Republican Leader Advising Republicans To Vote Against Stimulus Package

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It’s bout time the Republicans showed a bit of a backbone: (h/t Instapundit)

President Barack Obama is coming to the Capitol this afternoon to curry favor with congressional Republicans. But it appears GOP leaders have already made up their minds to oppose his $825 billion stimulus plan.

House Republican Leader John A. Boehner and his No. 2, Whip Eric Cantor, told their rank-and-file members Tuesday morning during a closed-door meeting to oppose the bill when it comes to the floor Wednesday, according to an aide familiar with the discussion. Boehner told members that he’s voting against the stimulus, and Cantor told the assembled Republicans that there wasn’t any reason for them to support the measure, according to another person in the room. Cantor and his whip team are going to urge GOP members to oppose it.

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday morning that Democrats in Congress are “drifting away” from Obama’s preferred stimulus plan, which was supposed to include 40 percent tax cuts and be free of earmarks.

“Listening to what he said he wanted, we think we may be closer to that, oddly enough, than the Democratic majority, which seems to be pulling in the direction of fewer tax — less tax relief and things like fixing up the [National] Mall. You know, most people don’t think that’s the way we ought to spend stimulus money,” McConnell said.

Redstate has up the list of amendments submitted by Republicans to the bill, check out how they were received:

AUTHOR

DESCRIPTION

ACCEPTED/REJECTED

Camp Strike “Making Work Pay,” reduce the 10% and 15% individual income tax brackets to 5% and 10%, respectively, for 2009 and 2010.

REJECTED
No Democrats supporting

Herger Add an above-the-line deduction for heath insurance premiums

REJECTED
No Democrats supporting

Johnson Exempt unemployment benefits from income taxation in 2008 and 2009.

REJECTED
No Democrats supporting

Brady AMT Patch for 2009

REJECTED
No Democrats supporting

Ryan Make permanent the dividends and capital gains tax rats and index the latter for inflation.

REJECTED
No Democrats supporting

Linder Add a GED / training requirement for those getting extended unemployment benefits

REJECTED
No Democrats supporting

Brown-Waite GAO study of impact of COBRA provisions on employer costs

REJECTED
No Democrats supporting

Davis $7B transfer from federal to state unemployment accounts to prevent state payroll tax increases

REJECTED
No Democrats supporting

Reichert Prohibit HIT money from being spent until interoperability standards are in place

REJECTED
No Democrats supporting

Boustany Prohibiting Medicare from using comparative effectiveness research to restrict access

REJECTED
No Democrats supporting

Heller Extending homebuyer tax credit through 2009, allow it to be claimed by anyone purchasing a primary residence (as opposed to just first-time homebuyers), and require buyers to have at least a 5% down payment to get the credit

REJECTED
One Democrat supporting

Roskam GAO study to assess success of program in creating private sector jobs

ACCEPTED

Herger Conditions Health IT funding on providers giving patients additional price transparency

REJECTED
No Democrats supporting

Johnson Strikes the HIT funding provisions and replaces it with tax incentives

REJECTED
No Democrats supporting

Brown-Waite Remove the provision requiring states to make permanent changes to their benefit eligibility rules to be eligible for a temporary transfer of federal unemployment funds

REJECTED
No Democrats supporting

Davis Increase to $5,000 the cap on tax credits for individuals purchasing energy efficient property (windows, furnaces, etc)

REJECTED
No Democrats supporting

Boustany Strike the HIT privacy language and replace with a report

REJECTED
No Democrats supporting

REJECTED
No Democrats supporting

Johnson Allow seniors to opt out of Part A of Medicare

REJECTED
No Democrats supporting


Yeah, judging bout how well the Democrats worked with the Republicans I can’t understand why in the world the Republicans would dismiss the bill.

That’s called the Democrat version of bipartisanship….Obama style!

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Why doesn’t he just tell Republicans to vote against it, or look elsewhere for funds for re-election?

Meanwhile, why not propose $4 billion for the NRA to just be fair.

Republicans are trying to sabotage economic recovery the same way the Democratic party tried to sabotage the Iraq war. The only way they have to get back into power is to secure a economic collapse. They more terrifed at what will happen to their party if Obama succeeds than what happens to our country if it fails.

Fit fit,

What are you smoking? The Democrats have shown that they will not accept any input from the Republicans on this bill. They have the votes to pass it on their own. How are the Republicans “trying to sabotage economic recovery” by not voting for it?

fit fit, maybe throwing money at the problem isn’t the real solution? It never really worked for other countries, the government is one of the most wasteful, greedy, methods to distribute money much less stimulate anything. Stimulus needs to come from the ground up like it always has. Only true hope and change come from the people of this great country.. not the one. Stimulus money has to come from somewhere and the more of it we get, the more we can guarantee was wasted in the process, and will have to be paid back to governments like the chinese. Like the old saying goes, it takes 10 dollars to deliver 1 dollar to the american public. I disagreed with bush bailing out the unions and I disagree with the governement trying to take over as the solution for the people. That is one of the many reasons I am a conservative. Less government, more opportunities.

Fit, begging your pardon, but you are truly missing the big picture here.

The Dems have almost a supermajority, and only need a few GOP members to push it thru. Obama doesn’t want it to go thru that way… why? He needs to pass equal blame to the GOP when it doesn’t work. If he were so all fired confident this was a slam dunk “cure”, he’d just let the Dems pass it, and take all the credit for it’s success while beating on the GOP.

Interesting concept, eh? Thought about that?

The GOP is incapable of sabotaging *anything* in this Congress. Keep this in mind as you watch the events for the next few years.

Other than that, my opine is that the GOP should stand against this wasteful spending of pork that has nothing to do with “economic recovery”, as Fit likes to call it. They should state so, and why. Then STFU and let the Dems take the responsibility for what they sow.

mata: The Dems have almost a supermajority, and only need a few GOP members to push it thru. Obama doesn’t want it to go thru that way… why? He needs to pass equal blame to the GOP when it doesn’t work.

pretty cynical don’t you think?

(The Hill)

“We had a very productive meeting with the president,” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said. “He reiterated his desire to work with us to try to find common ground where we could. Clearly there are some differences that were expressed with regard to the economic rescue package.”

GOP Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) said “the most encouraging statement the president made today, I think, was that he had no pride of authorship on this bill.”

“We take that to mean that tomorrow’s vote is only the first step in the process, only the beginning,” Cantor said.

House Republicans immediately reconvened without the president to continue working on the bill they’re crafting as an alternative, Cantor said.

All Obama needs to do is show cooperation, that his hand is out, that he is open to the Republicans. It’s the crafting public of perception that there is a cooperative atmosphere for the stimulus bill that is the goal Obama has in mind; the reality for GOP participation is secondary, as it’s next to nil.

Hence, while MataHarley’s comment is probably true ( “He needs to pass equal blame to the GOP when it doesn’t work.”), it’s only an incidental truth, the end goal is not the ‘reality’ of broadening congressional gop support for it the bill, it’s the public perception that the bill had a cooperative spirit in it’s construction. It’s this perception that the masses will take away from the media, they won’t take away the ‘reality’ of Red states’ analysis.

Obama will win the war of perception here and in the process get the bill he wants (anything he doesn’t get will go in separate legislation), and even maintain or strengthen his multiparty support.

FIT FIT

Got news for you NOTHING, NOTHING the government has done or can do will get us out of the economic mess that has been created over the last 30 years. There is nothing wrong with the credit markets, they are finally operating as they should. There are only 2 things government action will do and has already begun doing

1. MAKE THINGS WORSE
2. EXTEND THE PAIN LONGER

The idots who did not see or understand this problem are not inteligent enough to fix it – they are politicians for Pete’s sake – they have never been accused of having intelligence

Fit fit,

It’s not the job of the Fed Gov’t to do ANYTHING about the current situation except get the hell out of the way of the private sector.

This mess started when the politicians started tinkering with things they didn’t understand and poking their fingers and noses in places where they didn’t belong.

Let the system collapse, let the chips fall where they may, and then the private sector, and the capitalists who have always made America great, will pick up the pieces and we will move forward to be stronger than ever.

If the Fed Gov’t wants to assist and speed along the recovery they should immediately cut spending across the board, with the exception of military spending. The Feds should also immediately cut corporate tax rates, capital gains tax rates, and individual income tax rates so that We the People will have money in our pockets to get OUR economy back on its’ feet.

Furthermore, the Fed Gov’t needs to get its’ fingers out of the banking and mortgage industry.

They have no business there.

We’ve learned the hard way that social engineering through mortgages will result in nothing but disaster.

Hopefully we have learned the lesson well.

The Dims have the votes to pass this thing if that is what they want to do. They don’t need any Rep help. None.

The advantage goes to the Rep’s on this one if they stand by their principles. The American people are opposed to this thing and if they stand their ground then the millstone will be solidly around the necks of the Dims.

Obama’s Bill Hands ACORN $5.2 Billion Bailout
http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/obama_bailout_bill/2009/01/27/175729.html

Excerpt:

Limbaugh warned his listeners Tuesday: “I’ll tell you what’s going on here: We, ladies & gentlemen, we’re funding Obama and the Democrats’ army on the street. We are funding the forces of the Democrat party’s re-election.”

I wish the Republicans could sabotage this lemon. This is full of pet projects that have been out of the grasp, rightly so, of democrats for years. It’s going to take almost a decade to get some of the money in this boondoggle out to the public, how’s that helping to stimulate this economy now? This recession will be over and done with before the bulk of the money reaches the public, and will be incorporated into regular spending taking on an unfortunate life of its own. We’d be better off to ride it out.

The WSJ lists some of the idiocy:

“We’ve looked it over, and even we can’t quite believe it. There’s $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn’t turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects. There’s even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.

In selling the plan, President Obama has said this bill will make “dramatic investments to revive our flagging economy.” Well, you be the judge. Some $30 billion, or less than 5% of the spending in the bill, is for fixing bridges or other highway projects. There’s another $40 billion for broadband and electric grid development, airports and clean water projects that are arguably worthwhile priorities.

Add the roughly $20 billion for business tax cuts, and by our estimate only $90 billion out of $825 billion, or about *****12 cents of every $1,****** is for something that can plausibly be considered a growth stimulus. And even many of these projects aren’t likely to help the economy immediately…..”

>snipsnip<

“This is supposed to be a new era of bipartisanship, but this bill was written based on the wish list of every living — or dead — Democratic interest group. As Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it, “We won the election. We wrote the bill.” So they did. Republicans should let them take all of the credit.”

Read the whole thing:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123310466514522309.html

Peter Schiff slams stimulus
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sRY_QPl9vCU&eurl=http://www.antagoniste.net/

Peter Schiff says that the stimulus package is the worst thing we can do… it is only contributing to the problem…

It didn’t work in Communist China neither in Soviet Union, Obama is not smarter that Khrouctchev or Mao…

What would work would be…

I will agree with the stimulus package on one condition: name one government program that has succeeded. Social Security? Medicare? Not sure I trust the government with my money

liam: name one government program that has succeeded.

I guess we could say that to private programs as well. Pensions from major corporations have failed, 401k programs currently that have lost much of their asset values. The Fed is backing Money Market Accounts (to prevent their collapse). So build up equity in your home to retire… oh, wait on that. Home values have dropped 20+% and dropping.

And then comes inflation… That will take care of your non asset savings.

Not to defend govt programs, mind you…. I mean, fer heavens sake, I’m one of those who thinks if you want it done in the worst possible way, get the govt to do it.

But, there is an exception…. and one which has historically performed profitably long term – US post office. Even in 2008, with the down turn, they managed to turn $672 million on gross revenue of $20.4 billion during the first quarter. Tho they are not required by federal law to turn a profit, they often do so, with over $1 billion a year, for multiple consecutive years, in the past.

I’m always glad to have alternatives, but I have to say… the amount of times the US post office has screwed it up compared to the amount of times I’ve depended upon it? Minimal to non-existant.

Before we start tossing fistfuls of money in the hole of this economic crisis, it would probably behoove us to understand how we got here in the first place:
First, everybody seemed to forget that the moment that something becomes a “can’t lose, sure thing” is the moment you should take your money and run. Up until summer 2007 or so, real estate was believed to have no where to go but up. Now, we could be forgiven for not remembering that the belief that the stock market could only go up led to the Great Crash of 1929 (you’d have to be 90+ to have a decent memory of it). But, there was a much clearer example of property over-inflation in much more recent history. Remember when in the 1980’s everybody was wondering whether we were going to get economically swallowed by Japan? Then suddenly in the 1990’s Japan suddenly fell off the map… Why? Because they had their own economic collapse due to over inflation of property values. But, that’s just the start.
Second, our liberal friends in Washington decided that it was somehow a given right that everybody should be able to own a home of their own. Pressure was brought to bear on the likes of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and various other bank agencies to extend credit to even the most high-risk and un-creditworthy borrowers. In the name of social engineering they decided that good business sense should be thrown out the window.
Now, this is where the banking industry deserves some blame (and why the golden parachute deals some of those executives have gotten sicken me); far too many institutions got drunk on the interest they could earn off these mortgages, and gave out money to almost anyone who could make it to the loan desk.
The final idiocy here is that now the liberals believe that more social engineering is the way to get us out of this mess. The liberals’ 45 year-old wish list is the way deeper in, not the way out.

I would say in fairness, it takes two to tango with who got who into the debt situation. I believe in general, Americans like to have all the hollywood dream assets (democrat or republican). The whole, ‘living within your means’ is pretty much a saying from the past. There is a lot of money to be made from the people willing to spend it.
@blast:
“So build up equity in your home to retire…oh, wait on that. Home values have dropped 20+% and dropping.”
and
“And then comes inflation… That will take care of your non asset savings.”

I was just talking with a friend last night about those exact things… so absolutely true.

Mata, I can see where you are coming from with the post office, but wouldn’t you say that the government is a service not a business? If anything (ideally so don’t harass me to bad on this) we should say, “hey post office, you have 100 dollars to spend”. If at the end of the year they use it, great, thats what we set it aside for. If they come in under that amount, great, we roll it into solving any debt we have. Obviously I am simplifying a complex issue, though.

Every time they raise stamp prices, I think of that (not that they should stay 10 cents). I own a couple companies and find it rediculous that I am setting aside at least 30% of my income for taxes. I am of the belief that the federal government is much larger than it should be, and far from what the founding fathers had in mind. What ever happened to things happening at the state level? When they set up a system of checks and balances, they did it because they knew man was corrupt and needed to have accountability. Now that we have a huge government (that is getting bigger), how do you go about deflating the beast without sparking another revolutionary war against the crown?