He ain’t heavy, he’s my stimulus.

Here we are, about a 1/3rd of the way through the $787 billion budgeted stimulus plan and we have so many naysayers talking about how the Administration has failed and/or the stimulus didn’t work. Here is where I have some fun. It is literally ignorant and irresponsible to refer to something that is only a 1/3rd of the way through as a failure. Now the Wall Street Journal has already this week showed us in ‘living color’ the hypocritical nature of a bunch of Republican congressmen/women who took the stimulus money for their individual states and championed to their people as to how some jobs were created and saved and/or the money was put to good use. However, when it came down to actually giving any credit politically to the Administration they have nothing but contempt and criticism for the stimulus. Even worse, they have in turn led some of their more impressionable and/or closet racist followers to believe that failureof the stimulus is the case. I will try to help put the stimulus into a more ‘here’s the bottom line’ type of speak so that even the cheap seats can follow. ( A rather sarcastic sports reference) Thank you very much!

Much of the first 1/3rd of the stimulus was to maintain social services and government jobs and to provide tax cuts for workers. Now, the pace and direction of stimulus spending are about to change.

Infrastructure spending is on hand for year two of the stimulus program.  Private-sector employers will benefit a lot more from this. The way I look at it. Those private businesses that are run by Republicans that would rather keep a partisan stand to spite their businesses getting money to help them gain momentum or hire and/or keep employees should refuse the money and it should be noted so that when the money helps other businesses the partisan bullshit won’t hold water. I wouldn’t allow them to take the money then around election time have Rush or Glen of the mouth. ( My clever stool spouting reference ) Thank you very much!

Note this: Many Republicans leaders have criticized the relative lack of private businesses hiring directly attributed to the stimulus.

Oh what tangled web we weave when we weave webs…. (My clever Bushism) Thank you very much!

This week is the stimulus program’s one-year anniversary. Is there anyone who can with a straight face say that it didn’t keep us from going into a deeper recession? Not to mention that the stimulus is still largely incomplete.  It’s still got a whole lot more to do. That’s why it’s easier to mis-inform and scare you about it now so that they have more ammunition bearers to help with the Tea Party, Lunatic party or radicals party mis-information gatherings..

Most of the money alocated to specific projects hasn’t been paid out yet, and there are still an additional $195 billion in tax cuts on the way. Let me repeat that again. $195 billion in tax cuts money on the way. How impressionable and feeble minded do you have to be to see that as a ‘fail’ , a bad thing, communist or a Government takeover? A takeover of what, help and assistance?

The bulk of the money proposed for projects like new rail lines and water projects, about $180 billion, will be spent this year.

Now the first year of Infrastructure spending didn’t really have a big impact on net employment, simply because a lot of the activity was mechanized. Do you really think there won’t be any jobs created from the aforementioned rail lines and water projects?

Many agencies have been holding competitions to decide which projects should get stimulus grants, vetting applications for grants for initiatives such as high-speed rail construction or electric-vehicle projects. In some cases, federal agencies have had to go as far as set up entirely new programs. There has also been $20 billion allotted for doctors to create electronic medical records, $4.5 billion for an energy Smart Grid and $7.2 billion for broadband networks. You will see this probably towards the end of this year to early next year.

(Do you start to see a pattern here?)

I used to wonder and get angry at how Obama could be so cool, calm, collect and quiet when confronted by all this bullshit. I am now beginning to get the picture. Many of the radicals and naysayers tried to make it seem as though if the seas didn’t part and everyone wasn’t running around in new jobs and a ‘Barney’ type of euphoria after the first year, that Obama failed, the stimulus failed, the bailout failed and Cash for Clunkers failed. This is not the case people.  Spending by state and local governments has about the same effect as spending in the private sector, and not cutting a job has a similar macroeconomic impact to creating a new one. Recipients of stimulus money say they are currently funding the jobs of about 595,000 people. However, in reality, as many as two million jobs have been supported directly or indirectly by stimulus money. Government data has indicated that most of the jobs supported by stimulus spending belonged to public employees at the state and local level, including about 325,000 teachers and school staff. This cannot be a bad thing can it? I didn’t vote on Bush for his first term but I did for his 2nd term. I just didn’t think Kerry could do the job. If Bush had made these choices I would applaud him. Funny part is, so would most of the Republicans downplaying the choices right now. Subsidizing those jobs avoided layoffs, or state and local tax increases that could have further undermined the economy. But they didn’t result in substantial hiring of people who had lost private-sector jobs. Let this thing play out people. Check out the chart below and hopefully it can help to shed a little more specificity into the stimulus breakdown.

Until next time my friends. WELCOME TO THE REVOLUTION!

Things that make you go “Hmmmmm”

Ok, below I will briefly talk about some topics that have made me go “Hmmmm” here of late. These arguments are not meant to in anyway be a partisan rub-a-dub, but rather issues that I personally feel are just a tad bit ridiculous if they are really thought about rather than be used as a way to bolster a political parties bargaining power with ‘John-Q-public’.
 

               1:  The Mob at Town Hall Meetings:

This situation is completely sad. first of all let me clear up some issues that really chap my hide. I have read article 1233 of the House Reform Provision and I will attempt to break it down here now so that even the ‘friggin cheap seats’ can see it more clearly for what it actually does represent.

There seems to be a claim that health care reform will create “death panels”, (in Sarah Palin’s words), that will somehow create a situation where the Goverment will somehow determine when an elderly person would be put to death in some manner because it  doesn’t want to pay for their care any longer. It’s a complete fabrication of course. The provision requiring that Medicare pay for voluntary end-of-life counseling was introduced by Senator Johnny Isakson, Republican, yes Republican of Georgia, who says that it’s “nuts” to claim that it has anything to do with euthanasia.

Ex-Governor Sarah Palin, as well as Newt Gingrich, were all for “advance directives” for medical care in the event that you are incapacitated or comatose. That’s exactly what is being proposed. I am a US Army Veteran and I, as well as any other Veterans or military personnel, can tell you that we are offered “Advance directives” too. All this option means is that you have the oportunity, IF YOU SO CHOOSE, to receive counsel from a doctor or nurse practitioner to relay your wishes regarding critical care or hospice care should the situation arise, so that no one, especially your family members or doctors, would have to guess what your wishes are if you should become say, comatose, or terminally ill and have a loss of you mental capacities. However, all the mobs at the Town Hall Meetings are being loud and obnoxious in their ignorance of this fact. They obviously haven’t taken the time to investigate or even wait to be correctly informed. It’s turned into just basically disruption & talking points to discredit our President and his goal to insure everyone. Being insured should be a right and not a privilege in this country. The reform provision also does not have an article in it to insure illegal aliens, as it has so falsely been claimed. The bill does not have options for sponsoring abortions, again like it has been falsely claimed. The insurance companies stand to lose billions of dollars if a “public health option” is passed. They have used lobbyist to spread money around to provide this misinformation and confusion so that the real facts of this bill get cluttered. I saw one couple arguing in one of the meetings that didn’t even have health care. They were just arguing because the bill is being proposed by the democratic party and a President that they don’t want to support. Is this productive? Can people really look at themselves in the mirror and actually believe that the President of the United States wants to put old people to death? Oh, by the way, CONGRESS AND THE SENATE HAVE GOVERMENT RUN HEALTHCARE!

 ”Hmmmmm….”

 

               2: The weakness that is the Democratic backbone.

The democratic leaders have not done a good enough job of spreading the facts regarding the house healthcare reform bill. Because of this lack of direction, all types of misinformation has had it’s chance to be born. The sad point is, even when it was determined how much bullshit was actually being spread by radical conservatives, the powers that be in the democratic party acted like deer in the headlights and cowered at the fact that they were being bullied. That’s not leadership! I cannot faithfully follow someone or a party that cannot even stick to the guns that they themselves have loaded. It makes no sense. There are no “jedi mind tricks” that the President can conjure to un-ring the bell of perceived weakness. The conservatives smell blood in the water and know now that they can win the battle of a smear campaign against a party that actually has control of the house. It’s ludicrous.

“Hmmmmm…”.

 

              3: Firearms at Town Hall Meetings:

Can anyone really believe that the several people carrying guns and assault rifles to a venue that the President of the United States is present at productive? The argument they convey is that they are enforcing their right to bear arms. In the history of Presidential gatherings there has not been one instance of people carrying loaded weapons to the event without the President being shot at or killed. Do you think that had the Secret Service seen Lee Harvey Oswald walking around with a rifle before even getting into the Book Depository President Kennedy would still be alive? Would Reagan have been shot if a gunman was seen walking around with a loaded weapon before he walked out to his vehicle? To allow individuals to do it now is idiotic. This is a receipe for tragedy. If President Obama was assasinated it would tear this country apart. There would be worldwide racial riots. Has anyone thought this far out? What happens if some minority groups go to a conservative senators gathering with some weapons? Would it be as welcomed or tolerated? If I wanted to express my right to freedom of having sex, should I go to a Town Hall Meeting with my dick out? The funny part is, President Obama hasn’t attempted to alter any gun laws at all. His stance is no different than President Bush’s was. To have loaded weapons in such close proximity to a sitting President is inherently dangerous. Racial wars can be started that way ladies and gentlemen.

“Hmmmmm”.

                4: Pyscho babble:

There are so many people now seemingly convinced that they are somehow losing their country to “Socialism”.

HELLO!!!!! Medicare is socialized medicine. Veterans and military health care is socilaized medicine. SSI is socialism. These are goverment run programs people. All the elderly people complaining now should opt out of their medicare programs immediately. I’d hate for you to be communist right? All the complainers that happen to be receiving SSI benefits should opt out right? Have your family and friends that are on SSI or Medicare remove themselves from it so that they cannot be considered as helping to take away the country. By the way, did I mention that President Obama did not invent SSI or Medicare? I wish people would wake up. What happens if you get what you’re asking for? Do you know where your conscience begins and ends? Oh, and to the remaining “birthers” out there, “GROW THE FUCK UP”!!

“Hmmmmm”.

I guess that’s it for now. I’m sure that radicals will disagree but that’s what so great about our country. They can. Also, I don’t believe that all conservatives have this point of view. Just the ones that are being blatanly televised. I believe that the democrats should just pass the reform bill on their own and people can watch their premiums drop and the uninsured insured while the radicals continue to babble.

 As usual, that’s just my opinion. However, If you do think I’m wrong, please leave a comment of substance and not just a talking point. That’s the problem now in my belief. Partisanship replacing actual fact.