http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/14/us/politics/14web-stim.html?_r=1&nl=pol&emc=pola1
All,
The economic stimulus bill passes but it has still been hijacked, sabotaged, and considerably weakened by the reactionary Republicans who, as a result of Democratic Party "compromises" in the Senate (where the DP is two votes short of having a 60-40 majority and thus are always subjected to a potential filibuster by the Republicans) have cut over nearly 100 billion dollars of the original bill that Obama and the House Democrats wrote and sponsored, including over 50 billion dollars for direct financial aid to individual states that are greatly suffering economically, and nearly another 50 billion for schools, employment and healthcare benefits, and housing. So much for all the rhetorical bullshit about "bipartisanship." Obviously if the President and the Dems in the House and Senate don't push the Republican right aside and impose their and OUR collective political will on them, the American rightwing will continue to obstruct, sabotage, and destroy any and all vestiges of progressive/radical legislation, and thus continue to hold us all hostage to their utterly destructive and oppressive agenda.
So if there is anything resembling a real, authentic, ORGANIZED American Left 'out there' in the general society NOW is the time to ACT. Mere talk alone is cheap and clearly insufficient-- if not irrelevant-- at this very late date in history. Man (and woman) your battle stations folks. This is real ideological and political war...
Kofi
February 14, 2009
Stimulus Bill Passes in the House With No G.O.P. Support
By DAVID STOUT
New York Times
WASHINGTON — The House approved a $787 billion economic stimulus package Friday afternoon, with Democrats successfully promoting it as a boost for middle-class Americans and Republicans countering in vain that it will only stimulate wasteful government spending.
The vote was 246 to 183, reflecting the Democrats’ considerable majority in the House and the Republicans’ deep dissatisfaction with the measure, whose estimated price tag has fluctuated daily and was finally placed at $787 billion on Friday. Not a single Republican voted in favor of the bill.
The bill was immediately sent to the Senate, where Democrats described it as essential, whatever its faults, and most Republicans described it as an irresponsible exercise in big spending. The Senate was expected to vote on the final legislation Friday evening, clearing the way for the paperwork to go to President Obama, who is eager to sign the measure.
The bill is not perfect, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut who votes with the Democrats, said on Friday afternoon, but “it will stop the slide of our economy.”
Republicans continued to complain, however, that, whatever the bill’s original purpose, it had been stuffed by Democrats with “anything they wanted,” as Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, put it.
“We all understand the economy is in crisis,” Mr. Cornyn said. But he was among numerous Republicans who said they would vote “no” rather than endorse a bloated bill that will be paid for by future generations of taxpayers.
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, countered by alluding to the deficits that accumulated during the Bush administration and asking rhetorically, “Where were my colleagues on the other side of the aisle for the last eight years?”There was no suspense about the outcome earlier Friday in the House, since the Democrats hold a 255-to-178 advantage in the chamber.
"After all the debate, this legislation can be summed up in one word: Jobs," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said. "The American people need action and they need action now."
But Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House minority leader, lamented that a bill that was supposed to be about “jobs, jobs, jobs” had turned into one that was about “spending, spending, spending.”
“We owe it to the people to get this bill right,” Mr. Boehner said.
President Obama and Democrats in Congress contend the package will create or save 3.5 million jobs. In the Senate, the support of a few centrist Republicans has been essential to the prospects of the stimulus package because 60 votes are necesssary for passage.
In the House, the real suspense was how many, if any, Republicans would vote for the bill; none did two weeks ago, when the House approved its initial version of the legislation. Seven Democrats joined 176 Republicans in opposing the bill on Friday.
“The country needs this package,” said Representative David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who is chairman of the Appropriations Committee. “I think we ought to get on with it.”
But the committee’s ranking Republican, Jerry Lewis of California, asserted that the program would do far too little to finance road construction, flood control projects and other works for the public good.
“Facts are stubborn things,” Mr. Lewis said, describing the package as a recipe for bloated government programs that would saddle taxpayers with a debt burden “well, well into the future.”
The legislation is the product of negotiations between the House and Senate, which had favored a somewhat larger stimulus. The final package ended up considerably smaller than either the House or Senate had originally approved.
President Obama, speaking at the White House to the Business Council, an association of chief executives, described the vigorous debate leading to the votes in Congress as “a good thing.”
“Diverse viewpoints are the lifeblood of our democracy, and debating these viewpoints is how we learn from each other’s perspective and refine our approaches,” Mr. Obama said. The president said the program nearing passage would benefit not only middle-class families but “will also provide sensible tax relief to business that are trying to make payroll and create jobs.”
But as debate in the House went on, it was clear that the gulf between Democrats and Republicans was as wide as ever.
Representative Charles B. Rangel, the New York Democrat who is chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said the legislation would offer “hope not only for those people who are jobless, but hopeless.”
But Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, the committee’s ranking Republican, complained that Republicans had been “frozen out” by Democrats. “Most important, the American people were frozen out,” he said. “Record me as a ‘no’ on this legislation.”
David M. Herszenhorn contributed reporting.
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/14/us/politics/14web-stim.html?_r=1&hp
All,
The economic stimulus bill passes but it has still been hijacked, sabotaged, and considerably weakened by the reactionary Republicans who, as a result of Democratic Party "compromises" in the Senate (where the DP is two votes short of having a 60-40 majority and thus are always subjected to a potential filibuster by the Republicans) have cut over nearly 100 billion dollars of the original bill that Obama and the House Democrats wrote and sponsored, including over 50 billion dollars for direct financial aid to individual states that are greatly suffering economically, and nearly another 50 billion for schools, employment and healthcare benefits, and housing. So much for all the rhetorical bullshit about "bipartisanship." Obviously if the President and the Dems in the House and Senate don't push the Republican right aside and impose their and OUR collective political will on them, the American rightwing will continue to obstruct, sabotage, and destroy any and all vestiges of progressive/radical legislation, and thus continue to hold us all hostage to their utterly destructive and oppressive agenda.
So if there is anything resembling a real, authentic, ORGANIZED American Left 'out there' in the general society NOW is the time to ACT. Mere talk alone is cheap and clearly insufficient-- if not irrelevant-- at this very late date in history. Man (and woman) your battle stations folks. This is real ideological and political war...
Kofi
February 14, 2009
Stimulus Bill Passes in the House With No G.O.P. Support
By DAVID STOUT
New York Times
WASHINGTON — The House approved a $787 billion economic stimulus package Friday afternoon, with Democrats successfully promoting it as a boost for middle-class Americans and Republicans countering in vain that it will only stimulate wasteful government spending.
The vote was 246 to 183, reflecting the Democrats’ considerable majority in the House and the Republicans’ deep dissatisfaction with the measure, whose estimated price tag has fluctuated daily and was finally placed at $787 billion on Friday. Not a single Republican voted in favor of the bill.
The bill was immediately sent to the Senate, where Democrats described it as essential, whatever its faults, and most Republicans described it as an irresponsible exercise in big spending. The Senate was expected to vote on the final legislation Friday evening, clearing the way for the paperwork to go to President Obama, who is eager to sign the measure.
The bill is not perfect, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut who votes with the Democrats, said on Friday afternoon, but “it will stop the slide of our economy.”
Republicans continued to complain, however, that, whatever the bill’s original purpose, it had been stuffed by Democrats with “anything they wanted,” as Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, put it.
“We all understand the economy is in crisis,” Mr. Cornyn said. But he was among numerous Republicans who said they would vote “no” rather than endorse a bloated bill that will be paid for by future generations of taxpayers.
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, countered by alluding to the deficits that accumulated during the Bush administration and asking rhetorically, “Where were my colleagues on the other side of the aisle for the last eight years?”There was no suspense about the outcome earlier Friday in the House, since the Democrats hold a 255-to-178 advantage in the chamber.
"After all the debate, this legislation can be summed up in one word: Jobs," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said. "The American people need action and they need action now."
But Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House minority leader, lamented that a bill that was supposed to be about “jobs, jobs, jobs” had turned into one that was about “spending, spending, spending.”
“We owe it to the people to get this bill right,” Mr. Boehner said.
President Obama and Democrats in Congress contend the package will create or save 3.5 million jobs. In the Senate, the support of a few centrist Republicans has been essential to the prospects of the stimulus package because 60 votes are necesssary for passage.
In the House, the real suspense was how many, if any, Republicans would vote for the bill; none did two weeks ago, when the House approved its initial version of the legislation. Seven Democrats joined 176 Republicans in opposing the bill on Friday.
“The country needs this package,” said Representative David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who is chairman of the Appropriations Committee. “I think we ought to get on with it.”
But the committee’s ranking Republican, Jerry Lewis of California, asserted that the program would do far too little to finance road construction, flood control projects and other works for the public good.
“Facts are stubborn things,” Mr. Lewis said, describing the package as a recipe for bloated government programs that would saddle taxpayers with a debt burden “well, well into the future.”
The legislation is the product of negotiations between the House and Senate, which had favored a somewhat larger stimulus. The final package ended up considerably smaller than either the House or Senate had originally approved.
President Obama, speaking at the White House to the Business Council, an association of chief executives, described the vigorous debate leading to the votes in Congress as “a good thing.”
“Diverse viewpoints are the lifeblood of our democracy, and debating these viewpoints is how we learn from each other’s perspective and refine our approaches,” Mr. Obama said. The president said the program nearing passage would benefit not only middle-class families but “will also provide sensible tax relief to business that are trying to make payroll and create jobs.”
But as debate in the House went on, it was clear that the gulf between Democrats and Republicans was as wide as ever.
Representative Charles B. Rangel, the New York Democrat who is chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said the legislation would offer “hope not only for those people who are jobless, but hopeless.”
But Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, the committee’s ranking Republican, complained that Republicans had been “frozen out” by Democrats. “Most important, the American people were frozen out,” he said. “Record me as a ‘no’ on this legislation.”
David M. Herszenhorn contributed reporting.
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/14/us/politics/14web-stim.html?_r=1&hp
All,
There's obviously a great deal of intense political WORK and ORGANIZING to be done and We, the People, are going to have to do it--whether we want to or not. In other words: STRUGGLE is the watchword. Anything less than that is BULLSHIT...
Kofi
"Dare To Struggle, Dare To Win"
Stimulus Plan Receives Final Approval in Congress
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
February 13, 2009
New York Times
WASHINGTON
Congress on Friday approved a $787 billion economic stimulus measure, meeting the crushing mid-February deadline that Democrats had set for adopting the centerpiece of President Obama’s early agenda but without quelling partisan divisions in Washington. Not a single House Republican voted for the bill.
The House vote was 246 to 183, with just 7 Democrats joining all 176 Republicans in opposition. In the Senate, the vote, 60 to 38, was similarly partisan. Only 3 centrist Republicans joined 55 Democrats and 2 independents in favor.
The Senate finally adopted the bill at 10:47 p.m. after what appeared to be the longest Congressional vote in history. The peculiar 5-hour 17-minute process was required because Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, had to return to Washington from his home state after attending a funeral home visitation for his mother, who died Feb. 2.
Under a procedural deal between the parties, the bill needed 60 votes to pass. The vote began at 5:30 p.m., but from 7:07 p.m., when Senator Evan Bayh, Democrat of Indiana, cast his “aye,” the tally hung at 59 to 38, until Mr. Brown arrived.
Mr. Obama is expected to sign the bill on Monday.
Among the senators voting against it was Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, who withdrew this week as the president’s nominee for commerce secretary.
Despite the bill’s promise of increased unemployment benefits and new health care subsidies, as well as more than $100 billion in aid for states, House Republicans did not break rank. Even those from states hit hardest by the recession opposed the bill, in a rebuke of the new president.
During the debate, the Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, angrily dropped the 1,073-page bill text to the floor with a thump, as he accused Democrats of failing to read the legislation.
“The president made clear when we started this process that this was about jobs,” Mr. Boehner said after the vote. “Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. And what it’s turned into is nothing more than spending, spending and more spending.”
The $787 billion plan — a combination of fast-acting tax cuts and longer-term government spending on public works projects, education, health care, energy and technology — was smaller than Democrats first proposed. But, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, more than 74 percent of the money will be spent within the next 18 months, a relatively rapid pace that could determine whether the plan succeeds.
The House voted in the afternoon, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi and fellow Democrats cheered on the floor. Ms. Pelosi handed out chocolate bars to her committee chairmen, a gift to her from Steven A. Ballmer, the chairman of Microsoft. The label showed a picture of the Capitol and read, “A stimulus package we can all sink our teeth into.”
At a news conference, Ms. Pelosi and her top lieutenants praised Mr. Obama for completing the legislation so quickly.
“The president requested swift, bold action,” Ms. Pelosi said. “The American people are feeling a great deal of pain. They have uncertainty about their jobs, about health care, about the ability to pay for the education of their children, and sad to say in our great country, even to put food on the table. And today we have passed legislation that does take that swift, bold action on their behalf.”
Just four weeks into Mr. Obama’s presidency, the Democrats boasted that they had already approved three major bills: a measure to curb pay-discrimination against women in the workplace, a broad expansion of the state children’s health insurance program and the stimulus.
“We have yet to pass the 30th day of this administration,” said the House majority leader, Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland. “And we have passed historic legislation.”
There's obviously a great deal of intense political WORK and ORGANIZING to be done and We, the People, are going to have to do it--whether we want to or not. In other words: STRUGGLE is the watchword. Anything less than that is BULLSHIT...
Kofi
"Dare To Struggle, Dare To Win"
Stimulus Plan Receives Final Approval in Congress
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
February 13, 2009
New York Times
WASHINGTON
Congress on Friday approved a $787 billion economic stimulus measure, meeting the crushing mid-February deadline that Democrats had set for adopting the centerpiece of President Obama’s early agenda but without quelling partisan divisions in Washington. Not a single House Republican voted for the bill.
The House vote was 246 to 183, with just 7 Democrats joining all 176 Republicans in opposition. In the Senate, the vote, 60 to 38, was similarly partisan. Only 3 centrist Republicans joined 55 Democrats and 2 independents in favor.
The Senate finally adopted the bill at 10:47 p.m. after what appeared to be the longest Congressional vote in history. The peculiar 5-hour 17-minute process was required because Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, had to return to Washington from his home state after attending a funeral home visitation for his mother, who died Feb. 2.
Under a procedural deal between the parties, the bill needed 60 votes to pass. The vote began at 5:30 p.m., but from 7:07 p.m., when Senator Evan Bayh, Democrat of Indiana, cast his “aye,” the tally hung at 59 to 38, until Mr. Brown arrived.
Mr. Obama is expected to sign the bill on Monday.
Among the senators voting against it was Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, who withdrew this week as the president’s nominee for commerce secretary.
Despite the bill’s promise of increased unemployment benefits and new health care subsidies, as well as more than $100 billion in aid for states, House Republicans did not break rank. Even those from states hit hardest by the recession opposed the bill, in a rebuke of the new president.
During the debate, the Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, angrily dropped the 1,073-page bill text to the floor with a thump, as he accused Democrats of failing to read the legislation.
“The president made clear when we started this process that this was about jobs,” Mr. Boehner said after the vote. “Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. And what it’s turned into is nothing more than spending, spending and more spending.”
The $787 billion plan — a combination of fast-acting tax cuts and longer-term government spending on public works projects, education, health care, energy and technology — was smaller than Democrats first proposed. But, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, more than 74 percent of the money will be spent within the next 18 months, a relatively rapid pace that could determine whether the plan succeeds.
The House voted in the afternoon, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi and fellow Democrats cheered on the floor. Ms. Pelosi handed out chocolate bars to her committee chairmen, a gift to her from Steven A. Ballmer, the chairman of Microsoft. The label showed a picture of the Capitol and read, “A stimulus package we can all sink our teeth into.”
At a news conference, Ms. Pelosi and her top lieutenants praised Mr. Obama for completing the legislation so quickly.
“The president requested swift, bold action,” Ms. Pelosi said. “The American people are feeling a great deal of pain. They have uncertainty about their jobs, about health care, about the ability to pay for the education of their children, and sad to say in our great country, even to put food on the table. And today we have passed legislation that does take that swift, bold action on their behalf.”
Just four weeks into Mr. Obama’s presidency, the Democrats boasted that they had already approved three major bills: a measure to curb pay-discrimination against women in the workplace, a broad expansion of the state children’s health insurance program and the stimulus.
“We have yet to pass the 30th day of this administration,” said the House majority leader, Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland. “And we have passed historic legislation.”
