Posted on 02/06/2009 5:59:18 AM PST by Michael Eden
Barack Obama's "stimulus" (in quotes because less than a quarter of the now $900 billion program is actually stimulus) is in trouble. More and more Americans are losing confidence in this gigantic government takeover of the economy. Only 37% approve of it. The people who are opposed to it now outnumber the people in favor by more than five points and climbing.
Obama's response is to try to push it through even faster, and to use scare tactics to rush it through.
Nicholas Sabloff has a nice little montage at the Huffington Post:
Politico reports:Obama asks, "Are these folks serious?" about their questioning of federal spending to modernize the entire fleet of federal vehicles. But his opponents - WHO HOPEFULLY WON'T BE RUSHED INTO STUPID DECISIONS THAT WOULD HAUNT US FOR YEARS TO COME - rightly point out that it is wasteful to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to replace perfectly good cars with politically correct ones. "Pork" by definition is wasteful and unnecessary spending. And that's just what even the handpicked example that Obama selected to make his own case is.As whispers of tension between the White House and congressional Democrats cloud negotiations over the stimulus, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reassured her rank and file Thursday that they remain President Barack Obama's "most enthusiastic supporters.""We have his back," Pelosi told a roomful of Democrats at the party's annual retreat at the Kingsmill Resort and Spa, according to people in the room.From the AP:President Barack Obama says the time for talk on an economic recovery package is over and "the time for action is now."Speaking at the Energy Department, Obama made a fresh plea for the stimulus plan that the Senate is debating. He cited the latest bad economic news of jobless claims as another reason for quick action.He also launched a shot at critics while talking about energy, questioning, "are these folks serious?"He said: "The time for talk is over, the time for action is now."
"Now, I read the other day that critics of this plan ridiculed our notion that we should use part of the money to modernize the entire fleet of federal vehicles to take advantage of state of the art fuel efficiency. This is what they call pork. You know the truth. It will not only save the government significant money over time, it will not only create manufacturing jobs for folks who are making these cars, it will set a standard for private industry to match. And so when you hear these attacks deriding something of such obvious importance as this, you have to ask yourself -- are these folks serious? Is it any wonder that we haven't had a real energy policy in this country?"
As federal vehicles need to be retired, replace them with new more fuel efficient ones. Fine. But don't throw away money to replace new cars with other new cars.
I used to work for Orange County. And it was amazing how much money was just wasted. It made me sick. Perfectly good equipment, furniture, and supplies would be thrown out because the zero-sum budgeting system meant you had to max out your previous budget in order to ask for the same or more for the next year. It was colossal waste of money and resources. Right now the California Comptroller John Chiang is in hot water for seeking to buy $1 million in new furniture for his office - after spending millions to buy furniture for the same office just the year before.
Could you claim that it's "stimulative" to replace new furniture with more new furniture? Sure. But the fact remains that it's incredibly wasteful. And it's incredibly stupid at a time when we need to be incredibly smart about our spending.
We don't need John Chiang to "stimulate" our economy with incredibly wasteful spending. And we don't need Barack Obama to do it, either.
So, yeah, Barry. We ARE serious. We're serious about you wasting our money and putting us into a crippling debt-hole that we will NEVER get out of.
But that's okay. Nancy Pelosi, the unhinged whackjob who just said "every month that we do not have an economic recovery package 500 million Americans lose their jobs" has your back, Barry Hussein. Five hundred million jobs every month! That's one hell of a long bread line. So now you can understand why this wicked witch of the west thinks that hundreds of millions of dollars for birth control would be "stimulus."
These Democrats are insane on every level imaginable. We are on the Titanic crewed by fools racing past the icebergs.
Obama's "Don't think for yourself, just do what I say" attitude is beyond arrogant. It is frightening.
Stop. Think. We can't afford to act stupidly. And we can't afford to throw money away.
Congressional Oversight Chairman Elizabeth Warren says the federal government wasted $78 BILLION - or more than 11% of the bailout package - in our rush to push the last massive takeover package through. And by all accounts, that's nothing compared to the waste we'd see in this one. And Obama is determined not to let us learn from our mistakes.
I found this deficit when I showed up ... I found this national debt doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for me when I stepped into the Oval Office.But what Obama doesn't bother to tell us is that HE championed and voted for the last $800 billion bailout. And now he's trying to rush us into passing still ANOTHER bailout that is even BIGGER. And we already know that yet ANOTHER bailout for the banks is expected to immediately follow THIS one. You didn't just "find this deficit when you showed up," Barry Hussein: you VOTED for it. And now you're trying to make us vote for ANOTHER one that's even worse! And scare us so we won't think about what we're doing.
And if we DID take a moment to stop and think, we would realize that Obama is trying to justify the fact that we need to rush into his massive government bailout package with the fact that we already had a ton of debt to begin with. Unbelievable!
LLS
“One of the things that amazes me is the content-free substanceless vague message Obama was allowed to get away with.”
Yep, and it just isn’t working quite so cleanly anymore. HA!!
Spoken like Oliver Twist in the soup kitchen):
“Please, sir. May I have some more Kool-Aid?”
Obama IS like a used car salesman.
I remember the first time I bought a new car. Damn it was scary. The salesman acted like I had minutes to go with his offer, or I’d lose the chance to get the best deal I was going to get.
It was hard, I was so anxious. But I walked away.
And a week later found the same truck (a Ford Ranger) for about $1500 less, with better payment terms.
“The time for thought is over, the time for action is now.”
Sounds like a typical Democrat campaign slogan. But if Republicans find ways of not producing money for these grifters to re-distribute, this merry-go-round will stop very shortly.
Yeah, it DOES sound like a campaign slogan: for Adolf Hitler.
I truly believe if Republicans really continue to stand against this thing, it will fall apart. Democrats are cowards and they want cover. No Republicans support means no one to blame for the mess they’re going to create.
He then stated that an example of the new direction in which he will take the party will be to promote alternatives that will be positive and help "working" (a socialist buzz word) American families... then he used raising the minimum wage from $3.38 per hour to $7.50 an hour and said, This is how we can help the American people and show America that republicans can do.
1)steele does not represent me or my Conservatism
2)hussein is not and shall never be MY President
3)Raising the minimum wage is anti-Capitalist, anti-Free Market, socialist lite and can in no way be spun as being a Conservative position.
4) He and rudy were talking about the new dim Congresswoman from NY that is an NRA pro gun congresscritter... rudy mistakenly called her Pro Gun Control by mistake or Freudian slip and steele just said yes in response. Not a Conservative thought between the two of them!
My point is... the only hope we have lies in Congress and the Senate with elected republicans... the party is for all intents and purposes... stalled in Purgatory for the foreseeable future.
We are going into battle with the equivalent leadership of weasley clark. Pray hard.
LLS
Any time a salesman (car, insurance, realtor, anything!) tells me I have to sign NOW...it is time to take two steps back and see what he’s trying to slip by...or into...me.
Nurse Nancy in Charge /sarc
Cost of stimulus plan going up as we type.
Earthdweller,
Your pic/comment reminded me of that Obama quote - and inspired me.
Go to:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2179663/posts
and see the Frankenstein you helped create.
All they have are campaign slogans...didn’t buy it then and sure don’t buy it now. What I don’t understand is why there’s only a 37% approval? He won. Shouldn’t it be more? Hope and change...repeat...hope and change...
With Obama there was no thought. Just a mindless rush to implement socialism before the American public realizes what he’s doing.
The time for action is now - call congress.
Let me guess..you wanted Romney...the other flavor of commie.
“Let me guess..you wanted Romney...the other flavor of commie.”
Don’t quite know where that came from. Perhaps you can explain your reasoning for saying that?
Actually, I was pretty disgusted with the whole Republican field. If anything, I kind of liked Fred Thompson in terms of his ideas. But it was almost immediately obvious that he wasn’t going to go out and do what it took to get elected.
If beauty pageants were like presidential elections, all the women would be obese, ugly, wart-ridden, smelly, drooling, nasty-looking hoes. And we’d have to choose the “prettiest” one whether we wanted to or not.
I kind of liked Steele, but I WAS worried about him.
I think (and I may be wrong) that he’s a conservative, but I was afraid that the guy would just be too “nice” to really take on the Democrat crazy-machine.
I despise everything Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi stand for, but you can say this about them: if you give them shivs and tell them they can have a chance to take out an opponent in the shower, you can bet they’d start stabbing away.
Conservatives need to fight like their survival depends on it. The time for being “nice” is LOOOOONNNNNGGGG past over.
LLS
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