Pelosi pledges NO Pork in stimulus bill

She's an imbecile. It's special interest spending bill, not a stimulus package and it's nothing but pork. Quickly nearing the mass of Jupiter.

Has anyone found a link to the proposed bill? I'd be curious to see what was actually in it, rather than speculating about it.

So if you haven't read it, how do you know its full of pork?

Shame she wasn't holding a lightning rod.

Here's a link to the stimulus, with all the various versions.

http://readthestimulus.org/index.php

It's searchable too.

Yup, here she is saying just that to Wolff Blitzer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaDtk...eature=related

The fact that Nancy Pelosi, of all women in the world, was the first woman Speaker of the House just makes me sick. She's an idiot, pure and simple. She wouldn't know the difference between Pork and Stimulus if the pig came and bit her butt!

And did you see her saying that every month that we don't have a stimulus package that 500 million Americans lose their jobs? Each month!! Seriously. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8hMJVXt09E

Yup, that one is hilarious. She's a nutter.

There were a couple of links posted about the House version that was passed.
http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/...ry01-15-09.pdf

No speculation. It is what it is- a big, fat spending bill- I don't care how much Nancy "Botox" Pelosi wants to paint it otherwise. Say hello to the ever expanding deficit, which has to have a mass somewhere around the size of one of those supermassive black holes. Speaking of which, we have a second supermassive black hole in our galaxy and it's located in Washington D.C. .

I was just sitting here thinking, maybe Nancy is a vegetarian, and doesn't know pork when she sees it???

This thing has all kinds of inclusions for every group that ever donated a nickel to a Democrat, for every lobbyist that every visited the Hill. Money for a polar bear exhibit? A skateboard park in CA?

Just reading earlier that any school that takes any of the funding will be prohibited from having any kind of religious activity on campus:

"Why is an economic stimulus bill being used to kick religious groups off college campuses? It is a clear violation of students' constitutional rights and it should disturb Americans that they are trying to slip this through while people are concerned about the economy. The real question is who inserted this discrimination into the bill, and why," Denton said.

The language in the provision is so vague that it could prevent students from gathering to pray in their dorm rooms or inviting a speaker to campus to discuss religion, DeMint says.



http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009...tack-religion/

Tom Cohburn is speaking on the Senate floor now, on C-Span 2.

A freshman Congressman from Idaho has a proposal that cuts everything that doesn't create jobs.

http://www.klewtv.com/news/39170247.html#idc-container

At the highly reduced cost of $174 billion.

Smoke that, Pelosi.

Good on you, Congressman Minnick.

Maybe if the AARP lobbyists get hold of this, they'll curb some of the enthusiasm for it.

http://www.reuters.com/article/press...09+PRN20090129

The Congressional economic
stimulus plan would place the Social Security Trust Fund into deficit for the
first time ever next year, if the current economic stimulus package is passed
by both Houses of Congress.

Social Security is funded by payroll taxes that employees and their employers
pay into the system. Money that comes into the Social Security Trust Fund is
used to pay the Social Security checks retirees receive each month, and since
the creation of the Trust Fund in 1983, the program has always had more money
coming in than going out.

However, that may change as soon as next year, due to a proposed refundable
payroll tax credit which would offer workers a refund on their portion of
Social Security taxes, meaning there would be insufficient cash to pay
benefits. The $145.3 billion refundable payroll tax credit proposal would give
individual workers up to $500 and couples up to $1,000.

So that's where they're getting it! I knew there had to be sort of shenanigans for them to do a "tax break", but to take it out of Social Security? Oh man, that's bad!

I'm learning more about Social Security than I ever thought would be necessary at age 36. Did you know that in order to qualify for Social Security Disability Benefits you have to have paid into the system a certain amount for the previous 10 years? There's a fairly complicated points system to figure out if you are eligible and for how much of a benefit, based on how much has been paid in. I'm certainly no expert on this, but I would bet dollars to donut holes that this would have implications for anyone who, through no fault of their own, becomes disabled through accident or disease and is looking to the system they will have paid into for years for assistance in the years following this "stimulus".

Boys and girls, we're going to be in a poo-crick without a paddle for many many years to come with this package!

BTW, I think it's been posted but for anyone who wants some deep reading, here's a link to the bills, both the House and the Senate: http://readthestimulus.org/

Hopefully you all were smart enough not to watch the press conference tonight. I wasn't.

NO answers on the stimulus, and he wasn't prepared for the "non-stimulus" questions at all. More campaign rhetoric. Blaming Bush of course, all the last 8 years fault.

And nice that the reporters were from a list. Makes the blathering even more pathetic. There were about 8 questions, maybe 10. He went on and on and on.

We are in so much trouble.

Perhaps the idiocy starts at the top and rolls downhill?

No favoritism in this AOL poll.

http://news.aol.com/main/obama-presi...us-plan/333604

Thumbs up.
Thumbs up.
Didn't watch.

Heidi, I really feel bad posting things like the SS stuff, and this update I posted in the Universal Health Care thread.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aLzfDxfbwhzs

The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”



and

The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forgo experimental treatments,” and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.

I watched it, and made Earl laugh because he was still upstairs on the computer and I was yelling at the tv. I'm not sure how doubling the deficit over 8 years compares to doubling it again with one swipe of the pen. Kinda hypocritical, if you ask me, but what do I know?

According to the after-speech analysis, he was on for 57 minutes, took 13 questions, and he took 10 minutes to answer the first one (saying pretty much the same thing he just said in his opening remarks).

To be fair, Ari Fleisher said that GW Bush had a list, of sorts. He said that he made the list for Bush, but he did it as a grid of who would be sitting where and who to call on for questions. He said the .coms and out there reporters (i.e. the Huffington Post reporter for Obama...I wouldn't have let that guy ask a question in the first WH Press Conference!) he would have seated in one section that he called Siberia, and told the President to "Stay away from Siberia!" Being Obama's first Press Conference as President, I don't blame him for having the list, although he could have tried to make it a little less obvious.

It's only been a couple weeks and I can not stand listening to all the BS from this new liberal administration. This stimulus bill needs to be killed, just like all horrible bills. It will not do anything for the economy, other than make things worse. We will have more big government and who will pay for this stimulus?? I am guessing in maybe 2 years, we will have huge tax increases to pay for this stupid mess

Doesn't the US have the second highest corporate tax rate in the world (close to 40%)? Wouldn't cutting that rate in half do more to create jobs than a pork filled spending bill since companies could have more money to hire people?

Nothing like more money in the hands of people paying others to work to get things moving.

I imagine this has gotten lost during the last new months, but the stimulus was originally much lower.

from the Republican Senate's website:

$56 BILLION
POLITICO: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) today announced a $56.2 billion stimulus package." ("Second stimulus announced," Politico, 09/25/08)

$61 BILLION
CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY: "The House Friday passed a $60.8 billion economic stimulus package designed to pump money into infrastructure projects, unemployment insurance and Medicaid, but a similar measure failed to advance in the Senate." ("House Passes Stimulus Measure; Senate Proposal Fails," CQ, 09/26/08)


$200 BILLION
WASHINGTON TIMES: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed Wednesday to hold a lame-duck session to pass a $200 billion economic-stimulus package likely to include rebates to middle-class taxpayers, despite recent failure to enact less ambitious plans and Republican charges it is a 'spending hike to exploit the nation's economic troubles.'" (" Lame-duck session eyed to OK stimulus," Washington Times, 10/16/08)


$400 BILLION
THE NEW YORK TIMES: "The programs will be a part of a larger economic stimulus package whose outlines are faint but which is expected to cost $400 billion to $500 billion." ("Proposal Ties Economic Stimulus to Energy Plan," The New York Times, 12/04/08)

$500 BILLION
MCCLATCHY: "President-elect Barack Obama and Democratic congressional leaders have agreed to a $500 billion economic-stimulus package that they want to move next month even before Obama takes office." ("Obama, Democrats Agree to $500 Billion Stimulus Package," McClatchy, 12/13/08)

$600 BILLION
POLITICO: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has increased the size of the economic stimulus package she will support when Congress reconvenes next month, saying it will need to be $500 billion to $600 billion." ("Pelosi sees bigger, greener stimulus," Politico, 12/12/08)


$775 BILLION
WALL STREET JOURNAL: "President-elect Barack Obama's economic team is crafting a stimulus package to send to Congress worth between $675 billion and $775 billion over two years, according to officials familiar with the package..." ("Stimulus Package Heads Toward $850 Billion," The Wall Street Journal, 12/19/08)

That and also pay for medical benefits for their employees. Makes sense to me
Awww come on, you don't like socialism
The goverment needs to keep it's hands out of this. I for one, do not want any more big goverment control.