LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Republicans pick bad time to play games

John Sloan, Las Vegas

Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

I spent most of Friday morning listening to C-SPAN as members of the House of Representatives gave their last, best shot as to why the economic recovery plan should be passed into law or defeated.

I’m intrigued with the Republican position. Republicans claim they’ve been shut out of the process and that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership met behind closed doors in the dark of night to craft this legislation without input from the Republican minority. They complain that a 1,100-page bill was thrust at them at the midnight hour, and no human could sift through a document so thick at the last minute to make an educated vote.

So, if we are to believe these crybabies, it is understandable that they would be against something they did not understand because human nature is such that we are usually “down on things that we’re not up on.” But as the minority members speak on, they are each armed with statistics, expenditure allocations, job predictions, time frames, tax consequences and examples galore of why this stimulus package will not work.

Spare me!

I think the public recognizes political gamesmanship when it sees it, and it’s a shame the Republicans picked the most important issue facing our country’s economic future, if not the world’s, to play political games. Too bad there aren’t any mavericks in the House like there are in the Senate.

Discussion: 17 comments so far…

By vsestini

2/15/09 at 6:29 a.m.

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The Republicans cry poor mouth about bailout spending when they are the principle culprits who caused the mess in the first place. It is they, not the democrats, who were in control for 6 of the 8 years and began a useless, senseless expensive war costing us 10 billion dollars a month...

They wrote, and begged for, and passed the first bailout...not much moaning and groaning then, because Bush was president; but now that Obama has the WH oh, boy it is terrible!...they will break us, we can't afford the bailout...medical reform will bankrupt us, etc. etc,etc goes the winning and moaning from the Republican money mongers like Senator McConnell who probably still has the first dime he ever earned!
By Future2012

2/15/09 at 6:38 a.m.

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John Sloan laments "I think the public recognizes political gamesmanship when it sees it"

Obama who had a "Kool" charisma throughout the campaign had a snarky smash down 2-5-2009 in Williamsburg. Obama exaggerated that unless Republicans instantaneously supported the Democratic social engineering borrowing and spending bill the country cannot avoid an economic catastrophe and ensuing chaos.

Given the poor CBO jobs scoring and long term negative 10 year out GDP forecast, Obama's stimulus need to rely purely on a "psychological lift to consumer confidence" from the package to sell itself that the economy will not end up stuck in a 1930s like prolonged deflationary trap - and full of self-pity Obama claims the Republicans are raining on Barack's parade.

Vice President Joseph Biden told House Democrats that "there's still a 30 percent chance we'll get it wrong." Over a trillion dollars and only a 70% chance of success.

We hear what the Democrats are saying daily.

Another Democrat change you can believe in -- Brought to you by Democrats who won.
By Future2012

2/15/09 at 6:42 a.m.

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The amendment by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., calls for ...rules that would define "excessive expenditures by companies"

Would that include giving out discounted mortgages?

Did Dodd report the CountryWide mortgage gift on his Congressional financial disclosure forms?

Ex-Senator Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, was convicted in October on ethics charges for failing to list on Senate disclosure forms gifts and services from several supporters.
By Future2012

2/15/09 at 6:46 a.m.

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Another Amendment by Dodd, D-Conn., restricts the bonus of an executive of a firm taking government money to one half their salary.

Providing government money " ...will never happen as long as the public perceives that there are people getting rich," Dodd said in an interview.

Dodd said should we "Save their pay or save capitalism."

But wait the Democratic negotiators removed a $400,000 pay cap included in an earlier draft.

The Congressional Budget Office said it would cost some $11 billion in lost tax revenues by 2019.

So Democrat think that if rich people making over $400,000 are not making money - we cannot tax them.
By Future2012

2/15/09 at 6:50 a.m.

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Harry Reid and Democrats rejected an amendment to the Reid -Pelosi Stimulus II that would have required the use of the E-Verify system so only American would get stimulus jobs.

Yet Reid and Democrats supported putting the private health record of all Americans in the hand of the Federal government with a $19 billion Information Management program.

In addition to voiding privacy, the program will be capable of stealthily establishing the Tom Daschle health rationing program.

The E-verify program was called unreliable with over a 99.9% accuracy. Yet no questions were raised on the Health Care Records accuracy.
By johnevegas

2/15/09 at 7:03 a.m.

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Future2012 "Obama exaggerated..."

You mean like Bush did with Saddam?

I think Obama's failing so far is that he does not have an effective team of shills to backup his lies and a 24/7 "News" channel promoting his ideology and defending him unceasingly.

I also find it interesting that Republicans have suddenly developed to ability to predict the outcome of future events, like declaring new bills a failure before they are even enacted.

Too bad they did not have this skill 9 years go. Or, say, on September 10th, 2001.
By Gordon

2/15/09 at 9:04 a.m.

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You exemplify well the hypocrisy Future2012. On one hand republicans complain about not knowing what's in the stimulus because nobody had enough time to read it. On the other hand they point out 'details' they claim will hurt the economy.

The aspects of the Stimulus that will not create jobs, according to the CBO, are tax cuts. The AMT correction is 70 billion that CBO says will do very little for job creation. If tax cuts were stripped and infrastructure spending was restored, the stimulus would be much more effective. So basically the items inserted by Republicans were 'poison pills' designed to hamper the effectiveness of the stimulus. Remember, the goal of the Republicans is to make sure the Democrat leadership fails.

"long term negative 10 year out GDP forecast" - This is what most economists from both sides are forecasting if nothing is done. The problem with Japans recovery in the 90's is that their stimulus was piecemealed rather than an all out attack on the problem. Republicans want to follow Japan and trickle out assistance over 10 years, rather than attack the problem head on. Most economists have stated government stimulus should be in the 2 Trillion range, the amount our GDP is expected to shrink in 2009.
By jfnance32

2/15/09 at 9:08 a.m.

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CBO is predicting that the "stimulus" bill will hurt not help GDP growth in the long term (10 years) because all the debt bonds that will flood the market will crowd out private investment money.
By JohnF

2/15/09 at 9:27 a.m.

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I find it ironic that the people who pushed through the Patriot Act without giving anyone time to read it are now complaining that they didn't have enough time to read the stimulus bill.

As if they'd have read it given a month.
By Future2012

2/15/09 at 10 a.m.

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"I think Obama's failing so far is that he does not have an effective team of shills to backup his lies..."

That is becaue Obama himself is giving two a day prime time campaign speechs.
By JustTheFactsJack

2/15/09 at 10:51 a.m.

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"They complain that a 1,100-page bill was thrust at them at the midnight hour, and no human could sift through a document so thick at the last minute to make an educated vote."

What a ridiculous argument. If these crybabies didn't have time to read this on their own they definitely had time to read it collectively. First they can't work with the Democrats, now they can't even work together as a party.

There are 178 Republicans in congress and 41 in the senate which makes a total of 219 Republicans. That means with 1,100 pages each Republican would have to read 5 pages each then discuss problem areas collectively.

Now if they are so stupid that not 1 of these 219 republicans can figure that out we don't need them representing us anyway.
By getalife

2/15/09 at 11:10 a.m.

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Just....Jack,

You make it sound like the Dems read the Bill. I doubt that.

We will see how this turns out. It's good to see the rabid support for this spending spree.

How much money is being steered toward Nevada? Too bad we missed the boat. Thanks Harry.
By avatar

2/15/09 at 3:02 p.m.

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Obama's approval rating remains well above 60% in tracking polls. A range of state pollsters said they'd seen no diminution in the president's sky-high approval ratings, and no improvement in congressional Republicans' dismal numbers.

In 18 months the dow will hit 15000. Unemployment will decrease to under 6%. Housing and credit markets will stabilize and banks will lend again. Why you ask?

Part of the bailout includes a cap on bankers bonus structure until they pay back the federal monies they collected. They will fix this and return to the gluttony of the past as soon as possible.

Greed got us into this mess, and it will get us out of the mess. I applaud the Democrats for adding this provision into the bailout. Brilliant!
By avatar

2/15/09 at 4:15 p.m.

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REPUBLICANS = OBSTRUCTIONISTS PERIOD

The governor and legislative leaders from both parties warned that California faces insolvency unless the Legislature enacts a midyear budget fix.

Blame for the inaction was fixed on the state Senate, where Republicans were refusing to put up the three votes necessary to reach the required two-thirds majority. The Assembly appeared ready to pass the mix of deep spending cuts and tax increases but was awaiting signals that the Senate would do the same.
By azsk8fan

2/15/09 at 5:04 p.m.

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Why is it that the Bush bail-out wasn't scrutinized to the nth degree compared to the scrutiny this one's getting? If the Bush bail-out had been some thought there might have been some policies put forth immediately that would have prevented the bail-out recipients from throwing 50,000 parties. But instead the bail-out was rushed thru without so much as a backward glance - and all of the sudden NOW everyone wants to start picking apart the next bail-out? What gives?
By jfnance32

2/15/09 at 5:22 p.m.

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"In 18 months the dow will hit 15000. Unemployment will decrease to under 6%."

......No comment needed.