Sunday, January 25, 2009

The Stimulus Battle: The Sunday Talk Show Edition, Dems Have Skewed Definition of Bipartisan, GOP Outraged Over Spending, Broken Promises

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Sunday said he will vote against the $825 billion stimulus plan in its current form, arguing that the measure’s spending component would not jumpstart the economy.

“If it’s the plan I see today, put me down in the ‘no’ category,” Boehner said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press”. “I think a lot of Republicans will vote ‘no’ because they see this as a lot of wasteful Washington spending padding the bureaucracy and doing nothing to create jobs and save jobs.”


Boehner added this statement as well, which helps explain the fundamental difference between the two parties:


“If we allow American families to keep more of what they earn, they’re going to save it, invest it, or spend it. All of which are good for the economy. And our plan would allow American families, joint filers, to keep almost $3,200, up to $3,200 of their money. They can help multiply the economy, get the economy moving again if the money’s in their hands, and this is why we have Democrats and Republicans in this country because we do look at these things differently. They believe that all of this spending is going to help, some of it on infrastructure if you can get it out the door quick enough will help. But spending $200 million to fix up the National Mall, $21 million for sod, over $200 million for contraceptives, how is this going to fix an ailing economy? … And right now given the concerns we have over the size of this package and all of the spending in this package, we don’t think it’s going to work. And so if it’s the plan I see today, put me down in the no column.”

Well said, Mr. Boehner. But unfortunately, the American people vested too much faith in the Democrats during the past two election cycles. Speaker Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid will claim they are seeking GOP input, but in reality, in goes in one ear and out the other.


Their claims of bipartisanship are simply claims, with no facts to back it up.


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday that Democrats would review Republican proposals to amend their $825 billion stimulus package and touted the process as bipartisan.



“We will take some,” Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” when asked about the GOP proposals. “We will judge them by their ability to create jobs, to help turn the economy around, to stabilize the economy and to see how much they cost. But we’re open to them and we'll review them and it all has to be done right away because our bill has to come to the floor this week.”


Is she seriously saying this? Since when has she been concerned about how much something will cost? She is so full of crap, it's disgusting. As far as creating jobs, Ms. Pelosi, remember there is no guarantee that your plan will create one single job!


From The Hill:

Pelosi argued that the process used to craft the bills has been one of bipartisanship, even if Republicans did not vote for the stimulus in committee.

The GOP wants the legislation to focus more heavily on tax cuts while the Democratic proposal currently includes a greater spending component.
Pelosi noted that she was unapologetic for some of the spending provisions in the measure, such as funds for family planning services that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) criticized Friday.

Vice President Biden on Sunday said the American economy will “get worse before it gets better,” and defended a Democratic stimulus proposal against GOP attacks that it focused too heavily on spending.

Biden said the plan offered by Democrats would likely change as it wends its way through Congress. But he said that the package was already the product of bipartisan negotiation. Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Biden said the administration has “compromised ahead of time” and that it was now concentrating on “trying to get money out the door as rapidly as we can.”
Republicans argue that offering more tax breaks is a better way to provide the economy the quick injection of cash that it needs.

But Biden criticized one particular piece of the GOP plan, an exemption of taxes on unemployment payments. While Biden said the proposal is a “good idea” in general he said it would take a year to have an effect. The Democratic proposal to expand benefits would have a more immediate impact, he said.

***

Looks the VP didn't see the Congressional Budget Office estimates of the stimulus bill. If he is serious about “trying to get money out the door as rapidly as we can," then it seems pretty clear that they should take a completely different approach.

From Fox News:

  • The $825 billion Democratic proposal sets aside $358 billion for new infrastructure projects.

  • Even though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said such spending should be timely, temporary and targeted, the CBO analysis found that the current bill is none of those things.

  • It found, for instance, that of the $358 billion in new spending only $26 billion would be spent by the end of this fiscal year. And only another $110 billion -- about a third of the total -- would be spent by the end of 2010.
  • The report found another $103 billion would be spent in the third year, meaning even by the end of 2011, only two-thirds of the money would be helping to create jobs.
  • The other third, $118 billion, would not be spent until after the next presidential election.

It's very frightening that the Democrats seem on the verge of spending over $1 Trillion of tax payer money and mortgaging our future, yet they have no idea what the impact will be, cannot guarantee any results and are completely "misunderestimating" the facts.

And voices of reason, like Rep. Boehner, are being completely ignored.

2010 cannot come soon enough. We need to get more conservatives in the House to balance out these cooks before they ruin our future.

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