Townhall.com, Where Your Opinion Counts
Talk Radio:   Bill Bennett   Mike Gallagher   Dennis Prager   Michael Medved   Hugh Hewitt   
BREAKING NEWS  LeftArrow - Townhall.com : Conservative, Political, Republican   RightArrow - Townhall.com : Conservative, Political, Republican  
Columns, funnies & more in your inbox!
  • Check the boxes and send us your email address to receveive your free newsletter
  • Your daily must-read of conservative columns, cartoons and news. Coulter, Sowell, Krauthammer and more.
  • Townhall.com’s weekly inside scoop on what’s happening behind the scenes in the world of politics. When news breaks, we report.
  • Signup to receive the latest daily Townhall cartoons
Friday, July 10, 2009
Michelle Malkin :: Townhall.com Columnist
The Bankrupt Party of Porkulus
by Michelle Malkin
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
[+] Text [-]
 
Poll
Will the Dems' health care Christmas Present to America be an improvement or detriment to our health care system?


Let there be no doubt: Democrats are the party with two ideas: borrow and spend. The only vigorous internal debate on the left revolves around two questions: How much and how much more? Even as the first trillion-dollar stimulus craters, the debt-o-crats are floating yet another grand act of generational theft to create the illusion of jumpstarting the economy.

Call it Spawn of Spendulus. Return of the Porkulus Beast. Crap Sandwich Redux. White House economic adviser Laura D'Andrea Tyson told an international economic conference: "We should be planning on a contingency basis for a second round of stimulus." Team Obama flack Robert Gibbs says the president isn't "ruling anything out, but at the same time he's not ruling anything in." Despite the inconvenient fact that less than 10 percent of the initial stimulus has been spent (or misspent), congressional Democrats remain "open" to the idea of digging a deeper fiscal hole for your children and grandchildren.

Porkulus One was a massive payoff to special interests and political constituencies (and dead people!) disguised as a job generator. A General Accounting Office analysis this week revealed that stimulus dollars allocated to states and localities are not being spent on what they're supposed to be spent on. States are making up their own criteria for spending. The most economically distressed parts of the country are getting shortchanged. School and transportation bureaucrats are using the money to preserve their own jobs instead of "stimulating" others. And assessments of the stimulative effect of the package are a joke. As House Republicans noted: "The administration has essentially 'rigged the game' of reporting the tangible effects of its stimulus program by creating an immeasurable metric -- 'jobs created or saved' -- that no one can disprove."

Irked by the mounting evidence of stimulus failure, Vice President Joe Biden griped at a spending event on Thursday: "This ain't about swimming pools and Frisbee parks and polar bear exhibits. This is about stuff that not only passed the test of jobs, but passed the smell test. ... All the talk about how we're gonna waste all this money, that's a dog that ain't barked yet. And it's not gonna bark on my watch." Yet last month, Sen. Tom Coburn exposed 100 smelly stimulus projects worth $5.5 billion, including $3.4 million for a wildlife "eco-passage" in Florida to take animals safely under a busy roadway; nearly $10 million to renovate an unused train station; and a $2 million "weatherization" contract awarded to a Nevada nonprofit recently fired for doing the same type of work.

After failing to recognize the inevitable and inexorable political forces that turned the stimulus into the mother of all Beltway boondoggles, media outlets are now playing catch up:

USA Today reported this week that "counties that supported Obama last year have reaped twice as much money per person from the administration's $787 billion economic stimulus package as those that voted for his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain."

ABC News reported this week that the failed stimulus tracking website run by the White House, Recovery.gov, will get an additional $18 million taxpayer-funded injection to support a "redesign." The Washington Examiner's David Freddoso points out that the contract was awarded to a Maryland firm whose donors have contributed $19,000 to Maryland's House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

The Washington Times reported this week that "as much as $16.1 million from the stimulus program is going to save the San Francisco Bay area habitat of, among other things, the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse" in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's backyard.

And despite all the initial focus on basic infrastructure needs, Land Line magazine reported this week that "even with federal stimulus spending that put shovels in the ground on new infrastructure projects, analysts predict an overall decline of 4.3 percent on infrastructure in 2009."

The same underhanded, transparency-defying, earmark-stuffing process that marked the porkulus beast is dominating every other pricey piece of legislation hurtling through the Democrat-led Congress. The Waxman-Markey "cap and trade" bill that passed the House two weeks ago contained bribes galore -- including a $50 million hurricane research center for Florida Democrat Alan Grayson and a $3.5 billion economic development "sweetener" package for Ohio Democrat Marcy Kaptur. The current health care takeover proposals feature a crucial payoff to Big Labor -- a golden exemption from any tax on union members' generous health care benefits.

The friends and patrons of Obama may be making out like bandits. But for everyone else, the Democrats' ideological bankruptcy comes at a nauseatingly steep price.

Share:
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
 
About The Author

Michelle Malkin makes news and waves with a unique combination of investigative journalism and incisive commentary. She is the author of Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild .

Be the first to read Michelle Malkin's column. Sign up today and receive Townhall.com delivered each morning to your inbox.

©Creators Syndicate
This reminds me of some friends....
I had a few friends who went off to college at UMass Amherst. They were living off of Mom and Dad's weekly checks, and were there to party.

Unfortunately for their party lifestyle, their weekly checks didn't cover booze and food at the same time.

So, they did what any financially intelligent freshman would do - they got credit cards, used them to pay for Jagerbombs and Milwaukee's Best, and tried to pay off the cards with the checks they got at the end of the week.

The balances started building up, and by the end of the year each of them had several thousand dollars in credit card debt.

So what did they do? Duh, they went and got it paid off by Mom and Dad.

They're now juniors, and they did the exact same thing sophomore year. Their parents will probably do the exact same thing next year, too.

We laugh at these kids because they're stupid and young and never heard of balancing a budget or actually living within one's means. But that's the exact same way that Congress is running the country. Sure, Congress SAYS that they're paying for infrastructure. Those college students SAID that they were paying for groceries and textbooks (from a grocery store named The Beer Bonanza? Odd name for a store). Why do we believe them, and why do we pay them off every time?

Unfortunately, we as a nation don't care about the balance. We see beer in the window and say "WANT WANT WANT," and stick the bill with everyone else.

(John Mellencamp voice) This is ouuur country...

Did anyone really think
the stimulus money would go to Joe Sixpack? Why should it? Barry voters have been voting against their interests for years, as they support pols who trash education, drive investment abroad, and establish unfunded entitlements which will crush the economy. The money will go to the people who will return a large portion of it as campaign contributions. AIG execs contributed about a million dollars to Barry, Chris Dood and Barney
Frank and a few cohorts. At the bailout, Dodd inserted a specific paragraph ensuring these same contributors would collect about 100 million of our tax dollars as bonus money. I'd say that million was a shrewd investment. and Barry has proved to be an honest politician. When he's bought, he stays bought.

Bam!
Porkulus One was a massive payoff to special interests and political constituencies (and dead people!) disguised as a job generator.

That line says it all.

BTW, as a webmaster of 11 years, how do I get in on that 18 million dollar web site? On what I'd charge, that would be 300 years worth.Make it 299 and 3/4 years if you deduct the graft money.

Obama and the democrats are the best recruiting tool that conservatives have had since klinton, and the very definition of RICO.(See Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act)

?? Bad Bass Player ??


Not on Biden's Watch?
So Joe Biden says there is not going to be any wasteful spending on his watch. How comforting. I'm sure he will stand up to Obama when he discovers payoffs to cronies and other contributors to the Democrat Party causes.

This spending is an absolute disgrace. And now we are going to #2. Get ready for Porkulus 3 and Porkulus 4 when #2 doesn't work. Why does the use of the phrase "going . . . #2" seem to be applicable here?

BLACK CICERO
Iv'e been bewildered by people I used to consider intelligent who swoon and go weak in the knees like a school girl with a crush when Obama gives a speech, using phrases like "Great Orator" and "Spellbinding Oratory", but all I see is a rambling, in-coherent fraud and a buffoon. After some thought I've concluded all those ivy league brainiacs are idiots. Or liars. Or both.

Whenever I hear Obama I'm reminded of an old Three Stooges episode where Curly got his head stuck in a fishbowl, and is saying something to Moe and Larry who can't make out what he's saying. Only Curly made more sense than Obama. And Curly was funny. There's nothing funny about the "Black Cicero"-- or his sidekick "Lobotomy Joe" for that matter.

$$$WOW
I can't wait, I'll probably need a wheelbarrow to carry my share around. I don't know what I'll buy first, a hot dog or a cadillac.But maybe we should save some for the poor children, since so many of them are starving to death in our great land. There might even be some left over for the mj fund.

Revolution!
The American government is evil beyond redemption! Greedy adulterous thieves!

So much for the myth that "the best rise to the top".

Fair Lady Liberty is but now the Babylonian Prostitute . . .

Where is the person.....
or people who will petition the SCOTUS to declare the porkulus law unconstitutional? Where in the Constitution is the authority for the pip-squeak-in-chief and his partners in crime in congress to, in six short months, lead our sheeple into a headlong rush into socialism?

Where are the patriots who will vote out any of the useful idiots who voted for this greatest travesty congress has ever perpetrated on We, The People? How do we stop this insanity? How do we send Zerobama back to Kenya (or any place but here) on a rail, dripping tar and feathers?

The dumbing down of America.
We are now seeing the effects that the Dems policies have had on dumbing down America to the point where presentation and pomp is more important than reason and critical thinking.

We have a media worshipping the ground Obama walks on.

People who vote on feelings and looks over substance.

Sheeple who want to be taken care of instead of earning and achieving their way through life.

Congress knows America is dumbed down and they are using this to enrich themselves and their friends.

God help us and God Bless the USA.

Conservatives just won't get it
I am genuinely convinced, that we Conservatives are just never going to get it - ever.

What Obama and these Democrats are doing is so blatantly obvious that even the deaf, dumb and blind couldn't help but notice it. But most Conservatives are in the dark about it.

How could anyone possibly believe that the things that are going on are just the result of the misguided, ill-informed and reckless?

How could anyone honestly believe, that these Democrats honestly believe, that spending all this money will actually 'help' the economy?

Does anyone really think that the Democrats are genuinely concerned about "health care" for the American people?

How would anyone in their right mind believe that Democrats honestly think that 'Cap and Trade' is going to help control the temperature of the planet?

Does anyone really believe that Barrack Obama is so stupid, that he doesn't know that if he promises and guarantees tax increases on businesses that it will severely reduce job creation in this country?

Who could possibly think that Democrats believe that the problems in the financial sector were caused by CEO bonuses, their use of corporate jets and their lavish vacations? Who in their right mind believes that's what they really think?

Folks, there is an elephant in the room with an 800 lb. gorilla on its back: Our nation is being methodically and systematically dismantled right in front of our eyes.

But by all means, let's not recognize the blatantly obvious and keep pretending that we simply have a bunch of dunderheads in charge that don't have a clue. Because to recognize the obvious and call a spade a spade -- might be a bit too harsh and accusatory. Not to mention that we might get called a "racist" in the process and that is more than we can bear!

Terry
Spot On!

From my blog
From the Christmas Song: It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas by Meridith Wilson

A Paddy Whack©
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Taxes

It's beginning to look a lot like Taxes
Don't ya care B.O.?
Take a look at that Cap & Trade
Bail-outs Galore you've made
And now G.M. is bankrupt, don't ya know?

It's beginning to look a lot like Taxes
Soon the yells will start!
And the thing 'Hello, Ding-a-ling!"
Is Obama's not our KING!
He's a Bonaparte!

(Bridge)
A bunch of Obama Czars redesigning our cars
Is the plan of Barry Hussein
Soon all the banks will be right in the tank
FDR is riding again!
And ABC is in the White House, Don't they feel ashamed?

It's beginning to look a lot like Taxes
Jobs are on the wane
Take a look at our closing plants, unions his sycophants
Where is that promise of some hope and change?

It's beginning to look at lot like Taxes
Soon the Wails will start
And the wailing that B.O. Brings, is the tyranny of kings
And that is not Smart!

(Repeat Bridge)
With Teleprompters in tow we all laugh at B.O.
And his gaffs are legend indeed!
Swatting at flies and his penchant for lies
All backed up by Nancy and Reid
And now our health care is the 'crisis' made for over-reach

It's beginning to look a lot like Taxes
Soon Gulags will rise
And whenever you hear 'hate crime' you can bet dollar to dime
Freedom's in demise!

Freedom's in demise!

Empyrius
Yes, it is true. Cream rises to the top.
Unfortunately, so does feces.

Third Idea
The Democrats have a third idea. Tax. Lucky for them they will get new taxes automatically when the GWB tax reductions expire.

18 million for a website redesign?
What did the original website cost? I wonder now if the White House is going to set up a second website to "track" the first website, just to make sure its keeping track of the "recovery".

Wonder when
Hal, the Lying Sad Sack Garritrooper will make an appearance, and post his usual inane, insane, idiotic illogical rant about reactionaries opposing Obumf^ck.

Obama Is Killing Us, One and All
Please see my four posts – the first posts made there today - to Donald Lambro’s “Dems’ Recruitment Failures Hurt Party Brand” and their references and proofs.

You're article is the usual smarmy trash
You've nothing constructive to write, so you trash write, as if you know what your writing about.

Have you read any economic reports from sources other than those that make your story?

Try to understand other, experienced and highly regarded econmists exist.

The truth is, it's too early to expound any logical outcome of the stimulus passed earlier this year. It's way to early. Any acctionable outcome is currently focused squarely upon states. They were given the bulk of the opening salvo a mear less than $60 Billion.

That few billion in the hands of states, whose bureacracies will disseminate that money has little chance of impacting a large number of jobs, and yes likely just maintains status quo for those in charge. The next phase starts in September 2009 and works it's way through in large chunks by Oct. 2010.

What's been surmised by you nitwit columnists is that this deep recession was predicted to be over shortly. Well, that's not true. It was hoped to be over sooner than later, but that does not mean a short recession to those with common sense.

Instead you nitwits without common sense go to those selling you their version of common sense, like that snake-oil salesman Glenn Beck, or others who seek your money to tell you what you think you want to hear or read.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/bruce-bartlett- misstates-the-problem/

Pork & Political Pay Back
The claim of wanting to stimulate the economy by the Democrats is bogus. There are approximately 80 to 90 million households in the US. With a $782 Billion so called stimulus package they could have mailed out checks to every (non rich under $250K) household for around $9,000.00 to be spent or saved as people deemed best for their families. By giving people back their own money we wouldn't be seeing so many foreclosures, layoffs, stale retail sales and credit card defaults. We would actually be seeing an economic turn around.

The reason this wan't done was because the Dems owed some major pay back to special interest groups for helping them get elected in 2008. In some cases they had to buy the votes and still owed for them. If they really wanted to stimulate the economy we would be talking about how much of a tax cut we could afford over the next 10 years instead of how much new debt we can hide under the pretense of wanting to jump start the economy.

ot trash it is traceale fact
good job

Chrysler dealerships

If they are listed as past contributors to Republican candidates, they are ordered to close their doors.

How can this happen in the USA?

Who on the left wants to claim credit for this fascism?

Rick
Your claim that it's too soon to determine the effect of the so called stimulus package because the money hasn't been spent yet, begs a couple of key questions.

If the stimulus package was such an emergency piece of legislation that time could not be allowed to even read it before it was voted on, then WHY HASN'T THE SAME SENSE OF URGENCY BEEN APPLIED TO SPENDING IT?

The second unanswered question is that since we were told that by passing the stimulus bill we could hold unemployment below 8% yet it's now pushing 10% with close to 500K new unemployment cases filed weekly, HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO SEE IF IT WORKS OR NOT?

Sooner or later the Obama Administration is going to have to own this economy. They ran on the promise that if you elect us we have the answers. Well fine. Stop keeping them a secret and show us the results.

Rick
Look at this video.

Why, if we are indeed in a 'crisis' are they sitting on the bulk of the money? What value do you suppose there would be in doling it out in little increments until 2010? What's happening in 2010?

And now, when they haven't even disbursed all of the original 'stimulus' and Barney Frank is already proposing that the $1 dollar back for every $10 spent should be allocated for ACORN instead of paying down our debt, they are saying we need yet another injection of cash!!!

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=121028280849&h=Gj 22q&u=7GG3t&ref=nf

Maybe the debt train simplified will make a dent.


Rick:
You are of course aware that (1) Krugman is a mouthpiece for Obumf^ck, and (2) he was the economic guru for ENRON, and (3) as aneconomist he makes John Maynard Keynes and Karl Marx look like Ludgig von Mises.

SFA1973
You realize, of course, that Rick won't understand who are the people you mentioned in your explanation.

THE ANTI LIBERAL ZONE
as a SCORCHING essay on Comrade Neville Chamberlain aka Barry Soetoro letting Qods Force members FREE!

Also, what happens when you elect an idiot, a pictoral essay.

CLICK ON MY HANDLE TO CHECK IT OUT

Mrs. Paddy--there is NO MONEY
Fed. money facts:

America produces c. $2.5 trillion fed. taxes a year. Any budget over that amount creates a deficit.

Bush’ last 2008 budget was $3 trillion. That made a $1/2 trillion deficit. The Dems./libs. went ballistic.

Bush’s “stimulus” of $162 billion, the TARP of $750 billion, King Elect O’s “stimulus” of $1 trillion (only 10% dispersed as there is no money), and his budget with $1.6 trillion are all PHANTOM monies. They are not supported by collecting regular taxes and require

1) more taxation;

2) printing more money (we are now engaged in the Treasury printing money and the federal reserve “buying” Treasury notes with IOUs—the way Cong. “pays” for Soc. Sec. and Medicare);

3) convincing China and Japan and Saudi Arabia to assume more US debt;

This year, with a 10% unemployment recession, the feds. Will NOT collect $2.5 trillion, so the deficit will be even larger. MORE PHANTOM MONEY.

The Great Karnak says, to steal from Johnny Carson, INFLATION before 2012. Thank God.

Go to tea parties at your Cong. rep.'s or Sen.'s office to protest Obamacare--ANOTHER NO MONEY boondoggle designed to steal your private med. records and store them in DC.

Bork Sotomayor.
Buy Gold. Don't buy GM or Chrysler. They are dogs. Ciao

Mrs Paddy:
True, very true.

Ray in TX
Odumbo already owns this economy. Everything that has happened in it since the Porkulus bill was signed into law belongs to him, including the rising unemployment rate. He can't blame this mess on Bush any longer, although I'm positive that Lying Hal will do just that later today.

Rick:
If NonStimulus I has not reached it's stated goals, and needs more time to do so, why are the Dumbsh1tcraps already talking about NonStimulus II?

SFA1973
You beat me to the punch.

Krugman is a skivvie stain. The NY Obama Times publishes the clown at will.

Good post.

GunnyG
Read your blog and it's spot on, as usual. Great job!

As for the photos, if you were married to Horse Face, wouldn't you look?

renny
Thanks, but you are preaching to the choir. Have already picketed our local Senator to vote agains C&T and UHC (for all the good it did)

They are not listening to us.

I am actually gladdened
as I have been deeply disturbed by the threat to the salt marsh harvest mouse in San Francisco Bay.

Takes a real load off my shoulders knowing that hundreds of jobs harvesting the mice and selling them to the school lunch program remain safe.

Thank you, thank you Speaker Pelosi.

Rick must be KingLib in disguise
I know facts don't matter to the left, only their *line*,

but THE ADMINISTRATION admits it hasn't dispersed more than 10% of the *stimulus*,

that most WAS DESIGNED not to be paid out until 2010 and 2011 (new elections in mind?), and

EVERYONE knew it contained(s) BILLIONS for Planned Parenthood, ACORN and ROCK THE VOTE (ACORN needs more for its defense in 20 venues), yadda, and

blathering about how *bad* the column is does not answer the facts.

EVEN BIDEN ADMITS THE STIMULUS IS A BUST. The only good thing about Joe at the moment is her is like the man in the fairy tale cursed with telling the truth.

Mrs. Paddy
I hear you about our Senators not listening to us. I sent e-mails to both Nelson and Martinez and got back the most nauseating replies. Both of them went on about how great a threat GW is and how they were "fighting hard" to reduce the threat of greenhouse gases. I just threw my hands up in exasperation. I get more intelligent replies from my cat.

"Rick"
Please go to school before you clock in again at ACORN'SS SSpin Factory -- and/or quit your way-over-your-head job there and make room there for another, slightly more intelligent retard. One whose IQ is, say, 67? And who can, say, spell? And who knows the difference between, for example, your derangement and that you're deranged.

And/or that former Enron Advisor, Krugman, is, to Economics, something along the lines of whatever to Hell it was the execrable pedophile, Jackson, was to heterosexuality. And that the loathesome and fearsome Obambi Gang is to intellectual and moral integrity -- and to patriotism.

Brian Richard Allen
Los Angeles Califobambicated 90028
And the Far Abroad

Publius4254
Indeed. Anything SIGNED by Barry belongs to Barry. Porkzilla is ALL HIS, along with the rising unemployment, gas prices, food prices, etc.

Publius4254
The First Wookie of the United States is gonna trim off what's left of Barry's little peas.

The clown has all of the gravitas of Bozo the Clown.

Libs really are stupid
When you trump up a hack like Obama, and pass him off as 'brilliant,' well you're scraping the bottom of the barrel. http://theblacksphere.net/site/obama-allows-capitalism-%E2 %80%93-for-now/ This blogger explains libs COLD, and is hilarious. His book is PHENOMENAL!

Porkulus
Michelle,
Thank you a million times, for being so articulate and true to the Conservative cause!

My wife and I truly enjoy your articles and live appearances on Fox.

We will continue to pray for you and keep moving the cause forward!

Sincerely,
Neil Anderson
Trophy Club, TX

$18 million is crazy
I work in the technology field and have been involved in a huge number of website designs and I can tell you that now days even $1 million would be considered extremely high for a website even when integrating data from numerous data bases. No doubt that the project will be going to one of Obama's cronies. Look, Barney Franks may well enjoy taken it in the rear but the American people do not.

Who works for whom?
My fellow Americans, we need to take back control of this country once again. The federal government works for us. We do not work for them!

As the owners of this corporation called America, can we afford to keep workers and managers who are in effective and fail to carry out their duties? The only way to make the inmates of this asylum give back control to the people is to fire them!

Instead of Tea Parties we should rally people to pledge to vote all of these employees out of office. Yes I know how everyone says they like their particular incumbent. However for the survival of our country we need to show them we can act.

Elections are interviews for a job. The American people are the interviewers. It is obvious to me that we need to be tougher and smarter interviewers. We should not hire them because we like how they look, how pretty they talk or the color of their skin. The higher the job, the more experience a candidate should have.

Rally to fire them all, every last one of them. It is the only way to regain a semblance of efficient representative government.

AIG's STIMULUS WORKING
Thanks again Senator Dodd.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/0 7/09/AR2009070902702_pf.html

Don't worry libs, it's OPM (Other People's Money)

Publius4254
Yeppers. I got the same two replies. I almost hurled over the 'I believe Global Warming is a real threat'

Where do these people come from? And can we send them back???

HEY LIBS
The Rashid Khalidi effect on your boy Barry the Clown.

The Obama administration, in a precedent-setting move, has approved resettlement in the U.S. for 1,350 Palestinian refugees from Iraq. But before this becomes a done deal, Congress and the media ought to ask the White House and the State Department why these refugees, rather than being granted asylum in the U.S., shouldn't get immigration visas to Arab countries, especially those with immense oil wealth.

Answer: Importing PLO terrorists is necessary to assist Barry in creating a Civilian National Security Force cadre.

It's too early to tell?
So here we were, our economy supposedly tanking by the hour and we hadn't a minute to waste in getting a "stimulus" out there. We had to get that "stimulus" out so quick that not even those in Congress had time to know what it was they were approving -- much less the American people. We just had to get that "stimulus" out there or the ball game was going to be over.

And so here we are almost six months later and not only has nothing improved, but the unemployment rate has continued to rise.

Quite naturally there is an easy explanation for why nothing has improved: "The stimulus hasn't had time to work yet." That has to be it. It couldn't possibly be that the so-called "stimulus" had no more to do with jump-starting the economy than a grapefruit. It couldn't possibly be that the bill had nothing to do with economic recovery and if anyone would have had the time to go through it, it would have been apparent. Maybe that's why it was such an emergency to get it out there? No, couldn't be that.

No, we are going to now be told that of course the "stimulus" was sound -- it just needs more time to kick-in. But even though the "stimulus" was sound and just needs more time, the rumblings are looking like we might have another "stimulus" forthcoming because they've supposedly underestimated just how bad the economy was.

The first "stimulus" was sound and will work if given time. But we're going to need another one post haste because the first one hasn't kicked-in yet!

I guess the second "stimulus" will be designed to stimulate the first "stimulus?"

I'm waiting for Lying Hal to come along
Everyone here can predict, with astounding accuracy, exactly what Lying Hal will say when (not if) he slithers onto this thread.

1. The failed Bush policies are driving this bad economy.

2. The great, magnificent, benevolent Odumbo is working as hard as he can to rectify the damage done by the failed Bush, but it will take time.

3. Only you reactionary conservatives and your failed ideology are against the wonderful and sublime policies put forward by our Supreme Leader.

4. LMAO!

Paul
I agree with your post.

We have Dem/Liberal Lite and Dem/Liberal Obama Train....

What I don't understand is all of the sycophants that won't criticize the Obama train at all.

Neither party has our wellbeing at heart. It is all about elections, pork, power and elitism over the 'little people'

We need to clean house, and Senate. NO INCUMBENTS EVER should be re-elected.

I want a new party. The party of the People. The TEA Party.

That's the problem Mrs. Paddy!
You are so right! Our representatives are not listening to us. And to top it off, they disdain our tea parties and other manisfestations of disapproval including the poll results from Gallup on Americans' view of the Obama spending. Talk about taxation without representation! The arrogance of Congress is breathtaking and heartbreaking at the same time. But if states keep electing people like Kennedy, Kerry, Bawney Frank, Dodd, Schumer, Durbin, Pelosi, Reid, Murtha (who even called his own constituents red necks)et all, well then in the words of Thomas Jefferson we have the government we deserve. Throw all of the bums out.

I called the eight Republicans who voted for Cap and Tax. The four that answered I suggested that since they obviously do not believe in limited government and fiscal restraint they should go ahead and become Democrats. The other four, mostly from NJ, either have a recording that says "this number is not accepting calls at this time", or are constantly busy. I'm heartened by the thought that their lines have been burning up since their asinine votes.

McCain and Lindsey Graham are in favor of amnesty. Millions of Americans called Congress to oppose it. What does Obama say? We will have amnesty on his watch.

Check out Obama's memo to Gibbs on how to answer questions about the first round of tea parties. Totally disdainful of we the people.
We may not have any choice but to have a second revolution. We'll see how the 2010 elections go. But, the Dems in the House are voting for these huge spending bills knowing they will face reelection in 2010. Don't any of them think there's a chance they will lose? Apparently not. They are counting on the sheeple. Let's show them they are wrong.

SFA1973

Don't worry about old Hal.

You see, Thursday night is "Metrosexual Night" at his favorite club - and he usually ties on a really big one trolling aimlessly amongst the AC-DC crowd.

He'll be along shortly...

just remember
For all the people who cry "Republicans did this too": The deficit in Obamas FIRST budget is greater than the sum of the first six years of Bush. (Yes that would be the years the GOP controlled the budget).

Mediscare drug program was a travesty but the GOP are pikers with spending compared to this bunch.

OBAMA's PLO "REFUGEES"
Meant to add, the following will apply to Barry's homeys coming to a neighborhood near you soon.

1. Immediate US citizenship
2. Government paid healthcare
3. Immediate registration as Democrats
4. Immediate ACORN membership
5. A promise not to attack us for at least a year and when attacking, not to do it anywhere near Barry's crib.

Hey, Give Rick a Break
All of you Rick-bashers may be expecting too much from your Northern neighbor. I see he's from Minnesota. If my current events recollection is correct, that is the state that just installed Stuart Smalley (aka Al Franken) in the United States Senate. 'Nuf said.

Mrs Paddy
I would love to see Sarah break with the GOP and join the American Conservative Party. She'd bring a few million of us along with her. D8mn the GOP and the DNC. Let em both wither up and die.

No third parties
They are gifts to the Dems.

Every vote for Bob Barr or non-vote that stayed home were two more votes for Obama.

My fellow American's, we need to keep
showing the illogical and irrational Republican'ts that their obstruction and politically motivated voting record will continue their slide to the sidelines.

Yes my fellow Americans you can only progress when you wake up from the sour-puss nightmare you create for yourselves. It takes real work, not whining to make change.


There is a lot of work going on in DC, and are you actually finding out what is the truth, or are you feeding at the trough of discontent? Do you spend your hours of learning with the obfuscations of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Dennis Prager, Hugh Hewitt and the gang of no we can't?

Try to turn that frown upside down and do something constructive. Read for yourselves the reality of what's happening, or at least watch PBS, BBC, or some larger source of news, than that which feeds your sad notions.

Publius, keep emailing
and phone calling and barraging your Senators. Their staffs do keep count.

We stopped *comprehensive immigration reform* two summers ago with FAXes and phone calls and can stop Obamacare and Sotomayor the same way.

We have to keep MILLIONS of messages flooding DC. After all, the left sites like movealong and Krap constantly urge their minions to besiege Washington.

Go to tea parties on the 17th to protest Obamacare at your Cong. rep.'s and Sen.'s local offices. Take back the streets and they'll notice even more.

LOl
"Let there be no doubt: Democrats are the party with two ideas: borrow and spend"

Really. There were no deficits prior to the Republicans taking control in 2000, and there were NOTHING BUT deficits after they left in 2006, and 2008 respectfully. Where was the all the support for fiscal prudence by people like Michelle during those years?


Wow
Another home run, Michelle...keep it up

terry, you are seeing more than most.
It is true that timing is the issue. But following the whole time, it is clear to see that when Republican'ts stole the help away from state budgets, the whole dynamic of the stimulus changed. It is to be expected that when a bureaucracy governing a state loses operating budget, yet is given even the paltry $60 billion thus far, it will have trouble disemminating the money.

What were the governments supposed to do, pull well written grants out of their butts?

I know what the grant process is for. It is how we make sure that the money laid out by legislatures is spent according to the law, and for what it's intended. I also know that grant departments around my own state have not increased staff, and are worried about job cuts. So, what were the Republican'ts thinking would happen when they pulled the budget stimulus money away from states? That the stimulus would magically spend itself?

Ludicrous, that's what Republican'ts and their ilk of do nothing contrarian columnists are all about.

Ditto, It Is Both Parties
Malkin is picking on the Dems but as at least one other post says, it was 8 years of spend by way of Jorge Bush and friends. Poulson, appointed by Jorge was a complete loser and he sold a huge bill of goods to we little people and to the open-mouthed Congress, also losers. Open borders Bush, globalism, more NAFTA deals, send jobs to China and India, etc.,. Obama and the other clowns in the G8 are pleading for open trade. More jobs for the cheap labor countries. We have had 32 years of trade deficits. If people do not understand what that is, means, and the result, go back to kindergarten. There you may learn that if someone gets your toy, you no longer have one. Is that too simple to understand?

For Mush-Brain Liberals
it's getting harder each day to defend the fraud in the WH - their comments are ususally adolescent, hysterical rants with no substance.

Rick, your Lord and Savior says you're
a liar.

According to Der Fuhrer Obama HIMSELF, had we *NOT* passed his ANTI-constitutional UNstimulus bill, we'd RIGHT NOW, have an unemployment rate of just 8.5%. According to your Lord and Savior, passage of that bill meant we'd see an unemployment rate right now of 7.9%, and falling. Those were the words of Barack Obama.

Alas, right now we have an unemployment rate of 9.5%, and rising. Obama worshipper Warren Buffet is predicting that the UE rate will increase to *AT LEAST* 11% before ANY amount of reduction is seen. In other words, according to Barack Obama HIMSELF, his "stimulus" bill has failed so misserably that it has not only "created or saved" jobs, it has made the economy WORSE! AS PREDICTED BY EVERY SINGLE **ACTUAL** ECONOMIST ON PLANET EARTH!

So we have two choices: either Obama was lying, Obama is a moron who wouldn't even listen to his own economic advisors (please note that his own advisors said this "stimulus " bill would not only not work, but would make things worse), or Obama KNOWINGLY had passed a bill that would make this economy worse. There is NO other choice!

Of course, you're nothing but an America-hating fascist puke who will worship Obama to the very end. It doesn't matter what he does, you're still going to think that Obama is the second coming of the Christ. Obama could LITTERALLY kick in your door, stap you in the spine, paralyzing you, and force you to watch him rape and murder your wife and children, and you'd STILL believe Obama is "da bestest pwezident in da hole wyde werld!"

Anthony Thomas
"Really. There were no deficits prior to the Republicans taking control in 2000, and there were NOTHING BUT deficits after they left in 2006, and 2008 respectfully. Where was the all the support for fiscal prudence by people like Michelle during those years?"

Let's compare, shall we?

2001-2008 TOTAL deficits under Bush: ~$2 trillion, around 2.5% of the GDP.

2009 deficit under Obama: ~$2 trillion, around 15% of the GDP.

Now you're trying to tell me that a deficit of 15% of the GDP is even playing the same sport, let alone in the same ballpark, as a deficit of 2.5% of the GDP? Does your mommy know she gave birth to a braindamaged moron?

Just heard
that the Ft. Worth Mass Transit Department is getting $20 million in stimulus funds to buy articulated buses, so the riders can feel lkie they are riding on light rail. Now there is a way to stimulate the economy.

Rick: some friendly advice!
You address your posts to "My Fellow Americans" and that is the reason no one reads anything you write!

You see you're not an American. You're one of those scurrying rat socialists who hasn't formed your own country yet. Once you guys break away from the rest of us and take the Northeast, Old Northwest, and east and west littorals inland to about 40 miles to make your new country, you don't have one.

I'd be very careful in setting it up though. You're going to have to decide whether the Royal Family that rules your every move and breath is genetically going to come from the bloodlines of Barack I or whether you want your new rulers to be the spawn of the vulgar Katskills Komic you just sent to Washington as your most recent practical joke.

Hop to it, fellow! You and yours have a nation to forge, cuz you ain't getting your filthy money grubbing hands on this one, bub. Ever.

ONE NOTE PROPAGANDA
Actually, the Democrats have many ideas (e.g., women come first, abortion on demand, reduce carbon emissions, homosexuality is good, etc.), but the Republicans only have one: cut taxes.

Sorry BEOWULFE, but...
The "we may suck but you suck worse" defense of spending (although true) is not inspiring to us true Conservatives. We have been betrayed by the Republican Congress, and it will take a long, long time to regain any trust in these people.

renny
renny
Location: NJ
Reply # 57
Date: Jul 10, 2009 - 8:47 AM EST No third parties
They are gifts to the Dems.

Every vote for Bob Barr or non-vote that stayed home were two more votes for Obama.
--------------------------
Absolutely disagree. The liberal-lites aka the GOP trotted out the aisle crosser himself. Ol Reform Institute (with a Soros connection) Juan McShamnesty himself.

I held my nose for Bush 41 and Bush 43. Done doing that.

When the GOP rids themselves of the RINOs and Rockefeller bluebloods, and return to their Reagan roots, I MAY return. Otherwise, I'll vote my beliefs, values, and principles as codified by Edmund Burke and stick with the American Conservative Party.

Rick
What you fail to understand is: perspective.

There is no such thing as any type of "stimulus" that will move the U.S. economy.

The U.S. economy is a dynamic behemoth. We're not a country like most, with one or two major cities -- we have dozens of them. We have so many businesses, large, small and in between -- so many we can't count them fast enough as they come and go. We have planes and ships moving cargo to and from this country by the minute -- so fast it can make your head swim. Billions and billions of dollars in our economy is nothing -- like pitching pennies in a fountain. Our economy is not a planned, designed or controlled little model that you can perk and tweak and predict an outcome. Our economy is like the World Wide Web: It works tremendously but no one can get their hands around it.

And so to think that a so-called "stimulus" of a trillion dollars, advertised to be some 'project' creator for painting schools and filling potholes and all these nefarious little projects, to think that will work -- is childish at best. You could no more move our behemoth economy with that childish crap, than I could move an elephant by thumping him in the butt!

Of course the "stimulus" did not work. And anyone who has an understanding of our economy just one step beyond a lemonade stand -- knew this right from the very beginning!

Paul, yes but we in VA installed Webb!
Nothing but a lying EX-marine just like Murtha.

Paul
"Both paries are completely out of control but it's the Republicans who make me even angrier. The Dems are who they are and always have been. At least they're honest. Now all of a sudden, the Republicans are outraged at out-of-control spending. Why?"

Well said. The Dims are snakes and always have been. At least, when you handle a snake you know the danger and risks. You can hardly complain about the bite if you are stupid enough to pick one up.

Oh Boy!
Mike wrote:

"So, they did what any financially intelligent freshman would do - they got credit cards, used them to pay for Jagerbombs and Milwaukee's Best, and tried to pay off the cards with the checks they got at the end of the week.

The balances started building up, and by the end of the year each of them had several thousand dollars in credit card debt.

So what did they do? Duh, they went and got it paid off by Mom and Dad."

Well, arguably, these friends of yours are likely not in any danger of winning a Nobel Peace prize in Economics anytime soon but heck, "Jagerbombs and Milwaukee's Best," and it's on mommy and daddy!

With friends like that, who needs a job!


BARRY'S BOGUS BIRTH CERT
again in question.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=103503

Hmmm. I have to laugh that Barry retains THREE law FIRMS to keep his "real" birth cert under wraps. Are taxpayers footing THAT bill as well?

I'm guessing that we'll either be able to IMPEACH Barry for this or his firing of Walpin (against Fed Law), or the result of his Neville Chamberlainesque style of leadership.

Maddening As the Facts Are...
This is another journalistic masterpiece from Michelle. Brava!

All you lib experts in economics
It's the height of arrogance on the part of you libs to think that you can command/control the economy. Dr. Walter Williams brilliantly made this point with a column several months ago by examining one of ten thousand items in a typical grocery store: a can of tuna.

He named just several of the factors that went into getting the can of tuna to the store. The boat had to be maintained, gas for the boat had to be bought, the nets had to be maintained. The cannery had to be operated, its employees paid. The truck to the grocery store had to be gassed staffed and maintained, etc., etc. Hundreds if not thousands of separate factors go into getting that can of tuna to the store.

Multiply that by the number of items in the store and you easily reach tens of millions of independent factors that need to be ordered to make it run.

Conclusion: Nobody is smart enough to keep track of all of what is needed to stock a typical grocery store, let alone order it efficiently, but yet, you libs think YOU can.
You seem to even think you can manage an entire economy! Command economies are plagued with inefficiencies (bare shelves and waiting lines, etc.)

What is needed is some honest introspection, which you libs cannot seem to manage. Look yourself in the mirror and ask yourselves if you really are so smart as to have the ability to do this, when no one else has been successful at it. Ignorance and arrogance are a lethal combination.

nutnfinr
And any others who want to have a voice in the pig sty we call government.

Buy a copy of Fax Talk It can be downloaded to your computer and you can request that a disc be sent to you as well. Get a flat rate fee on your fax machine number.

Get the fax numbers of everyone in the Senate and House. This effort should include both Republicans and Democrats. Send your message 1X every day or each time you come up with a new message. The only big effort is typing in their numbers the first time. After that, the only work required by you is the message.

If we as conservatives, don't take action, we deserve what we get.

And If Not
I'm not sure why you think liberals support command economies. The idea behind a stimulus bill is certainly not to order and control an entire supply chain; they simply want to inject capital into ventures that will generate jobs and get things moving again.

I'm not saying that it will work; I'm just puzzled by your equivalence between the two ideas.

Three ideas!
Tax, borrow, and spend.

And If Not
It does not matter to the libdolts that communism/socialism has failed MISERABLY everywhere else in the world. We haven't tried it HERE yet.

They'll HOPE that the CHANGE they try works. And if not, they'll move on to something else leaving the mess for someone else to clean up.

I forgot to mention
that Fax Talk allows you to send hundreds of faxes at one time and does it for you. It just goes down the list.

Mine has been buzzing for three days now between myself, my husband and my daughter.

Randy
I'm not sure I'd call it a "journalistic masterpiece." Assuming ignorance of other sources, she doesn't do a very good job of demonstrating why Democratic policies per se are bad.

For instance, there's no comparison between Democratic and Republican pork figures, nor is there a contextualizing breakdown of what spending composes the majority of the $787 billion. All she has are some high-profile examples which, if math serves, don't even add up to 1% of it. She generalizes about the rest and expects you to buy it, which, given her political views, I'm unlikely to do.

That's not to say that she's lying about the actual numbers. I'm sure they're true. But when she extrapolates from there to "the Democrats are corrupt in such a way that you should vote for someone else," it's not demonstrated, and my credulity runs out.

Basically, it's only a masterpiece if you already agree with her. If you do, it sure is nice to validated.

being screwed by the government
Hope those Representatives R or D enjoy their 30 pieces of SILVER. Cap and Trade is putting it to the remainder of the public. My local representatives seem to try to do the right thing, its all those other who don't seem to have any sense. Wish there was a way to easily contact each of them with the publics opinion.

Nyarlathotep
Like I asked Rick, "If NonStimulus I has not reached it's stated goals, and needs more time to do so, why are the Dumbsh1tcraps already talking about NonStimulus II?"

Well, off to work. Back later.

Little Gray Houses For You And Me

Obama's strategy is called Cloward-Piven.

Interest rates have jumped, at least, 1% since March.

According to the CBO, unemployment is ONLY 9.5%, but among Fundies it is ~17%.

Raise taxes in a deep recession and you get a depression. Jusk ask Herbert Hoover's ghost.

Spend like a madman in a deep recession and you get a deeper depression. Just ask FDR's ghost.

Borrow like there is no tomorrow and you get Argentina without Mark Sanford.

Japan's "Lost Decade" is now "Lost Decades."

Print money like it is water and you get the Weimar Government or Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

Can you have high interest rates within a depression? Absolutely. See Weimar and Zimbabwe.

Let me tell you something: stimulus, bailouts, borrowing and printing are all a one-trick unicorn that no one has ever been able to ride.

Do you know the words of L'Internationale? I do and find myself in agreement with most of it.

Yours truly,

A relatively young, Capitalist Pig.


BTW: I just "created or saved" 14 gazillion jobs while I was writing this.

CHECK THIS PIC
of Barry scoping a heinie and then look at Medeved on the end.

http://www.repubblica.it/2006/05/gallerie/esteri/foto-leade r-g8/4.html

He HAS to be thinking: "The Americans actually elected this imbecile and LHMFAO on the inside!"


Michele writes:
"A General Accounting Office analysis this week revealed that stimulus dollars allocated to states and localities are not being spent on what they're supposed to be spent on. States are making up their own criteria for spending. The most economically distressed parts of the country are getting shortchanged. School and transportation bureaucrats are using the money to preserve their own jobs instead of "stimulating" others."
Who would have thunk this would happen? So much for "transparency".