Obama, allies move stimulus fight into high gear

news.yahoo.com ^ | 01/29/09 | Olivier Knox

[shielagolden]

Obama, allies move stimulus fight into high gear WASHINGTON (AFP) – After a failed "charm offensive," US President Barack Obama and his allies unleashed a hard-hitting campaign Thursday to break defiant Republicans' thus-far united opposition to his economic stimulus plan.

The strategy called for millions of labor union members to telephone Republicans from hard-hit states, coupled with an aggressive television advertising campaign targeting potentially vulnerable Republican senators.

The ad featured Obama's warnings about the economic crisis he inherited from George W. Bush and invited viewers in Maine, New Hampshire, Alaska, and Iowa to tell their senators "support the Obama plan for jobs not the failed policies of the past," according to the script.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

“The strategy called for millions of labor union members to telephone Republicans from hard-hit states,”

Ah yes!....the real cause of a lot of problems....the unions!

[LiteKeeper]

If the Bill passed, why is Zero so concerned about getting Republican “buy-in”? Spread the blame? Spread the guilt? What is he after?

[GeorgiaDawg32]

hang on..this thing passed..why is he so adamant about having Republican support?? oh yea, it’s so they can have someone to point the finger at when the waste hits the oscillator..

[TexasCajun]

Windfall Welfare Stimulus is more like it.

[LottieDah]

“...Spread the blame? Spread the guilt? ...”

Exactly. If it doesn’t work, it’s the Republican’s fault. If it does work (when hell freezes over and pigs fly), he and the ‘Rats will take all the credit.

[Venturer]

Labor Unions should realise before they fight for this that this is the stimulus that no white construction workers should benefit from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opxuUj6vFa4

[lainie]

The senate thieves don’t listen to the mob unless it’s advantageous for them to do so.

(Using the word “mob” on purpose in this case.)

In any case, I’m not holding my breath that the useless republicans won’t cave. But what does it matter really.

[caseinpoint]

Seems to me this kind of approach can backfire. After all, if the potential wobblies vote for it they will be seen by their constituents as caving to external pressure. This is “community organizing” writ large: pressure vulnerable politicians with bad publicity or lost vote to make them see things your way. But what works on a local level might not on a national level. And how do you fight against “The Man” when you are “The Man”?

[GeorgiaDawg32]

looks like this satire I posted several weeks ago foretold the future..

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2155801/posts

[shielagolden]

A 40-YEAR WISH LIST
The 647-page, $825 billion House legislation is being sold as an economic “stimulus,” however, it appears to be a wish list for every pent-up Democratic proposal of the last 40 years, says the Wall Street Journal.

Some of the things Congress plans to spend money on:

$1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn’t turned a profit in 40 years.
$2 billion for child-care subsidies.
$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts.
$400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects.
There’s even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.
In selling the plan, President Obama has said this bill will make “dramatic investments to revive our flagging economy.” However, according to the Journal:

Some $30 billion, or less than 5 percent of the spending in the bill, is for fixing bridges or other highway projects.
There’s another $40 billion for broadband and electric grid development, airports and clean water projects that are arguably worthwhile priorities.
Add the roughly $20 billion for business tax cuts, and only $90 billion out of $825 billion, or about 12 cents of every $1, is for something that can plausibly be considered a growth stimulus.
And even many of these projects aren’t likely to help the economy immediately, says the Journal. As Peter Orszag, the President’s new budget director, told Congress a year ago, “even those public works that are ‘on the shelf’ generally cannot be undertaken quickly enough to provide timely stimulus to the economy.”

The larger fiscal issue here is whether this spending bonanza will become part of the annual “budget baseline” that Congress uses as the new floor when calculating how much to increase spending the following year, and into the future. Democrats insist that it will not. But it’s hard — no, impossible — to believe that Congress will cut spending next year on any of these programs from their new, higher levels. The likelihood is that this allegedly emergency spending will become a permanent addition to federal outlays — increasing pressure for tax increases in the bargain, says the Journal.

Source: Editorial, “A 40-Year Wish List; You won’t believe what’s in that stimulus bill,” Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2009.

For text:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123310466514522309.html

For more on Federal Spending & Budget Issues:

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=25

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Even more money for condoms?

[shielagolden]

Republicans gop need to run adds

[batter]

He wants cover and accomplices. If you have ever read Atlas Shrugged, this should seem very familiar.

[colorado tanker]

I think he knows this Porkulus bill is unlikely to dent the recession, so he wants people to blame both parties and not have to take the hit himself.

I don't know if these ads will have much effect, two years before the next election. And threatening Republicans with union opposition? Like they ever supported us in the first place???

[caseinpoint]

One final point: they are targeting five potential wobblies but if every one caved and voted for it, it would still mean only five of some 220 Republican Senators and Representatives voted for it. Hardly bipartisan and I doubt it would provide the cover they crave.

[anniegetyourgun]

I guess they are reacting to the polls that indicate that approval of the bill has dropped under 50%. If he gathers his auxilliaries (unions, msm, Hollywood, unions, etc.) to assist, it will work just as well as his election efforts. The American people are blinded by ‘the one.’ Somehow they will be made to feel like racists and/or stupid conservatives if they oppose the president and don’t “give him a chance.”

[shielagolden]

gop need watch this
Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRdLpem-AAs&NR=1

[Badeye]

Look at the bright side. It took Republicans two months longer in 1993 to figure out the Clinton’s, a full year to figure out Jimmy Carter in 1977.

They now know what kind of political enemy the new President will be, and as such it will be even EASIER to vote against legislation the next time.

Like on gun control, fairness doctrine, tax hikes, global warming, etc.

Think about it folks.President Obama and his Chief of Staff, Rahm ‘failed Ballerinia’ Emanual just screwed up very very early.

[Cheerio]

Overall, however, Obama and the stimulus plan are popular with the US public

Exactly how the SPREADER got elected - majority of Americans want SPREADING and they are certainly going to get it with this gang in charge of Government. Once the public discovers they can vote themselves goodies from the public treasury, they will vote for re-election of those RULERS forever.

The GOP is dead for this generation. I find this is a result of America's public education system - pre-school through University.