Dems Looking at $150 Billion Bailout

For the love of all that is Holy, will you PLEASE STOP TRYING TO BAIL US OUT!?!?

After consulting with Barack Obama, Democratic leaders are likely to call Congress back to work after the election in hopes of passing legislation that would include extended jobless benefits, money for food stamps and possibly a tax rebate, officials said Saturday.

The bill’s total cost could reach $150 billion, these officials said.

Pretty soon, we’re just going to have to send all of our money to Washington so that the government can afford all of these bailouts

1. We just keep marching closer and closer to Socalism. We can’t afford the entitlements we are already giving out. Pretty soon the interest on the debt will be the whole budget.

   This is the beginning of the end.

   Posted by on October 11, 2008 at 1850 hrs




2. I’ve been snooping around the “progressive” sites in TN, and I’ve yet to see one person think this whole mess was a good idea.  Not one.  Now, don’t you find it rather odd since NO ONE supported the plan, the weasels voted for it?

   Posted by Kate on October 11, 2008 at 1916 hrs




3. The Dems are proposing the stimulus package they wanted to pass in the late spring. At the time, Bush and congressional Republicans said they would block any stimulus package that wasn’t weighted down with business tax breaks, despite a lot more evidence that extending jobless benefits and increasing food stamps provides quicker and more efficient stimulus than tax breaks. So now they are going to give it another go.

   Posted by on October 11, 2008 at 1936 hrs




4. While credit markets will again be back in the work that seems invisible to most of us on a day to day basis, it is the lack of spending by consumers that needs to be addressed.  Consumer spending will fall backwards this quarter for the first time in 17 years.  As a consequence business cuts back in their outlays and production, and it all trickles down to the towns and homes where we live.

   That is where the stimulus bill comes into play.

   Congress is considering a post election session where a $150 billion plan will be introduced to insure that spending is pumped up.  Federal subsidies to cities and municipalities will be one needed measure that this bill can take to break the downward spin the nation is experiencing. In addition, there clearly will be needs for more unemployment compensation, and food stamp dollars to help people in this economic crisis.

   This mess was not created overnight, and one blast of money injected into the system will not be all this is required, as in the case with the recent bailout of financial institutions.  There must be gritty determination by the leaders in Congress to move boldly ahead with these types of measures so that our economy can again create jobs and paychecks for the citizenry.  In addition, we need to work create for the average person in this country renewed faith in financial institutions, and the underpinnings of our national economy.  All that has been sorely tested, and in some cases severely eroded over the past month.

   Posted by Gregory on October 11, 2008 at 2002 hrs




5. I fail to see how a one-time handout and extended social benefits (that haven’t worked in the past) are going to fix anything.  More pandering, more votes.  god save us all from government “help”.

   Posted by Steve on October 11, 2008 at 2025 hrs




6. "It is the lack of spending by consumers that needs to be addressed.” No it isn’t.  We need to actually pay for the excessive spending that has already occurred.

   The “stimulus” bill is purely inflationary.  It will hurt by further devaluing the currency.  Federal subsidies to states and cities is an even worse idea.  It will only extract money from the productive parts of the economy to pay for non-productive parts.  Excessive government can no longer be afforded.

   Posted by on October 11, 2008 at 2111 hrs




7. Consumer spending will fall backwards this quarter for the first time in 17 years.  As a consequence business cuts back in their outlays and production, and it all trickles down to the towns and homes where we live.

   If that is the case, then why doesn’t government just go ahead and buy every household a TV, a blender, carpet for my living room, a new cell phone - anything consumable - and send it to me?

   Then they don’t have to worry about me doing something stupid like paying off debt or spending it how I choose.

   Isn’t that more efficient and then guarantee what you are advocating as the solution???

   Posted by on October 11, 2008 at 2221 hrs




8. What we need are jobs.  Good paying, non-exportable jobs.  Where do these come from you ask?  Well, they won’t come from creating government beuracracy, extending unemployment, food stamps or a $1000 check. 

   They will come from an “all of the above” push for energy independence.  Building nuclear, gas, and coal-fired power plants creates them, building refineries creates them, exploring and drilling for oil and natural gas creates them, mining for coal creates them.  Even researching the not-ready-for-primetime alternatives of wind, solar, and such would create a few more - although wind turbines and solar panels could be easily manufactured in China.  Then you need to consider all the flow-down jobs created with the suppliers to all of these - the steel mills, the fabricators, the electronics, the restaurants and local stores, etc.  We are talking hundreds of thousands of US jobs here. 

   The bonus is national security in where we can tell Venezuala and Saudi Arabia and Iran to stick it.

   Posted by on October 12, 2008 at 1140 hrs




9. Pretty soon, we’re just going to have to send all of our money to Washington so that the government can afford all of these bailouts

   No, the plan is to use a burst of inflation to pay for all this, which will devalue anything you have left after the stock market has tanked. At which point we’ll be back in the late 70s economy with stagflation and a bumbling liberal for president whose policies only make it worse.

   Posted by on October 12, 2008 at 2119 hrs




10. Agree with kk, we need to make the crises or whatever you call of energy and global warming as opportunity that should result in creating jobs. This is what people need, to least the uncertainty.

    Posted by iva on October 17, 2008 at 1435 hrs