Posted on 02/09/2009 6:53:23 AM PST by 2nd amendment mama
America’s future in freedom hangs in the balance as three RINO senators on Friday announced they will join Democrats in their scheme to move this country irretrievably down the path to socialism. Senators Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) have indicated they will vote for the $1.3 trillion “stimulus” spending bill that purposes none other than precisely that outcome. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office ruled that less than 20 percent of the bill could in any way be considered stimulative.
The vote for cloture in the Senate is scheduled for 5:30 pm today. If cloture is invoked, debate would end on the 778-page bill that was not released to the Senate until 11:00 pm Saturday.
At noon on Tuesday the bill will be subject to another 60 vote hurdle by either waiving a budget point of order or achieving 60 votes on final passage. This bill that will ground this country in socialism will have passed the “greatest deliberative body in the world” with only one small window of debate on the bill as actually written on Monday afternoon.
These three Republican senators should forever be held accountable for bringing unfettered socialism to bear on the American people. Remember their names -- Specter, Collins, Snowe -- and let this forever be their legacy.
On the Senate floor Friday, Specter and Collins tried to justify their move by suggesting they were able to cut some spending out of the bill. It should be noted here that none were able to see their way through to cut the $4.2 billion slated for ACORN and like groups for “community stabilization.” An amendment offered by David Vitter (R-La.) that would bar ACORN from eligibility for these funds was voted down 51-45. ACORN, the group that once employed President Obama as a community organizer, is under federal investigation by the FBI for organized voter registration fraud, among other things.
The $820 billion (pre-debt service total) House version of the bill that so outraged Americans would have actually cost $7 billion less than this Senate “compromise” bill being touted by the three Republican sellouts. Democrats are already indicating that the $827 billion was an optimistic number on this “compromise,” yet once the servicing of the debt is added in at $827 billion, the cost is already over $1.3 trillion dollars.
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told reporters last week when the bill goes to conference to be reconciled with the House version, he wanted expenditures cut from the Senate “compromise” bill put back in during the leadership huddle with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.).
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), co-author of this so-called compromise, released staggering numbers in a chart giving subtotals of each category of spending (The numbers at the link are in thousands. I adjusted the figures below to include all actual zeroes in these massive numbers -- keep in mind this is in addition to the omnibus appropriations bill coming to Congress in the next week or two):
Agriculture: $5,109,430,000 Commerce: $21,513,000,000 Defense: $3,746,000,000 Energy & Water: $53,843,000,000 Financial & Gen. Govt: $10,762,000,000 Homeland Security: $5,076,700,000 Interior: $11,643,600,000 Labor, HHS, Education: $169,184,000,000 Military & VA: $7,428,295,000 THUD: $60,580,500,000 Appropriations: $365,629,525,000
Notice Democrats did not break out the over $365 billion labeled “appropriations” for scrutiny when they released these preliminary numbers on Friday. By far, the largest expenditures in the remainder of these slightly more categorized numbers show hundreds of billions of dollars in payoffs to decades-long Democrat constituencies: the left-wingnut global warming loons, government takeover of healthcare, subsidized housing, payoffs to teachers’ unions and building contractors. One can only at this point imagine the hundreds of billions allotted to their pet constituencies in the “appropriations” portion of the bill.
Never before in history has there been a $1.3 trillion dollar spending bill; supplemental, stimulus or otherwise. This isn’t yet the actual omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2009 that was pulled off of last week’s House calendar by Pelosi lest it hurt the chances for passage of this spending orgy. That additional omnibus spending bill is expected to cost taxpayers another half-trillion dollars in borrowed money. None of these spending bills include the expansion of TARP, the coming ask for hundreds of billions of dollars in additional bank bailout funds expected by legislators in the coming week(s). Nor does this include the tens of billions for the Auto Workers’ Union disguised as a bailout for the Big Three auto industry.
Democrats over the weekend had the audacity to term this a “bi-partisan” bill. Make no mistake: of the 219 Republican members of both the House and the Senate, Democrats may manage to get a whopping three Republican traitors to vote for this transfer of wealth out of the private sector. That hardly qualifies as bi-partisan, especially given that 11 Democrats voted against it in the House.
Lest you believe that my opening statement “America’s future in freedom hangs in the balance,” to be hyperbole, I would remind you that last week we saw President Obama place a limit on how much money an entity who receives bailout money can pay their executives. That was quickly followed by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) proposing legislation that would restrict compensation to executives in all financial institutions and could encompass all U.S. companies. The legislation would give the Federal Reserve, an entity that is unelected and completely unaccountable to the American people, the authority to monitor systemic risk in the economy and, according to Barney Frank, shut down financial institutions that face too much exposure. What we are witnessing is a government takeover -- socialism on the march -- actually now at a full-blown sprint under Democrat leadership.
The American people in multiple polls overwhelmingly object to this disastrous spending bill by upwards of 63% on Friday. A grassroots effort has sprung up led by members of the website FreeRepublic.com calling on folks to lobby the three RINO senators in person. They’ve got folks flying in for the effort that begins at 10:00 am on Monday from as far away as California.
As Winston Churchill said in a speech in 1941 as he battled the takeover by force of England by National Socialists (Nazis), “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty -- never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.”
Connie Hair is a freelance writer, a former speechwriter for Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and a former media and coalitions advisor to the Senate Republican Conference.
How ‘bout the 59 Democrats?
Let’s keep the proportional blame where it belongs!
And they’re cowards. Snowe’s and Collins’ fax machines are off the hook and their email boxes are “full.”
Why I Support the Stimulus
(Snarlin’ Arlen, RINO-PA) [Defeat Porkulus!]
Washington Post | February 9, 2009 | Arlen Specter
Posted on 02/09/2009 3:42:26 AM PST by maggief
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2181416/posts
I remember some of our discussions about the dems achieving a super majority. It was commented many times that with the number of turn coat rinos already there, that a super majority was already in place. Thank you to Spectre, Snowe and Collins (The Three Marxcateers) for showing us how right we were.
Yes, and there are more than three socialists among the Senate GOP ranks too. The Republican primary voters are poor judges of candidates.
They were just following orders.
I replied through the address at #12. I got an auto-reply saying that since I was not from PA - thanks, but no thanks (basically).
Attaboy!
Give a pass to the 59 Dems.
Pillory the 3 (three!) Republicans.
senator@collins.senate.gov;
olympia@snowe.senate.gov;
I sent these two traitors an email telling them what I think. Specter has an email address but it came back as undeliverable. The coward wont even take emails! Freepers should bombard their email inboxes until the servers crash.
So then it's really not the candidates who are to blame. is it?
(Please do not reply to this email)
Thank you for taking the time to contact me.
I receive a large volume of E-mails, phone calls, faxes and letters every week from concerned citizens like yourself.
Unfortunately, due to the high volume of mail, I can only respond if you're a resident of Pennsylvania. If you need to find out who your U.S. Senator is please go to www.senate.gov.
If you are a resident of Pennsylvania, and still recieving this message, it simply means that I need you to use my web form to send your message to me. Please go to www.specter.senate.gov, click on the link "Contact Info" and then click on "Contact Form".
"H IMMEDIATE ACTION ITEMS: To respond to your time sensitive concerns, please contact the Washington office or the state office in your area.
"H Scheduling Matters: Please contact our Washington office by faxing your request to our fax line (202) 228-1229.
"H Constituent Services: i.e. DC Tourism, Internships, Flag Requests, and Academy Nominations. Please access my website. You may also submit your tour request to our tour line (202) 224-5860.
"H Casework: (Passport/Visa issue, Social Security claims, etc.). Please contact the state office in your area.
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Thank You
They do not care what Americans think, he does not care what is best for this Republic.
The people of their states simply must wake up and eject them as their representatives. If they thought there was a serious chance of that, they would change their stance. The people must make them feel that way so they they will be forced to act in their best interest...and then at the next election they need to eject them anyway.
Obama and his ilk are enemies to all we hold dear in this republic. They are going about bringing their marxist "fundamental chhange" that they have promised and which so many Americans did not even bother to investigate...but which now they will live with until we can turn it around.
Forward to a beach head in 2010, and victory in 2012. Until then we must fight a strong and committed holding action.
Can you get kicked out of the Republican Party? People say that the GOP can’t afford to lose any Republican seats but what are they really losing?
See my tag line.
Mine to collins bumped back; undeliverable, full.
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