There’s that word Billion again
$787 Billion dollars – that’s the cost of the current package. As it’s explained to me this bill would save and or create 3.5 million jobs. The current market is watching job after job fly out the window, the air out there is foul with lay-off after lay-off. Our economy is a gaping wound and we can’t seem to stop the bleeding. Yet with all of that for some reason Obama can’t seem to get any Republican support for his package and nearly every Democrat ushers it through.
Do we have a Congressional / Senatorial partisan stand off going on here with the American people being the only ones get it between the eyes? Or do the Republicans see something they don’t?
I, like many of you don’t like this “going into to debt” thing. It ain’t good. But at this point what do you do about it? Fiscally speaking we’re all heroine addicts if you pull us right off the smack we’ll jones and die – so what’s government now, one big methadone clinic. We’ve lost our perspective around dollars and cents, when we throw the number “billion” around with the casualness’ of spend all you want we’ll print more – our problems are huge. Perspective moment here – a billion seconds ago it was the early seventies. People were wearing thick wide belts with platform shoes and striped pants (and those were the guys).
No one can lay claim to fiscal responsibility anymore. I had always admired the Republican Party for the approach to money. Now the days of the fiscally responsible Republican are gone – I’m sorry that person doesn’t exist anymore. Maybe, just maybe you could make an argument for Judd Gregg, maybe. But at the end of the day he wouldn’t cross his party line to do what he could do – so game over. But again, I’ll ask the question – are they seeing something I/we/Democrats don’t? Since I’m no financial wizard the answer to the question is I honestly don’t know? But let’s do a gut check and pull on recent history.
Bush did a Stimulus package that had Americans receive anywhere from nothing to $1,200.00 – depending how you filed. Most folks received a check for $600.00 as did I. When we received those checks gas was around $4.00 per gallon as was home heating oil. So what did that “bi-partisan” passed bill do? Nothing, some folks gave there oil companies enough money so they could get another delivery and some got a new TV. That stimulus package was put in place to boost the economy, instead it collapsed. That bill was ushered through with both sides voting “yes” on it and even though I don’t & didn’t agree with it I am sure it pulled some folks out of a hole, so it wasn’t all bad. But, as they say – at the end of the day, it failed.
Again I’m not a fan of huge debt and this package has got that built in, but any package passed is going to have it. It’s unavoidable. Yet the Pubs stay on their side of the hall and the dems (there are a few exceptions) stay on their side, somehow they have to come together otherwise they are going to start opening up senate and congressional meetings with “Welcome to Thunderdome”, and that’s not what we want. What the hell is up with that?
