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Shovel Ready!

By Pat Racimora on February 9, 2009 at 8:15 AM in stimulus tax package

webpoop-pile_edited-2

I know. This isn’t one of my more appealing toons. But please bear with me for a minute.

Although the term “shovel ready” is not new, it is the current buzz-word, used by President Obama last December on a Meet the Press appearance, to describe the appropriate criteria for inclusion in the stimulus package. The obvious definition is that projects ready to create jobs in the very near future should be the priority. (That the current House and Senate packages have not followed the “shovel ready” ideal is another matter.)

But here’s the thing. I am no expert in foreign and public policy, but I got this godawful gut feeling just before Bush decided to attack Iraq. The preemptive invasion wasn’t critically necessary, and it wasn’t going to be a cake-walk as promised. I just knew that this was not going to go well.

I got that same dreadful feeling when I learned that almost anyone could qualify to buy a house for nothing down. It had to be very bad news down the line as those who couldn’t afford the increased payments in a few years began losing their homes.

I have that same yukky feeling now about this push-though stimulus package that will plunge Americans into additional and unprecedented debt for two or more generations. It smells bad to me. I see “shovel ready” in a different way.

I hope I am wrong this time. I really do. But this sinking feeling so deep in my innards has almost never been wrong.

  • tek

    What I don’t understand is why the administration doesn’t implement a moratorium on foreclosures. FDR declared a bank moratorium, among others. It would be something for the average people. It seems Obama is only concerned to pay back the groups who worked on his campaign and voted for him.

    • Ferd Berfle

      That One will let it stew for a while, letting those average people work up a really good sweat over it, and will then come riding in on his white horse to save the day. And the administration, with help from the MSM, will play it up for all its worth.

      • wodiej

        I agree. They are posturing.

        • Ferd Berfle

          posturing–a good word to describe the process by which wool is pulled over sheep’s eyes.

          • Mary

            Absolutely. It’s why there has been no substantial help for homeowners facing foreclosure.

            Just help for the financial industry.

            What he SAYS and what he DOES don’t jive.

    • Docelder

      The bailout money up to now has been for financial institutions… only the biggest of them. They have used the money to buy up the assets of the lesser failing institutions. Why is this important? I think herein lies the ugly truth of it all. The bigger banks are sitting on all these empty houses. Middle class Americans are losing their homes by the day… these will become the portfolio assets of these behemoth banks. As the economy later heats up, and we see hyperinflation these homes values will skyrocket. These banks don’t want notes to repay them for what the homes values “used” to be. They are sitting pretty with inflation proof assets, while we foot the bill for them to be protected. Pretty simple really. It is surprising no economists can see it.

  • ChooChooMagoo

    Hey Pat -

    Wow! Hands down your best cartoon!!!! It speaks volumes for most americans – regardless of party affiliation. I’m already forwarding it to friends and family. Thanks for putting my feelings in graphic form.

    • Pat Racimora

      LOL–Thanks for the compliment on painting a pile of poop. I thought everyone would really hate it–but I confess that it was more fun to do than I should admit to!

      • Dawnelle

        Oh poop PAT when r we gonna see that compilation book????

        LOL always enjoy!

  • bert

    A short but powerful post, Pat. It says a lot in a few words.

    • oowawa

      Yes indeed Pat. I’d say your latest cartoon is “cutting through the rhetoric.”

  • obamastolemyboyfriend

    I know what you mean about the yucky feeling. I had a yucky feeling in 2000 when Bush was declared the winner (and prayed for that to change to Gore) and I told people that we would be sorry because we would have nothing, but trouble with Iraq. I had a little bit different scenario in mind, but I was right and it was even worse than I had imagined.

    I have had those creepy feelings at other times and have been right then, too. I have good political foresight. I am terrifed of what Obama will bring and I just know it. don’t ask me how, but I know it. When people say, Oh, he may just surprise you, I know he will not surprise me in a good way, ever. It is the read of the person, just like I could read Bush. I have never been wrong about a toxic person since I married one. Now I can spot them quickly.

    Obama is toxic to this country and every person in it. Mark my words. We will pay for this and it is not going to be good.

  • HARP

    Best cartoon evah!!

    • HARP

      The only thing missing, is all the Bots flying around it.

      • http://baddemocrat08.wordpress.com/ obamastolemyboyfriend

        Hahaha! you are so right!

      • oowawa

        The only thing missing, is all the Bots flying around it

        LOL–They have not yet metamorposed into the flying stage. They are still crawling around in the pile having a hopey meal.

        • http://baddemocrat08.wordpress.com/ obamastolemyboyfriend

          Well, didn’t some of us tell them to eat shit? I know I did, but shouldn’t speak for everyone else!

        • obamastolemyboyfriend

          Anyone have a botswatter?

  • BernieO

    Now that the Senate has managed to produce a terrible bill, Obama decides to fight for it. This bill cuts effective programs like food stamps and aid to states but includes three trillion dollars in tax cuts!!! (Krugman) These tax cuts will seriously balloon the deficits but will not stimulate much demand.

    This disastrous bill is the equivalent of a person with a life-threatening infection compromising with Christian Scientists by taking only half the recommended course of antibiotics.

    Change you can’t believe in.

  • Sassy

    A big steaming pile of manure from BO…a chicken-sh*t Congress…a horde of pig-sh*t governors at the trough!
    Replace that shovel with a fork-lift, cause they will be moving fast on their take!

  • http://tojo toni

    Pat,

    I agree with you. I have had the same feeling and been proven right too many times. It feels like the biggest scam to come along and I am so angry that people just sit back and go along with it. I live with resignation now as it seems futile to fight back….what are we to do?

  • lark

    You bet. The 1 billion GM investment in their Brazilian plants is ample evidence. Boy are we suckers.

    • Mary

      YEP. Citigroup “rescued” one of their banks in China.

      Your tax dollars at work.

  • Idiocracy08

    I hope I am wrong this time. I really do.

    You’re not wrong. I got the same feeling when Bush Jr was selected in 2000. I actually cried saying out loud “what is going to happen to this world? what is going to happen to us?”

    I got the same gut feeling, but a good one, when Clinton took office. I didn’t really know enough about him to really know if I’d like him or not, but he got rid of Bush Sr, so he was my hero. And he is really the only president in my 42 years that I have liked.

  • ford

    BO is taking con to the highest art form…watch him today when he scares the hell out of the people of Indiana first, then the rest of the country tonight.

    It will surprise me if there is not a run on the banks tomorrow.

  • http://watchpaul.blogspot.com Rose

    And Clinton ignored the first Trade Center bombing as well as the attacks on the Cole – no, you won’t find me joining the pile-on on Bush. It’s too bad we’re going back into that territory when the problem with this is so much more dangerous for US.

    Obama has no clue what he is doing. He didn’t come with any team ready to go to work to implement all those grand new ideas he acted like he had. H’e got nuthin’.

    He’s stabbing around in the dark – he asked for “Shovel ready” projects because it sounded decisive, and somebody probably told him that would work – what that brought was every pork proposal standing in the wings and then some.

    The rabidly partisan elected officials took the bit in their mouth and ran with it. Very few Democrats dared challenge the party line, couldn’t dare challenge The Obama’s decree. Eleven did. They will pay for it with a complete lack of party support next go round. Don’t discount their sacrifice.

    Something has to be done about the partisan way of doing business – those people work for ALL OF US.

    I thought that was what the PUMA thing was all about. I’m not so sure any more. I want to be. But I’m not.

    • oowawa

      I thought that was what the PUMA thing was all about. I’m not so sure any more. I want to be. But I’m not.

      Party Unity My Ass

      It means wake up and open your eyes.
      It means you don’t got to show no stinking badges.
      It means you will evaluate the candidates on an indvidual basis and vote accordingly.
      It is an attitude, not a party or a faction.

      I guess it is like being an Independent, but a little more motivated by disgust, and a lot more pissed off.

      • Tricia Spiegel

        Best definition of PUMA I’ve heard yet!

      • http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090206/pl_nm/us_obama_economy;_ylt=AqZHq1E1ub6LPrJUpLzudf134T0D trixta

        Yup.

    • http://firefox AnnieCollier

      he asked for “Shovel ready” projects because it sounded decisive, and somebody probably told him that would work

      Just as he said he’d hit the ground running on day 1…turns out, not so ready after all. In fact in three weeks he’s tried to escape the pressure of the Oval Office 3-4 times. When will he not be campaigning?

  • r2d2

    I think you have that feeling because it’s going to be a little distraction on the path down. By the time the results are in, we’ll see that the expenditures were not put in the right places and were not big enough. The worst part is that it will leave Obama with no credibility to make changes down the road.

  • yttik

    That’s a big pile of poo! You need to draw us all some hip waders and rubber gloves so we can survive the next four years. Actually I’d prefer tar and feathers and a bunch of angry peasants….

    • http://firefox AnnieCollier

      pitchfork ready?

      • ChooChooMagoo

        I’m with you Annie!

        Pitchfork more than ready!

  • Bazooka

    Your picture looks more like the pile of crap that Obama has been handed by the Bush Adminstration!!!

    Obama is just trying to fix the mess the Republicans got us in. Without the Republican’s several trillions of deficit spending the absorption of a financial stimulus would be a lot easier.

    Will the stimulus kick-start the economy enough? Who knows, as we are in uncharted disinflation territory, but the alternative of doing nothing would also come with a big cost.

    Stimulus by country:
    U.S. $819 bn or 3% GDP
    China $586 bn or 7% of GDP
    EU $254 bn or 1.5% of GDP
    Japan $112 bn or 2.0% of GDP
    Canada $33 bn or 2.5% of GDP
    Mexico $24 bn or 2.8% of GDP

    Source: Institute of International Finance

    • Sam Copeland

      We know the problem. The question is how to fix it.

      Go read progressive, liberal economists such as Paul Krugman. His analysis: too little and on the wrong things.

      Go read Big Tent Democrat on the politics of the stimulus package. His point: Obama failed to communicate what was wrong and how to fix it and thus lost politically when he had large amounts of political capital.

      These are all liberal progressives and they all make the point that Obama is failing.

      We don’t need any more Obama worship. The country is in too big of a mess. We need sound liberal policies that work.

      • BB

        not sure he is losing after only 3 weeks. senate passed a bill, so it looks like something will pass. not sure if that is a failure.

        if he can pull the economy out of a nose dive in the next year it will be positive for the country and for Obama.

        the only people that seem to be doing any obama worshiping are the people on this site. they are obsessed with tearing down obama… pretty sad really!

        • Mary

          The bill that will pass is the COMPROMISE bill, with much of the original Pelosi pork removed.

          Krugman et al say the bill is too small, and won’t do any good.

          You keep track. If Obama produces 4 million jobs in 2 years, like he’s bragging this bill will do, he gets re-elected.

          If he doesn’t, and the government has helped financial corporations, but done very little for the homeowners being foreclosed…….

          He’s a one-termer, and Democrats will lose control of Congress.

  • Sam Copeland

    Let me urge NQ readers to conserve your outrage and disgust. You’re going to need it tomorrow when the Obama team announces its bailout of the banks.

    If the NYT report is correct, it is worst than the worst.

    Obama has based his policy on this simple strategy: privatize profits and socialize risk for the rich investors that got us into this mess in the first place.

    • Bazooka

      You have a very simplistic view of the world. Put yourself in Obama’s shoes. You have just been handed a financial sector that was close to collapse and an economy that is spiraling downward quickier than almost anything we have seen before.

      What is your solution?

      Do nothing?

      Let the economy and the banking sector completely collapse?

      Lots of armchair quarterbacks, but not easy to come-up with a workable solution that satisfies everyone.

      • Strawberrybitch

        Barky should have thought about how hard it was to fix the economy BEFORE he ran for office. He’s in waaaay over his head and anyone with half a brain, who is paying attention, knows it. He thought he could waltz in, throw a few dinner parties, fly around in Airforce One and delegate his way through the hard work. Well, that isn’t going to happen.

        • Ferd Berfle

          You hit the nail on the head. That one is a president in name only.

        • AlexisM

          At least he’s pissed at Pelosi. That makes me laugh my azz off.

          • http://firefox AnnieCollier

            Just a little lover’s spat. It’ll be over by Valentine’s Day.

            • AlexisM

              LOL Annie. I’m not so sure. I think if she continues to make the Fraud look bad she’s going to stay under the bus.

              • Mary

                Musta pissed Pelosi off BIG TIME to find out Obama called Snowe and Collins to thank them for their “patriotism” in finding consensus.

                THAT makes me smile.

                Welcome to Under the Bus, Nancy.

                • AlexisM

                  Nancy’s probably stuck down there squeezed between Wright and Farakhaan. Ouch.

        • http://firefox AnnieCollier

          You took the words right off my fingertips!

          Also, could we dispel, once and for all, that idea that GWB did this all on his lonesome? Bad as he was, he wasn’t smart enough without help from the Democrats in congress. No more half truths, OK?

          • Strawberrybitch

            Anne, I don’t think it’s a democrast vs republican thing period. I think it’s big business teaming up with all the usual suspects who scurry from one political party to the other. Whichever one is in power. But in both Bush and Obama’s cases, big business got them elected. I truly think, looking back at the way he was villified, Bill Clinton was an anomaly.

            • Sam Copeland

              I don’t think it’s a democrat vs republican thing period. I think it’s big business teaming up with all the usual suspects who scurry from one political party to the other.

              Bingo! Strawberrybitch make sure your chair has a headrest on it because you just lurched into the truth.

              • Bazooka

                Hard to get a read on you people, as you are all over the map.

                Many of you call Obama a socialist and are against government involvement in the economy or are against a govt stimulus. Then you blame big business. So are you guys capitalists or socialist or free marketers or do you even know what you believe?

                Or are you just against Obama so much that no matter what the government does, good or bad, you will be against it?

                • Mary

                  You DO realize, that as a senator, Barak Obama voted for every single bloated spending bill George Bush put forward, don’t you?

                  So that crappy economy Obama “inherited?”

                  He VOTED for most of the over-spending.

                  Now, buzz off.

                • Sam Copeland

                  1. Unlike Daily Kool-Aid, NQ doesn’t have a party line. Thus, different people hold different opinions. This should help explain some of your confusion.

                  2. As for me, I am an All-American Liberal. I’ve posted on what this means, but in brief it means (a) a strong and smart defense and foreign policy (walk softly but carry a big stick) and (b) pro-capitalism with checks on the accumulation of power provided by government. My critiques of Obama stem from these principles. For example, I praised him when he signed Hillary Clinton’s legislation on Ledbetter. I criticize him on his stimulus package because it isn’t smart liberal economics.

                  3. The critique of Obama is all over the map because Obama has not taken consistent positions. It is fair to call Obama a socialist if you look at his campaign slogans when he ran for IL Senate. It is fair to call him a center-right winger if you look at his advisers (Goolsby who wants to dismantle social security; appointment of Judd Gregg, etc.) and his recent policies (his health care plan is not universal but an insurance plan like Bush’s prescription drug plan, the stimulus package is loaded with tax loans to special interests as opposed to spending that will stimulate the economy, and his bank bailout plan looks like it will be an even bigger boondoggle to the Wall Street crowd).

                  So some at NQ dislike Obama because he is a socialist; others because he is a right of center, yet others because he takes no consistent position. Interestingly, everyone can be right about Obama because Obama has taken no consistent position on any major issue (and that includes the Iraq war as Governor Clinton noted).

                  Hope this clarifies.

                  • BB

                    you have got the same people contiually contradicting themselves. a bunch of Hillary deadenders that are no longer democrats, but still lean that way, kind of, but now support everything the Republicans are saying, just so they can be against Obama. a lot of room for hypocracy and contradiction. mix that with some right-wing nuts and you get NOQ

                    not sure what your defintion of smart liberal economics is? you sound confused.

                    you people project your hatred in a lot of funny ways, but people on this site mostly just use republican talking points.

                    • Mary

                      Uh, no.

                      What you’ve GOT here is a whole lot of well-educated people with MBA’s in Economics who clearly understand Obama’s in over his head.

                      I didn’t hear a single Economic analysis in your post. Nothing rational or factual.

                      Just the usual Obots posting emotional gobbledegook.

                      Take that trash to Kos. He LIKES it.

                      We don’t.

                    • Sam Copeland

                      You know BB, I have not said anything negative about you personally so why attack me personally?

                      Usually this means you don’t have a good argument.

                      Now for smart economic analysis, Paul Krugman has a NYT piece about the stimulus package. Basically, this Noble prize winner is saying it is not enough and directed in the wrong places. He also criticizes Obama for his lack of political leadership.

                      I happen to agree with Krugman.

                      Now, if you have a good argument for why Krugman is wrong, I am more than happy to listen.

                      If you want to engage in personal attacks, then that is something I don’t need and won’t respond to.

            • Ferd Berfle

              It is a big government and big business thing. This is Dubya redux.

              • PKJayne

                He thought he could waltz in, throw a few dinner parties, fly around in Airforce One and delegate his way through the hard work.

                THIS IS WHY WE AS AMERICANS NEVER SHOULD HAVE LET THIS PRETENDER BUY THE PRESIDENCY!!!!

                • AlexisM

                  On November 5th I went to Zazzle.com and bought T-Shirt, Bumper Stickers and Coffee Mugs that said:

                  “Don’t Blame Me I Voted For McCain”

                  Good thing I can break those babies out already. I thought it would take six months to be able to use them lol.

            • ChooChooMagoo

              Strawberry -

              I don’t think it’s a democrast vs republican thing period. I think it’s big business teaming up with all the usual suspects who scurry from one political party to the other.

              Exactly! And this is the rot that is eating away at everything in our society. Big business and government are so intertwined we no longer have a democracy. Government is just an arm of the corporations. And not just on a few things or most things or even just the big things. Corporations are into everything.

              Watch King Corn if you want to see how government and business have twisted every aspect of some thing as basic as growing corn so it benefits and maximizes profits for corporation.

              The problem is that you have to kill the corporate beasts before you can clean the government pig pens. Otherwise those pens are just going to be fouled again right away.

        • Katmoon

          and if he had actually spent time as a functioning senator he may have had the “experience”….not going around running for office, but rarely serving as a senator. This is like putting someone from the tadpole swimming class in the big tall lifeguard chair, geez!

      • http://baddemocrat08.wordpress.com/ obamastolemyboyfriend

        I have ideas and would be happy to share. My stimulus would include only money that creates job. Not short term weatherstripping jobs (that I can do myself, just mail all homeowners the supplies, dumbass BHO!), but real jobs that are long lasting and good paying, teachers, police officers (that we are going to desparately need), firefighters, nurses, doctors, etc. No stupid spending of any kind. none. I would help people refinance their mortgages and things like that, and support new energy technology (with input from Sarah Palin). I’d ask Hillary, too. I don’t care if she’s SOS. At my work we had layoffs and I have to do some extra work and I know Hillary would step right up to do it. We wouldn’t rush into some stupid bill that wasn’t going to work, just for the sake of saying we did something either. It would not go through unless, and until we knew that the things in the bill would actually stimulate the economy and do what we intended so IMO, if this bill is just a crap sandwich, it is better to do nothing than fork over billions of dollars for just a bunch of BS!

        • Bazooka

          a lot of what you are suggesting is in both the stimulus and the TARP II, so your thinking is pretty close to what is being proposed. There is a lot of money in there for teachers, police officers, firemen, nurses, etc.

          TARP II will target the mortgage problem.

          If someone could actually point out as you say where all the “crap” is in the bill I would love to see it…

          Here again is the original bill:

          http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/PressSummary01-15-09.pdf

          Take a look at where the money is going. The majority is for very good investment projects..

          • Mary

            TARP II will set up a “bad bank” concept where the corporate banks will off-load their toxic assets so the taxpayer can fund guarantees.

            There’s very very little money for the mortgage problem.

            Some, but very little, and not enough.

            TARP II shows Barak Obama’s priorities to the American people.

            And it doesn’t look good.

            • BB

              Mary,

              so would your solution be to nationalize the mortgage market?

              I think the priority is to stabilize the banking system to get credit flowing again. However, this time around under Obama TARP II will have a lot more checks and balances.

              TARP I was to immediately keep more institutions like Bank of America and Citi from also failing. if those banks went down then the shocks through the system would have been incredible and we would have seen a much larger domino effect. we would have been far worse off.

              • Mary

                I think you’re very naive, BB. Don’t mean to hurt your feelings, but that’s the bottom line.

                If you total up all the different bailouts, including TARP I under Bush (endorsed by Obama), we’ve spent around $9.7 TRILLION.

                Of that total, the only bill that helps the “little people” is TARP II—yet to be approved or passed—and ONLY with a mere $50 billion. All the rest in TARP II goes to Obama’s banker buddies.

                $9.7 TRILLION for corporate bailouts, and only $50 billion for homeowners.

                Its speaks volumes about who Obama is bailing out, and where his priorities are.

          • obamastolemyboyfriend

            Not exactly. The Stilulusbimulus is full of crap that will not create jobs and not long term ones if it does. Or maybe just put schools where they don’t need them. We don’t need more Government jobs either. Save America, don’t fatten up the Government!

      • lark

        Lots of armchair quarterbacks

        There is no reason for a quarterback except to enlighten the armchair ones. The game is play exclusively for the spectators and is not a feat in itself.

        Government is what determines the welfare of the country to its citizens. Is too late when the rope is chocking the neck. Hyper-inflation is merciless and is devastating to everyone who stays put. I recommend you start looking at trading dollars for Euro’s or else find a country to move to if you want to get through the devaluation of the dollar.

        • Mary

          Well said.

          But I’m not sure little Bazooka is old enough or wise enough to understand inflation devaluing the dollar, causing interest rates to rise as high as 20-25% within 3-4 years.

          I am, and I do.

          Shades of Jimmy Carter. Hillary would have known better.

          But that’s what ya get when you vote for Rookies selling HopeNChange, who aren’t even smart enough to SUPERVISE what’s put in their own bill, and only finds out when the Republicans actually read it for him.

          Sheesh

      • Sam Copeland

        Bazooka:

        No! This is not a matter of pleasing everyone. It is a matter of getting the economy moving again. And if you are an all American Liberal like me, then you believe in certain economic principles for doing that.

        If the NYT piece is correct on the bank bailout (coming out tomorrow), Obama’s plan will have private investors purchase the bad home loans. As an incentive, if those home loans fail, the government will pick up the tab for the private investors. If those home loans make a profit, the profits goes to the private investors. This is what some call “lemon capitalism” and I call kleptocracy. Obama is privatizing profits and socializing losses.

        Further, this plan benefits the rich investors that got us into this mess — the last group that should be profiting.

        And to rub salt into the womb, it not only does nothing for the homeowner who can’t make a mortgage payment but actually puts in place incentives to prevent banks from refinancing. Refinancing will low profit margins on the loans and the only reason to do that is if you have to pick up the tab for default. Since the government is bearing the risk for the investor, why bother if it defaults.

        During the primaries, Hillary Clinton had the liberal, progressive plan for the home loan/banking fiasco. It involved a moratorium on foreclosures and government assisted refinancing to shore up the housing market.

        This is the liberal, progressive way to do it. Obama’s plan is actually worst than Bush’s and I never thought anything could be worst than Bush’s.

        Obama’s bank bailout plan satisfies the rich investors who bankrolled his campaign; it leaves everyday Americans either in financial pain (if you have a bad loan) or picking up the tab (for the bail-out of greedy bankers) or both.

        • Bazooka

          You are critizing before you even know what you are talking about. Funny stuff! If you are going to be a featured blogger on this site, why don’t you develop some credibility by at least waiting to see what is in TARP II before you critize it.

          Your comments just reveal that you are just another simple Obama hater, as no matter what his administration does, you will shoot it down. Not a very educated point of view, especially for someone who is suppose to be a feature blogger on this site.

          I heard there is suppose to be plenty in TARP II to help homeowners, certainly more than was in TARP I.

          • Mary

            NOPE.

            Only $50 billion for homeowners, and all the other billions go to the financial industry, who were his biggest campaign contributors.

          • Sam Copeland

            I prefaced my remarks on tomorrow’s roll-out with the caveat: “If the NYT piece is correct on the bank bailout.”

            It probably is correct because the way a policy is released is to feature it in a given periodical (in this case the NYT) before general release.

            If the plan is different, then I will change my opinion accordingly.

            However, it is nice to know that you agree with me and Mary. If the plan contains the “bad bank” concept that Mary and I are complaining about, then by your attack on me for lumping it in with Obama, it is safe to assume that you agree with us that the bad bank plan is a rotten idea (else you would be praising Obama for doing it right now).

            So, why don’t we do this? If Obama’s plan doesn’t contain the “bad bank” idea, then I will praise him for not doing it and critique the rest of the plan according to my liberal principles.

            If Obama’s plan does contain a “bad bank” idea, then YOU condemn him for it.

            What do you say? If you aren’t willing to agree to this deal, then you have no liberal (or any other) principles and merely worship Obama.

            • BB

              not sure why you are so sure the bad bank concept is so bad?

              this is what is being considered as an option all over the world, by a lot of very smart people.

              “In an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the U.K.’s current measures to shore up banks, including the insurance plan, are “sufficiently flexible to deal with the bad bank-good bank if necessary.” But, Mr. Brown added, “We have got to recapitalize first. You’ve got to get the expansion of lending.”

              A big hurdle to forming a bad bank is that it could force the banks that participate to drastically lower the values they assign to their souring assets before they could move them to a bad bank. It also would force the government to pony up a lot of capital in one swoop. The upside of the insurance plan is that there is no cost to the government until the loans it insures actually default.”

              http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123369165678244603.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

              I guess you are an economic genius that has a better handle on these very sophisticated problems and concepts.

              • Sam Copeland

                The ultimate question is who pays for the bad loans.

                A bad bank that has the government pay for any asset that under performs but gives the profit to the investor if the assets performs well doesn’t make sense to me.

                1. It isn’t fair.
                2. It is socialism for the rich — they get the rewards while the taxpayer takes the risk.
                3. It doesn’t provide an incentive to refinance bad loans since the government will pick up the tab anyway.
                4. There are more cost effective ways to stabilize the bad loans such as direct aid to the home owner.

                How is that for starters?

                • Mary

                  BRAVO, sir!

                  Indeed, the American taxpayer is being asked to GUARANTEE a certain value for the banks’ toxic assets, while the banks themselves have no idea what the value is, or will be. If they overvalue now, and the taxpyers buys at that value, the taxpayer takes the loss if and when the lower value is confirmed.

                  It’s quite similar to the way Fannie & Freddie operated in the boom years…..and the taxpayer got screwed.

                  • Mary

                    But here’s the irony: for the $9.7 TRILLION we’ve already spent to bail out these banks, we could have paid every one of those mortgages for less.

                  • Sam Copeland

                    Well put Mary.

                    I also agreed with your other posts including the comment about the political consequences should this stimulus package fail. The stakes are high and we better get this right.

                    • Mary

                      Thanks, Sam. Your posts are such clarity amongst the okey-dokes who don’t get it.

                      This MATTERS.

    • Tricia Spiegel

      This is awful news–I think we have to wiat until Wednesady, but I’m not holding my breath that it will be helpful to us little folks. Those fat cats have debt too–on their multiple homes and big toys.

  • Sassy

    We put every cent of our former stimulus check back into the economy, plus more of our own money.
    By re-building our deck, the suppliers made money and four men received a day’s pay.
    We had planned to spend this one in local diners, hopefully enabling waitresses to keep their job.
    If this package passes in it’s current form, forget it.
    Charity begins at home, so every dime we receive will be stashed away, for I have a 93 year old mother-in-law, three widowed sisters, a daughter and two grand-daughters to help protect.

    • Ferd Berfle

      I use only local people to do work for me. I recently had a 100-year old silver maple cut down. It was fairly expensive (but it was 85 feet tall and a massive tree). 5 workers and the owner made money and the tree was cut up and donated to people for use in fireplaces and wood-burning stoves. And I don’t have to worry about that monster of a tree leveling my house and several of the neighbor’s any longer.

  • Ferd Berfle

    Shovel-ready stimulus package. Yeah, ready for a quick burial.

    • Mary

      Those shovel-ready projects, in states like Illinois, will go to patronage projects, controlled by the party in power, to their own political supporters.

      Everybody knows that.

      • Mary

        And with very little oversight, BB.

  • TeakwoodKite

    I think it captures the sentiment perfectly, Pat!

    Now that is not dirt the shovel is being used for is it?

    Go figure BO can get a freebee from Nancy and Harry but doesn’t even know what the handle is for!

  • Katmoon

    I really hate the idea of taxpayer money being used on this “presidential” sweep to scare the hell out of people. Enough, really.

    • cynic

      I watched Obama’s question-and-answer session on the stimulus package in Elkhart. Calling it an attempt “to scare the hell out of people” is a total mischaracterization. It was exactly as billed: a live, unscripted question-and-answer session with the public.

      • AlexisM

        Yeah and I’m sure that Q and A had a lot of Pork in the A part, but he lied about it. There’s simply no way to defend that bill. You can polish a turd and it’s still a turd.

  • Cathy6224

    Kat I agree, yet the Obama supporters accused the Republicans of using scare tactics. That they are now using to force a “stimulus package” on us. That is not going to stimulate anything or create any jobs. All it is doing is payback for those corporations who helped him get elected.

  • AlexisM

    Hey I have a great idea…while Obama is going on the road, lying and trying to muster support for the Bacon Bill…maybe the people voting against it should get some air time to talk about what’s really in it. Like the furniture buying, the golf carts, etc.

  • cynic

    If the stimulus package really is nothing but a porker, maybe people trying to convince us of that should focus on explaining about the rest of the animal, rather than just ranting about a suspiciously piggish tail or the suspicious look of a few piggish warts and freckles. Criticism seems to focus entirely on stuff that’s less than 1% of the package.

    Are the proposed tax cuts to the middle class, working class, and small businesses pork? Is spending on desperately needed help for people hard-hit by economic conditions pork? Is spending on programs that directly create American jobs while simultaneously building for a better economic future pork?

    The long-term wisdom of burning borrowed coal to get up a head of steam so the train will start moving again is really a separate issue.

    • Bazooka

      Exactly… it is about $17 bn that the Republicans have complained about, which is debatable in the first place whether it is bad spending or not in terms of stimulating the economy, and represents just less than 2% of the overall bill.

      In fact, most of this stuff has been out of the bill for a while know….

      The Republicans are just playing politics. They could care less about the economy and keeping people in their jobs.

      McConnell’s initial reaction was he support the idea of a stimulus and was please to see the tax cuts. He said they should be able to get it done by mid-Feb. Then he complained about less than 2% of the bill, suggesting that he saw an opening in which to just play politics. Then once the 2% was taken-out, they had nothing to critize the bill for anymore, so now he just starts complaining about stimulus in general, which is entirely different than what he said at the beginning.

      These scumbag idiot Republicans created this huge mess in the first place, dumped it on the Democrats and now they have the nerve to complain when someone is trying to clean up their mess.

      They are good at playing the PR game and getting the media all hot and bothered about 2%, but are empty when it comes to any real ideas to stop the economic tailspin. Now they just say let the economy tailspin down and let the people suffer and do nothing.

      There is no way the country should let a bunch of hick Republican senators set the agenda for this country. They have no economic credibility.

    • BB

      there is no pork in the stimulus plan. that is just a republican talking point to try and political sink Obama.

      republicans have no shame and would rather see the economy go down than to see obama succeed. kind of like NQ

      • Pat Racimora

        BB

        No Quarter praises Obama when he clearly deserves it. I have done several “praise” toons. But we keep a close eye, and if you have kids you should be shaky about pushing SO hard SO fast to commit a fortune to projects that are not all that clearly going to help. They will have to pay, as will their children. Caution is in order.

      • Mary

        You don’t think golf carts and frisbee parks and shelters for prostitutes are pork?

        I don’t think you’ve even read the original bill, BB.

        You haven’t a clue what Pelosi et al porked into it before it was cleansed of same.

        Hell, even Claire McCaskill and Diane Feinstein said it was “larded up” and they might not vote for it.

        Not to worry, though. You can thank the Blue Dogs and the Republicans for cleansing the bill of the pork so you as a taxpayer wouldn’t get BAMBOOZLED.

  • Clara Barton

    I’d like to know what good the two amendments added by the Senate (real estate tax credit or new auto purchase credit) will do for the economy when people can’t get loans to buy that house or pay for the car over time because the credit still isn’t flowing?

    • Mary

      Geithner and Obama say that the buying of toxic assets from the banks by the taxpayer will help to free up that credit.

      I’m not sure I believe that, but it’s what the Obama administration is claiming will be the result of TARP II.

      We’ll see, won’t we?

  • Don X

    That is one expressive cartoon, Pat. Makes one want to hold one’s nose! However, the Obot is pinnng his re-election hopes on the success of this pile. Seems very naive and ill-advised. I agree that something needs to be done to stop the bleeding, the loss of jobs, the loss of property and the fall of the dominoes. Whether the house/senate committee can agree on some workable plan that will accomplish anything remains to be seen, but I share your pessimism. I think the devil is in the details. You can’t just put people to work building infrastructure or creating electronic medical records. Almost all these jobs require training. You can’t just hand people a shovel and tell them to go to work. Well, maybe you could if the job is cleaning the crap out of a barn or digging a ditch. No way are you going to put 4 million people to work right away. What is missing from anything I’ve seen are the details of how any plan can get people who have lost their jobs working again. A lot of people who have lost or are losing their jobs are well-trained in certain areas. Where are the jobs for them? Employers who let them go are not hiring, they’re firinig. Is it any wonder the Republicans are dragging their feet? When the Obot’s plan fails, they can blame him since they didn’t support it. The Obot doesn’t want to be perceived as fiddling while Rome burns, but his plan to douse the fire is about as realistic as throwing a bucket of water on a forest fire. This is one sad case of wishful thinking.

  • Rich

    Another good and interesting cartoon! Just because something is shovel ready, does not mean it is necessary today, if it ever was. Since states need money, then they will pull out every project that has been on the shelf for the past ten years, and call them shovel ready. For example school districts, whose enrolments have fallen and have empty school building will spend money on building class rooms that were needed ten years ago, just in case they ever need them in the future. That bridge in Alaska, is probably shovel ready to go. The rebuilding of the small Airport in Kennedy’s home town, is probably shovel ready. I am sure you can think of others.

    By the way did anyone notice that in one of Obama’s speeches this stimulus package will save and create 4,000,000 jobs, but in this mornings statement it was only 3,000,000 million. There is also a big difference between creating jobs, and saving jobs. One is about no improvements in the job market and the other is about adding people to the employment rolls.