Comments on: Barack Obama’s 2009 Economic Stimulus Plan

By: Larry

Larry — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:42:00 +0000

Ilin, I agree with you on the issue of Americans choosing to buy foreign products has hurt our economy and your last statement, “Too much greed” is the very crux of the problem. If you stop and think about it every major industry that lost jobs are those tied heavily to unions. The steel industry, the auto industry, the textile industry. Our government wants to blame NAFTA for losing companies in this country but this was happening long before NAFTA was put in place. Most Americans today do not shop for value, they shop for price. Why would someone buy something that sells in one store for $7.97 when you can get it for $6.89 at Walmart. Some people who live comfortably and are loyal to a brand or company will pay the higher price but the sheer size of Walmart’s sales tells us that price is more important. People buy a Honda or Toyota because they will get a higher quality car with higher resell value than American cars. American car manufacturers, to cut their costs must opt to use parts of lesser quality to keep their prices down.And why, because of their high labor costs. The steel industry almost became extinct in this country because the price of U.S steel was so high that companies could import it at a cheaper price than they could get it right here. So what was the government’s solution. They took the easy way out by raising tariffs on these imported products to bring the prices in line with American goods. Thus NAFTA was created because the various countries complained about the high tariffs on their imported goods. As long as the government continues to favor unions and allow them to return to the power they had years ago in the steel and textile industries we will not see people buying American made products. If you think it is bad now just envision the day when Americans are ordering merchandise online from Chinese retailers because they can get it cheaper than they can at Walmart.

By: llin

llin — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 16:21:25 +0000

One reason our enonomy is so bad, is that our jobs are overseas, and people are buying foreign cars. We are cutting our own throats. We need to get our jobs back here in America and buy american made cars and products. Let China fend for themselves. Every thing you pick up is made in China! Too much greed!!!

By: benjamin

benjamin — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 04:54:18 +0000

The republican party chose politics over whats good for the nation. But when you really think about it, so did the democrats! How else do you explain the fact that almost no republicans backed this thing while almost no democrats DIDN’T back this thing. That means that most people just voted with their party. There is no other way to have such a balanced split in opinions! I bet you can’t even get all of either party to give you the same answer on abortion or gun control if you asked each one privately and got an honest answer. There will always be some Dems love their guns and there will also be some republicans that would abort. So how is it that you get such partisan reviews of the stimulus plan. BECAUSE the Dems just wanted to say yes to back their party and the republicans just said no to back their party as well. Conclusion, there are very few of either that really give a legitimate crap! As in, very few of them that sat down and open mindedly weighed the issues and thought about whats best for the American people. If it was all about whats best for the American people, then you would have seen some mixed/bipartisan results. It’s just not possible for all of one party to agree when all of the other disagrees… especially when it comes do doing whats good for the country. So here’s some news to all of us, Washington has been and is STILL broken! It’s just politics as usual ON BOTH SIDES!

I think this is what Obama is trying to fix, but he’s got a lot of work to do and I hope he’s really sincere in his efforts.

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:41:08 +0000

Some of you are missing the point. This non stimulus plan was Obama’s way to achieve some of the welfare programs he supports. He has used the economic situation and this so called stimulus plan to open the door to his social programs. Why do you think he has used the scare tactics about how we need to act immediately or there will be a catastrophe.This is a brilliant political move because he knows that he would have a hard road to travel to get some of these bills passed on their own so they have been incorporated in this bill. And hard working Americans will have to pay for this at some point down the road and what is worse is we already know they are talking trillions of dollars for this financial stability plan that they don’t have all the details on. He wants this bill passed during the doom and gloom that exists. As many know there is very little spending in this bill that will actually stimulate the economy and it will be a year or two before we see any results from the stimulus that does exist in this bill. Also you should take note to the wording he is now using when talking about jobs being created. Instead of saying that this will create 3.5 million jobs he now says it will create or preserve 3.5 million jobs. It will be difficult to determine how many jobs will be preserved than it would to determine how many jobs are created. So if the plan only created 500,000 jobs he can still say he preserved 3 million jobs. Some of you had questions about where the infrastructure spending comes from and that is located in the Main Street Economic Recovery Report created by I believe it was 300 Mayors across the country. It is my understanding that much of this money will be going to the out of control State of California. But then why wouldn’t it be when Nancy Pelosi was one of the key planners of the no stimulus plan.

By: frustrated

frustrated — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:15:17 +0000

I was so excited to hear about the $15,000 tax credit for home buyers as it seems nothing the gov’t ever does benefits us middle class people that don’t rely on medicare, medicaid, SS, or disability, etc. We are taxed taxed taxed and may be able to afford health insurance but can’t afford the medical bills after health insurance. Seldom does anything ever come through to help us better our lives. I told my husband that this tax credit would never fly and he told me I was just being negative. It’s true though, nothing ever benefits anyone that’s not a first time homebuyer. What about the rest of us??? I wasn’t surprised to see this part of the bill got dropped. I was going to put the money away for my kids college cause we don’t have any other way to save it. The gov’t depends on the rest of us that don’t depend on their programs to support everything when sometimes it takes all we’ve got to stay afloat. Isn’t it about time we got some stability too so we can go on supporting everything else???

By: Larry

Larry — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:22:59 +0000

Charles Schumer thinks that Americans don’t care about the Pork in the Stimulus plan. If you disagree let’s all let him know. Use the following link to send him an email.
http://schumer.senate.gov/new_website/contact.cfm

By: Shauna

Shauna — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:22:49 +0000

Wow, way to give him a chance Larry.

By: Larry

Larry — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:09:48 +0000

This is for Flexo. Americans are long overdue for a good dose of financial responsibility. Americans are in so much debt and now that the country is wanting to bail out businesses they want a piece of the pie too. Well that is just too bad. At least if we let the economy run its course with some investment incentives we could come out of this crisis with less debt than what is on the table now. And they want to spend trillions of dollars with no idea of what to do or if it will work. And Geithner stated he has only been on the job for two weeks. Does anyone know what he did prior to this job? If you do not know look it up because I will not tell you. I will only say that this is not new to Mr. Geithner. What really is upsetting to me is that now they are considering selling all of these bad assets of the banks to investors. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I certainly hope so because it is what got us to where we are now with our economy, not George Bush’s eight years as President. At this point I believe that someone in Washington with real cajones needs to entertain a motion that Barack Obama is mentally unfit to perform his job and get his butt out of Washington. The people of Illinois can have him back.

By: Flexo

Flexo — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:06:19 +0000

jen_15: Is that your opinion as an economist that if we dealt with the economy head on (by letting the market run its course) that “in a few years everything will be ok?” Personally, I’d rather side with the economists — both left-leaning and right-leaning — who agree that the government needs to step in, in certain circumstances, to help break a cycle of a downward economy.

If we take your advice and let the market fully correct itself, we could be in store for a prolonged recession, worse than Japan in the 1990s (where they did not attempt to stimulate the economy *and* rescue financial institutions) and worse than the Great Depression. Think about unemployment at 15% or 20%, mass poverty, and businesses at a standstill. Maybe that is exactly what we need. In the long run — many decades or a few generations, perhaps — it might be better for the economy, but modern society doesn’t want to wait generations for a correction. “A few years” would be far too optimistic.

By: jen_15

jen_15 — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:52:00 +0000

WOW, I’m so glad to hear other people who do NOT agree with this Obama spending plan. Did you listen to his press conference last night? He said that there was NO PORK in this plan. Really??? What do you call $75 million to fund programs to help people quit smoking. How does that stimulate our economy? Most of the money people spend buying cigarettes is TAXES. I am not a smoker but, I still wonder where the government thinks it’s their job to help people quit. I am very irritated over the “tax cuts”. Yes, I am a middle class citizen so they would help but, I wonder how come if you paid NO TAXES you can still get SOMETHING as a tax refund??!!! That is welfare. This whole plan is BIG spending and Big Government. No Thank You, I’d rather US, the american people, deal with the economy head on, and in a few years everything will be ok.

By: Long Islander

Long Islander — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 19:42:58 +0000

So where is ALL THE MONEY GOING??? All we hear is its going to cities and states that need it, roads bridges and malls. I personally would like a total break down on the monies. There is enough funding for aids . There are plenty of people on welfare and food stamps that do not belong on them and medicaide also. Now I hear if you never worked you can get so of this money. WOW! what a country. The working people are getting screwed as usual. We are not idiots. So please tell me where the money is going.

By: SMF

SMF — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 03:08:08 +0000

Comment #24 by SD states, “the very essence of ‘American’ is that it has no definition beyond freedom” is a good reason not to support the stimulus package. It will bind Americans to a much higher burden of debt for generations. We are not truly free when in bondage to debt, by our own choice, or by the politians who make that choice for us.

By: R VOYLES

R VOYLES — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:47:04 +0000

My mistake. After my first post, I saw the post with the link to the stimulus plan. Thank you. After reading page 193, I will vote no. After all, religious people are taxpayers too!

By: R VOYLES

R VOYLES — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:34:52 +0000

I can’t find the proposed stimulus plan to be able to read it for myself. No offense but I do my research on my own. How can I support or reject this if I can’t see it? My answer right now would be vote NO because I feel the government is hiding things from us. I have to date seen the government haphazardly hand money to the very people who got us in this mess in the first place. Their assets should have been frozen until they provided the solution. I think the fox is in charge of the henhouse!

By: SD

SD — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:32:22 +0000

Define “traditional American values”…last I checked, the actual values of America, as in the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness along with a separation between church and state, have long since been destroyed. I’ve noticed though that often republicans will throw around catch phrases like “they’re destroying traditional american values” and “they will corrupt the values of traditional American life” in order to scare people into thinking that something is “not American,” and therefore worthy of our scorn. As if there’s anything that’s not American, the very essence of ‘American’ is that it has no definition beyond freedom. Your comments about the stimulus plan may very well be factual, but let’s not pretend that this ‘new socialist goverment’ is going to be the first to corrupt any kind of “American value” that this country might have left.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:16:34 +0000

Ok, so what people do not understand here is that only $18 billion (of this now 900+ billion dollar) plan is actually going to infrastructure. While billions are going to welfare programs such as WIC.

Most of this money is going to big spending that will either create NO jobs or create very little jobs that will only last for a year max.

This bill does not support long term jobs that will help people pay for things.

Obama is just pumping money into nonsense such as 400 Million to AIDS prevention, and 450 Million to safe sex practices in Africa. Please tell me how this will stimulate our economy and boost job growth.
IT WONT.

This new preseident either wants to just spend money on nonsense or isnt following up on what he said he would do during the election.

This man in a hypocrit that got everyone to vote for him on some word he said called CHANGE. he is bringing change to this country, but this change he is bringing is destroying traditional american values and will destroy our economy and coutnry.

hope everyone likes our new socialist government giving money to companys.

PS: its against the constitution. the democrats just make up BS trying to find loop holes that say it isnt unconstitutional because this is the perfect chance for them to do the big spending they have always wanted to do, at the expense of the tax payers dollars

By: SD

SD — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:18:50 +0000

Thank you!!

By: Larry

Larry — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 09:03:18 +0000

SD. This link has the pdf copy of the stimulus plan. http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/RecoveryBill01-15-09.pdf

By: SD

SD — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:38:53 +0000

I’d like to read more about the plan and get into the details of how it is actually going to work, does anyone know if there is a site at which the entire plan is laid out?

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:24:18 +0000

Bravo Amanda. Tom is obviously a RINO (Republican in name Only). This bill has more pork than Smithfield Foods. Welcome to the Slaughterhouse of the 111th Congress. Bring us your pork and we’ll give it away.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:35:04 +0000

Hey Tom… if you like this bill you ARE NOT a Republican. Change your party, we DO NOT want you to parade around as a Republican. Claiming you are a republican implies that you are in favor of limited government and against wasteful governmental spending. Therefore, if would be an oxymoron to also say you are in favor of this bill. You are what is wrong with the republican party. Grow a pair and revisit what it means to be a republican, or get the hell out of our party. We don’t need confused semi-republican like you clouding the water right now.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:17:50 +0000

I voted for Obama.. am a Democrate… and believe in the overall vision of our countries new leader.. but this stimulous package is a joke. The money in tax credits will do NOTHING to get America spending again. The other ways this 800 Billion Dollar package is going to be spent.. sod for the national mall.. other GOVNERMENT PORK projects instead of Private Pork projects is NOT what we need.

WE need this money to buy up distressed mortgage assests.
We need this money to STOP foreclosures.
WE need this money to REALLY go to Green Energy Research and Developement
WE neet his money to go to BANKS and have IRON CLAD Strings attached to ENSURE it is LENT to the AMERICAN BUSINESS WORLD>

We DO NOT NEED THIS MONEY to go to Tax rebates that will DO nothing due to their limited size.

We DO NOT NEED THIS MONEY to go to plant new grass in Washington or fix the Mall or patch roads… or fix bridges… or lord know what else this money is ACTUALLY going to be spent on and hopefully RECOVERY.GOV actually tells us in easy terms where is it spent.. on what it is spent so we can see the PORK that this will have.

I am disappointed in the new leader of the free world and the mis guided use of 800 billion I see about to happen and the 3 trillion dollar deficit he will have when he runs for re election and with an economy then that is no better than it is today.

This is a SAD SAD SAD day for the Leader of the free world and the Free world he leads.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:51:24 +0000

In order to fund these dollar amounts, the Feds will have to float bonds, which are likely to be foreign investors. Essentially, we are selling our country to foreign nationals. Eventually, these entities will have such a percentage of our businesses & government that they WILL have a say in what we do & how we govern. ….What am I saying?! It’s already happening now.

Floating bonds (creating more Debt) has just worked oh-so well in California that we are on the verge of complete collapse. The state runs out of cash by the end of this month…. oh yeah, in 5 days. and the only thing they are talking about is getting more loans to close the short term cash flow problem.

Broken down to the smallest component, it never works for a family budget to get out of debt by obtaining more credit cards. Carry that scenario out to the logical conclusion and you have utter financial collapse. Hello, the state of California on a grander scale and now the federal government.

Stop the insanity now! No bailouts!!!

By: Larry

Larry — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:17:25 +0000

Obama’s economic stimulus plan is nothing more than a very expensive welfare plan. Sorry, but I am not one of those dumbed down voters who bought the “Yes We Can” and “Change You Can Believe In” rhetoric. How is extending and increasing unemployment benefits, providing medical coverage for the unemployed, and increasing the amount of food stamp money going to stimulate job growth? Wake up America, the liberal media has brainwashed you into believing that Obama is the new “Messiah”. The only change that will happen in Washington is the person residing in the White House.

By: Diana

Diana — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:29:24 +0000

This stimulus package the the next administration is presenting wil not create the level of jobs this country needs. I terribly disapointed that the deficit will be run up more. This will effect the USA and jobs. I can’t understand why the president and congress does not look at ways to stimulate the economy that does not cost the large sums of taxpayer money. Why not lower business taxes and capital gains. This would create jobs and investment. Lowering business taxes does not mean that business will make a bigger profit. The consumer pays this. We are the second highest business taxes in the world so that is why so many companies move overseas. I am sick of congress spending the taxpayer money so recklessly. No business would be successful doing this. I think the stimulus is reckless because there is no guarantee it will work. As far as the automobile industry, they need to build affordable cars. The new electric car by GM is going to be s$40,000. That is not affordable by the middleclass. I do think we need taxcuts but not for people who do not pay taxes now. That is welfare not taxcuts.