. . .and Rat-Fucker Blue Dogs.
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I’m still working on the numbers, but I’ve gotten a fair number of requests for comment on the Senate version of the stimulus.
The short answer: to appease the centrists, a plan that was already too small and too focused on ineffective tax cuts has been made significantly smaller, and even more focused on tax cuts.
According to the CBO’s estimates, we’re facing an output shortfall of almost 14% of GDP over the next two years, or around $2 trillion. Others, such as Goldman Sachs, are even more pessimistic. So the original $800 billion plan was too small, especially because a substantial share consisted of tax cuts that probably would have added little to demand. The plan should have been at least 50% larger.
Now the centrists have shaved off $86 billion in spending — much of it among the most effective and most needed parts of the plan. In particular, aid to state governments, which are in desperate straits, is both fast — because it prevents spending cuts rather than having to start up new projects — and effective, because it would in fact be spent; plus state and local governments are cutting back on essentials, so the social value of this spending would be high. But in the name of mighty centrism, $40 billion of that aid has been cut out.
My first cut says that the changes to the Senate bill will ensure that we have at least 600,000 fewer Americans employed over the next two years.
The real question now is whether Obama will be able to come back for more once it’s clear that the plan is way inadequate. My guess is no. This is really, really bad.
So— What part of this speech did those “centrist” douchebags not understand??
Nonnie, Exactly; make’m stand there and spout that deadman shit til it runs out every orifice in they heads. Conservatism and conservative ideas are bankrupt and rotting back into the abyss, and these silly fucks need to go with them.
Yeah they’re Johns alright! And to think I left out another major John douche, Jon Kyl!
Hey BlueNose McKrinkle,
I agree; if these freaks don’t get a handle on what is best for America soon, we might as well break out the guillotines and start over with some unaffiliated statesmen and women.
obama made a big mistake allowing the ‘gang of 4’ to dictate what would be taken out of the bill. are those 4 going to edit all legislation going forward? maybe it would have been just as well to try to pass the stim bill with just the dem vote and tell the rethugs and ‘centrists’ to go fuck themselves. let them filibuster, but make them actually filibuster and talk their filthy faces off. the more they talk, the dumber they sound. as it stands, i don’t think the bill is going to help anyone anyway, so why not let the rethugs and the ‘centrists’ take the blame for screwing things up?
p.s. that’s awful fine ps’ing, mh! strange how many rethugs are named john (and how many use the services of johns).
My friend Squeaky McKrinkle says:
Nice to see the word “centrist” in quotes. It should always be that way. These self-important clowns don’t represent the center, they are the weasel-right. In this instance their behavior, perhaps partly due to ignorance, is very close to treasonous. Vermin.