Democrats Aim to Pass U.S. Rescue Package Friday.

[elleng]

Source: nyt/Reuters

'The Democratic-led U.S. Senate will again try on Friday to pass a $937 billion economic stimulus package even as moderate lawmakers sought to broker a deal to trim proposed spending some criticized as too much.

A group of about 18 Democrats and Republicans worked late on Thursday to slice about $107 billion from the plan, which President Barack Obama wants on his desk by February 16 to help reverse the economy's downward spiral.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was "cautiously optimistic" they could finish up on Friday, but warned that if progress stalled he would file a motion to set up a showdown procedural vote for Sunday on the White House-backed measure.

A wildcard that could push the senators to quicken their pace is the release Friday of January unemployment data, which is expected to show the private sector had purged another half a million jobs.'>



Read more: http://nytimes.com/reuters/2009/02/06/washington/politics-us-usa-stimulus.html

[defendandprotect]

1. $8.5 TRILLION to bail out capitalists . . . but anything for citizens to be denied!!!

[GinaMaria]

21. That's the bottom line. You nailed it. That's all we have to say over

and over to newspapers, our representatives, our neighbors etc. Great job!

[xchrom]

2. have we passed an 18% infrastructure spending?

i don't NEED a tax cut -- i NEED momey spent on amtrack, highways, green power, etc

too much money is being directed to tax cuts.

[elleng]

3. Contact your Congress member and Senators.

.

[lib2DaBone]

4. CONgress still doesn't get it.. it's not a "credit crisis"...

Banks will not lend until you have a JOB.

All of the media and Pols are talking tax cuts... which will do nothing. They are ignoring the elephant in the living room.. NAFTA and off shoring.

Let the banks crash.. let them eat the bad paper.. let the economy reset.

[elleng]

5. There IS a 'credit crisis.'

'Stimulus' should put $ in people's pockets, so people will create the 'demand' which will encourage economy to 'reset,' including causing lenders to lend (under reasonable terms.)

[bluestateguy]

8. There is a credit crisis

and yes, it is far from the only problem, but it is worsening the situation right now.

70% of American adults are gainfully employed (I figure 10% unemployed, and 20% underemployed), and many of them cannot get loans for houses and cars. That is worsening the situation for industries, like the auto industry, that depend on creditors to make loans to consumers.

If the banks "crash" you will have a much worse situation on your hands. If it comes to that, we should nationalize the big banks.

[elleng]

19. Yes, AND auto dealerships

depend on regular credit arrangements to keep cars on their floors; they don't get them for free!

[w4rma]

23. And a large portion of that 70% are underemployed. (nt)

[OneBlueSky]

6. so where's all this money coming from? . . .

between the bank bailout and now the Obama stimulus plan, plus the expenses associated with the wars, literally trillions of dollars are being spent by a government that, for all intents and purposes, is broke . . . so where's the money coming from? . . .

okay, there may be a little left in the China pipeline (but certainly not much), and other nations may make small contributions, but for the most part won't this have to be newly printed money? . . . and won't they have to pretty much run the printing presses day and night to meet the new demand? . . .

now I'm no economist (obviously), but I DO know that when you of print scads of money not backed by anything (e.g. gold), the result is inevitably massive inflation . . . the more money you print, the higher the inflation rate . . . in Germany between the wars, money was so de-valued that people were literally taking their money from one place to another in wheelbarrows . . .

aren't we looking forward to double digit inflation as this new money enters circulation? . . . and won't the U.S. dollar lose even more value -- considerably more -- relative to other currencies? . . . and what are the implication of this scenario, shoud it come to pass (which seems highly likely at this point)? . . .

just wonderin' . . .

[Stuckinthebush]

9. Another trillion in debt

The Bushies screwed us royally on the debt thing with their foolish war and tax cuts for the wealthy.

Obama will need to increase taxes eventually to pay off our debt. Clinton did it and it worked. But right now, we have to increase our debt to stabilize the economy. It's a sad state of affairs.

[elleng]

17. And thats the way it is.

.

[elleng]

10. Print it,

and distribute it in such a way that the economy will work.

[florida08]

7. They need to do something soon

and stop the politics. The Great Depression was caused by the same kind of frenzy investing that we had during the Bush administration producing fake wealth in the stock market. Too many loans and speculating not to mention ridiculously low interest rates by the Fed caused a bubble. Ponzi schemes always crash because you just run out of customers to sell debt to.

When that happens everything goes in reverse only then we were on the gold standard. Runs on the banks seized liquidity and the government couldn't borrow(print) to help those who had lost their savings and jobs or to unfreeze the sudden stop to buying. Buying is what actually moves the economy because we have a fiat system.

If they keep fooling around as more jobs are lost and more drops in the market happen the middle class(the heart of our economy) will panic. Any hint of banks failing will also bring this about and we could see something worse than before. "According to the Federal Reserve Bank's Flow of Funds Report for the first quarter of 2008, total American debt is $50 trillion which is 350% of GDP. This is far above the 1933 level shown in the Total U.S. Debt chart near the top of this page. As shown in the chart, in 1929 total US debt was about 150% of GDP. It rose to its peak of 264% in 1933 largely due to contraction of GDP. The enormous pile of debt presently owed by Americans has the potential to cause an economic implosion greater than the 1930's when GDP contracted by nearly 30% and unemployment rose to 25% of the workforce."

http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/Ldebtclock.htm

I don't want to hear of a Bank Holiday!

[4dsc]

12. One more report showing we are heading to a depression...

Conservative economics has led us down this path and need to make sure the American people understand this!!

[The Stranger]

11. $1,000,000,000,000 to murder innocent Iraqis and subsidize defense contractors and mercenaries,

but not too much to be spent on the U.S. and its infrastructure and citizens.

It is criminal that fucking worthless Harry Reid cannot get this through the Senate. Un fucking believable. I wouldn't trust him to fucking walk the dog -- somehow he would fuck it up.

[florida08]

13. lol

I know it's not funny but the way you stated it was. He does need to grow a spine.

And yes the republicans caused this..Harry needs to remind them LOUDLY

[nc4bo]

14. Mitch McConnell spoke a few minutes ago quoting "the newspapers"

Re: Doubts over the stimulus package. Says "the newspapers" represent the concerns of all of the American people as well as Senate. Says the bill is full of "pet projects" and it will cost too much. He said even the DEMOCRATS feel the same way as he and the newspapers do.

M$M has been having multiple orgasisms since it's begun it's anti-stimulus package agenda by pimping fake polls, broadcasting GOP talking points 24/7, etc.

It's a real conspiracy. No :tinfoilhat: needed to see this mess for what it is.

[elleng]

15. Did he really SAY NEWSPAPERS REPRESENT

American's concerns? THat'd be a good one to trumpet around, eh? and even DEMOCRATS feel the same way the NEWSPAPERS FEEL????

[nc4bo]

16. Yes he did. It was his opening statement. Pretty ballsy, eh? nt

[elleng]

18. I wouldn't call it 'ballsy.'

Something else tho, like outrageous.

Lets tell the people, esp his constituents, that he thinks newspapers represent their interests.

[nc4bo]

24. Ballsy was meant to be said with the highest degree of sarcasm

but there was no place to put the tag in the subject line :rofl:

McConnell is an ass.

[florida08]

20. someone had a good idea

can't remember where I heard it but it went like this: All the congressman who are against it just simply won't get any help for their state..they can go home proudly with that fact and face them.

"At least 46 states faced or are facing shortfalls in their budgets for this and/or next year, and severe fiscal problems are highly likely to continue into the following year as well."

http://www.cbpp.org/9-8-08sfp.htm

[bdamomma]

22. keep on sending your e-mails

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

[GinaMaria]

25. done. thanks for the reminder nt

[AyanEva]

26. Well...

I finally got off my butt and did my part by emailing Casey and Specter. Maybe it will help. :(

[Raston]

27. elleng - you're serious?!

Contact my senator / congressman? Are you serious? What are they going to do, say "Wow, that guy wrote a nice letter - see the proper use of punctuation? He must know what he's talking about.." The reason we HAVE the second amendment is to ensure the citizens could overthrow their government. That being completely out the window nowadays those people have no incentive to do as we tell them to save keeping their own jobs, just like we're trying to do.
Except they make a LOT more money on the side by people with the -real- power - those who line their pockets!
We don't NEED incentives to buy more new cars (especially the crap they're making! I own a HONDA because I don't want my car to be in the shop every day! I don't buy American because the companies produce crap.), and I WANT to buy American which Obama is trying to do, but these Congress-people and Senators want their tax breaks on their incentive (ie bribe) packages, to keep their 'free trade' so they can buy cheap goods and shut down competitors allowing further corner of the market and another car for them to buy with their nice new bonus.
LET them fail. Let those huge companies go down, because it's obviously not in the best interest of a free market. What company can be allowed to get so huge that its failure destabilizes the economy? Are you trying to tell me companies like those have -real- competition? Big Oil announced huge losses over the last few months, and now 'for some reason' the price of gas is going up again.
They didn't experience losses - that's how much they were milking the public for and they're calling it a loss as if it should be standard. Companies aren't meant to get that huge. Considering the advent of the rare-earth magnetic engine, there's no reason for us to be using oil anyway except to line someone's pockets.
If you're not angry, you're not paying attention.

-- Raston