But Steve, it's a chess game, doncha know?? Obama's giving away all the pawns, sure, that's part of the strategy (not tactics, obviously) but at least the kings and bishops are still in play! Woohoo!
Posted by iamcoyote at January 28, 2009 07:18 AMPow! You nailed it Steve....bra-vo!
What is so difficult for Dems to understand (and you'd think they would have learned already from say many past experiences) that repukes aren't interested in bipartisianship or post partisianship or postbiparstisianship or bipostpartisianship or what ever the heck they're calling it these days...their philosophy has been and will always be that of the infamous Grover "Drown guv't in the bathtub" Norquist that bipartisianship is another name for date rape.
Simply put for Dems who think and believe otherwise that they can somehow transcend that vile and horrific equivalent.
Repukes believe that:
Bipartisianship=Date Rape.
Chew on that thought for a minute. That simply explains everything and anything you should know about repukes.
They're sick evil people that would rather see the country and it's people suffer miserably and fail then work with the "other" side.
Party before country.
As a comparison, please remember that Bill Clinton and Al Gore went ahead and passed their economic package with not a single GOP vote, and then received the lion's share of the credit from the public years later for the 1990's prosperity. Does anyone credit Newt Gingrich or Bob Dole for that decade's job gains and rising incomes? Hell no! But they do remember that the GOP abdicated their responsibility back in 1993 to be obstructionist.
I seem to remember an election in 1994 that went pretty well for Newt and company. Yes, it was later proven that Bill's tax restructure in 1993 helped the economy in the 1990s. Yes, people later blamed NewtCo their stupid government shutdown stunt in 1995. But the Republicans kept Congress for 12 years.
Look at Obama's approval ratings on Pollster.com. Look at the approval ratings for the stimulus bill. Both are very high. Look at the Republican leader's approval ratings. Down in Bush territory.
Yes, the bill will pass. Yes, the Republicans will complain. But unlike in 1993 the President will walk out with high approval ratings, and the Republicans have further damaged their brand.
This discussion reminds me of the Presidential campaign. So many on the left wanted Obama to go harder after McCain. Many on the left were convinced that Obama made a major mistake saying he agreed with McCain on several points in the first debate.
But Obama won the election comfortably and is now successfully winning over middle America. He's building a broad based support including the left and the center, leaving the Republicans with only their far-right base.
Posted by anonny at January 28, 2009 07:55 AMOK, I'll try once again. Making nice at dinner parties does not, actually, cost anything. What's truly misguided is to buy into the cash theory of political capital. Public opinion does not clink around in your pocket like Susan B. Anthonys. It is built or squandered by performance and by perception. And it IS a renewable resource. Initially seeming to be reasonable and to deliver on his campaign promises does not preclude, regretfully being forced to run over the stubborn obstructionists in the name of common necessity. But it can enhance your capital with the public and reflect very poorly on the opposition at the same time. And in 2010.
Expecting the brain-dead media hairdos to actually recognize reality ranks with waiting for Godot to show up and explain the meaning of life. Why yes, time is short and people are losing their jobs every day, but the actual job of fixing the Republican clusterfuck will take a decade, not a week.
If you actually believe Obama, or even Rahm, DLC "best boy" that he has been, believe that they are going to win Republican support or make them feel ownership of anything that is actually good for the country but not uniquely good for them and their base, then by all means, tear your hair out, rend your garments and continue to gnash those molars for all you're worth. For all the Sturm und Drang, however, ONLY time will tell.
I believe most of the angst I've read here, is being expressed by passionate, former Hillary supporters. Who is she working for, again?
I suggest that Obama is playing a somewhat more subtle game than many here will credit. A thoroughly venal and outright hostile media is what we need to work around and that's what I think Obama is doing with this early song and dance.
Yes coyote, pawns are being played. I haven't seen any permanent sacrifice yet, just repositioning. By the way, the two minute warning comes at the end of a half, not the beginning. We talk about the congressional democrats being conditioned to surrender. Have a little hope! Success is possible.
I'm Pollyanna and I approve this message.
Posted by DeminNewJ at January 28, 2009 08:03 AMyes Steve, but Hillary didn't win. And now she's not even in a position to lead in the Senate, which is unfortunate. It's always great to speculate on what might have happened and so forth..heck, if he hadn't cheated on his wife maybe Edwards would be president. But Obama is and if you and others wish to discount his presidency after a total of 8 days in office..fine. The fact remains that the Dems can pass anything they want in the House and pretty much anything in the Senate (even with Reid). The play here by the GOP is quite simple...obstruct everything and start playing the Blame Obama game from day one. Apparently that's the same game some pro-Clinton people are looking at also. For me, I'm willing to give him at least six months before I start blaming him with all the ill's of the world.
Posted by T2 at January 28, 2009 08:22 AMI believe most of the angst I've read here, is being expressed by passionate, former Hillary supporters.
I just tweaked lambert for this shit, and I'll tweak you. Stop it, get over it, quit using this as a club to dismiss the opinions of others. It's annoying!
I suggest that Obama is playing a somewhat more subtle game than many here will credit.
I'm sure he is, too. But people are scared, frustrated, and human, and sometimes we just want to vent those feelings rather than just hope for the best and trust people who have, in the past, broken that trust. And all we get is more "trust us?" And mixed sports analogies? And condescension? Fuck that shit, really.
Posted by iamcoyote at January 28, 2009 08:48 AMHave a little hope! Success is possible.
Tell that to these guys. Ooops! Too late! They shoulda waited for the second half, eh?
Posted by iamcoyote at January 28, 2009 08:54 AMCome on coyote.
Throwing that in here is BS.
Even if it weren't, the guy didn't lose his job because of layoffs.
Are we supposed to be guaranteeing people jobs so they don't slaughter their families?
Posted by snark at January 28, 2009 09:03 AMSteve, I was right there with you yesterday, (except for I did not go down the comparison road with the 'what if it were Hillary...')
I was furious and I let everyone know. However, then I watched what happened.
I saw the Republican Leadership on the TeeVees praising Obama. Praising him endlessly. They went on and on about how he was right and he was gracious and he was generous, blah, blah, blah - it was the Dems in the House that were the "problem."
As I watched - with the TeeVee on all day and swapped around from the SPAN back to MSNBC - it was the same everywhere.
What I realized was that Obama did not spend a single dime in "political capital." In fact, he was building on it in compound interest. Obama is getting praise from everywhere except for the few Rabid Right Pundits and Faux News...and, with this happening, it is completely marginalizing all of them.
It is really trippy to watch. The more that Obama is on the good side of all of this, the more that the Right loses credibility - especially Rush, et al.
What Obama has done is he has neutered his critics. Also, it is so much easier for the public - if any "blame" at all is to occur - to be mad at 240 members of the House Dem caucus, because everyone loves their own Congressperson. Also, the House Repubs are being exposed as the whiners that they are.
So, all that is happening is that the Republican Hacks are being exposed as the Republican Obstructionist Hacks that they are.
The public approves of Obama at endlessly high numbers and he is gaining political capital by making nice, not losing it. The dumb ass Republicans are looking like the dumb asses that they are. He is exposing them by not engaging. He just refuses to play their "power play games" because he does not have to.
As for the family planning state waiver provision - I was most pissed about this - however, I have seen the Dems show that this will be put in other legislation right away and nothing is being "removed." You need to understand what the provision was to know that. It is highly deceptive because the dumb ass Boehner made it seem like it was something that it was not.
I think that it might have been included as a set-up to begin with. Get the Republicans to scream about "contraception" and then be oh so cooperative and remove that provision and then everyone sees that we were willing to negotiate and it is the Republicans that are unreasonable - which is the truth but we have never had a Dem that has been able to show it so clearly.
We did not lose anything. The provision was to automatically provide the waiver for the states to use their Medicaid money in family planning services if they want. Currently they have to apply for a waiver to be allowed to use the monies for family planning and most states do, however, the waiver takes a long time. The provision was to remove that waiting period and make it automatic if the states wanted to use the funds in that way. We have not lost anything.
And, Coyote, it is a game of chess which is so much better than the fucking game of strip tackle football that they used to play which resulted in nuts being chopped off and fed to Senate Leadership - which may have felt good but it did not get shit done for the country. Right now, I would rather have some good changes made that work for us and not have the instantaneous feel good of smearing the dicks into the ground.
I think it's ok to reach out the republicans as Obama is doing. I don't think it is wasting political capital, I think it is building capital. I don't want to see the dems move the "center" with our goals and aspirations. I think we can ask the repubs to join us. I think we should ask them to stop lying when they bring up stuff like the cbo report that didn't exist or talk about 12 lane highways to nowhere (that don't exist either). I think we don't bother to confront the lies, we confront the liars and we make it a political liability to present and re-present lies, inaccuracies, innuendo, exaggeration. There needs to be a united front in the mid term election to call the liars and obstructionists to account for their work in the first two years of the Obama administration. We have a lot of work to do fixing the mess that Bush left us. Most of the people in the country know this. We just have to help them keep their focus there.
Now is the time to marginalize Rush Limbaugh. He's a greedy liar. Let anyone who wants to obstruct get confronted with the Limbaugh plan to help Obama fail. Make them say that and let's let the voters decide about the wisdom of that goal.
Posted by mike at January 28, 2009 09:13 AMBut Obama is and if you and others wish to discount his presidency after a total of 8 days in office..fine.
Who's discounting it? Speaking for myself, I'm just venting my frustration with the game. There are real people out there looking for hope, and not finding it. They'd be better able to dredge some up if the dems would stop being so busy with the strategy, and understand that they appear to be ignoring the problem because they're allowing the 'pukes to define the narrative.
Posted by iamcoyote at January 28, 2009 09:14 AMUm, why are we replaying the primary wars again here and now pointing fingers at those of us who feel that it's not worth it to play the bipartisan unity schtick game with a party that doesn't do bipartisanship? (felt the same way before the election too).
Here's what I saw and read in the msm (not always msnbc but cnn or local coverage) leading up to voting on the stimulus package so far. Mainly in the news I saw were repuke faces throwing hissy fits (as digby calls it) with a huge assist from the talking head media giving them the face time to create the narrative that Dems are once again acting like kids in a candy shop....you know the Dems are frivolous tree hugging pork barrel spendaholics trying to force the price of abortions onto taxpayers instead of supporting larger corporate tax cuts that will create jobs and that the repukes are acting like the mature responsible adults here in taking the reigns from them here.
Now, I have a huge issue with Dems bending over backwards to accommodate repubs while also knowing full well that the lizard brain repukes, programmed with the bipartisanship=date rape mentality, were going to obstruct and never vote for any stimulus package offered by the Democrats.
So sue me because I disagree with the strategy of capitulating (essentially with yourself and own goals) even when it was unnecessary because the end result was/will still be the same....little if any repuke support. I disagreed with the unity schticky thing prior to voting for Pres Obama too, so I'm consistent with my criticism of it now.
Also if people can't criticize someone they voted for without getting called on it for doing so well then we might as well all be repukes.
Lastly, in the words of President Obama, I feel I can disagree without being disagreeable...and I still hugely support Prez Obama and hope that he succeeds. It's the whacked repukes and the Rahm-esque unity strategery that has never worked before that I have an issue with here.
Posted by emal at January 28, 2009 09:25 AMwasn't referring to you coyote. I am like most here, wanting Obama to smite the GOP idiots every time their two-faced mugs pop out of the rat hole. But I know he can't, and shouldn't. The polls show that the public is on to the Boner/McConnell etc, game. Obama is a big boy, he can take care of himself without climbing into the trap the deadhead GOPer's want to set.
Posted by T2 at January 28, 2009 09:56 AMSpeaking for myself, I'm just venting my frustration with the game. There are real people out there looking for hope, and not finding it. They'd be better able to dredge some up if the dems would stop being so busy with the strategy, and understand that they appear to be ignoring the problem because they're allowing the 'pukes to define the narrative.
I agree totally and if I thought that they were just playing the game for the sake of playing I would still be pissed. However, they are moving ahead with the stimulus and doing what needs to be done and the thing that I find fascinating is that this is a new game.
This is not the same old power play game of "I'm good - You bad" (or, more likely Dems Good - Republicans Bad.) Despite the fact that I believe this, I am coming to see that the majority of the country is not as partisan as I am. Most of the country is just "git er done" and they don't care who is doing it. These are the 45% who currently approve of Obama and the Dems but don't even vote when the elections come around.
They are paying attention because they are scared shitless; just like us partisans who are paying attention because that is what we do. What they are seeing is that Obama is reasonable, the Stimulus Package is necessary, the Dems are doing their jobs and the whiny ass Republicans are being whiny ass Republicans.
When I look at it through this lens - the lens of the people who do not eat and sleep and breathe politics it really is fascinating what is happening. These people have no desire to deal with the baby Republicans who want it their way even though they lost the fucking elections and they see this as being poor losers. What they are seeing is that Obama is in charge and he is doing his best to reach out to these dicks and they are not reaching back. AND this is how it is being played in the media.
I know, emal, that there is the other narrative, the one that you spoke of - but it is losing its power. The country is seeing Faux News for what it is; an arm of the RNC. They are seeing Limpbaugh for who he is. People are waking up to what we have known for the last 2 decades and they do not want any of it.
It is truly fascinating. I do not think that it could be pulled off in different times, if the country were not in this much trouble. But, because Bush so royally fucked us all, and his cronies in the Congress enabled him, they have no power. Obama has the power and he is not strong arming - even though he could - and it is being eaten up by the masses. They love this shit.
Regardless of how much that I want these little whiny pricks hung outside the capital building with a chalkboard made to write "I will not obstruct" a thousand times for all of the world to see - it is not what will work right now.
Posted by Anjha at January 28, 2009 10:20 AMwasn't referring to you coyote.
Thanks, T2. I wasn't sure.
this is a new game.
Still a game. To some people, it's real life. But you know, whatever. I believe that people are engaging in a lot of wishful thinking with no evidence except for the spin that's being put on it by people who hope it's a wily chess game. Despite history telling otherwise.
My own opinion. Prolly wrong. Don't really care at this point. Later!
Posted by iamcoyote at January 28, 2009 10:31 AMWell, I sure hope that anjha last post is how this thing is really playing out for the non-politically obssesed. She's persuasive, but I wonder.
The press simply does not make an attempt to counter Repub talking points no matter how stupid and lying they are. And the Dems who go on the tube act like they've never been on in their life and are shocked to even hear the Repub talking point. They suck, usually. And the head lice ALWAYS repeat the Repub talking point verbatim. And the Dem is too polite to even state THAT!
The bigger question here is how much did the Obama team "shape" the stimulus in the absurd hope of getting Repub votes, which we all knew they never would. And was it important to the "Obama Looks so Reasonable" narrative to actually have some things that looked "bipartisan" in his package?
I just hope Obama didn't jettison too many things that would have made better sense as stimulus in the illusory attempt to win Repub lizard brain votes, cuz that was foolish. We know the corporate tax goodies are close to worthless as stimulus in a downturn as severe as this----if consumption doesn't stop contracting, nothing will stop job cuts, certainly not more tax breaks for corporate America.
The GOoP "outrage" over increased family planning funds---which obviously save medicaid funds and reduce costs---shows their absolute gameplaying and attempt to bamboozle the irrational voter, with the corporate press playing along. I know that it's just going in another bill, but the incident shows the absolute unserious childishness of the Repubs, yet that isn't how it played out on TV and they weren't called on it.
Posted by euzoius at January 28, 2009 10:36 AMjust watched a bit of Economic Expert Alan Greenspan's wife on MSNBC, giving lots of air time to GOPers explaining why Obama's Stimulus goes against his own Campaign Promises and general best interest, which apparently would be much better served by using the GOP Stimulus plan (tax cuts for Very Rich, of course) instead. They just rattle on and on, and on. If you'd been in a coma for six months, woke up and turned on MSNBC you would probably assume that the GOP won back the House and Senate majorities in Congress and that the Economy is Strong (to quote the GOP presidential candidate) and we can just cut some taxes and all's well again. These guys are amazing.
Posted by T2 at January 28, 2009 11:14 AMI believe that people are engaging in a lot of wishful thinking with no evidence except for the spin that's being put on it by people who hope it's a wily chess game.
Hell Ya that is what I am doing - but it sure is better than the alternative. I got enough to be depressed about without seeing the worst in my Federal Govt. We won't know for a year or so if things really are different, but I plan on being positive about it as long as I can because the alternative is just too shitty.
Well, I sure hope that anjha last post is how this thing is really playing out for the non-politically obssesed.
Ya, me too.
I just hope Obama didn't jettison too many things that would have made better sense as stimulus in the illusory attempt to win Repub lizard brain votes,
The only thing changed, as far as I can tell, is removing the Family Planning waiver waive.
Right now the House is going through amendments on the package. They are allowing the Pukes to offer amendments - so do not allow those dicks to claim that they were "locked out."
The House Bill was written - or started to be written - back in November. Obama did not provide them with a package - only an outline. This is NOT an Obama bill, this is the House Democratic Bill.
After the House votes on it this week it will go to the Senate. In the Senate is where any concessions will go. The Senate has a little bit more of a problem because they do not have 60 and the Right Wing Hacks will risk fillibustering if they think that the public is behind them. However, the public, right now, is not.
just watched a bit of Economic Expert Alan Greenspan's wife on MSNBC
T2 - during Andrea's hour is the time to switch to the SPAN. She - and her guests - are absolutely intolerable.
Schuster is good and I always watch Tweety and Keith and Rachel...the rest of them leave a whole lot to be desired and gawd-damned David Gregory has ruined MTP.
Posted by Anjha at January 28, 2009 11:31 AMBTW: Steny Hoyer let the Pukes have it in the House just before debates started on the amendments.
He went over the history of the last 2 decades and reminded these hacks that their plans have never worked and that the Democratic plans, despite Republican opposition, led to 22 million new jobs and a balanced budget with a surplus.
It really was an excellent rundown and it put them right in their place.
But, for those of us who know, these dicks have no intention of making the govt run better or smoother or more efficiently or actually helping the people...their desire is to enrich the rich and screw the rest of us and get rid of the New Deal. What they are getting is a New New Deal and a public who wants it.
Posted by Anjha at January 28, 2009 11:40 AMThe fundamental problem is that this "stimulus" bill has way too many tax cuts in it. Tax cuts do not provide as much in economic activity as spending does. That is simple economics. Might help if some people read Paul Krugman once in a while instead of being concerned whether this helps the Dems and Obama.
Posted by Gay Veteran at January 28, 2009 11:42 AMpretty much sums it up (from Balloon Juice):
Deep Thought
by Tim F.
If Republicans plan to deliver exactly zero votes for Obama’s stimulus bill, then why does the bill still have compromises in it? Screw them. Put the family planning stuff back in, take the tax cuts out. If we know for sure that passing a crappy bill won’t win any more votes then just pass a better bill. They won’t scream any louder. The political cost won’t be any greater. Also, and pay attention because this is the important part, a better bill is more likely to succeed.
There is literally no longer any reason to weaken the bill with provisions that only exist because otherwise baby Rick Santorum might cry.
Posted by Gay Veteran at January 28, 2009 11:53 AMReally? ...ALL of his political capital?
What can this politically bankrupt administration possibly hope to accomplish now?
Posted by wilson rivers at January 28, 2009 11:55 AMMainly in the news I saw were repuke faces throwing hissy fits (as digby calls it) with a huge assist from the talking head media giving them the face time to create the narrative
Kind of reminds me of the early 1980s in reverse. The media then was made up primarily of people who grew up in the New Deal and its immediate aftermath, and they were *not* happy with Reagan's policies. But for all the anti-Reagan policy stuff the media put out there the public just wasn't buying.
Of course the situations differ in many respects, one being that Obama's policies poll very well while Reagan's policies did not.
But another key difference is that public distrust of the MSM is now almost universal. These days whenever I am stuck in a public place, like an airline gate, where a newscast is being televised I watch the reactions of the people, and I can tell you that Americans view their media very skeptically. I can't help but wonder if all this face time for the Republicans is backfiring -- the more they talk, the worse their popularity and that of their media supporters.
Posted by anonny at January 28, 2009 12:36 PMThe problem isn't big bad Republicans...
...it's the panty waisted Democrats
Just as in 2006, Democrats are gutless wimps.
Only now they're headed by a career sycophant whose amazing rise to power was paved with pleasing platitudes.
Change?
That's off the table!
Here's what a Obama supporter said:
Mark Thoma Says...
"Jeff Sachs is worried that the stimulus package, especially the components involving tax cuts, will do more harm than good by starving the economy of the revenues needed to fund vital programs"
http://economistsview.typepad.com/
"If the present stimulus package is adopted without a medium-term plan, it will ... put the US into a fiscal straitjacket that could paralyze public sector action in critical areas for a decade or more to come. This is especially true if we allow further tax cuts during a time of fiscal hemorrhage, or give into “bipartisan” demands to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, even for the rich, as seems increasingly likely. " - Jeff Sachs
Now Thoma was not a Hillary supporter, people who critical of this bill are saying unkind words because of it's content. People who continue to excuse poor performance by Democrats by trotting out McGuffins such as Hillary do neither their party or their country any favors.
Posted by S Brennan at January 28, 2009 01:12 PManjha, watching Greenspan's wife is like passing a bad car wreck...you just have to sneak a look. She is impressively dumb, and since her hubby is probably more to blame for the nation's current economic problem than anyone (and he's admitted it), it is fun sport to watch her squirm when the chat turns to how horribly mismanaged our economy was under his and Bush's watch. The mere fact that she is allowed on television when we all know her and her husband have been lifelong shills for the GOP is vile.
Posted by T2 at January 28, 2009 01:28 PMI believe the French at the time of the revolution came up with a series of Permanent Tax Cuts for the wealthy.
As in all things French, it was truly a work of art. All though these PTCs [Permanent Tax Cuts] where a one time deal, recipients could count on never having to pay another tax in there lives. What's more these PTCs actually helped revenues just as the Laffer curve would have predicted had it been scrawled on a cocktail napkin back then. Yes, Permanent Tax Cuts even had the support of the lower class crowds and many of the wealthy elite simply lost their heads over the PTC program.
I wish I could remember the name of the guy who worked out the details of the Permanent Tax Cuts, was the guy's name Guillotine?
I think we need some of those marvelous French PTCs in this country.
Posted by S Brennan at January 28, 2009 02:32 PMLets give the guy a chance for Christs sake...
I sincerely hope that courting the GOP is some kind of strategy...I can live with that (not too long). But, if nothing comes of it, then go for the nuts, especially now that they are down.
hey wasn't Guillotine, a doctor? just what the doctor prescribed....
Posted by headxray at January 28, 2009 02:56 PMObama can and should woo repugs even if he gets no votes from them. No political capital being expended here. As for "If Hillary had won 350 electoral votes, she would do this, that and other", get over it. Hillary would NEVER have won 350 electoral votes because she would have competed in Ohio and the 18-19 states that Kerry won. She'd have ended up with 273 electoral votes. I understand the desire to slam the repugs when they are down but Obama will get what he wants and come across as being very reasonable and accomodating. I have no problem with Obama and Pelosi playing good cop/bad cop with the Repugs.
Posted by gkf at January 28, 2009 03:28 PMWell, this posting isn't so bad. I mean, various other nominally progressive blogs were already declaring the Obama Administration a failure as of...let me see...last November 4th about 8:00 pm PST. So WTF, waiting until Day 8 after the inauguration doesn't really seem like jumping the gun especially.
By all means let's air again all the arguments deployed in last spring's Democratic primaries, but let me just bop out for a couple of bottles of Tums first: one for me and one for Madam President.
Posted by joel dan walls at January 28, 2009 04:56 PMA lot of the stimulus is just that, stimulus. $43B for unemployment benefits and $20B for food stamps, that's money that goes straight into the economy. $103B for building infrastructure, somebody has to get paid and employed to do the work, right?
$40B to pay stinking insurance companies for COBRA coverage that probably wouldn't get paid, helps those treacherous bastards stay in business, which is good for insurance agents that do the actual work, I guess.
Thats a big chunk right there, and there's more. It ain't perfect, but it ain't all bad either.
Which brings us to the politics of it all. Despite what we all think, bloggers are a vast minority, glib and witty as some of us may be (no, trolls are witless excrement), nd what's happening here is that the gopper thugs are being given every opportunity to work with a tremendously popular NEW freaking PRESIDENT (spits at voodoo dolls of bush/cheney), and they are showing their true colors, yet again.
We all know what scum they are, but a lot of people don't pay as much attention as us, so this serves as a revelation, becaue right now people ARE paying attention.
Republicans and their politics have been roundly rejected, and them offering up the same pack of crap that they've been stuffing down our throats for the last 8 horrible, miserable years, is about the stupidist thing they can do. So keep it up gopper scum thugs, the whole world is watching.
Posted by Duckman GR at January 28, 2009 08:41 PMA lot of the stimulus is just that, stimulus. $43B for unemployment benefits and $20B for food stamps, that's money that goes straight into the economy.
Not exactly. It's money that comes from some other place in the economy to go where the government thinks it should go. You tax the money from people who are saving for their kids' college or retirement, or for a new car, and you send it to other people to buy hamburger and cheddar cheese.
$103B for building infrastructure, somebody has to get paid and employed to do the work, right?
Not exactly. The money is taken from somewhere else. So somebody else loses their job so that the government can pick what kind of jobs people should be working on.
The government’s solution is to force the manufacture of more of what people aren’t buying. And that comes at the cost of eliminating jobs that produces something they want to buy. Brilliant, no?
Posted by at January 28, 2009 11:06 PMAnon, your last comment is total crap, unsupported by fact.
Posted by Steve Soto at January 28, 2009 11:26 PM"The GOoP "outrage" over increased family planning funds---which obviously save medicaid funds and reduce costs---shows their absolute gameplaying and attempt to bamboozle the irrational voter, with the corporate press playing along."
You seem to think there is a smidgen of difference between the irrational voter and the corporate press when in fact neither of them can think past the last ReThuglican Shouting Point.
Chris Matthews thinks that who ever shouts the loudest has the best point, and the ReThugs have big mouths (from chewing on all that fat pork?)
Posted by Cal Gal at January 29, 2009 12:35 AM"$40B to pay stinking insurance companies for COBRA coverage that probably wouldn't get paid, helps those treacherous bastards stay in business, which is good for insurance agents that do the actual work, I guess."
It also helps keep people healthy, which keeps them working and off disability, AND it helps keep people out of ER medicine, which is very costly to state and local governments, and ALL of us, who pay for it.
That was what the family planning thing was all about, too. If state and local governments can save some money here and there, they can put their shovel-ready projects on the front burner rather than the back burner. That means jobs and even ReThugs agree that jobs = stimulus.
Posted by Sarah Barracuda at January 29, 2009 12:47 AMMaking excuses or stating you know what Obama is thinking is BS. This bipartisan thing has been tried since Washington and it doesn't work. Why not? Because it is about conflict in re values, class, behavior and synthesis. If Obama continues to play couchy coo with the Republicans, he's off track big time and he puts us all in jeopardy.
I can barely read all this crap about fairness and understanding and inclusiveness with the likes of McConnell and Boeher. It's sickening to even think these men can be anything but self serving and criminal.
When the grownups stand up and revolt, let me know.
Posted by Elegresse at January 29, 2009 05:06 PMIts aggravating watching Obama get screwed by these ratbags but there may yet be some method to this madness.My hope is that the Pugs wind up inadvertently revealing themselves,through the pettiness of their actions as irrelevant foot dragging and ultimately,unpatriotic ideologues.
In time,if they remain intransigent, Obama will be able to honestly say that he made every effort to put politics aside and work with the GOP to no avail.Having done so to no avail,he will now have to go on without their "support".