Excerpts from Senator Hutchison’s Floor Speech in Opposition of the Economic Stimulus Bill

“First of all, the bill was written without any Republican input. It was written in the House of Representatives by the Democrats. There were no amendments allowed. The committees were not allowed to exercise their jurisdiction on the bill there. It came to the Senate. I was on the Appropriations Committee which passed the spending part of the bill. Amendments were discouraged. The meeting lasted a couple of hours. The same thing happened on the Finance Committee, which was the tax part of the bill, and there were no amendments that were able to be hammered out. There was not an amendment process where we gave and took. And to say that Republicans had a chance to have input is really disingenuous. I do respect the President of the United States for coming and talking to Republicans. He talked to the Republican Senators. He talked to the Republican House members.

“With interest, the cost of this bill is going to be a trillion dollars. Now, people say, ‘It’s a spending bill. What did you expect?’ A spending bill? I still take a trillion dollars of taxpayer money, borrowing from the future very seriously. I think we ought to spend some time before we spend $1 trillion in a bill that is going to be off the budget, that is not in any projected budget that we have seen. It is going to add $1 trillion to the deficit.

“…the Congressional Budget Office, which is a nonpartisan arm of Congress that is supposed to give us facts without political bias, has said that most of the money in this bill is going to be spent in years three through ten. Well, a stimulus bill should inject into the economy an energy that will cause jobs to be either produced or kept, that will produce spending so that there will be something for people to make and for retailers to sell, and after we have that stimulus, which we hope would be in the private sector, and therefore permanent, then we’re going to have to deal with the deficit in years three through ten so that we don’t get into an upside-down situation where we have so much debt that either our foreign investors will not buy our debt or, if they do, the risk is so good that they increase the interest rate.

“I believe that tax relief has been proven again and again to spur the economy. President Kennedy gave tax relief and it spurred the economy and increased revenue. President Reagan — tax relief, it introduced revenue. President Bush, 2001, when we were having a rough time in our economy, the first tax cuts, it turned the stock market around and it gave us the largest increase in revenue in the history of America.

“I’m for stimulus. We all know we need stimulus. I would like tax cuts that would spur spending, not tax cuts that would be driveled out in such small amounts that no one would feel they could go out and buy something.

“How about spending on infrastructure? How about more than 17% of a $1 trillion going for infrastructure that would be jobs today for people building bridges, building highways, building things that would be clearly job creation? I had an amendment, which never made it to the floor, that said that military construction should be moved up from the Department of Defense five-year plan to three years. Military construction is money that we know we’re going to spend.

“The Department of Defense has a five-year plan. They know exactly what their priorities are. We normally take it one year at a time. Why not take the five-year plan and bring it up and do it in two or three years because we know it would be American jobs? We know it is money that we’re going to spend anyway. It would be stimulative, and it would be the right kind of spending.

“Instead, the conference cut the military spending in this bill from what passed in the Senate. The conference cut our military spending for hospitals and for Veterans Administration hospitals to increase the quality and access to health care for our veterans. Mr. President, what kind of priority is that? And they’re increasing spending to save a mouse in San Francisco that might be endangered. Mr. President, this is not a package that we can be proud to give to the American people and say, it’s worth tightening our belts to do this because it will make a difference.

“…Mr. President, this is not the right bill for the American people, and I urge my colleagues to please consider their positions and let us do this right: Tax cuts to spur spending, tax cuts to spur the opportunity for corporations and businesses to hire people, spending on infrastructure, more in military construction, not less. That would be a bill that we could support, Mr. President.”

I received this in an email from Sen. Hutchison’s press Secretary. They seem to be a lot more attentive to the concerns of their constituency right now. It breaks my heart that Hutchison didn’t come out this hard against the Wall Street Bailout, illegal immigration, a strong border fence and stronger border security!

Obama open to compromise on $825B stimulus bill

WASHINGTON (AP) - On the eve of a key vote, President Barack Obama privately promised Republican critics he stands ready to accept changes in $825 billion economic stimulus legislation, and urged lawmakers to “put politics aside” in the interest of creating badly needed jobs.

“The American people expect action,” Obama said Tuesday as he shuttled between closed-door meetings with House and Senate Republicans on a trip to the Capitol that blended substance with political symbolism.

Republicans who attended the sessions said the president did not agree to any specific changes but did pledge to have his aides consider some that GOP lawmakers raised dealing with additional tax relief for businesses.

Prodded to budge on another point, Obama said that despite Republican opposition, he will insist on giving relief to wage-earners who pay Social Security taxes but do not earn enough to owe income tax.

Full Story Here:
Obama open to compromise on $825B stimulus bill

‘Obama open to compromise’. Isn’t that the basis of his existence? Compromise?? That, and change? Change anything you can and compromise on what you can’t?

I said in prior posts that IF Obama said or did something I felt was wrong, I wouldn’t hesitate to blast off on his just like I did Bush, and if he did something right, I would offer kudos. This post is a bit of both, criticism and *almost* kudos.

The logic seems to be, among nearly ALL Dems, and many Republicans, if they just throw money at the problem, the problem is going to fix itself. That may be true, but what if it’s not? What about accountability from all the business people that brought this situation on us in the 1st place? The CitiGroup bunch that got bailed out and wanted to turn around and spend $50M on a corporate jet? Things like that. If the government is going to GIVE taxpayer dollars to BUSINESS, then we, the taxpayers, have a right to say what it gets spent on.

Personally, I don’t think we should bail out ANY of them, this bail out thing smacks of nothing less than sheer socialism. I have lost ALL respect for any elected official that supported the bail outs and for any that still support those socialist asshats. I’m funny like that. It’s NOT one of those things where if you don’t agree with me I cut you off, that’s a cry some really love to make, this is more of a *If you hurt my country* thing, and the socialization of America is not just hurting us, it’s KILLING us! I will have nothing to do with ANYONE that supports it, reader, blogger, law maker, makes no difference, I don’t support the enemies of America and those that supported the bailout, especially our lawmakers who voted for it against our will, THEY are now the enemy!

Barack Obama supported the bail out. He voted FOR it! That places him squarely in the group of people that I have NO use for. But, in all fairness, the lead-up to this financial mess isn’t the fault of Barack Obama, he wasn’t running the nation when this started, he had NO oversight of anything connected to this debacle. Yes, he was a United States Senator, but what the hell, you can’t hold him responsible there, when he did show up, he voted *present*. Talk about covering you ass!

I don’t directly blame Obama for the financial crisis this nation is in. Sure, he could have been a more effective Senator, but would that have made any difference in the overall scheme of things? May, maybe not, now we’ll never know. Has Illinois ever had an effective politician? Obama inherited this mess from the Bush administration. And lets face it, Bush was all for throwing money at it too, just like the RINO he IS. The Bush response wasn’t too terribly different than that of the Democrats.

I don’t know what the solution is going to be, actually, I don’t think anyone does. I do know this, throwing OUR money at this problem, while allowing the business people that put us here to continue with their status quo, well, that isn’t the solution either.

Obama team weighs up to $850 billion economic jolt

WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Barack Obama is laying the groundwork for a giant economic stimulus package, possibly $850 billion over two years, in his first test of legislative give and take with Congress.

Obama’s economic advisers are assembling a recovery plan and reaching out to members of Congress and their staffs. Obama aides cautioned that they have not settled on a specific grand total. But they noted that economists from across the political spectrum have recommended spending similar or even larger amounts to jolt the worsening economy.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., this week said Democrats were preparing their own recovery bill in the range of $600 billion, blending immediate steps to counter the slumping economy with longer-term federal spending that encompasses Obama’s plan.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday that Obama has indicated that Congress will get his recovery recommendations by the first of the year.

Full Story Here:
Obama team weighs up to $850 billion economic jolt

I have ONE question that I feel MUST be asked. WHERE in the HELL does this *genius* think that $850B is going to come from?

There is only ONE place. That money comes from OUR POCKETS!! These asshats have been robbing Peter to pay Paul for so long, well, even a MORON can see where this is taking us. Can’t they?

Even if Obama pulled the U.S. OUT of Iraq on his very first day in office, the money NOT spent on the Bush debacle would only come up to somewhere around $250B over this 2 year period that Obama wants to *spread the wealth*. That’s about $600B short of Obama’s goal, can’t he do basic math? Does he think money is just something we print up more of when we need it?

If the United States government has a penny to it’s name it’s because We, The People were taxed out of it. An $850B economic stimulus package is nothing more than a federally sponsored Ponzi scheme. They are taking OUR money to pay US.

Now I don’t know what that’s called in your part of America, but where I’m from it’s called Democratic moonbat thinking and pure BULLSHIT!

The fleecing of America continues, and *The One* isn’t even sworn in yet. Don’t you just love Chicago politicians?