I'm coming to this thread not as a Liberal, shaking my Obama pom-poms (although I fully support the guy, a president who's giving his best in a very tough situation), but as a curious, inquisitive american.
The 1.073-paged, $787 billion stimulus bill (or "economic recovery package" as it's been renamed) that cleared the House without any republican support (246 House democrats voted for it), and cleared the Senate with 60 votes - only three votes which were republican: Spector, Collins, Snowe - means that this is a DEMOCRATIC piece of legislation, for better or for worse, and the prospects of the democratic party may rise or fall with it, depending on it's successfulness at "stimulation" during the coming year.
I am going to give a Wall Street Journal link to the entire contents of this stimulus package here, an easy-to-read breakdown:
What's in the Stimulus Bill - A Breakdown - The Wall Street Journal Online
Please look over this itemized list. My question is: How are $288 billion in tax cuts, and all the stuff inside this package (a billion dollars in "extra money for Census", carbon emissions research, cleanup of former nuclear sites, Homeland Security spending, border security fencing, National Park maintenance, Wildlife refuge money, loans to Indians, purchasing fuel-efficient vehicles for a "federal fleet", NASA research, etc. etc, etc) going to stimulate?
Most of the spending in this package are on worthy projects, I have to stress that - I champion the majority of it's contents - but, again, how exactly do they "stimulate" economic growth?
(I hope some of this site's liberal posters can weigh in and offer some illumination on how these assorted projects get us up & running again, because I'd like to have some confidence in this legislation and this democratic Congress and what exactly we dems have been fighting for the past month and a half)
The 1.073-paged, $787 billion stimulus bill (or "economic recovery package" as it's been renamed) that cleared the House without any republican support (246 House democrats voted for it), and cleared the Senate with 60 votes - only three votes which were republican: Spector, Collins, Snowe - means that this is a DEMOCRATIC piece of legislation, for better or for worse, and the prospects of the democratic party may rise or fall with it, depending on it's successfulness at "stimulation" during the coming year.
I am going to give a Wall Street Journal link to the entire contents of this stimulus package here, an easy-to-read breakdown:
What's in the Stimulus Bill - A Breakdown - The Wall Street Journal Online
Please look over this itemized list. My question is: How are $288 billion in tax cuts, and all the stuff inside this package (a billion dollars in "extra money for Census", carbon emissions research, cleanup of former nuclear sites, Homeland Security spending, border security fencing, National Park maintenance, Wildlife refuge money, loans to Indians, purchasing fuel-efficient vehicles for a "federal fleet", NASA research, etc. etc, etc) going to stimulate?
Most of the spending in this package are on worthy projects, I have to stress that - I champion the majority of it's contents - but, again, how exactly do they "stimulate" economic growth?
(I hope some of this site's liberal posters can weigh in and offer some illumination on how these assorted projects get us up & running again, because I'd like to have some confidence in this legislation and this democratic Congress and what exactly we dems have been fighting for the past month and a half)
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