Can someone clearly tell me how big the stimulus bill is? I read the papers, look at the blogs, watch the news, and everyone seems to be reporting a different amount.
And following the anger regarding the original House version, the Senate tried hard to cut it a bit to make it acceptable to a few GOP moderates.
ABC says the House bill was $819 billion. After all that cutting and compromising, the Senate version was cut to $838 billion.
Only in Washington do negotiations to reduce spending increase it.
I am reminded of something I read regarding Winston Churchill's time as First Lord of the Admiralty during the naval arms race before World War I. The Treasury wanted to appropriate four dreadnoughts one year. The Admiralty wanted six. So they compromised on eight.
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14 comments:
Anthony,
I'm reading $789.5 billion over two years - plus whatever the interest payable turns out to be. (*SHRUG*)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123436825805373367.html
How "meaningful" this figure is... (*SHRUG*)... I say not too.
Remember. We ALSO have TARP - both what's already been authorized and various guesses on what additional funds will soon be requested.
NEXT... don't forget... there's the NORMAL OPERATING BUDGET of the United States.
Then... assume various continuing resolutions... perhaps additional "stimulus" spending...
(*SIGH*)
We're so screwed.
Have you decided to join my daily prayer vigil for a military coup...??? How about this: If a tornado or other natural disaster has to... is destined to... hit somewhere in the United States, it hits Washington D.C.?
Anthony. These people are DESTROYING our nation.
BILL
>Have you decided to join my daily prayer vigil for a military coup...???
Ah, no. I am sure you really do not mean that.
A military coup? Right. Let's turn the economy over to the Pentagon, purchaser of $300 toilet seats and useless multi-million dollar cold war weaponry. Good plan.
Yea Rodak -- $300 toilet seats. And oh yes, the whole repression and martial law thing too.
the whole repression and martial law thing too.
Too late to worry about that part. A people who are already proudly calling themselves "Ditto-heads" cannot be further repressed.
re: Anthony; February 11, 2009 4:46 pm
WHY do you keep on saying that you don't believe I mean it...???
I believe YOU mean what YOU write.
(*SHRUG*)
If I were to turn on the radio or television or turn to Drudge and see/hear breaking news that Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barney Franks, Chris Dodd, Olympia Snowe, Arlen Specter, Susan Collins, or Charlie Rangel had just been assasinated...
I'D BE JUMPING FOR JOY...!!!
You're INSANE, Anthony. There's something WRONG with you. All the evidence available points to your country being destroyed day by day by identifiable scum and YOU would sit back and just watch it happen?
You're sick.
I'm cowardly in the sense that I'm not PERSONALLY threatening anyone or saying that *I* would engage PERSONALLY in any criminal behavior... but at least I can hope, pray, and wish that SOMEONE or SOME GROUP with far more courage than I would take matters into his/their own hands and save our nation.
You ARE aware that "democracy" has PUT US in this predicament - that the mob is not only incapable of acting in its own long term self interest, but even if theoretically able, never would?
Don't tell me you're too dense to see that Obama and the Democrats have EVERY INTENTION of using the next two years (definitely) to four years to subvert constitutional protections and the rule of law to politicize the census and to (as I've previously warned) create a new state out of Washington DC?
So, yes, Anthony... I'M SERIOUS. I pray daily for a military coup. I pray daily that the worst of the worst crooks in Washington are assassinated.
What I don't understand is why you - as a father - DON'T.
BILL
Bill's off his meds again.
re: Rob; February 12, 2009 7:20 pm
(*SMILE*)
And here I am still trying to figure out if your avatar is a sign of LACK of meds in your daily routine or TOO MANY meds.
(*SHRUG*)
Back to you, Anthony...
What exactly is it you believe is going to "change" (for the better) internally or externally in order to "save" America as both you and I want it to be...???
Serious question. (*SHRUG*)
I'm currently reading a short monograph, "Japan's Decision for War in 1941: Some Enduring Lessons," which stresses that Japan went to war with us even though the inevitability was that she would be defeated by us.
Well, Anthony... what EXACTLY do you cite as an argument against my contention that "America" as we know it and want it to be is in deep decline and that whether it's possible "Depression" this year... next year... the year after... or whether I'm guessing that by 2040 or so the U.S.A will know longer BE the U.S.A. geographically as we see it on a map/atlas today, from today's vantage point it seems inevitable that within the lifetimes of our children the U.S.A. will no longer - even by the most nationalistic stretch of the imagination - be "the greatest nation on the face of the earth?"
Com'on, Anthony... lay out your case: Are the American People suddenly going to become SMARTER... more responsible...???
Com'on, Anthony... are middle school, high school, and college students suddenly going to start reading the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Investors Business Daily, start studying history, paying attention to current events, learning some basic economic theory... make a hard shift from majoring in English Lit or sociology or... er... law... to engineering, physics, chemistry... etc.?
Anthony. Seriously. You live in the SAME WORLD I do!!! How can you IGNORE the dots and fail to connect them...??? Is it self-delusion...???
LOOK AT ROB... (*SNORT*)... certainly he's not "dumb" if we're talking IQ... but LOOK AT HIM...
We warn him of the coming inflation. His reply? Inflation doesn't bother him. People like you and me and Ed and Moose spend countless hours trying to educate him on foreign policy, economic policy, a whole host of societal imperatives... and by and large, even on those rare occasions when he'll concede basic FACTS... no mere "facts" can pierce his "certainty" that he's right on his "feelings," his "beliefs."
So there you go, Anthony... the "Rob's" on one side... the slackers on another... the stupid on another... we traditional Americans weren't even able to keep the REPUBLICAN PARTY aligned to libertarian/conservative ideals... how exactly do you foresee us reversing the damage the Bush/Lott/DeLay Party did on top of reversing the damage that the Obama/Pelosi/Reid Party is doing and will do...???
AGAIN, Anthony... if BEST CASE "democracy" brings us only Bush, McCain, Lott, DeLay... if even Gingrich and Armey and the "Class of '94" couldn't "save" the country... WHAT EXACTLY do you see coming from democracy in the future to reverse things...???
Is it truly your position that if "majority will" is to dismantle America as we know and love it brick by brick, year by year, that we should stand by and accept it...???
Not me, Anthony. I at least will continue to HOPE and pray for some "artificial" intervention - whether by military coup or vigilante action against the worst of the worst of our most corrupt politicians.
Your success makes you soft, Anthony. You believe being upper middle class will "save" you and your family and your children and grandchildren come what may. Perhaps you're right... but I wouldn't bet on it. I'd say by 2025... 2035... 2045 the only truly "free" Americans will be the TRULY wealthy and powerful; not the McMansion class, but the REAL mansion class; not the "travel to Italy and rent a villa class," but the OWN a villa in Italy class.
But, hey, Anthony... if you can make a reasonable, believeable, case that I'm probably wrong... go for it.
BILL
if your avatar is a sign of LACK of meds in your daily routine or TOO MANY meds.
My avatar is an indication of my desire to develop the ability to see eternity in a grain of sand.
Can someone clearly tell me how big the stimulus bill is?
So, how big is the "stimulus", Bill?
How much? By this point the numbers are imaginary.
re: Anthony; February 11, 2009 4:46 pm
Hey, Anth... don't know if you've noticed... but the Dems seem ready willing and able to stage their own "coup" if by coup we include the definition "trash the Constitution."
Exhibit A:
http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2009/02/dc_statehood_me.php
Now... Anthony... I assume that either in middle school... high school... college... or perhaps LAW SCHOOL... you had occasion to actually READ the Constitution of the United States.
(*SMIRK*)
Anthony... seriously, dude... you don't have to be a Constitutional scholar - or even me - to know that the Constitution DELIBERATELY disallows granting D.C. House or Senate seats absent a Constitutional AMENDMENT.
(Not a question of "fairness"... not a question of "policy preference"... a question - a SETTLED QUESTION upon simple reading of the Constitution - of law.)
Exhibit B:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/19303.html
Byrd is ABSOLUTELY correct. ABSOLUTELY!!! No frigg'n question!!!
Anthony... unfortunately... "my" hoped for "coup" will never take place. More unfortunately... a REAL "coup" IS actually taking place right before our eyes.
BILL
Bill -- I agree with you on the first. It took a constitutional amendment to give DC presidential voting rights, an amendment is required here also.
Alternatively, all but the National Mall, Capitol Hill and the White House should be retroceded back to Maryland.
As for the second, yes, it is a opower grab, but the idea of appointing "czars" (which makes the rest of us serfs I guess) goes back a long time.
President's often used a kitchen cabinet to discuss policy. And on the issue of national security and diplomacy, the NSC and national security advisor are more important than the Secrearies of Defense and State. Partly because the Sec Def and Sec State are administrators who spend much of their time on rotutine matters while the national security advisor is a wonk.
re: Anthony; 2/25/09, 5:29 pm
Glad we agree on the clear meaning (and clear historical intent) of the Constitutional provision creating a national seat of government...
(*NOD*)
As to the power grab...
Anthony... there's a difference between "staff" and "line."
"Advisors" are one thing; even granting "advisors" specific but limited "acting in the President's name" authority; but when Obama creates out of whole (constitutionally speaking) cloth a shadow hierarchy of what amount to ACTING OFFICIALS... (*SIGH*)... this is a CLEAR end run around the Constitution's separation of powers requirements as they apply to confirmation of cabinet appointees.
Don't try to look for a loophole, Anthony... there really is none. (*SHRUG*)
Anthony... again... this isn't moot court... this isn't an academic exercise... Obama is CLEARLY (and KNOWINGLY... he's a LAW PROFESSOR) working towards subverting the Constitution of the United States.
As an AMERICAN... heck, as a MEMBER OF THE BAR... it's both your citizens's and professional DUTY to oppose this man's extraconstitutional grabs for power.
BILL
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