And with those two words, the New Era of Good Feelings heralded by the Obama Administration toward republican leaders came to a swift, albeit predictable end earlier this week.
At a White House meeting of congressional leaders to discuss moving forward Obama’s $825 billion stimulus package, proceedings turned into an old fashioned game of who’s-got-the-bigger-stick, after Senate Minority Whip John Kyl (R-AZ) challenged Obama and democrat leaders to temper the spending portion of the package with more meaningful and longer term tax cuts for individuals and small businesses. Kyl put forth that tax credits for people who don’t pay any income taxes isn’t a “cut” at all, but rather a welfare payment that will have ZERO positive effect. It is then that Obama is said to have wielded his new found authority.
Never mind the government’s own Congressional Budget Office peed in Obama’s punch bowl with its own analysis of the stimulus package, where it concluded that of $355 billion in infrastructure and other cash outlays, only $136 billion would be spent by October 2010. And out of the roughly $100 billion in infrastructure spending, only $26 billion would be spent in fiscal 2009. How exactly again does this provide a quick jolt to the economy?
I would love to see the republicans hold their ground on this. Democrats easily have the votes, why not simply pass it over republican objections? Because, like TARP, the democrats know this has to be seen as a bi-partisan effort – they can’t be seen as the party responsible for the spending the republic into oblivion.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
G G
Obama's "I won. I will trump you on that" comment from yesterday's meeting was directed at my Congressman, Eric Cantor, from Virginia's 7th District. Interesting how this Administration's campaign boast of "getting things done by reaching across the aisle" has so quickly become "as long as you go along with what we present you."
Apparently, in the Administration's mind, the GOP leaders weren't invited to participate as much as they were summoned to get their marching orders.....
....and so it begins....
John S. -
I had initially heard this report on the radio, but the commentator did not attribute the party to whom the comment was directed. When researching the post, I came across the WSJ article I eventually linked - which makes it appear that Kyl was the "offending" party. Thank you for the clarification - Cantor makes more sense.
I hope Cantor doesn't back down.
Indeed, and so it begins...
GG
The CBO story has been exposed as a fabrication. Imagine, Republicans manipulating data. Who woulda thunk?
Anon- Welcome! Thanks for the comments too; but I'm hard pressed to see any fabrication in the CBO's numbers, or evidence of republican manipulation. On the contrary, the CBO, while supposedly a "non-partisan" entity, has been under democrat control for some time.
What happened to the CBO's initial analysis? Well for one, democrats slammed it when it dared to expose the "stimulus" for what it is - a non-stimulating massive appropriations bill - and cast them to the back office to come back with more favorable stats. And they did. Sort of.
Now the CBO reports that 65% of the stimulus will be spent by 2010, but if you dig deeper $300B of the $526B (65%)comes from the tax cuts/credits included in the plan to placate republicans.
And of the $226B remaining, presumably for immediate stimulative spending, only 40% of that will be spent by the end of 2010.
I'm on record as saying that I support stimulus - so long as its heavy in the stimulus and light on the pork - which this package ultimately is not.
Post a Comment