State of the Union

Who's the leader of the Democrat Party?

From the Plain Dealer:

Obama says the right things about fiscal responsibility, but Democratic congressional leaders show no evidence they hear him. And so far, he's been unwilling to crack the whip on them. He stood back when they hijacked his stimulus package. Now Congress is about to pass a $410 billion appropriations bill for the rest of fiscal 2009 that increases spending and contains more than 8,000 earmarks -- the little favors Obama told voters he wouldn't tolerate. The president again seems willing to sign what he gets.

McCain hammers Obama's bloated budget

From Politico:

"It is the president of the United States’ business to do what he said — stated — when we were in debate seeking the support of the American people — where he said he would work to eliminate earmarks.”

“We need earmark reform and when I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure we’re not spending money unwisely,” McCain said, reading back Obama’s words at a debate last fall. “That’s the quote, the promise of the president of the United States made to the American people in a debate with me in Oxford, Miss. So what is brought to the floor today — 9,000 earmarks.…So much for change.” 

We need some spending sanity

This is what's called overreaching...

From Pacific Business News:

U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye said Tuesday the federal government may have to jolt the economy with a second stimulus package. ... Inouye said it is becoming increasingly clear that a second blast of federal spending may be needed to jar the economy out of recession.

“That’s discussion item No. 1 now in Washington,” Inouye told reporters. “Some people are calling this bill the stimulus No. 1.”

10 'stimulus' facts you won't hear from CNN

Regarding the Democrats' trillion-dollar, non-stimulus "stimulus" bill...

1. Generational Theft.  The final agreement will cost each and every household more than $9,400 in additional debt (including interest on the bill), paid for by our children and grandchildren.      


2. Paltry Tax Relief for Working Families and Small Businesses.  The “Making Work Pay” tax credit at the center of the plan amounts to $1.10 a day, not even enough to ride the bus one-way to work. 


3. Massive Government Expansion.  The final agreement is almost as much as the annual discretionary budget for the entire federal government.


4. A Trillion-Dollar Spending Bill.  The $789.5 billion final agreement slated for a House vote either today or tomorrow will exceed more than $1 trillion when adding in the interest of approximately $300 billion between 2009-2019.


5. Unnecessary Spending That Won’t Create Jobs.   Apparently included in the final “jobs” bill is money for plug-in vehicles, money for STD prevention, and money for ACORN (via the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and CDBG program).  The final agreement also creates new programs and funds existing programs that can be used to fund earmarks and pork-barrel projects.  

'The American people expect more of us'

House Republican Leader John Boehner: "A bill that was supposed to be about jobs, jobs, jobs has turned into a bill that's all about spending, spending, and spending."

Obama called out for economic scare tactics

From The Columbus Dispatch:

President Barack Obama and his supporters also should stop their alarmist talk about a pending catastrophe. Trying to stampede lawmakers and the people like a frightened herd is not the way to make wise and effective national policy.

With all due respect, Mr. President

Here's an ad posted in newspapers by the Cato Institute last month listing more than two hundred economists who don’t believe that a trillion-dollar spending bill will help steer the economy back on a path of growth or put Americans back to work.

Nationwide smackdown for Democrat non-stimulus plan

From John Boehner's blog...

Here’s what editorials and opinion makers are saying about the Democrats’ bloated “stimulus” bill:

“Stimulating welfare,” Rocky Mountain News:

Several provisions in the stimulus package would immediately grow the welfare state.  One would make Medicaid, the federal health program for the indigent, available to anyone who’s unemployed - former millionaire CEOs and laid-off retail workers alike.  Another measure would, for the first time, provide taxpayer subsidies under the COBRA health-insurance law.  Either of these proposals would undermine individual responsibility, allowing people who can afford to pay for medical insurance from their own pockets to collect taxpayer subsidies.

“Mission Creep,” The Chicago Tribune: 

We’ve been skeptical about this whole process. The mantra on this page has been that if the U.S. has to do this, the spending has to be timely, targeted and temporary. In other words, try to jump-start the economy, but don’t let the rush to a “stimulus” package become the smoke to hide a lot of ways to permanently expand government.

“The President must improve stimulus legislation to get the biggest bang for America’s buck,” New York Daily News:

The spree extended to paying for a campaign against sexually transmitted diseases, for efforts to help smokers quit, for the Coast Guard to design an icebreaker, as well as for many more things having nothing to do with stimulating the economy.

It was probably too much to hope that Pelosi, Obey & Co. would behave as anything other than entrenched Beltway insiders - even with the nation’s fate in the balance.

Just how much is a trillion?

From John Boehner's House Leadership office...

The United States Senate has started debate on the so-called “stimulus” bill - and has driven the price near the $900 billion mark.  Since the “stimulus” is being financed entirely by borrowing, don’t forget to add at least $347 billion in interest - which would bring the total cost to nearly $1.3 TRILLION.

But just how much is a trillion?

• $1 trillion was the cost of the entire Federal Budget in 1987.
• A trillion-dollar stimulus bill could give every American $3,333.
• $1 trillion would be enough money to buy about a 1,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies for every person in the United States.
• It would take the U.S. government more than 31,000 years to give away a trillion dollars if it were to hand out a dollar a second.
• If you started spending in the year 0, and you spent a million dollars every day, you still wouldn’t have spent a trillion dollars by 2009.