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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

What will the Senate do with the Stimulus Bill?

I’ve been watching Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R – Texas) debating John Kerry (D – Massachusetts) debating the economic stimulus bill and it’s related problems with bipartisanship on MEET THE PRESS. Needless to say, Kerry is pushing for jobs, education and infrastructure employment. Hutchinson is pushing for tax cuts, of course, and is threatening another 100% Republican pullout. What stuck in my mind, however, was her statement that the Infrastructure has been well-funded so far and is not a problem.  

This caught me by surprise (but not, apparently, host David Gregory who seemed much more interested in trapping Kerry in a statement on Thomas Dashiell’s tax situation.) I’ll have to wait until they post the video online to catch the statement again, but I’m pretty sure our highways and bridges have not had strong Federal support and the infrastructure is falling apart. One of the reasons is the last 8 years of tax cuts pushed by the Bush Administration and six years of it with a Republican controlled Congress that threw away a surplus and cut the taxes and, finally, lost billions of dollars on war spending – read borrowing from China, etc. – and other throwaways. But Hutchinson thinks the infrastructure is covered, and let’s cut more taxes.

The Republicans got us into this mess and they seem insistent on keeping us in it, despite Obama’s visibly forward approach to working with them.

Give me a break. Jobs are disappearing in the tens of thousands (I just found out that I will probably lose my part-time teaching gig at the end of the term, so I’m back with the crowd having been jobless more than once in the last three years) and the local business economy is shrinking from area to area. Retirement funds are disappearing in big bites as 401(k)’s have their investments shrinking from month to month.

So what will the Senate do with the Stimulus Bill? Tune in next week.

Under The LobsterScope


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/ 4 Comments

4 comments

  1. rfahey22

    The Republicans are in a position of historic weakness (though hopefully they’ll sink even lower).  I think that it will pass because Obama’s popularity is too high and the realities of the situation are too grave for a filibuster.

  2. canadian gal

    canadians and others across the world are in a bit of a tizzy over the ‘buy american’ provision in the stimulus.  this protectionist rider could cause the world to get into a serious depression.

    As China, India and the European Union warned that protectionist barriers would hinder world trade, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada expects the United States to respect its free trade commitments as it moves to build new roads, railways, bridges, airports and housing.

    “This is obviously a serious matter and a serious concern to us,” Harper told the Commons.

    “I know that countries around the world are expressing grave concern about some of these measures that go against, not just the obligations of the United States but, frankly, the spirit of our G20 discussions.”

    Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae said bluntly the position taken by the U.S. Congress is illegal.

    “A country cannot bring in a measure that restricts international commerce and international activity in this way,” he said.”We are reminding the Americans that they have legal obligations under NAFTA, under WTO,” said International Trade Minister Stockwell Day. “History shows clearly that you can’t fall back into protectionist measures. That happened in the 1930s and what could have been a bad one- or two-year recession turned into, as we know, the Great Depression. So we want to curtail that.”

    The real fear is America’s move will trigger other governments to apply similar measures.

    “If other major economies did the same thing, then arguably it would work against stimulating global recovery,” said Herman.

    i hope they back away from this or it could get really ugly.

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