Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
Stock Market Volatility (VIX) - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Investor Sentiment - 25th Mar 24
The Federal Reserve Didn't Do Anything But It Had Plenty to Say - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Breadth - 24th Mar 24
Stock Market Margin Debt Indicator - 24th Mar 24
It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - 24th Mar 24
Stocks: What to Make of All This Insider Selling- 24th Mar 24
Money Supply Continues To Fall, Economy Worsens – Investors Don’t Care - 24th Mar 24
Get an Edge in the Crypto Market with Order Flow - 24th Mar 24
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Republicans Put Party Before Interests of the Nation

Politics / US Politics Feb 03, 2009 - 02:19 PM GMT

By: Walter_Brasch

Politics Best Financial Markets Analysis ArticleEvery House Republican and 11 Democrats voted against President Barack Obama's $819 billion stimulus package. It still passed by a vote of 244 to 188. There are enough votes in the Senate to pass the bill, but the obstructionist Republican minority, still nursing the wounds inflicted by the public in the November election, can block it by endless political manoeuvring and a filibuster.


The Republicans wail that the President's stimulus package is laden with spending proposals that don't directly attack the recession. However, instead of debating the merits of the package, instead of proposing amendments to add to or subtract from the $819 billion, the Republicans ganged up, voted as a bloc, and placed party loyalty above the needs of the nation.

These are the same "fiscally responsible" Republicans who weren't reluctant to give away billions of taxpayer money to Halliburton, KBR, and other corporations favored by the Bush–Cheney Administration. These are the same Republicans who did little to control runaway spending that brought the nation from a surplus when Bill Clinton left office to the largest deficit in the history of the nation. These are also the same Republicans, unfortunately assisted by a large chunk of complicit Democrats, who most assuredly weren't reluctant to create a $750 billion bailout package that benefited banks, insurance companies, and the Wall Street millionaires of greed, and was lacking adequate oversight or accountability.

These are the same Republicans who came up with two tax cuts or rebates, most of which helped Big Business, with some chum thrown to the masses before the 2006 and 2008 elections. Rebates, which the Republicans demand be placed in the new stimulus bill, didn't work then; they won't work now.

And, now they oppose President Obama's plan that would save or create about three million jobs, improve the nation's infrastructure, provide health care for the uninsured, fund clear-water and environmental projects, provide housing assistance, improve mass transit, provide additional funding for special education programs, and assist both the workers and the nation to recover from a Recession that began more than a year ago.

The Republicans sniff that the President didn't take their feelings into consideration. However, unlike the previous "My way or the highway" President, this President met several times with the Republicans, got their advice and concerns, and included some of their suggestions into his proposed legislation. Apparently, the Republicans think bipartisan support means that the minority party must throw temper tantrums until they get everything it wants.

What these politicians don't acknowledge is that their constituents, the American people, wanted Barack Obama to become president and lead the nation out of its myriad problems. One week after the inauguration, scientific polls showed President Obama with about a 70 percent popularity rating, the highest of any president in his first week. Only 12 percent were negative—the lowest of any president, and that includes George Washington.

In his inaugural address, Barack Obama told the nation "the time has come to set aside childish things." A core of Republicans don't understand this—they have dug in their heels and like Peter Pan are belting out the verse that they don't want to grow up.

If the Republican minority continues to whine, complain, and try to block the nation's recovery, they will cement their future as defenders of corporate greed and petty politics at the expense of the needs of the people.

by Walter and Rosemary Brasch

http://www.walterbrasch.com

Copyright 2009 Walter M Brasch
Rosemary Brasch is a former secretary, Red Cross national disaster family services specialist, union grievance officer, and university labor studies instructor. Walter Brasch is a university journalism professor, syndicated columnist, and author of 17 books. His current books are America's Unpatriotic Acts , The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina , and Sex and the Single Beer Can: Probing the Media and American Culture . All are available through amazon.com, bn.com, or other bookstores. You may contact Dr. Brasch at brasch@bloomu.edu

Walter Brasch Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in