Stimulus Bill Passes with NO GOP Votes

Its almost as if the GOP loves being so lost in the political forest so much they are ensuring they never come close to finding the path to power again. Not one GOP house rep voted to help America get back on its feet.

As I read on dailykos, "the 2010 campaign ads are just writing themselves."

Judd Gregg Out

Obama's attempt at making a unified government is just not working out. All the repubs, except 3, voted against the stimulus, even after all the attempts at partisanship. Now, Gregg pulls himself out of the Commerce of Sec job. He stated differences between Obama as the reason for his departure. The question on everyone's mind is why didn't have those differences when you accepted the offer.

Some people have said this doesn't bode well for Obama. That is the biggest bunch of crap. Obama has attempted to bring people together and at the end of the day, repubs don't want anything to do with it and the public knows it.

Check out this quote by Andrew Sullivan: "I have to say even I am a little taken aback by the force of the Republican assault. Even in a downturn as swift and alarming as this one, even after an election that clearly favored one approach over another, even after the most conciliatory efforts by an incoming president in memory, these people have gone to war against the president. The president should stay cool. The rest of us should realize what motivates the GOP: the opportunism of selective ideology."

I agree with him. Give enough rope to the repubs and they'll hang themselves. Right now, they are doing a great job of it.

Dems Confident for 2010

Looking harder and harder for repubs to pick up seats or even stop dems from picking up a couple as well. Sen Rober Menendez is pretty confident that 2010 will be another good year for dems. CNN's Alexander Mooney says:

"But Menendez noted five currently-held GOP seats are set to be vacated in 2010, most of them in traditional swing states: Florida, Ohio, Missouri, New Hampshire, Kansas. Meanwhile, no current Democratic senators have plans to retire, though the president's Cabinet appointments have technically left Colorado, New York, Illinois, and Delaware without an incumbent Democrat."

The repubs need to hold on to what they got. 1 senator to swing to the dems means we can pass anything we want in the senate. 

GOP Loves The Long Franken/Coleman Fight

It seems that the GOP has no intention of letting Franken come in early. While Franken leads by 225 votes, it appears that the GOP doesn't want him there anytime soon. This could be because they don't like him but it also helps out the GOP. From an article in The Hill

"As the long and contentious court case drags on before a three-judge panel in Minnesota, it could be weeks, or even months, before either Franken or Coleman is seated." 

Their obstructionist ways are aided by the fact that the dems need a minimum of 2 repubs to defect on every piece of legislation instead of 1 if Franken were in the senate. You can see this in the stimulus bill. Dems picked off 3 repubs but it came at a fairly big cost (education rebuilding, health care...) 

With the likelyhood that Coleman loses (even he sees the writing on the wall by getting a new job), this lack of a dem senator makes it harder to get to the fillibuster proof majority.

Still Attacking New Deal/Roosevelt

The repubs attack on the new deal continues as they are now saying that Roosevelt caused the depression. Again, dems need to attack this vehemently. Why? They are trying to attack obama/dems by not attacking them directly.

Here is Steve Austria's comment on the depression: 

"When (President Franklin) Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression," Austria said. "He tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use the Keynesian approach, and our country ended up in a Great Depression. That's just history."

Dems need to stop it now b/c the image of the new deal will need to be intact later. 

Stimulus Bill Update

The stimulus bill passed yesterday by a 61-38 margin. Now the next step was to take the senate bill and compromise it with the house bill. They are close to done with that. Some stuff is going to be cut but I am baffeled that they are cutting health care and school building updates. Their reasoning is that it's states who are required to do that. INSANE.

The thing is that in reading several sources, the most powerful players in this were the 3 repub senators who voted for it. In all the negotiations, what was definitely left in the bill was what the 3 repubs wanted. 

That is the world we live in right now. Everyone has said if the dems have 60 senators (filibuster proof) then they would become too powerful. By contrast, it is the few who have the power while the majority want to govern. 

If, by 2010, the dems have a 60 proof margin, I would like to see what could really be done to help this country. 

These Headlines Need to be in Every Newspaper

The headline above is from dailykos. I would have the second part as "Republicans are trying to prevent these jobs from coming to Michiga." It's a bit longer but needed. 

Every state should do an analysis of the stimulus bill and figure out how many jobs could be created if only the repubs weren't such obstructionists. Imagine if headlines like these were done in every state. The repubs wouldn't know what to do. 

How Close We Came to Economic Meltdown

It is kind of scary reading this quote. Our economy was so close to collapse back in september that if it wasn't for certain actions by the fed, our economy would have been reduced to the barter system. Below, quoted from CSPAN, is Democratic Representative Kanjorski. He explains how close we came. Very scarry!  

On Thursday (Sept 18), at 11am the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw-down of money market accounts in the U.S., to the tune of $550 billion was being drawn out in the matter of an hour or two. The Treasury opened up its window to help and pumped a $105 billion in the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn't be further panic out there.

If they had not done that, their estimation is that by 2pm that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the U.S., would have collapsed the entire economy of the U.S., and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed. It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it.

We are no better off today than we were 3 months ago because we have a decrease in the equity positions of banks because other assets are going sour by the moment.

Update: Turns out the information by Kanjorski might not have been accurate. It turns out that his source was the New York Post. Not the most reliable of papers. Felix had doubts and has let us know about them "

there never was a $500 billion outflow from any asset class in the space of a couple of hours or even weeks, and the Fed never shut down or froze any money-market accounts."

So, it might not have been as bad as previously thought.

Obama's First Press Conference

Well, it goes to show that if you watched it, how great it is to have a president again. Forever gone are the degrading nick names for people of the press. Never will we see one elbow on the podium with the shoulder leaning foward telling Al-Queda to "bring it on." 

Instead, we got articulate,  thoughtout and well informed answers. As good quote describing this whole process was at TPM. 

"You watch this performance and you can see that every day Republicans keep this guy off TV is a win for them."

Quote of the Day

Things aren't good for Coleman and now you might consider taking back your vote. It appears that Coleman talks to god. What asked about his court problems and how it is affecting him, he responds: “God wants me to serve.”

You then have to ask if that were true, why didn't God get you more votes?

New GOP Chairman out to Lunch

Not only is the new chairman of the RNC got legal problems, he's kind of an idiot. In an interview with George Stephanopoulus there's this exchange (via Jack and Jill Politic)

STEELE: You’ve got to look at what’s going to create sustainable jobs. What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But that’s a job.

STEELE: No, it’s not a job. A job is something that — that a business owner creates. It’s going to be long term. What he’s creating…

STEPHANOPOULOS: So a job doesn’t count if it’s a government job?

(CROSSTALK)

STEELE: Hold on. No, let me — let me — let me finish. That is a contract. It ends at a certain point, George. You know that. These road projects that we’re talking about have an end point.

As a small-business owner, I’m looking to grow my business, expand my business. I want to reach further. I want to be international. I want to be national. It’s a whole different perspective on how you create a job versus how you create work. And I’m — either way, the bottom line is…

STEPHANOPOULOS: I guess I don’t really understand that distinction.

STEELE: Well, the difference — the distinction is this. If a government — if you’ve got a government contract that is a fixed period of time, it goes away. The work may go away. That’s — there’s no guarantee that that — that there’s going to be more work when you’re done in that job.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, but we’ve seen millions and millions of jobs going away in the private sector just in the last year.

STEELE: But they come — yes, they — and they come back, though, George. That’s the point. When they go — they’ve gone away before, and they come back.

Steele has no idea what he's talking about.  For some reason, there is a difference in types of jobs at the RNC. Do these government jobs get paid in rupies or something? 

Video- 

Obama Selling and Leading on Stimulus

Obama is off to Elkhart, Indiana today to sell the stimulus to the public. A new Gallup poll already shows Obama doing a good job of selling it already.  He is owning the bill right now which is good. By owning it and it succeeding (hopefully) he will be able to do more in the future with the credit he gets. 

"The numbers: Obama has a 67% approval and only 25% disapproval on how he's handled the stimulus bill, compared to Congressional Republicans' 31% approval and very high 58% disapproval. Congressional Democrats aren't as popular as Obama himself -- explaining the GOP's efforts to tie the bill to Nancy Pelosi, instead of Obama -- but they're still in the black at 48%-42%."

If the congressional dems can ride the coat tails the GOP will be left out hanging in the wind. 

Really Creepy

Found this little photo at the Post. What is creepier than the sweaty fat Rush with Rumsfeld is the very creepy evil laughing guy behind him to the right. Just really creepy.

The fact they are all white males kind of creeps me out as well. 

I do find it funny that the leader of the repub party is a radio talkshow host. Sad days for the GOP. 

The Players Are Almost in Place

The Dems are finding themselves more and more in a drivers seat rarely seen in a generation. Obama has control of the white house. Pelosi has consolidated power in the house that is quite formidable. The last part is the a leader in the senate. Reid, unfortunately, is not the man we need right now.

I like Reid and some of what he has done to get us here but, at the end of the day, Reid does not have the leadership we need right now. We need a Rahm Emanuel of the senate but with a little better temperment for the country club of the senate. Someone who can forcefully get things dones instead of whining about 60 seats are needed to get things done.

The next leader of the senate needs to not fear holding the Repub's feet to the fire. Let them fillibuster a little more often. Use their obstructionist nature to paint a picture over the next several years. Not just for short term but long term. Someone who will create a narrative and plug that narrative of the Repubs that one day will need to be used in the future.

Don't wait 'til when you need it. Invest in it now and cash it in later.

The Erosion of the GOP

I have stated this before but the GOP is in a bind trying to appease their extreme base and appear moderate enough to attract independents.

The is a slow erosion. A lot of people have said the 2006 election got Dems in control b/c the GOP screwed up, and I agree. But '08 and right now has put Dems in a drivers seat that could affect us for a generation. If they do well for the country, they will be winning a generation or more.

By contrast, the Repubs have built a system for themselves that, if not checked, will slowly erode them out of politics.

Here is another article showing their slow demise.

How Visuals Can Sometimes Suck

Well, hearing numbers and seeing data is never really easily digestable until it is placed in a picture and the graph above shows how bad it is right now while people squabble in Washington D.C.

The scarry part is that the green line is still pointing straight down. No bend in it yet. Kinda scarry.

Dems Might Need New Deal Image

It seems that in order for the repubs to come out against the president they might be trying to indirectly go after him by going after FDR and the new deal.

Because this stimulus is being compared to, quite rightly, the new deal of FDR, they are trying to tarnish Obama in a round about way. McConnell recently said:

“But one of the good things about reading history is you learn a good deal. And, we know for sure that the big spending programs of the New Deal did not work. In 1940, unemployment was still 15%. And, it's widely agreed among economists, that what got us out of the doldrums that we were in during the Depression was the beginning of World War II."

This is very dishonest but par for the repub course. Don't like the history, make an alternative story. FDR's new deal was the backbone for getting out of the depression.

So, by going after the new deal, it is a side way to go after Obama. Or maybe at least by attacking the new deal, they can use a their false history as a reason why they aren't supporting it.

So it might be a in the dems advantage to prevent the repubs from tarnishing the new deal.