Posted on 02/07/2009 4:29:41 AM PST by Zakeet
A small group of moderate senators including Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) reached the deal that appeared to assure Senate passage of an economic stimulus bill yesterday after more than 10 hours of near-constant private meetings.
Specter was in the middle of the action, with many critical talks occurring in his private "hideaway" office on the first floor of the Capitol.
Nobody involved was really happy, but there was a consensus that the group did not want to say no to the president or an anxious nation.
"Personally, I would prefer not to be on the edge of the pin, as so frequently is the case in this body," Specter said in a floor speech last night. "But I do believe we have to act, and under the circumstances, this is the best we can do."
In announcing that a tentative deal had been reached, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) credited Specter and Sens. Susan Collins (R., Maine), Ben Nelson (D., Neb.) and Joe Lieberman (I., Conn.) with saving the package.
"But for them we would not be here," Reid said, yielding the floor to the Gang of Four to detail the agreement.
Specter said that based on the calls his office had received, supporting the stimulus legislation is a "very unpopular vote." Some calls, he said, thought the bill had "too many expenditures" and others said not enough money was being spent.
Indeed, some conservative Republicans have vowed to punish Specter, who is running for reelection next year, if he votes for legislation that they consider wasteful.
Lieberman, in a news conference, said Specter and Collins "really deserve the medal of honor for what they've done here tonight. They've put national interest ahead of party interest."
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
How much did they promise to pay you Sen. Specter? Were you holding out for the highest bid like Blagovic? Hope so, cause you sure didn’t do what you just did to strenghten the Republican Party now did you? What about the other Republican Senators that wanted a say in how this monstrosity porkulus bill should be crafted or done away with? You just shot them out of the saddle didn’t you? I hope one of them comes up and gives you a “thanks for nothing” ear full!!You are a grade “A” DELUXE WEASEL!
Socialism Is Legal Plunder / Legal Plunder Has Many Names
You would use the law to oppose socialism? But it is upon the law that socialism itself relies. Socialists desire to practice legal plunder, not illegal plunder. Socialists, like all other monopolists, desire to make the law their own weapon. And when once the law is on the side of socialism, how can it be used against socialism? For when plunder is abetted by the law, it does not fear your courts, your gendarmes, and your prisons. Rather, it may call upon them for help.
Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on. All these plans as a whole with their common aim of legal plunder constitute socialism.
http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G1809
Thanks to FReeper raygun for the link.
Thanks to every FReeper for this thread. Outstanding!
LLS
“Arlen Specter (R-PA) is the same worthless Democrat (with a capital D) that approved Eric Holder and all Obamas other appointees, and now this socialism Democrat wet dream stimulus”
Snarlin Arlen should journey to the Pocono Mountains, don an old buffalo robe, sit on sackcloth & ashes, and gaze at the sunset while contemplating his miserable existence.
“stimulus bill best we can do”
and democrats are sane people who have no hidden agenda.
Yes he was. Pat Toomey - a strong conservative - ran against him. Bush campaigned for Specter, and the Republican sheeple followed along. Idiots!
Specter and Collins “really deserve the medal of honor for what they’ve done here tonight.
Weren’t there three RINO’s in on the “deal”? Olympia sNOw comes to mind. How did they reach cloture with only two?
I didn’t do well in math, but I thought I could add and subtract.
Note to PA: And to think y’all could’ve had Toomey....
I cannot see voting for Specter again under any circumstance.
“best we can do” is so much rubbish.
You can fight to the end. Even if you lose, you make the other side take all of the responsibility for it.
Now, as it is, when this plan is implemented and fails to work its magic- the blame goes to the “Republicans”. I can hear it already, Obama et al piously stating that the plan wasn’t nearly big enough- they were “forced” by the Republicans to accept a lot less (only $780 B!!) when at least a trillion was necessary.
Specter: Stimulus deal ‘best we can do’
And for that explanation alone Senator Spector the Bill should never be passed.
In this situation you do not do the best you can do and hope for it to work, You stick at the job until you get it right.
The reason we are in this position is because those in the government were doing the best they could do. Thats the problem. Most of them are idiots and political hacks that could not hold a job themselves if they were not on the public dole.
Your photo has "(D)" which is about right. GOP should do an enima to clean out the RINOs.
Lieberman???Yeesh.
Lieberman, in a news conference, said Specter and Collins “really deserve the medal of honor for what they’ve done here tonight. They’ve put national interest ahead of party interest.”
Democrat speech. Facts not not be applied. Say just the opposite of reality.
The National Interest is not in the Porkulus Bill. The opnly interest it serves is Politics.
Given that PA loves Murtha I suspect there is no chance that Arlen will lose his senate seat.
Pathetic that America is held hostage to disgustingly ignorant corrupt voters.
Post 7
NO! NO! NO! Do NOT make such a reference it diminishes the acts of a hero “who distinguishes himself “conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States”
We've been predicting since the JPM / Bear Stearns bailout that "the best we can do" would be the standard excuse. Look for it to continue to be the excuse of choice.
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