RRRA, like many regulars here is a member of the loyal opposition. If loyal or opposition is giving you any trouble, I suggest Webster’s online.

And as long as you’re leaving, try some place else to regale with your lack of political knowledge—please.

so what exactly are you?

Not a hatchet job on Obama – reality.

And, I’m not a Republican. Never have been. But I also don’t blindly toe the line, either. I think for myself.

1) Where is all the pork in the stimulus bill? Why don’t you tell us exactly what you consider pork? The $17 billion of items you listed in your previous post represented less than 2% of the overall bill and most of it is out now. Not sure if you could even consider most of it “pork”. Roads, bridges, highways, environment, broadband, etc. Is that pork? I guess you could say any government spending is pork. So if that is the case we should just get rid of the government and live in anarchy then?

2) It seems something has happened over the last three months. The economy has fallen off a cliff. We “Hoped” for a change and we got it. We got rid of Bush. However, he handed Obama a crap sandwich and an economy beginning a rapid downward spiral, as he left office. So there is a lot to fear and I would rather have Obama talking about this than a Bush which brushed any talk about a tough economy under the carpet. I think Bush said at one point the economy was doing well, just like McCain said. So I have no problem with Obama being honest about “catastrophe”. It does not contradict his message of change and hope.

3) The guy appointed a few former lobbyists. So what? Out of hundreds that does not sound like a big deal. The reality is that Obama has done more to try and reduce the influence of lobbyist than just about any former president. He took far fewer dollars and had far fewer former lobbyist working in his campaign than either Clinton or McCain. He also set up the strongest rules to ban lobbyist from the Whitehouse than any previous president. And his screening procedure is also the strictest of any before. So what if he gave out a few waviers? It proves that things in Washington are hard to change. At least he is moving in the right direction. Obama is a very fresh change on lobbying versus the Bush admin where the Energy lobbyists wrote Cheneys energy bill and where Abramoff contacted the Whitehouse more than 485 times. The lobbyist and the right-wing think tanks ran the Bush adminstration.

4) Lets give credit to Obama for actually throwing out Daschle once it become clear about his tax issues and potential lobbying. His screening procedure worked. As for Geitner, it could have been an honest mistake. Paying taxes in the job he was in was not obvious and many have made that same mistake. And it is refreshing to hear a president admit that he made a mistake in attempting to bring Daschle into the government.

5) The stimulus bill was not rammed through a Krauthammer infers. It went through the normal process. Congress wrote the first draft, with some actual Republican ideas like a tax cut, then it went to the Senate (senate often re-write bills) where the republicans had the opportunity to be involved. Obama tried to reach out in a bipartisan way like few other Presidents before on this bill, but the Republicans were too busy playing politics. In the end three republicans negotiated the final senate deal. Now the bill goes back and forth between congress and the senate before the president signs. So plenty more opportunity for debate. However, the republicans would rather see Obama fail than for the stimulus to succeed. Sounds like NQ.

Kruthammer says there is “little more than backscratching, special-interest, lobby-driven parochialism…” in the bill? that is complete BS. Why doesn’t he give us some actual examples of this very extreme and BS view. Great he cherry-picks $150 mm for livestock. As I said before less than 2% of the bill are for items that have been disputed and cherry-picked. Not very geniune to complain about a $800 billion bill when you only got less than 2% to complain about and with most of that now out of the bill.

Sure he points out that lobbyist were lobbying, but so what, that is what they do? What is important is if anyone is listening to them! There is no evidence whatsoever that any lobbyist influenced any of the stimulus bill.

Krauthammer actually quotes a no existing comment from the budget office about funds flows in 2011. This is a complete lie. The CBO has said they never issues a report that suggests anything about the timing of the stimulus. Most of the funds will flow in the next 18 months with the 3-4 million of jobs to be created by the end of 2010.

6) This only reason we are even considering this stimulus bill is because of guys like Krauthammer. He and his politics had run this country and this economy into the ground. Without guys like Krauthammer and his influence we would not have had a stimulus in the first place.

Once again Amy you hope that the crapola is cut out of the bill. Where exactly is all this crapola? Please show me? You may point to a few things “you” think is crapola, but how much of the total package does that represent?

Here is a copy of the bill as original written.

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

Alot of stuff you may think is crapola is out. Show me the crapola and pet projects?

You just sound like you are just regurgitating the Republican talking points! Makes sense to do this, given your hatred for Obama and you wanting him to fail.

Right now there are more immediate concerns that many of us are worrying about: will I have a place to live in six months? Will I be able to feed my family? Will I have anything left in my retirement account?