Not One Member Read the Stimulus Bill??!!

Originally posted by windwaker
reply to post by sad_eyed_lady

 

Hey, I guess it's okay with me...As long as I get my $1,000,000 grant from the government to pay for my ant-mating research, I'm fine. (That's on page 954 of the bill, by the way.)

I would not go out to buy that ant farm. That money is earmarked for Nancy's masseuse.

The Stimulus Bill

From the Huffington Post, two days ago:

Late Thursday night, more than 24 hours after the announcement of a deal with the Senate, the House Rules Committee posted the final version of H.R.1 -- the compromise stimulus package that is scheduled for a vote on Friday.

(links given to 4 documents: Text of the Conference Report - Division A, Text of the Conference Report - Division B, Joint Explanatory Statement - Division A, Joint Explanatory Statement - Division B

Since we published the first version of the stimulus back on January 24, Huffington Post readers have spent countless hours combing through its evolving versions to figure out precisely what the taxpayers are being asked to fund.

www.huffingtonpost.com...


Huffington is asking people to compare versions that passed the House and Senate and the final version to see what the results of the negotiations are.

If you have the time, it's an interesting exercise.

Texas' most notable Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, apparently bothered to read the bill since she has critiques of it on her website. I haven't agreed with much that she says but at least she bothered to read and pick apart the bill:
hutchison.senate.gov...

Cornyn, the other Republican, apparently didn't bother to read the bill but voted against it: cornyn.senate.gov...

Senator Abercrombie of Hawaii has a nice discussion and some FAQs about it on his page:
www.house.gov...

The Representative for my Congressional District, Jeb Hensarling (I voted against him) didn't see fit to address the bill on his page, although he talks glowingly about going to a prayer breakfast. I am not interested in congresscritters who find prayer breakfasts more important than the details of economic stimulus packages:
www.house.gov...

So... did your own Congresscritters bother to comment on this? You can find out by checking their pages:
www.house.gov...

What about those Senators you elected?
www.senate.gov...



In using the search function on the final bill, I see nothing in the bill about mice (or golf carts, as Cornyn claimed.) Page 2 has the major divisions of the bill. I see lots of things that I like in the bill, including (since I do contract teaching in public schools) funds to make buildings accessible to the handicapped. The ability of governors of states to expedite the review of fund requests for infrastructure repair is something I really applaud. Our infrastructure is in horrible shape, and getting bridges and roads repaired is something we've needed for decades.

Originally posted by Byrd
If you have the time, it's an interesting exercise.

Questioningall started a thread to do this. For anyone interested ..
Thread here

You know your asking a lot right? For Congress to actually READ a bit of legislation. I mean for gods sake, I wouldn't be surprised if many of them couldn't read to begin with.

That's what they have congressional pages for. I mean if your gonna write war and peace in the form of legislation you might as well make some flunky read it for you and give you a synopsis of it in the morning.

reply to post by donwhite


sorry but Pelosi and smart is an oxymoron. However, term limits are dearly needed in the Congress to get rid of all of them. Instead of public service they all are for self service. Career politicians need to GO!! At some point all are corrupted by the power and the perks. Public interest doesn't exist in their world except when they are campaigning as this last joke of an election was a prime example.

I do not blame the Republicans for voting against it on the grounds that no one has been able to read it. I will also see Obama in a different light if he vetoes it for that same reason.

This is a big deal people!!! We are now conditioned to $2.50 gas after seeing $4.00 and just like gas, we now are conditioned to see a BILLION dollars as chump change. Just a few years ago (not decades) a few 100 million dollar spending was big news, now that number is 1000 times…1000 times that!

Add in about 30% of the bill will actually go towards a stimulus and this is just crazy in its rape and pillage of America. As a comparison, if you hated Bush wasting money this last eight years, well our newly elected president and democratic controlled Congress wants to spend that same amount in a day…

A huge chunk of the bill is towards stimulus that will not be seen for 3 or more years and another huge chunk has nothing to do with stimulus at all, but is BILLIONS going to many different Senators districts for their own pet projects as they focus all their energies towards reelection with little regards for the rest country.

I do not want to spend billions for Nancy's nature projects in San Fran as example.

I know many of you are diehard Democrats; does any of this bother you too? We all know we need this, I for one see 100 of billions going down the drain….

Remember the Big Deal was 2% of our GNP. This is 5% and is just a start. Research the Big Deal...and you might get an idea once again just how much money we are talking about here.

Boy, it was the end of the world untill our "republican representatives" realized not quite all the money would go to rich CEO's and banks so they can pay their bonuses and multi-million dollar salaries like last time when a republican president forced through the same thing only under threat! Wow, buy a clue.
www.magicvalley.com...
They must be secretly mad because they can't give it all to the bankers and actually may have to give some to children! (I'm kidding here, lighten up!)
They brought us to this point with their tax cuts for the rich and crony war(look up what REALLY cleaned out the bugdet)and this is what it will take to get us out, so say the "experts".

Personally I listen to Peter Schiff and Ron Paul. Mccains advisor called people whiners and Obamas can't find the H & R Block for cryin' out loud! Do any bells start ringing yet? Any lights going off yet? Please say, why yes doom the doom they are, thank you!
We've had lawyers and oilmen running the country for decades now, and we're ...surprised?
We are on exactly the wrong course anyway, so it makes no difference at the end of the day. We're screwed.
Long as they keep buying us off with a few hundred here or there, we will keep taking it.

After the last eight years of airport mens room style rape of the country, republicans shouldn't have a leg to stand on. Or a toilet seat. IMO
But no, we still think we have representation, competence and honesty here.
Of course the earth is flat, why do you ask?



[edit on 14-2-2009 by dodadoom]

reply to post by yadboy

My problem with this situation is the fact that Pelosi and her cohorts edited the bill by themselves late Wednesday and did not make the text of their changes available till 11:00 PM Thursday, 10 hours before the vote. You can't tell me that is acceptable for a bill of this magnitude. Hell, even looking at the PDFs available doesn't really reveal anything. Oh and if you think Pelosi is intelligent you are quite mistaken in my opinion. The woman needs to be on meds. She's a post-menopausal nutjob.

I've posted this here 3 times. Congress has 38,000 employees. That averages 70 per Member of Congress. Committee staffs that write these bills are bipartisan. That is, both sides know the same thing at the same time. WORSE, I suspect it made not a whit about the contents as the GOP House members had already determined long ago to VOTE NO! So what's the dif?

How can so many forget that from 1994 until 2006, the GOP ran the House THEIR way. Despite the best intentions of the Dems and Obama, old sores heal slowly. Recall the TWO basic rules of politics. NEVER forget your friends and NEVER forget your enemies.

Nancy Pelosi is smart enough to be elected Speaker of the House, the first woman ever to hold that office. And she has done a spectacular job too! You don't get there suffering from PMS. Or being short of smarts. I love her. An Italian from Baltimore who learned her politics at the precinct level. She has not yet divorced her husband when he is in the hospital. And etc.


[edit on 2/14/2009 by donwhite]

"I care not who sits on the throne of England. He who controls the money supply of England controls the throne, and I control the money supply," -Amschel Bower de Rothschild, in 1911.

reply to post by spoge


Are you going to post this in every thread on the board today? Stop spamming.

Originally posted by projectvxn
reply to post by mental modulator

 

I just don't think you understand what is happening here. We are trying to save debt that should be destroyed, and inflating a demand bubble that isn't there. We've heard many in the industry and in government say this very thing. Creating artificial demand bubbles destroy economies down the road. What we are experiencing right now is a manipulated market, not a free-market meltdown. And this isn't socialism, it's fascism.

WELL I understand there is a lack of circulating capital paired with a sub crap market... This prevents buying and investing...

I to believe this is and engineered meltdown -

SO I suggest to you and all concerned to go find a money tree -or or default SS and unemployment - end the two wars...

OR GET an ETRADE account and invest, invest invest... KILL the socialism DEAD or feed the fascism.

SO ya, google ETRADE, all of you concerned and put your money where your mouth is.

This is excatly what will happen and continue to happen. They don't fear the masses because they educated them to rely upon their judgement rather than our own.

This is purely disrespectful. I was watching copper 360 and they just flashed some numbers on the screen. When they went to show the schools budget, there was no number, just a red background.

It's all BS and this stuff just makes me grip my guns tighter and forces me to educate more of the flock. When they push, you gotta push back.

reply to post by Byrd


I, too, have been reading about this on the Internet and have had access to the various revisions of the bill on the Internet for a couple weeks now. I have been hearing on the news every little objection and speech and thought from the politicians and pundits until I'm tired of hearing about it.

How anyone can claim that they "didn't have a chance" to read it is mind-boggling to me. I realize some chose not to read it, but that is their own choice. And whether someone voted for it or against it without reading it is a fault of that person alone.

How many here read it before they decided against it? You can be certain that the GOP is going to be doing all they can to turn people against this bill so they can get back some control in 2010. And people just believe what FOX News's Steve Doocy says (that's where the mouse story came from).

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


Even though it's been out in its various incarnations, I think the version people are talking about it the final version with its handwritten notes and revisions that no one was able to see until 11 Thursday night.

I could be wrong, but I think that's what this is about....

reply to post by skeptic1


What is the evidence that there were handwritten changes that people didn't have time to read? Where did this information come from? Were there handwritten notes on 2 pages or 400 pages? This is the information that's missing that we each just sort of fill in with our brain.

Can anyone think of a bill in the last 8 or so years that was likely read completely (on either a by page or a by the pound basis)?

I was advised in my professional work to keep handouts to 1-3 pages maximum, and to schedule all intended goals/purpose to fit within a 1/2 day or 8 hour timeframe (with 30 to 40 minutes preferred). (Think line item legislation IMHO).

The "pork barrel" "Legislative Branch" could stand to take some notes, I think...

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic


I looked through it and I just saw a handful (compared to the total bill) of handwritten notes in some of the margins, some areas blocked out, some areas scribbled out.

I am just saying that I think that that's where I see the bru-ha-ha coming from, because those handwritten notes were allegedly put in during the closed door session that the Republicans were supposedly kept out of.

reply to post by rhunter

Can anyone think of a bill in the last 8 or so years that was likely read completely (on either a by page or a by the pound basis)? (Think line item legislation IMHO). The "pork barrel" "Legislative Branch" could stand to take some notes, I think...

If by “line item” you mean the “line item veto” then you can forget that. For better or ill, that would give the president nearly ALL power! As it is now, Congress can put in items it thinks necessary and provided it contains enough to make the president want it, then he’ll sign it or let it become law without his signature. Line item veto is completely inconsistent with PRO state’s rights or small (say weak) government thinking.

Pork is what I explained above. Getting a facility located in your district when logic or geography dictates it should be elsewhere. I used the Houston Space Flight Center and the FBI Fingerprint Center as two examples of pork, one for Texas and one for West “By God” Virginia. Rayburn, Johnson and Kennedy in the former and Robert Byrd in the latter. The Space Flight Center should have been located at Cape Canaveral Florida and the FBI Center should have been sited in northern Virginia or southern Maryland.

[edit on 2/14/2009 by donwhite]

Originally posted by Darky6K
The funny thing is, that the Republicans are SAYING they haven't seen anything, yet they're saying what's in the bill. Someone's lying

This thing about Republicans not being able to read the entire bill before voting on it is BS, they got staffers for that. How do you think they've been able to find all the "pork" they've been talking about for the past two weeks.

Anyone who thinks senators and congressmen actually sit down to read bills is insane, they're too busy for that, they have staffers to do all the reading for them.

I have come to a realization, and that is that this word we all hear of being tossed about by the reckless fringe...REVOLUTION.... is indeed perhaps the only route available for the new generation to break this self serving machine calling itself our government. The process must stop, Its too big and ugly, like a giant snowball careening down a mountain sucking us all up. The corruption and deceit is growing. Where is the FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE?? Back up your clever words Mr. OBAMA.
How long before the people see talk is cheap. Say one thing and do another. Right off the bat, a home run for the NWO puppet masters, delivered to us of course in a frantic engineered emergency. Always one step ahead of the sheeple.
Here's an interesting pipe dream, perhaps there is hope for the good ole USA that I remember, and that is our leader is outsmarting the elite by letting them pull the strings initially to keep his foothold and favor, then just when they think they have the cat in the bag, he will become a true patriot and make the hard decisions he has to. Of course this will be his ultimate sacrifice, and in doing so will be set upon to pay the price, for himself, his family, and those with whom he "conspires". But in this pipe dream, WE THE PEOPLE will protect him.
I suspect that in four years this country will have been conditioned to believe there is no hope but to give in., and to allow the process to continue. It is a huge mind game being played on the greatest nation ever to exist on this planet. The fact is, if we simply refuse to lose, it wont happen.
So what's our best option? Start anew with a revolution to do just what?And who shall we believe in? A new doctrine and framework from scratch, or a stripdown of government to constitutional basics?
Is Ron Paul our man?
where do we make our stand?
So lately this word ..REVOLUTION..has become more real to me, and I am not one to toss the concept around casually but our options are narrowing, as indicated by this haphazard special interest stimulus bill that was passed while the nation remains asleep.