Stimulus Package: Bad News for Conservatives, Great News for Americans
The $838 billion stimulus bill squeaked through the Senate today, 61 to 37.
I actually liked one of the Republicans’ earlier proposals (defeated by Democrats) that would have offered government-backed mortgages with a maximum interest rate of 4.5%. It seemed like a total mindfuck that Republicans actually wanted such a socialistic incentive-sapping program, and Democrats were against it. Maybe the two parties are playing Gaslight with us.
It’s true that Obama is overdoing the “Urgent! Act Now!” rhetoric that was a trademark of the Dumbya years. This should be a bipartisan bill, but Republicans (aside from their idea mentioned above) have offered nothing but their tried-and-failed policies of the last 28 years.
More tax cuts — Riiight. Been there done that. It’s like that “alternate” version of Humpty Dumpty: “More Horses! More Men!”
And some of the Republican rhetoric is straight out of Reagan’s campaign speeches from 1980. The private sector versus those bumbling government bureaucrats. We don’t need a Nanny State; everything will be corrected by the invisible hand of the marketplace.
WTF??? Aw heck, just come out and say it — “It’s Morning In America.”
RNC Chairman Michael Steele gave a hilarious speech the other day. You'd swear he must have taken a nap in 1980 and woken up just a few weeks ago. You can find a video of his speech at this Google News Search site. I couldn't figure out how to link the blog to the video (Duh!).
Twenty-eight years of “getting the government off our backs” has given us a shattered economy and the biggest budget deficit in history. And the most rightwing president ever — as a parting shot — nationalized the banking industry before leaving office. Commie!
It’s time for Republicans to lose their useless outdated slogans and start working on this economic train wreck — which happened on their watch.
posted by Tom Harper @ 7:25 PM
13 Comments:
They think we're stupid. They can't really all erased the last eight years from their brain. They can't all just talk about tax cuts and think we're going to buy it.
And did you hear Steele said the stimulus will get Democrat voters to buy bling bling?
PITS: I didn't know Steele said that, but it figures. Yes, they really do think we're that dumb.
I would be more open to the Republican solutions if they weren't the same ones.
Even the so called "true Conservatives" who claim they don't support deficient spending but rode
on the coattails of the Reagan,Bush,Bush revolution haven't changed their message.
Now is the time for all good righwingers to come to the aid their (fellow) Country (men)
They acted the same way when FDR took over after supporting the Hoover policies that helped put us and maintain that mess.
Erik
Erik: Yup, it's just the same Republican soundbites over and over. The early 1930s, 1980, 2009 -- time marches on but the rightwing slogans never change.
This has been the topic of great discussion by the blowhard Republicans at work. I usually stay out of political discusions, or keep my opinions center-of-the-road, but I just couldn't take any more of this one guy's talking. So I let him have my expletive-laden opinion - and remarkably, he shut the fuck up and agreed with me. It was nice.
I couldn't bear to check out the Steele link after hearing him talk with George Stephanopolous on TV this past weekend. What a tool Steele is... basically a parrot of all the bad Republican talking points of the past 15-25 years.
Re. the stimulus package, when I hear the mainstream media giving so much time to the complainers/whiners/naysayers and virtually no time to any of the yeasayers/supporters except the president, it does make it more logical that any votes on passing any stimulus plan will be close in the Senate. Those who vote against it for their own narrow reaons are more likely to feel confident in doing so if the manufactured public opinion supports the "no" votes.
With people like Shelby, McConnell, Cornyn, etc. constantly getting their negative sound bites spread around America by the MSM like fertilizer, it's no wonder recent opinion polls say only about half of the country is in favor of a large stimulus bill. It's kind of like the Bush administration planting seeds of doubt about global warming in peoples' minds through disinformation campaigns, but THIS is incredible in that it is of a very large scope and it has been mounted, successfully, in such a short time.
We can never underestimate the power of America's right wing media, or of the right wing's influence on the media in America.
My major concern with the stimulus is that there has been no mention of any actual New Deal type proposals... no WPA, no CCC... And I'm surprised that if the GOP leadership wants to put people to work they aren't more in favor of some large-scale government-sponsored get-people-back-to-work program. Again, I guess the "invisible hand" cures all, and that we can't have a "nanny state". We have to get rid of the "death tax", have "tax cuts", etc.
When are all the 'bots gonna wake up?
Carlos: Funny how loudmouth conservatives sometimes tone it down when they're confronted with an opposing opinion. I have an acquaintance who's like that, always spitting out little rightwing jabs. But when somebody disagrees with him, he usually just shrugs, or goes "hmm, well, uhh..."
Snave: Yeah, those rightwing mouthpieces are all over the news. A casual observer would have the impression that most people are against that commie stimulus giveaway. It's a good thing the media has such a strong liberal bias, eh?
Tom, there's something you don't realize about that Republican 4.5 percent mortgage plan. Let me fill in. Take two couples as examples.
First, you've got Scottie and Buffy. He's an accounting whiz from a long line of accountants. Daddy gave him his own branch of the family accounting biz for his 25th birthday. Buffy is a pediatrician. Both have really swell incomes and ironclad job security, which is how they could afford a million-dollar Mc mansion in a gated community with an olympic-size swimming pool and year-round tennis courts.
Scottie and Buffy would love to refinance their mortgage down from 6.4 percent to 4.5 percent, so they could buy a condo in Aspen and put money away for their kids' college.
A few blocks away you have Jack and Jill. He installs siding for a living and she works as a barmaid four nights a week. Well, they did those things before the siding company went under and the tavern cut her down to two nights a week. Jack and Jill have a modest three-bedroom rancher with a mortgage that's under water, and they're not going to be able to make too many more payments. They, too, would love to refinance, but with their incomes devastated there's no way they can do it.
So, as a fellow taxpayer, do you really want to help Scottie and Buffy get their condo while Jack and Jill face the prospect of homelessness?
That's why Democrats squelched that one, and I'm damned glad they did.
Snave, I heard Obama today saying how the stimulus bill has the biggest infrastructure spending plan since the interstate highway building program of the 1950's, $100 billion worth. Not as much as I would like, but it's a lot more than crumbs off the table.
A correction to the above. Watching a C-SPAN segment from earlier today, Sen. Collins says the bill includes $150 billion for infrastructure. That's even more like it.
SW: Thanks for the info. I figured there had to be a catch to it, but every news story I saw had no details at all. The only specific thing I read was that Schumer was against it because it was more of a giveaway to banks than to homeowners.
It sounds like another variation on Bush's tax cuts. He used all this fuzzy math and Orwellian doublespeak to make it look like it was benefiting everybody and not just the wealthiest.
Tom, the Republican program would've been open to everyone and some with modest income might've been able to take advantage. However, the likelihood in practice is that the overwhelming majority of those taking advantage would've been the Scottie and Buffy types. And of course the money that went to help the well off be even more well off would not have been available for use in other programs to help people like Jack and Jill get by until they could replace their jobs.
Sens. Schumer and Baucus both came down hard on the 4.5 percent remortgaging scheme during floor debate. I happened to hear it on C-SPAN, but don't recall seeing it explained that fully in news reports.
SW: That figures that Baucus' and Schumer's speeches were on C-Span but not the main networks. The rightwing blowhards get most of the air time. That damn "liberal media" again.
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