Tuesday, January 27, 2009

So Now the Rethugs Are Concerned About the Budget?!


President Barack Obama is pictured alongside House Speaker Nancy ...

It's day 8 of the Obama Administration. He was sworn-in approximately one week ago. The President wants a huge stimulus package to make it's way through Congress so he can sign it into law. The economy is in the toilet. While politicians want to add pork and hem and haw over semantics they are still being paid or come from family money. That does nothing for the ever-growing list of unemployed as more companies lay off workers and try to stay solvent. 

When the Bailout plan was initiated last fall, people were rightfully outraged. It was falsely rebranded as a "Rescue" package. As we see the only thing that happened was large corporations and their lobbyists got a very generous parting gift from Shrub. None of that money went to the people. President Obama is using diplomacy and perhaps "begging" all members of Congress to vote for his bill. He isn't threatening martial law - unlike #43. 

So why aren't the Republicans getting on board with this economic recovery plan? Why am I hearing the same rhetoric of how Democrats are "tax and spend" - minus the Republican motto of "fiscal conservation"? Well, they can't claim it anymore. Shall we do the math? The costs of the world domination agenda is very pricey. Iraq has cost us at least 1 Trillion - and counting.   Add to that the Republican-led deregulation efforts of the banking industry and you see why we are here in this mess. 

Yes, individual people overextended themselves and need to clean up their financial messiness. But you couldn't spend on credit unless you were given credit to begin with. The financial institutions made a fortune putting as many people into as much debt as possible. They set the prices for homes and intentionally over-inflated their value to bundle the mortgages and sell them. They offered those shady mortgages. It was the two-fold punch of exchanging paper with no real value, spending all the money in the piggy bank on war mongering and borrowing money from Saudi Arabia and China. 

Oh the Dumbocrats have to take their share of the blame as well, but the rampant disregard for any common sense or sound fiscal principles lay solely at the feet of the political party large and in charge for 8 years. I want to keep a list of all the members of Congress who support and don't support Obama's plan. Don't try to hold it up because you don't want a woman to have access to birth control pills or want $3M for a toilet. If it passes and is successful then President Obama has his first victory; if they can kill the bill on the floor it will be a setback. These politicians are forgetting something in their political posturing: their constituents are going down the toilet. They will not forget who stood in the way of them getting relief. Relief that had been promised by the last Administration but was not delivered. 

If the Rethugs (from Senator John McCain to Rep. Dave Camp) were so concerned about the budget and debt where we they nine days ago? One month ago? One year ago? They stood by and did nothing. So I don't want to hear any of their BS now! Just sign off on the bill. If it doesn't work it will be egg on the President's face and he can fail all on his own. Of course I don't think Obama would put a grossly flawed plan together. I would not underestimate him or rule out him playing hardball. He's not quite the Magic Negro some may think. 2010 and 2012 is not that far away and they need a reminder they may not be in office if they keep this up! 

I urge everyone to contact their elected officials and gently remind them who they're supposed to be working for! We need an additional extension of unemployment benefits, students need their financial aid for school, free clinics must remain open, the banks are supposed to be lending money freely again! It's time to get with the program. He won - now move on!  

Update: From The Field blog: How Obama is setting up a GOP Fall.


Reuters photo of the President, Speaker Pelosi & House Minority Leader John Boehner 
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