Funny that neither of the two chief sponsors of the legislation are Democrats.
Also funny that the Congressional Budget Office doesn’t say that the bill will drive 15 percent of our population into bankruptcy. One would think they would have mentioned something about it. Instead they mostly say that the bill would reduce the deficit. Pdf.
You seem to be very concerned about government expenditures, focusonz, and how that will affect our children’s future.
How much, exactly, is the war in Iraq costing us, again?
Factoring in the huge rise in oil cost for extra credit. Then maybe he could factor in the cost of not doing anything serious about climate change?
The OP is good but it’s not great. There should be something in there about Obama confiscating all our weapons and leaving us defenseless against attacks by gay Mexican terrorists.
It’s amusing how arguments like these always make the assumption that not preventing or preparing for a disaster is cost free. Ask the residents of New Orleans how much they benefited from the government skimping on flood prevention.
Local and State government, right?
Because everyone “knew” that one day the shit would hit the fan down there, but how many past presidents actually ever did, or even said anything about the impending doom of a hurricane hitting New Orleans sometime “soon”?
Hey one day we are going to get hit by a asteroid, shouldn’t we do something about that?!?!?
:rolleyes:
And federal. Of course, the Bush Administration most likely actively wanted a disaster. Drive off those pesky poor black people, raise oil prices with the damaged refineries, another chance to “demonstrate” the “uselessness” of government, and it was an excuse to funnel more money to Blackwater.
Why not, to the extent we can ?
Is this really the kind of stuff the right-wingers are going to use in the upcoming campaign? “OBAMA WANTS TO BANKRUPT 45 MILLION FAMILIES!!!” :eek: :eek: :eek:
Pssssst. For a smear campaign to succeed, it has to have at least some small probability of actually occurring.
No cite at hand, but I recall reading that shortly after he took office, W was given a briefing paper warning of three possible major disasters on his watch: A terrorist attack on NYC, a hurricane striking NOLA, and an earthquake in San Francisco.
I’m glad I don’t live in San Francisco.
Yes.
Yes, we should. And could.
What is your point?
And ideally, it doesn’t have the apparent support of thirty-something Republican senators.
You have way too many complicated numbers in your OP. I’m sure you didn’t expect people like me to develop an acute understanding of national accounting and budget matters and tried to make it simple.
Unfortunately, it is hard to comment in any meaningful way on such a vast and complex topic. There are so many ramifications to it since it is ultimately tied to a whole host of economic conditions that lie in the semi-distant future: E.G: Does it matter if taxes rise 5% if income rises 20%? No, it does not.
I agree, however, that a lot of bills suck. If I had to bet, I’d wager this one sucks too for one reason or another. If that was your point, I probably agree. Anything else is akin to talk about how many jiggarams are in the megahertz and whether dipping them in marinara sauce would make the cpu eat more fruit.
If your objective is to cast Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt about Obama’s economic policies, it is utterly futile. Obama could sponsor a bill that legalizes tattooing babies and I still wouldn’t vote republican. The republican party has made too many major blunders recently and needs a severe kick to the nads. I’ll reconsider when they stop starting “wars” on drugs, countries, sex and other crap they have no business doing.
Pssst… I have considerable experience with federal budgeting and the numbers in the OP are bogus. He might have done slightly better by hitting random keys on the keyboard kind of bogus.
How exactly does McCain differ from Obama on these issues?
I recall hearing the same thing.
Well, ManiacMan’s pretty far to the right, as I recall. I expect it boils down to “But if we stop that asteroid, that’s helping people ! Only liberals, or to be more frank God Hating Commies go around helping people ! ! They should help themselves via the Free Market ! ! Besides, it probably won’t hit me, so why do I care ?”
This is, of course, crazy talk. Bush never gave one second of thought to the residents of New Orleans until they were affecting his ratings as President. Why would he? Same with the CEOs of the oil companies that drill down there in the gulf. They only think about the general population in their companies ability to hire a workforce with the required skills at a low enough cost that they are profitable and competive. Why would they think of anything else?
Hell, at my job I don’t really think how my decisions are going to affect the workers around me on this level… I mean, I do consider how my actions are going to affect my immediate co-workers workloads and deadlines, but if a decision I make is ultimately going to cause the layoff of several assembly line workers in Taiwan because I have made things easier to build, I don’t really consider that… How can I? It would be difficult to foresee all the consequences of my actions on this level.
Regarding ManiacMans post; he is correct. The people of New Orleans were screwed over by the local and state governments before the storm… It was their responsibility to prepare for Katrina and make sure everything was in place. In this, they mostly failed. But the failure of our national governement in responding to this disaster was shameful. Much worse of a failure than the corruption of the local politicians IMHO.
Finally, back to the OP, The 2009 budget submitted buy GW is 3.1 Trillion (this does not include Iraq and Afganistan)! Iraq is currently costing us from 8 to 12 billion dollars per month! What is this gaining us? Do we really think our investment there is going to reduce the price of oil to such an extent through regional stability or love for their American liberators that we will see a return on this investment? Where is your outrage about this. I still think you are drinking the right-wing blog kool-aide and not thinking critically…
True. Because my thoughts upon reading the OP were "If I’m going to go bankrupt the last thing I want is some conservative President who’s going to cut back on social services. I’m voting for one of those liberal Presidents who’ll give me lots of welfare and free cheese.’’
Such bullshit…
Because it doesn’t matter who is in office…democrat or republican nothing gets done until it is too late.
No my point is that nobody would ever life a finger until concrete proof exists that something bad is going to happen until it is too late.
And I don’t know what kind of right wing kooks you hang out with, but I am not like that.
An ideological hatred towards government helping people. Class hatred. Sadism.
No, it wasn’t. It was the federal government that designed, built, and maintained the levees.
Nah. Indifference. Complete and utter indifference. Not in a cruel sort of way or in a classism sort of way; they just never think about it. It is completely alien to their experiences. Do you think there are any politicians at this level who knows what it is like to stand in line at the social security adminstration? Who knows what is is like to buy milk at a 7-Eleven (or for that matter at a grocery store)? Who knows what the price of bread, or gas, or auto-insurance is? They live in a different world.
My mother-in-law is like this. Nice lady, intelligent, but she has no idea what it is like to decide between paying your credit card bill, public service, or buying groceries. The concept is completely alien to her and she cannot comprehend it at all… She thinks that anyone who has to make a decision like this is somehow deficient. Attributing this kind of thinking to evil or malice gives too much credit to the people you are talking about. They are wrapped up in their own little worlds and cannot fathom a culture this different from theirs…
Yes, but again this is just one of hundred of projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars done by the government. It is possible, even likely, that a federal engineer knew that the preparations we insufficient and sent word up the chain to his superiors in Washington. But again, to these people it is an abstract implementation of politics, not a product that serves customers, in this case, the citizens of New Orleans. It was the responsibility of the state and local government, the direct representatives of the federal engineers customers, to make sue the job was being done right and to make the peoples voices heard. They failed. They were also too busy looking after teir own power and playing their own political games. Both parties are guilty of this (lately, on the national level, the republicans have been worse, while locally the democrats are worse) and it is rare that the government does anything productive for its citenzens. Hell, I think the last good laws that benifited the public at large (as opposed to a specific lobby) was the clear air and water acts. How long ago was that?