"25 Random Things" about the Stimulus Package

[babylonsister]

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=25_random_things


"25 Random Things" about the Stimulus Package

The stimulus package illuminated -- Facebook-style.


Terence Samuel | February 13, 2009 | web only


Rules: Once you've been tagged, write a note with 25 random things, facts, provisions, amendments, or implications related to the stimulus package. At the end, choose 25 members of Congress to be tagged.

1. It should have been called a "jobs bill." That would have made it harder for Republicans to oppose it.

2. It doesn't really matter how big it is. Passage at any size was the win the White House needed.

3, The 59 percent -- and rising -- approval for the bill among Americans may be the confidence builder the economy needs.

4. The 65 percent COBRA credit, which allows the recently unemployed to continue health-insurance coverage, on its own may be worth all the trouble.

5. The deduction for state and local taxes on car purchases should have been extended to used cars, too. Who can afford a new car?

6. The $2 billion for high-speed rail seems like a bad joke, especially if it goes to building a line from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

7. In the overplaying-your-hand department, House Democrats are lucky that they have Republicans to make them look reasonable.

8. Judd Gregg, the commerce secretary who never was, should have voted for a package that he is going to have to work with and sell. Oh, I forget, he’s not going to do that on principle.

9. It showed that the president is not a "TD," a timid Democrat -- he’s got a little fight in him.

10. It showed that Congress can move fast when it is made to.

11. It reaffirmed the pointlessness of the Washington cocktail party, even one held at the White House.

12. It has probably convinced Obama that to get anything past the Congress, he needs to sell the American people first.

13. It reinforced the self-importance of moderate Republicans.

14. The $100 billion fiscal conservatives removed from the bill is coming back. After all, the president gets to present a budget soon.

15. Given the ferocity of the GOP reaction to the deal they struck with Democrats, Sens. Collins, Snowe, and Specter should be happy that Obama intends to close Guantánamo.

16. It may be the surest sign yet that Arlen Specter, the longest-serving senator in Pennsylvania history, will run for a sixth term in 2010.

17. The tussle between Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi suggests we might be headed for some familiar Democratic infighting in the coming months.

18. In the end, it was the Republicans who reduced the money meant to go directly into people's pockets. That's called hypocrisy.

19. That no one can explain how exactly the package is going to work may be the best reason to be hopeful that it could actually succeed.

20. Obama should be very pleased that we're talking about the stimulus package instead of his Cabinet picks.

21. It exposed Obama as overly reasonable. He didn’t scare people enough: A 5 million job shortfall in the economy is, in fact, a catastrophe.

22. If The New York Times is calling your efforts at bipartisanship "futile," it may be time to stop extending the olive branch.

23. The bill will be a success as soon as it prevents the first home foreclosure.

24. The passage of the legislation now allows the administration to turn its attention to the more politically problematic issue of the banking crisis.

25. Obama is lucky that Tim Geithner was not the point man on this one.

[NNN0LHI]

1. Yep, stimulus is too complicated of a word for your average American to understand

We have to word our stuff so that even a two-year old can understand it because that is the kind of people we are dealing with here.

Its a shame but it is reality.

We have to plan this stuff accordingly.

Don

[boobooday]

2. I like #22 -- time to stop extending the olive branch.

This is a great idea.