Are you friggin kidding me? What part don't they get???

When the CBO released it's report on the effect of the stimulus, it was good news to me. From Reuters:

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act put between 1.4 million and 3.6 million to work in the third quarter of this year, a time when more than 15 million Americans were unemployed, CBO said.

It also boosted national output by between 1.4 percent and 4.1 percent during that time, the CBO said.

During the third quarter, the economy grew by an annual rate of 2.5 percent. Economists say a rate faster than 3 percent is needed to make any noticeable dent in unemployment.

The CBO's estimates have consistently shown that the $814 billion package of tax cuts, state aid, construction spending and enhanced safety-net provisions has blunted the impact of the worst U.S. recession since the 1930s.

*snip*

Not all elements of the Recovery Act got the same bang for the buck, the CBO said.

Direct spending on highway construction, water-system upgrades and energy efficiency were among the most effective, the CBO said, while tax breaks for businesses and higher-income people cost more in lost revenues than they made up for in increased economic activity.(emphasis mine)

The R's, aka the Party Of No, either found another way to spin it or just fucking ignored the CBO's report. What they would rather do is make damn sure that those lazy fuckers on unemployment don't get another government handout...aka another unemployment check, starting at midnight tonight. That's why you have assholes like Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) actually arguing that unemployment checks don't do shit for our economy:

According to calculations by the Congressional Budget Office, Moody’s Economy, and myriad other economists, unemployment benefits are the single best way to pump money into the economy and generate economic activity, as the unemployed are very likely to spend all of the benefits they receive (thus moving money into local businesses). But during an interview with MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle today, Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) scoffed at the notion that unemployment benefits help the economy. “Unemployed people hire people? Really? I didn’t know that,” Shadegg jeered:

BARNICLE: What about the fact that unemployment benefits pumped into the economy are an immediate benefit to the economy? Immediate…
SHADEGG: No, they’re not! Unemployed people hire people? Really? I didn’t know that.
BARNICLE: Unemployed people spend money Congressman, ’cause they have no money.
SHADEGG: Aha! So your answer is it’s the spending of money that drives the economy and I don’t think that’s right. It’s the creation of jobs that drives the economy…Actually, the truth is the unemployed will spend as little of that money as they possibly can. Job creators create jobs.
BARNICLE: Have you ever been unemployed? Have you ever been unemployed?
SHADEGG: Yes, I have.
BARNICLE: What did you do with the money? Save it?

Any moron with two brain cells to rub together knows that people on unemployment spend those checks as soon as they get them. They spend them on rent, food, gas, clothes for the kids, heating their homes, all kinds of friggin things they need to survive, something Rep.Shadegg is obviously very unfamiliar with. Again, from the ThinkProgress link:

As The Wonk Room noted, some economists estimate that allowing benefits to expire could cause economic growth to “fall by one half to nearly 1 percentage point,” as well as throw hundreds of thousands of people into poverty. And while Shadegg joked that he will be unemployed come January since he is retiring from Congress, next year he will be eligible for a federal pension (if he opted for one), as he is turning 62 and served on Capitol Hill for more than five years. 

We can only hope that John Shadegg takes a very long fucking walk on a very short pier...real soon, before he can collect one friggin dime of that federal pension.What. A. Fucking. Douche Nozzle. Stupid fuck just drove my blood pressure through the roof.

Jesus H. Christ, I hate stupid lame-ass arguments that make no sense what so ever, I despise Republicans and I despise John Shadegg with every fiber of my being.

Speak it Brotha Klein!

I do enjoy Ezra's visits to Countdown. Today was no different.

Politicians work up compromise on Stimulus Plan…yeah right.

The Senate version actually had an amendment that would give a $15k tax incentive to upper class folks to buy more homes and cars. Forget that people are becoming homeless at an alarming rate and folks on fixed incomes are having to choose between staying warm and buying their meds. From the NYT:

Negotiations had been going on all day, following extensive talks on Tuesday night, to close the gap between the Senate and House versions. In the end, the agreed-upon package will pare back Democrats’ proposed spending on education and health programs in favor of tax cuts that were needed to win Republican votes in the Senate.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a centrist Republican whose support was crucial to the outcome, said the final package includes $150 billion in spending on infrastructure, including transportation facilities, and considerable tax relief. Moreover, she said, it includes significant money to aid state governments.

Despite intense lobbying by governors, the final deal slashed $35 billion from a proposed state fiscal stabilization fund, eliminated $16 billion in aid for school construction and sharply curtailed health care subsidies for the unemployed.

But the final bill retained a $70 billion tax cut that would spare millions of middle-class Americans from paying the alternative minimum tax in 2009, which some Democrats decried as wasting a large chunk of the bill on something that would do little to lift the economy and that Congress would have approved regardless of the recession.

Fucking tax cuts…jesus they love those damn tax cuts. As for Pork….here is Specter’s amendment…pure pork:

For instance, even as negotiators accepted many of the Senate’s reduced spending provisions, they were careful to maintain an additional $6.5 billion for medical research that was inserted at the insistence of Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, who is a cancer survivor.

I approve of medical research but that doesn’t have a friggin thing to do with the economy or the recession. I mean..wtf dude?

Obama TownHall in Elkhart Indiana-video

For those of you that didn't get to see it because you are lucky to have a job.

The Congress Critters guaranteed no filibuster today in the Senate on the stimulus pkg with a 61 yea vote in the Senate. Three Rethugs voted with the dems: Snow, Specter and Collins. ;)

Sirota and Maddow-Stimulus Pkg

Republican myths about Obama's stimulus plan..

The latest fuckery being preached by the Rethugs, with regard to Obama's Stimulus Plan, has been addressed by ThinkProgress's The Progress Report. Below is a shortened version...be sure to read their entire version if the mood strikes you.

MYTH 1 -- SPENDING IS NOT STIMULATIVE: However, an analysis by Moody’s Economy.com found that government spending results in more significant "bang for the buck." For every dollar invested in specific types of spending, the boost in real GDP is more than $1.30. The most benefit comes from extending unemployment benefits ($1.64) and increasing food stamps ($1.73), but strong returns result from infrastructure investment ($1.59) and aid to state and local governments ($1.36), as well. Furthermore, Moody's also noted, "A well-timed, targeted, and temporary stimulus could in fact cost the Treasury less in the long run, since a debilitating recession would severely undermine tax revenues and prompt more government spending for longer." Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's and former adviser to Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) presidential campaign, released his analysis of the House plan on Wednesday, and concluded that it would "provide a vital boost to the flagging economy," without which full employment would not return until 2014.

MYTH 2 -- STIMULUS WON'T CREATE JOBS: "The stimulus plan will create jobs repairing and upgrading the nation's roads, bridges, ports, levees, water and sewage system, public-transit systems, electricity grid, and schools." It stands to reason that investing in infrastructure is going to lead to job creation, as someone needs to be hired to actually complete the various projects. By investing $100 billion in clean energy infrastructure alone, the Center for American Progress (CAP) has estimated that 2 million jobs can be created in the next two years. Aid to states through bolstering Medicaid also "generates business and gets people into jobs," as a recent report by Families USA showed: "The new dollars pass from one person to another in successive rounds of spending, generating additional business activity, jobs, and wages that would not otherwise be produced." Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Christina Romer and Vice President Biden aide Jared Bernstein, meanwhile -- by using the "1% of GDP equals 1 million jobs rule of thumb" -- estimated that a stimulus plan will create or save three million jobs. According to their calculations, "30% of the jobs created will be in construction and manufacturing," while "the other two significant sectors that are disproportionately represented in job creation are retail trade and leisure and hospitality."

MYTH 3 -- PERMANENT TAX CUTS ARE THE BEST STIMULUS: But CAP'sWill Straw explained, "The track record for such steps is poor in general, but they are particularly ill-suited for a recessionary period. After all, the reason that businesses and individuals are not investing at the moment has little to do with the taxes they may pay in the future and everything to do with a fear of losing money because there is no demand in the economy." An analysis by the Center for American Progress Action Fund shows that every $10 billion spent on this kind of cut would create or save just 10,000 jobs, "versus nearly 60,000 jobs which could be created or saved by extending unemployment benefits and food stamps or investing directly in energy, transportation and education infrastructure." Furthermore, permanent measures will exacerbate the long-term debt much more than temporary measures will.

These are the talking points we, as progressives, should embrace and put out there when the rightwing nutjobs, lobbyists for the corporatocracy or any other jackass that supports the trickle down theory starts quoting their guy's bullshittery. All the links are good solid ideas backed up by intelligent people that believe enriching the wealthy won't do shit to bring us out of this global nightmare.

Video:Dean Baker: Talk Back To The Anti-Spending Crowd


Tags: Obama Stimulus Plan