wouldn't that constitute a change? Or was the old way of doing things just fine as long as it suits your personal agenda Mr. President?
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Gotta love the AP
Here's how they describe the stimulus compromise...
"President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan is on track to pass the Senate after a handful of moderate Republicans and Democrats forced more than $100 billion in cuts in programs that wouldn't create many jobs right away."
Uh, OK... That's one way of putting it, I guess. Another way would be to say they "forced cuts in programs that won't create ANY jobs, EVER."
And by the way, look at the final buget number up on Drudge right now... doesn't look to me like they cut much of anything.
"President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan is on track to pass the Senate after a handful of moderate Republicans and Democrats forced more than $100 billion in cuts in programs that wouldn't create many jobs right away."
Uh, OK... That's one way of putting it, I guess. Another way would be to say they "forced cuts in programs that won't create ANY jobs, EVER."
And by the way, look at the final buget number up on Drudge right now... doesn't look to me like they cut much of anything.
Friday, February 6, 2009
My Immediate Stimulus
My big problem with the stimulus bill is that it's filled with more pork that a package of Farmer John bacon. Rather than detail all of it here, I'll let some people who've actually gone through it do it for me.
There are a lot of things in the bill that people can make an argument for funding. However, this is supposed to be an economic stimulus bill, not an appropriations bill. This bill's cost is up to $900 billion. Shouldn't we be asking how are we going to pay for all this? And with Congressional Budget forecasting that some of this money won't be spent until 2010 and 2011, how is that going to help the economy in the short term?
My proposal is simple.
1) Extend unemployment benefits for the next year. This will immediately help people who have been laid off.
2) Suspend the payroll tax for the next six months. This will immediately put money back in the hands of working people and their employers.
3) Cut every tax bracket by 5% and make it retroactive to last year. This will give everybody bigger rebate checks.
4) Cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%. Make that permanent. Encourage more businesses to do business in America by bringing our corporate tax rate more in line with (and in some places lower than) the rest of the world.
Once those things are done, then we can look at spending government money on infrastructure building - like updating the national power grid, which really should be done. Currently, there is $4.5 billion alloted in the bill to update the grid. The problem is that a 2004 study estimated that is would take at least $165 billion to actually do it right. Who's paying attention to these figures?
Let's take those four steps I outlined above to provide immediate relief. Then Congress and the President can sit down and actually write a good bill rather than rush something through and get it wrong.
There are a lot of things in the bill that people can make an argument for funding. However, this is supposed to be an economic stimulus bill, not an appropriations bill. This bill's cost is up to $900 billion. Shouldn't we be asking how are we going to pay for all this? And with Congressional Budget forecasting that some of this money won't be spent until 2010 and 2011, how is that going to help the economy in the short term?
My proposal is simple.
1) Extend unemployment benefits for the next year. This will immediately help people who have been laid off.
2) Suspend the payroll tax for the next six months. This will immediately put money back in the hands of working people and their employers.
3) Cut every tax bracket by 5% and make it retroactive to last year. This will give everybody bigger rebate checks.
4) Cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%. Make that permanent. Encourage more businesses to do business in America by bringing our corporate tax rate more in line with (and in some places lower than) the rest of the world.
Once those things are done, then we can look at spending government money on infrastructure building - like updating the national power grid, which really should be done. Currently, there is $4.5 billion alloted in the bill to update the grid. The problem is that a 2004 study estimated that is would take at least $165 billion to actually do it right. Who's paying attention to these figures?
Let's take those four steps I outlined above to provide immediate relief. Then Congress and the President can sit down and actually write a good bill rather than rush something through and get it wrong.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Hope and Fear?
At his inaugural address, FDR said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, as he rallied Americans to rise out of the doldrums of the Great Depression. (Never mind that FDR's policies might have made the Great Depression last longer than necessary. That's a post for another date.) The point is that he was an eternal optimist and projected that to the American people.
Well, I guess Barack Obama is no FDR. In an op-ed in today's Washington Post, President Obama says that if Congress doesn't immediately pass his stimulus bill that "Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse."
Way to sell hope and change President Obama. Didn't you campaign by saying that President Bush's politics of fear was wrecking our country?
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Well, I guess Barack Obama is no FDR. In an op-ed in today's Washington Post, President Obama says that if Congress doesn't immediately pass his stimulus bill that "Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse."
Way to sell hope and change President Obama. Didn't you campaign by saying that President Bush's politics of fear was wrecking our country?
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Unclench This
Recently, both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Iran to unclench its fist and accept an open hand from the United States.
After making those statements, President Ahmadinejad replied that basically it just means that they know the Western way of doing things has been a failure and this is why they're trying a new direction. Iran then launched a satellite into orbit and today denied the US Badminton team visas to enter the country.
It seems that Iran has just not gotten the message that the election of Barack Obama means that they should now be nice to us.
I'm sure they'll be apologizing to us any day now.
After making those statements, President Ahmadinejad replied that basically it just means that they know the Western way of doing things has been a failure and this is why they're trying a new direction. Iran then launched a satellite into orbit and today denied the US Badminton team visas to enter the country.
It seems that Iran has just not gotten the message that the election of Barack Obama means that they should now be nice to us.
I'm sure they'll be apologizing to us any day now.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Tom Daschle and Timothy Geithner
There is a scene in the movie QUIZ SHOW near the end where Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes) goes before a Senate Committee and eloquently apologizes for his role in the quiz show scandals. When he is finished, one Senator after another praises him for his courage in making the statement. Then a Senator from New York chimes in and says that while he's happy that he made the statement, he can't praise him for making the statement because he thinks a man of Charles Van Doren's intellect should not be praised for simply telling the truth.
This is kind of how I feel about Tom Daschle withdrawing his name from consideration for Secretary of Health and Human Services. While I'm glad Daschle did the right thing in withdrawing, he could have done the right thing years ago by simply paying his taxes.
However, compared to Timothy Geithner, who is now Secretary of the Treasury despite his failure to report income and pay taxes on it until the vetting process discovered it, Tom Daschle appears principled. Geithner should be ashamed of himself.
This is kind of how I feel about Tom Daschle withdrawing his name from consideration for Secretary of Health and Human Services. While I'm glad Daschle did the right thing in withdrawing, he could have done the right thing years ago by simply paying his taxes.
However, compared to Timothy Geithner, who is now Secretary of the Treasury despite his failure to report income and pay taxes on it until the vetting process discovered it, Tom Daschle appears principled. Geithner should be ashamed of himself.
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