NOTE TO MY GOP FRIENDS IN CONGRESS: WHAT WOULD TIP DO?
Prez Barry makes two overtures to the GOP leadership re stimulus package. Before the sandwiches were served, the GOP leaders are mike-in-face saying this dog won't hunt.
Here's what Tip did. When Ronnie wanted something, he turned his discipline loose and told people to vote their districts. He was not then seen as an obstructionist and Ronnie was left with responsibility for fun things like the Laffer Curve (Which Laffer, hisownself, disclaims).
By telling the world they are not going to play ball, Tanning Booth and Mitchy are giving Barry a cheap win. He either gets bi-partisan support or gets to say that the lack of purpleness in government is not his fault.
Hard to tell whether this is bad staff work, hear-headedness or both. Watching Boehner's style, my money's on both.
Kind of fun to watch, though. On this exchange, Barry can't lose.
posted by UMRBlog @ 06:52
13 comments
13 Comments:
Last I checked, the Democrats held the White House and had nearly 60 votes and over 250 in the House — more than enough to pass and sign this $800B monstrosity of a pork-barrel giveaway they call a “stimulus” (as well as every other pet project they want to put into law). So why don’t they shut up and do it already?
I must be missing something here (nothing new).
Our situation today is not what it was during the Reagan era; back then we had divided government, today the Democrats control all.
I realize Obama swore to work in a bipartisan manner and if he thinks he has done his duty by meeting with the GOP a couple times, well good for him, for once he did what he said he would do.
I can't get too exercised about GOPers running to the mikes to diss Obama considering the treatment GWB received from Congressional Democrats---Obama and the Democrats are just going to have man up.
But what I'm not seeing here or in the national press is that Obama and the Democrats don't need the GOP to pass this Pork-A-Thon "stimulus" bill, or any other bill. So if it's that important and urgent, the Dems should just pass it without any GOP votes and be done with it.
That's the beauty of being in the majority; you can write the bill you want and pass it with no interference and either take all the credit for success or all the responsibility for failure.
I'm thinking it's this last bit that makes Obama want to get the GOP to share blame, because this bill won't stimulate anything, except the politically connected who will be receiving all this government largess.
The way I look at it, for the last 8 years or so, nobody has been standing up for the taxpayers; GWB was certainly no fiscal/government conservative and the GOP controlled Congress just played along---and lost power, which serves them right.
It looks like the GOP might be getting it's act together by being the only thing standing between the Democrats and taxpayer's wallets, and that can only be a good thing for them and the entire country.
The Democrats passed the bill, but couldn’t keep their caucus together — and the GOP managed to keep every single member in line.
Well done, Reps. Boehner, Cantor, and the rest of the House Republican caucus.
The only help the GOP needs to give the Democrats is an assist in ensuring that the majority has sole ownership of every one of the poor policy decisions being made during this period of Democrat dominance on the Hill. Make them prove they have the courage to follow their convictions and pass this on their own.
Let’s tattoo the phrase “I won” on the Democrats’ foreheads. They need to own every single one of their bad policies.
Looks like Barry and Pelosi found a way to lose. Great start.
While we're tatooing, Let's add "I voted for TARP" to every forehaid of both parties who passed that puppy--Thanks for the memories and the fine example of accounting, Hank and Shrubbie.
The Pelosi comment has merit, though. Barry had them set up to be "good guys" or partisans and Pelosi forced them to be partisans which makes their refusal to engage in meaningful discussions exusable and understandable. Maybe Rahm should have sent over the playbook.
Thanks for the useful comments. We here at the Basin are feeling very purple tonight.
I think the entire bill was rushed and ACORN ??? What jobs does ACORN create ? For F***'s sake , I could live with 50 Hydro plants over ACORN getting a damn DIME .
Now this is purely a Hill thing and a Barry doing ready fire aim , but it does semi slow that growing DREAD that has effected the global economy .
What we all need is a TIME OUT , just a breather , then slowly we will start to rebuild and regroup. Everything needs an adjustment . Prices were out of control . China's growth needed to be checked because frankly it was going to implode sooner than our banking system.
Oil was out of hand , need time for dust to settle and new lines and wells to come into the world grid.
Corn , food, energy ..........all out of line.
Now that we got the car wreck and adjustment we can reload and go back to living .
Economics is an issue that I find difficult to comprehend so I find myself searching for reputable sources of information like this analysis recently published in Business Week.
https://www.economy.com/mark-zandi/documents/The_Economic_Impact_of_a_$600_Billion_Fiscal_Stimulus_Package.pdf
Check it out.
Umr
Would you have voted for it? If so, what do like about it?
Absolutely not.
I'd go for Mortgage Insurance, extension of UEI payments to 52 weeks (100 cents on the dollar), suspension for three months of FICA and fed w/h (not Medicare)and retraining bill for displaced workers done through Community colleges, trade and nursing schools by state bloc grants.
The mortgage support would be HHS adminsitered and not direct to banks until the refi's took place.
It would maybe be $225 B and would hit the streets before St Patricks day.
I'm open to the AMT supspension but I wouldn't put it into this bill because it's too slow.
TYFCB
I'm perfectly happy to have this bill known as the Obama/Reid/Pelosi Pork Act of 2009. When foreign nations decide they don't need another trillion dollars of U.S. debt and refuse fund our insanity, U.S. interest rates will soar as the U.S. dollar collapses. This won't make me happy, but at least it will be evident who is responsible.
So you agree it's a bad bill, agree with Tanning Booth and Mitchy, but somehow see this as a win for Obama?
So who are the losers?
I think we may see a smarter stimulus bill come from the Senate , or at least I am hoping for that ,
1659,
This is my second attempt to answer this question. My first went flying into webworld, never to be found again.
The GOP in the House suffers for not playing at all but most of the sting was removed by the way Pelosi fast-tracked it. Barry can still sell it as a win because he asked them so nicely to come and play and they refused. Pelosi's ham-handedness took most of the advantage away from a pretty good Barry gambit.
Senate is anybody's guess. I think most folks are still hung up on the lack of accountability in the first round ($350B). Small win for Barry so far but much smaller than a couple of days deliberation and consideration of amendments would have been. Now it's one of those "In 50 Million years the earth will be an ice ball and nobody will care."
Sorry for the delay. Wrote something Friday and then basically didn't come back in here until today.
TYFCB
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