January 29, 2009, 6:03 pm
Partisan Barbs Follow House Stimulus Vote
By Kate Phillips
With the focus on the economic stimulus package shifting to the Senate, the partisan split evident with the Democrat-only passage of the bill in the House last night overshadowed a lot of the discussions on both sides of the aisle today. So much so that various leaders were practically disowning the word bipartisanship as if deadly germs were part of its etymology.
At a news conference earlier today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended the Democrat-only passage of the economic stimulus package, contending that Republicans were indeed included; their suggestions on tax cuts had become part of the bill itself, she said. But several G.O.P. senators and representatives hit the airwaves today, criticizing the spending portions and promoting their view of a more palatable alternative — bigger, broader tax cuts and incentives.
When Mrs. Pelosi was asked whether the vote — 244 to 188 without a single Republican's approval — represented a failure on her part to advance President Obama's desire for a broad bipartisan bill, she practically snapped:
"I didn't come here to be partisan. I didn't come here to be bipartisan. I came here, as did my colleagues, to be nonpartisan, to work for the American people, to do what is in their interest."
Right, and the Pope is non-religious.
"The president's agenda is reflected in this legislation. It's — I mentioned, some of the priorities that were there about creating jobs, cutting taxes, helping states through this difficult economic time, and to do so in a fiscally sound way."
First, this "stimulus" plan will create very few jobs. Second, spending over $1 trillion on mostly pork for liberal causes like ACORN, which helped cause this current financial crisis by bullying banks to give loans to those who couldn't pay them, is not going to create enough jobs to warrant such an enormous expenditure. Sen. Inhofe, OK (R) said that based on the bill's price tag each of the 3 million to 4 million jobs expected to be created would cost about $295,000.
"People vote for what they believe in. Clearly, the Republicans did not believe in the agenda that I just described for you, and that's probably one of the reasons they voted that way. I think they probably voted their conscience and they couldn't support that. …"
No, Nancy. The core Republican beliefs are that cutting taxes create new jobs. That is not what they are upset about. It the billions of taxpayer money being wastefully spent on items like contraceptives that have little or absolutely no job creation potential.
They voted for Obama because they were sick of the Bush style hypocrisy when it came to being fiscally responsible. Bush let the deficit baloon to record proportions. He also championed the bank bailout which most people were against according to polls taken.
To add to the Bush stain that was already put on McCain, his response to the economic downturn was abysmal. When he suspended his campaign to help lead the debate for the TARP bailout, he went back to Washington and disappeared. He didn't lead in any debates or discussions. He didn't fight for the conservative principles that the Republicans are supposed to stand for. The only thing that we heard from him while he was in Washington was a silent "yea" when the vote was done. McCain looked lost throughout this time. The American people lost all confidence in him after that when it came to the economy.
Polls after the election said that the GOP wasn't too conservative. They just weren't staying true to the principles that brought them to power. A poll today by Rasmussen said that 56% of all US voters say the Republicans should return to the Reagan views and values. Only 29% say that they should move away from Reagan. Among independents, 61% to 23% think that GOP should be more like the 40th President. Of all polled, 59% still believe as Reagan did the government is the problem not the solution.
Nancy Pelosi needs to be real. Misrepresenting the facts is not going to help this country climb out of this recession that the liberal policies that the Democrats helped to create. This bill is a wish list to many of the liberal programs and pet projects and will have little if any short-term positive effects, but lots of long-term negatives effects with all of the excess spending.
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http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/partisan-barbs-follow-house-stimulus-vote/
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