Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Stimulus deal reached

Oh horror. Congress reached a deal on Barack Obama's stimulus bill boondoggle. The final cost, until the next reevaluation, is $789 billion.

True, the president inherited a crappy economy. But as I wrote yesterday, it's Obama's economy now.

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5 comments:

  1. Phil3:58 PM

    So riddle me this; how would you get the 2,550,000 people who have lost their jobs thus far back to work so they can pay their mortgage (thereby restarting banking) and buy stuff (thereby restarting economic growth?) Tax cuts? They have no income so cut all you want it's going to do no good. This is a jobs bill. The purpose is to get people back to work. Until our income is no longer dependent upon some schlemiel in the corporate headquarters we need a way to give said schlemiel the confidence he needs to not lay us off en masse.

    And just to twist the knife a little more, you realize that this entire package is less than the cost of two months in Iraq? We're willing to spend trillions on bombing THE WRONG COUNTRY rather than on getting Americans back to work? If it were Afghanistan we were spending the money on turning into a lunar landscape I'd understand...

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  2. yo5:12 PM

    Wow, Phil.

    I'm not one to call someone stupid, but ...

    Damn.

    Tell me how, exactly, this "stimulus" package is going to create jobs.

    I mean, fine point details ... not lofty concepts that are difficult to validate and even more difficult to quantify.

    How is buying a set of golf carts going to create jobs?

    I'm just asking.

    Oh, and how is eliminating a requirement to check immigration status of new employees going to create jobs?

    As for your knife twisting comment, the bill for Iraq = $12B/month.

    So, two months in Iraq = $24 (12 + 12 = 24 ..., since I know that you're not good with numbers).

    The stimulus bill (ie - the level of pork) which the Senate just released = $720B.

    Maybe Congress will provide you with a calculator so you can see, specifically and numerically, what sort of an idiot you are.

    You want a knife twisted?

    Bombing ANY country requires personnel. Personnel = people at work.

    People at work = jobs.

    Finally, and for good measure, unless you own your own business you will always be dependent upon some schlemiel with the ability to fire your worthless ass.

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  3. Phil11:28 PM

    So, chor-tacha, let's do YOUR math then. 8 years of brilliant republican leadership and tax cuts have created 800,000,000,000,001 jobs that are paying Americans handsomely to be done. The stock market is climbing toward 10,000,000 and Osama bin Laden has been tried, convicted, dipped in alpo and fed to rabid poodles.

    Oh... That didn't happen? Millions of jobs lost you say? 401k is worth less than your 1987 Camry? Osama bin Laden's still putting out video tapes and sipping tea in a country we're not even prosecuting an effective war with?

    I'm not one to call someone stupid but I think you need to have someone remind you to start breathing again before the brain damage gets any worse.

    During the surge we were spending $400B/mo. That translated into how many jobs? Oh yeah. Negative 2.6 million.

    How many people do we have in uniform? About 2 million.

    Yeah. Let's keep doing what we've been doing. That sure as hell worked out great so far don't you think?

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  4. Phil6:28 AM

    One last thing. When the HELL will Republicans love America more than they hate Democrats? Republican political sons of bitches are so busy trying to make the process fail, trying to make the other party stumble, trying to make America worse off through gamesmanship and divisiveness that they don't realize they're drilling holes in the boat we're all floating in.

    The great innovation of the Bush administration is that he never stopped campaigning. At no point did they ever say, "Boy, that campaign was hard fought and now we have the government the American people have built out of its many parts, political philosophies and religions. Now let's all get to work" Everything was centered around standing fast with your party at the expense of America, your constituents and reason. We're here because for 8 years we've been cutting off our collective noses to spite our faces.

    Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Democrat or a Republican. I'm an American. The election is over now let's get together and try to make the country better.

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  5. yo3:05 PM

    Phil - you're off your meds, man.

    $400B?!

    Really? Can you back up that number?

    No. You can't.

    And:

    The election is over now let's get together and try to make the country better.

    But you find it worthwhile, as an American, to be incorrectly critical of Bush on the one hand, and then talk about reconciliations on the other?

    OH, and for what's worth (not counting the brilliant work by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd), let's not overlook the 52 months of consecutive job growth during that 8 years.

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