The Stimulus Is A Failure

[zakubandit]

It is just comedic that with a democrat majority everything STILL has to be the GOPs fault. Every stop and think that maybe, JUST MAYBE, the dems are just screwing it up? That BamBam's incredible spending habit just isn't working? No, you guys refuse to think that way. Republicans MUST be trying to sabotage the stimulus, so that people loss more jobs, and then can't pay taxes, and then politicians can't get paid, and then bills won't get passed, and then the country falls apart.....thats it, you guys hit it on the nose. the GOP IS Al Queda. They must be, because...well they are the most unamerican people in the country right? They honestly don't give a rats ass about the country, but they get elected anyways. Wow, I never thought about that. Democrats are the masters of everything, they are the saviors, only they know how to fix things, only they democrats have brain power. Wait, no...seems a bit nazi, that only 1 type of people can rule properly. Yea thats it...Nazis said Jews were sabotaging the German economy...so Nazis reigned supreme while Jews were slaughtered. Is that what you guys want? For there to be just 1 party, to completely eliminate the GOP because it doesn't conform to what you think is right?

[Dinner]

It's just comedic that you're so stupid. Just like it is comedic that you can't even use the proper name of the Democratic Party. You stupid douche.

[KrazyHorse]

This ought to be interesting.

[Drake Tungsten]

You stupid douche.

You're not any better than zaku, you hipster ******.

[Dinner]

I believe the standard retort is that you're a right wing douche bag, is that correct?

[zakubandit]

The problem with you calling me right wing is I voice out against the GOP as well, they just tend to not be so stupid about their calls, IMHO. It is both parties that I find in conflict with the best interests of the United STATES. In a system of the people the "if you aren't one your the other" is indisputably corrupt. If a politician isn't in either of those parties their chances for political survival is low. We have FEW independents serving right now compared to Dems and Pubys, in a multi-party country that is just wrong.

Your a dem, a liberal, a single party pusher. Your words thus far have proven that. I am a moderate independent, I would figure my words would have proven that. Do I dislike the Dem party? Oh yes. But I am an equal opportunity hater, pubys are just as much to blame. Contrary to the dems wanting the pubys to take ALL the blame, for everything...even the extinction of the dinosaurs must be the pubys fault now.

[DaShi]

Actually, since you want to completely rewrite the constitution, wouldn't that make you some sort of radical?

[zakubandit]

Not rewrite, restore. To the original wording, save for slavery and equal rights for citizens of all races. Ever heard of the Constitution party? I follow a lot of what they do, just without the god crap. Because, in all honesty, in a country with freedom of religion we base way too much on Christianity.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Further more Funding capital projects (roads, bridges, damns, new power lines, new freeways, new railway lines, etc...) is ideal during down turns because costs are much lower during these times and often they even come out ahead because it means that we have to spend less on these items in the future. That's real stimulus, which was the point most Democrats made, but, Republicans insisted on yet more tax cuts for the rich which is a thoroughly failed policy.

I would be amazed if and when these "shovel ready" infrastructure projects get off the ground. Does anyone think this bill in anyway alleviates the traditional and now institutionalized delays typical of large projects? Are we to suddenly believe that because these are pet projects of the Dems beholden to the eco freaks, that the eco freaks will allow a free pass to reduce the livable habitat of the southwestern spotted titmouse? I think not.

But as I said before, the intention of the bill was never stimulus but moreover a calculated move that would pay divdends in the election year 2010. To actually provide stimulus as timely as possible would have required bipartisan approach to payroll tax holidays and unemployment/welfare. Obviously the stars were aligned though, and be damned with bipartisanship, Dems get what Dems want.

Additionally if Obama wasn't such a douche with his class warfare rhetoric perhaps just perhaps private capital wouldn't be sitting on the sideline seeing how everything is going to shake out.

[DaShi]

Actually, it seems that the states may be mismanaging the money. However, one could cite the stringent rules for stimulus spending as a reason for this, if one were an ass.

[zakubandit]

States are cutting funds from education first. How is that a good thing? Dems love the notion of public schooling, yet they don't seem to care that states are having to cut funding due to inadequate budgets, rather than expand education budgets like BamBam first talked about on the campaign trail.

Ogie is right, Dems wanted all of this. They didn't, still don't, care what the Pubys and indies really want because they have their majority and they have control. They are giving consideration to what the rest of the elected want, but in the end they get what they want. Several puby senators are against any form of government socialized medicine, but the dems don't care they are pushing it through because they want it. Everyone calls pubys close minded for their former shoot first ask questions later methods, but the dems are even making that look worthless with their shoot blindly into the dark and ask questions when they arrive.

[Drake Tungsten]

The journalists at Time have finally figured out that the stimulus is a failure.

Obama's Stimulus Plan: Failing by Its Own Measure

The $787 billion stimulus plan is turning out to be far less stimulating than its architects expected.

Back in early January, when Barack Obama was still President-elect, two of his chief economic advisers — leading proponents of a stimulus bill — predicted that the passage of a large economic-aid package would boost the economy and keep the unemployment rate below 8%. It hasn't quite worked out that way. Last month, the jobless rate in the U.S. hit 9.5%, the highest level it has reached since 1983.

The two advisers who wrote the paper, Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, went on to land key jobs in the Obama Administration. Romer is the head of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, and Bernstein is the chief economist and economic-policy adviser to Vice President Joe Biden. And the stimulus bill that both economists championed became law in mid-February. What has not come to pass, however, is the boom in job creation that Romer and Bernstein predicted. A little over a month ago, the Administration said the stimulus bill had created or saved 150,000 jobs. That's a far cry from the 3 million to 4 million jobs that Romer and Bernstein foresaw back in January.

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0%2C8599%2C1910208%2C00.html

[Drake Tungsten]

Tapper!

Should They Have Called It The 'Stabilization' Act?

Turns out the $787 billion "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" (AARA) was not designed for full economic recovery, but rather to "stabilize" the downturn. That's the word from White House officials today, who held off-camera briefings with reporters on how the AARA is working so far.

"This legislation was designed to cushion the downturn," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. "That's why we have always talked about this as one function of economic recovery."

When pressed about the change in terminology, Gibbs said he was not trying to temper expectations after the fact. "I can probably find 15 or 20 occasions when I said this in the lead up," Gibbs said, explaining that he had always defined the AARA as part of a "multi-legged stool."

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/07/should-they-have-called-it-the-stabilization-act.html

[DinoDoc]

Tapper!

"This legislation was designed to cushion the downturn," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. "That's why we have always talked about this as one function of economic recovery."

When pressed about the change in terminology, Gibbs said he was not trying to temper expectations after the fact. "I can probably find 15 or 20 occasions when I said this in the lead up," Gibbs said, explaining that he had always defined the AARA as part of a "multi-legged stool."

When it came to the stimulus package, the president and his administration promised, in the words of National Economic Director Larry Summers, "You'll see the effects begin almost immediately." Now it's clear that those promised jobs and growth haven't materialized.

So Mr. Obama is attempting to lower expectations retroactively, saying in an op-ed in Sunday's Washington Post that his stimulus "was, from the start, a two-year program." That is misleading. Mr. Obama never said if his stimulus were passed things might still get significantly worse in the following year.

In February, Mr. Obama said this about the goals of his stimulus package: "I think my initial measure of success is creating or saving four million jobs." He later explained the stimulus's $787 billion would "go directly to . . . generating three to four million new jobs." And his Council of Economic Advisors issued an official analysis showing that the unemployment rate would top out in the third quarter of this year at just over 8%.

That quarter began on July 1, and unemployment is now 9.5%, up from 7.6% when Mr. Obama took office. There are 2.6 million fewer Americans working than there were on the day Mr. Obama was sworn in. The president says now that unemployment will exceed 10% this year, and his advisers say it will remain high through much of next year.

Earlier this year, Mr. Obama assured us that most of the stimulus money "will go out the door immediately." But it hasn't. Only about 7.7% of the stimulus has been spent in the six months since its passage, and more of it will be spent in the program's last eight years than in its first year. So now the president claims he said something different. "We also knew that it would take some time for the money to get out the door," Mr. Obama said in his weekly radio address on Saturday.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124770231103148561.html

Shocking that Gibbs (and the President) would lie about how the stimulus package was sold to the public.

[SlowwHand]

It hasn't slowwed down California. L.A. is ready, willing, (if not able) to pay all expenses of the Jackson memorial.
Yes, sir. That stimulus money meant a lot. "Give me more."