Marred by a week-long cycle of bad press and Cabinet defections, President Obama’s $787 Billion stimulus package passed both houses of Congress last night, despite the rigid partisan-divide.
Clearly emboldened by their unanimous “No” votes on the first version, House Republicans, masterfully corralled by Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA), held the line yet again. Three Senate Republicans – Arlen Spector (R-PA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME) – broke rank and voted for the President’s stimulus package for fear the situation would become “much worse without this bill.”
Obama’s crusade to saddle future generations of Americans with $1 trillion in debts, notwithstanding stagflation, will result in nothing more than supplementing their paychecks with a disgraceful $8 a week pat on the back.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 equals 5.7% of America’s Gross Domestic Product (GPD), whereas President Roosevelt’s New Deal, at its height of fiscally irresponsible, equaled approximately 2%. The gross spending called for by bill – mandated by Congressional Democrats and President Obama – is equal to or larger than the GDP of 157 nations – all but 14 countries listed in the International Monetary Fund’s database for 2007. Among those countries dwarfed by the unprecedented spending are United Arab Emirates, Dominican Republic, Iran, Taiwan, and Israel.
President Obama, by his own admission, owns this recovery bill, the largest of its kind in US history. “Congress has passed my economic recovery plan –- an ambitious plan at a time we badly need it,” he said in his weekly address this morning. Like FDR’s socially-transformative welfare policies, the implications of this bill’s sheer size and scope will likely not be known for several years, if not decades. But as Americans wake to the sobering reality that we’re now indebted to China, Saudi Arabia, and other hostile foreign creditors for trillions all for naught, Republicans would do well to remember just whose “economic recovery plan” this was.Cross-posted at Skepticians.com.
Darn right the Messiah owns this one!
LoneStarLizard Saturday, February 14th at 12:28PM EST (link)Now if only I had any faith in the American sheeple to actually remember this 4 years from now, on their own, since they won’t have the media to remind them of The One’s colossal mistake right out of the gate.
http://www.lonestarlizard.com/
Regular appropriations
ss396 Saturday, February 14th at 2:58PM EST (link)With this fulfillment of the Democrats’ wish list, I am sure that the regular appropriations process to be carried out later in the year will reduce the individual spending bills by the amounts already appropriated in this stimulus package.
I’m sure of it.
If you pay people to sit on their duffs, you cannot be surprised when they do.
The struggle has now begun in earnest
izoneguy Saturday, February 14th at 4:25PM EST (link)The very fabric that holds the country together economically will be ripped to shreads. Business will give a thumbs down on the plan. Job losses will grow. The Federal Government cannot move with the speed required to save this economy. The “Stim u lie” is too much too late.
Now business will sit on the sidelines with a wait & see attitude. While Obama is on the field fumbling around the ball will get dropped and then the finger pointing will begin. The markets will lose confidence in Obama and I look for it be at around 5000 by Sept. 1, 2009.
The only way the economy will pick up is after the 2010 elections when the Republicans take back the majorities in both houses and become an iron curtain against Obama.
Only then business will feel like investing and hiring again. By then a majority of Americans will realize Obama was a huge mistake and he will lose support.
“When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
Thomas Jefferson