This'n'That; January 29th[PorkulusBill;Cantor;Crook]

The Latest 'Pork'ulus Bill WASHINGTON – Looking beyond expected House approval of an $816 billion economic stimulus plan, obama said Wednesday the nation is at a "perilous moment" requiring swift and decisive action. "We don't have a moment to spare," obama said in the East Room of the White House, just hours before a crucial House roll call vote. The measure intended to steady the ricocheting economy was expected to pass, but likely with little of the bipartisan support that obama wanted. The issue then goes to the Senate where the new president hopes to draw more GOP backing. obama tempered the sense of urgency in his voice with his observation that he and corporate leaders "left our meeting confident that we can still turn our economy around." His brief remarks were designed to put his stamp on the debate while the action was taking place at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. During his talk and in the earlier Roosevelt Room session with business CEOs, obama said the people running the companies that are the engine of the American economy are behind him. [But, Prez... that "engine" is sputtering-on the verge of dying; a "rebuild" will have no long-term positive affect; time to let it fail and bring in newer smaller "engines" that have proven positive track records.... then get the government the-Hell-outta-the-way and let 'em run...creating jobs, producing profits!!] Asked at one point if he was confident of getting Republican support, he replied only: "I'm confident we're going to get it passed." [He'd like the opposition support to preclude them using this as campaign fodder when it fails.] obama has spent his first days in office trying to drum up bipartisan support for his expensive and expansive plan to help pull the country out of the year-old recession. It's the first major test of obama's presidency; how he handles the volatile situation, and the effect of his stimulus package on the economy, could well set the tone for his presidency.[".....expansive plan...." that's interesting terminology; The democrat plan has for years, been to expand both the size and scope of government. Growing the government just puts an added burden on the already stretched taxpayer. Sure, it will provide jobs; those jobs are funded by those in the taxpayer role-NOT in the consumer role; their efforts provide NO "corporate" income-NO profits!! Having a increasingly intrusive government will only piss off the guy payin' the bills....you and I!!!!] The House measure had been estimated to cost $825 billion, but the Congressional Budget Office updated the bill's price tag to $816 billion after accountants recalculated its cost. That total could still rise, however, if the House passes a Democratic amendment that would add $3 billion for mass transit.[The Porkulus Bill approved by the House actually "came in" at $819BILLION. The bill has page-after-page of pork; Think the Senate democrats will do more with the bill than ADD MORE PORK?? Nobody mentions this, but I'll bettcha they haven't thought about the interest this pork money will generate: $347,000,000,000 {Billion} which is TWICE the total cost of the current war in Afganistan!!] It already includes about $550 billion in spending and roughly $275 billion in tax cuts in hopes of spurring the economy and helping those directly affected. Much of the spending would be for items such as health care, jobless benefits, food stamps and other programs that benefit victims of the downturn. [Ah...... JUST WHAT WE NEED-More FREE MONEY for those collective, "more-than-ample" asses to be comfortable in front of those collective TVs!!!....on our dime!!!] On Capitol Hill, a day of debate on the measure opened with most Democrats pressing for passage and trumpeting the measure as the elixir for what ails their jobless constituents; Republicans generally griped about "insane" programs that would be funded in the plan and "minuscule" tax relief for small businesses as they urged opposition. [It's kinda rare, but the republicans have it right this time. It's the small businesses that statistically and historically create the vast majority of jobs; hire the most workers. ] "It is now essential for us to move," said David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "Another week that we delay is another 100,000 or more people unemployed. I don't think we want that on our consciences." [This Obey guy didn't "come from the factory" with a consciense-or there would be more true tax cuts for both individual and business incomes and true cuts in the business taxes. He and the other House lackeys certainly made sure there was enough pork in the bill to satisfy their lobbyists and to ensure their re-election] His Republican counterpart, Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, suggested that Democrats were putting politics over progress as they crafted the language of the bill and led the debate on it. "It's not too late to make this a better bill, a bipartisan bill," Lewis said. Republican support by and large ranged from tepid to icy. [Mister Lewis.... forget that word "bipartisan"..... it no longer exists in the democrat lexicon. The democrats have no desire to share power or even consider an opinion that doesn't agree with theirs.] House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, wouldn't say how he thought the vote would turn out but he emphasized anew that GOP members are worried about billions in domestic spending that "has nothing to do with creating jobs or preserving jobs." [Which is nearly the whole dam' bill!!] Citing the proportion of tax cuts to new spending in the bill, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said "where we have differences with the House Democrats is that the package just doesn't seem to reflect our priorities, nor the president's." Congressional leaders have promised Obama they would send him the measure by mid-February. In his remarks, obama called on everyone — corporate executives and factory floor workers, educators and engineers, health care professionals and elected officials — to abandon a "sense of irresponsibility that prevailed from Wall Street to Washington." And he said his administration would make certain the money would be spent in full view of the public, with ways to check where it goes and how it will be used — a nod to skepticism about the "size and scale" of the plan. [Now, THAT'll be a FIRST- that oversight part.] He left no doubt that he means to see it signed into law, and quickly — and that he thinks those who stand in the way will suffer the wrath of angry voters. [Sure, it's gotta be signed into law quickly.... those "fluff believers" ain't gonna continue to turn a blind eye forever!!] "All we can do, those of us in Washington, is help create a favorable climate in which workers can prosper, businesses can thrive, and our economy can grow," obama said. "And that's exactly what I intend to achieve - soon." [Like I said before, in order for that to happen, ya gotta stop pissin' away our hard-earned money, get government outta-the-way and let the system work!!]

From the Seattle Times Editorial Page[Porkulus Bill]

The huge stimulus bill is packed with items that appear to have no stimulus properties at all, except to help politicians get re-elected. Here are just a few of many, many pork-barrel projects: -- $44 million for construction, repair and improvements at U.S. Department of Agriculture facilities; -- $209 million for work on deferred maintenance at Agricultural Research Service facilities; -- $245 million for maintaining and modernizing the IT system of the Farm Service Agency; -- $50 million for "watershed rehabilitation"; -- $2.7 billion for rural-water and waste-disposal direct loans; -- $1 billion for "periodic censuses and programs"; -- $650 million for digital-to-analog converter box program; -- $624 million for Navy operation and maintenance; and -- $79 billion in education funds for states. I could have made three to four pages of items similar to these. I am personally against the bill because I don't believe in large government. But how can anyone see this as a stimulus? It is a waste of money -- borrowed money. I have asked our senators to explain each line item. Let's see if they do that. -- Todd Welch, Everett

Rep Eric Cantor, Va., Has It Right

"If we're going to deliver on trying to revive this economy, a stimulus bill has got to be focused like a laser on the preservation, protection and creation of jobs," said Eric Cantor representing Virgina's 7th Congressional District. The stimulus plan could grow to more than $1 trillion, Cantor says, and if it's going to cost that much, "we ought to make sure we're getting it right." Republicans say the looming deficit is hurting the entrepreneurial environment. "We've got to make sure we're stimulating investors, entrepreneurs and small business people to get back into the game," Cantor says. He complains that the bill only allocates $41 million for small businesses. He argues that because mom-and-pop businesses create 70 percent of the nation's jobs, more needs to be done to help them. "There are some terrific tax provisions in the bill," Cantor says. But he's quick to add, "If we're going to be meaningful about what we're going to do taxwise, we have got to be much more focused on the real job generators."

"The Crook" Speaks Treasury Secretary Timothy "Crook" Geithner said on Wednesday the obama administration was working on a plan to repair the battered financial system and boost recovery that should be ready fairly soon. "We hope to make decisions and be in a position relatively soon" to make them public. Geithner ducked a reporter's question about whether Treasury was considering setting up a "bad bank" to take toxic assets off the balance sheets of banks as some Capitol Hill Democrats have indicated has been under discussion. "In the coming weeks, we will unveil a series of reforms to help stabilize the nation's financial system and get credit flowing again to families and businesses," Crook said. http://www.treas.gov/initiatives/eesa/agreements/index.shtml It will show contracts for future completed transactions within five to 10 business days after they are completed. [I'm not-at-all convinced that putting a crook in charge of Treasury is the wisest idea obama ever had. If you and I had done what "Crook" did, we'd be charged with, and probably convicted of, several felonies.]Til Nex'Time.....

As in any agreement, contract or piece of legislation, the devil is in the details. So it is with the stimulus package percolating in Congress. Analysts are beginning to figure out that only a small percentage of the money will actually trickle down into the economy in the first two years, not enough to do much stimulating. Yet in this package is a $4 billion pot for community groups like ACORN to draw upon for what are called "neighborhood stabilization activities," which include "redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes." That is a worthy goal in a troubled economy. But money was already appropriated for that purpose in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act signed into law in 2008. The problem for activists is the money was limited to state and local governments, where presumably there is greater transparency on how it is spent, and some measure of accountability. Community groups like the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now felt left out. So their Democratic patrons in Congress have included language to expand the eligible recipients of up to $4 billion in assistance to include "nonprofit entities or consortia of nonprofit entities," which translates into groups such as ACORN. ACORN has been accused of perpetrating voter registration fraud numerous times in the last several elections; is reportedly under federal investigation; and played a key role in the irresponsible schemes that caused a financial meltdown that American taxpayers are now paying dearly for. This is like giving fire-prevention money to arsonists. It was ACORN, under the cover of the Community Reinvestment Act, that intimidated banks into making risky loans to people who could not afford them in the name of "fairness." ACORN organized to intimidate financial institutions into giving what have been called "ninja" loans — no income, no job, no assets — to people who could not afford them. The CRA empowered regulators to punish banks that failed to "meet the credit needs" of "low-income, minority and distressed neighborhoods." It gave groups such as ACORN a license and a means to intimidate banks, claiming they were "redlining" poor and minority neighborhoods. The CRA was designed to increase minority homeownership. Whenever a bank wanted to grow or expand, ACORN would file complaints that the bank was not sufficiently sensitive to the needs of minorities in providing home loans. The agitators would then be unleashed to seal the deal — for a cut, of course. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac then would buy up these bad loans, creating a market for them, and the rest is history. A major part of ACORN's sordid history is vote fraud. ACORN has been implicated in voter fraud and bogus registration schemes in Missouri, Ohio and at least 12 other states. Last July, ACORN settled the largest case of voter fraud in Washington state history, involving nearly 2,000 bogus voter forms. In Ohio in 2004, ACORN submitted forms for the likes of Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy and someone named Jive Turkey. In 2008, ACORN filed more than 43,000 new voter registration forms in Minnesota, where the razor-thin margin of victory for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman over former "Saturday Night Live" comedian Al Franken evaporated. Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who orchestrated the recount that gave Franken a lead six weeks after Coleman appeared to win by 725 votes on Election Day, has extensive ties to ACORN. It's becoming clear that the stimulus package in its current form is less about jump-starting the economy than it is about pursuing a political agenda. To give access to stimulus money to a group waist deep in the mortgage crisis and vote fraud like ACORN is, well, just plain nuts.