faced with Republicans, Obama turns into mush
I'm doing this from memory, so please don't jump on me if I don't get every word right, but here's what Obama said upon exiting his meeting last Tuesday with House Republicans (no, the Democrats were not invited to the private get-together).
Obama said he had just had a fruitful meeting with the House Republicans.
But, NOT ONE Republican House member went on to vote for the "stimulus" bill. So how "fruitful" could the meeting have been, really? http://tinyurl.com/aeab4j
Obama said he told the House Republicans he had no ownership of the bill.
What message was Obama trying to convey to the House Republicans by saying that? ... by disclaiming ownership of the bill? That if they failed to pass it, he would not be upset or vengeful toward them?
Next, Obama said the MOST hilarious thing of all ... he said he was not expecting "unanimous" support from the House Republicans for the stimulus bill.
That remark left me rolling on the floor with laughter. Forget "unanimous." ... the bill did NOT get ANY House Republican votes. Not a single one.
Yet, in his sickening attempt to curry favor with House Republicans, Obama had already told the House Democrats to jettison two key Democratic provisions. The two provisions were: (1) funds for family planning, and (2) legislation enabling judges in mortgage foreclosure cases to re-cast mortgages, so homeowners could afford to make the monthly payments and stay in their homes instead of becoming homeless and having to live in a tent in a park where they could freeze to death.
But, NOT ONE Republican House member voted for the "stimulus" bill anyway.
So, it seems Obama stinks as a politician, and it also seems that the only people Obama will insult, degrade and push around are fellow Democrats who dare to run against him. When faced with Republicans, Obama turns into mush.
Maybe if Obama were a better person or a better politician (say, like FDR), he would have proposed -- with the help of his 300 economic advisors -- a bill of his own design and, then, would have fought tooth and nail to win support for it.
Instead Obama caved to the House Republicans to NO avail.
What a wuss.
Do I think we need a stimulus bill? Yes.
Do I think this stimulus bill is a good bill? No, it is a "pork-barrel special." Or, to put it another way, it is a Christmas tree upon which everyone has hung his favorite pork-barrel self-serving project
Do I think this legislation will "stimulate" the economy and help it to recover? No. Only 25% of the $819 Billion will be spent in the first year or two, the rest will be spent years from now. How can that possibly be considered a "stimulus"?
Do I think Obama has shown himself to be the leader we need right now? No ... no ... no.
Obama expended political capital sucking up to the Republicans, and it didn't do him a bit of good.
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wave his magic, charming wand and turn the whole country a lovely purple hue. what happened?
The Republicans are in the minority, they are ticked-off, and they have finally found their cojones. It is going to be interesting.
Excellent post, RaR. It was mostly Pelosi's bill so maybe that's why PO said what he did. O has no experience building a consensus for a bill.
What we need is a REAL stimulus bill that'd give us the help we need NOW. The GOP will offer their own idea for a stimulus bill that could include 4% mortgages. It'll be interesting to see what Geithner has planned for the other $350b TARP.
Some items of interest:
Free Frank Warner: Harvard economist Robert Barro on ‘stimulus’ bill: Peacetime government spending is almost zero boost to economy
GOP leader doubts stimulus bill will pass Senate - Yahoo! News
Obama and FEMA are handling the ice storms in Kentucky about as well as Bush did Katrina. Can you say NOT ready to lead, boys and girls?
http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2009/01/obama-and-fema-leave-ameri...
This is a bit of an outrage.
the man, but vote against his ideas.
Also other blogs are saying Repubs will praise Obama, then blame Pelosi for putting out lousy bills. And predictably, Obama will back away from anything mildly unpopular. Two weeks, it took them two weeks to figure him out!
n/t
Obama has been mush and will be mush. He doesn't know how not to be mush. He is the passive-aggressive type, remember? Let's others do his dirty work for him. And if any good comes of it, it was all his idea and his work too. Same pattern he has shown throughout his career. Why anyone is surprised by this is a mystery to me. His favorite vote is "present", after all. Why do more than that if he doesn't have to? It's much more fun to have all his friends from Chicago come to visit at the White House than it is to actually DO the job he was elected to do. As far as I can tell, he hasn't really worked at much of anything in his life. Why should he change now?
He will go on with this pattern of trying to be everyone's friend, and failing at his job because of it. He will still get paid, but we will pay the price. Some of us, the ones affected by the ice storm, already are.
Sorry for being OT but this makes me so angry I thought it ought to be shared.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090201/ap_on_bi_ge/bailout_foreign_workers
So much for creating jobs for Americans with tax breaks or bailout funds ...
Major U.S. banks sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers into the country for high-paying jobs even as the system was melting down last year and Americans were getting laid off, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.
The dozen banks now receiving the biggest rescue packages, totaling more than $150 billion, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for positions that included senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households.
As the economic collapse worsened last year — with huge numbers of bank employees laid off — the numbers of visas sought by the dozen banks in AP's analysis increased by nearly one-third, from 3,258 in the 2007 budget year to 4,163 in fiscal 2008.
And the motive...?
Foreigners are attractive hires because companies have found ways to pay them less than American workers.
Companies are required to pay foreign workers a prevailing wage based on the job's description. But they can use the lower end of government wage scales even for highly skilled workers.
Can we stop talking about the magic of capitalism and "markets" now? When unfettered greed enters the equation, all bets are off! These asshats have to be regulated and, if necessary, chained and whipped until they realize the American people won't take this crap anymore.
That's a lousy situation you describe. They shouldn't get the damn visas and should be prohibitively taxed for pulling stunts like that but the damn government is complicit. If Obama wants to bring real change, that schist has to cease.