Scared after the Senate passed of the new "Stimulous" package "rant"

[Wifezilla]

Well, more like "tough love"

 

[VT-Chicklit]

Glad to hear that most of you are thinking like me. It seems like the Democrats in Congress have thrown the kitchen sink into this "stimulous bill" and much of it should not be there. The Republicans would have done the same thing if their positions were reversed.

There are many things in this bill that will not stimulate the economy and grow long term jobs. Such things as a new campus and uniforms for Home Land Security, new cars for government car pools, club houses, golf courses, studies for an endangered mouse that is found in Nancy Pelozis' district, funding for consolidating ALL the medical records of Americans on to the WEB, centralizing medical care decisions for ALL Americans through one agency, and there is MUCH MORE! The reason for all these items being placed in THIS BILL is because, this bill would not be debated. Therefore all (or most) of the items would go unchallanged.

It has nothing to do with stimulating the economy. Even the "shovel ready" construction projects will not get off the ground for a year, and in many cases, much longer than that. Most of the jobs that will be created will only exist as long as the government money flows to that project. Just like the millions of jobs (service jobs) that were created during George Bushes time in office, these jobs are not quality jobs. To me a quality job is a job that is around a long time and pays a liveable wage. These new jobs will pay a liveable wage but will not be around for a long time, unless we taxpayers continue to subsidize them and their projects. Most of the things in this bill are "pay backs" to those who got the current "powers that be" elected or, they are things that are part of the ajenda of those who control the Congress now. They are NOT stimulative! They think we, for the most part, are too stupid or too scared to look too closely at this bill. Put that in conjunction with a media that, for the most part, is in the tank for the current administration and I think they thought it would be a cake walk. They figured they would come back later for another whack at our pocket books to really stimulate some job growth once they had gotten everything else that they had wanted. The President has even been trying to lower expectations on how well this bill will work to stimulate jobs and the economy. He says that it is only one part and they will have to do more. I think they have already done more than enough.

With the cost of this bill it should fix all our problems and then some. If it doesn't, it is money poorly spent and we all know that Congress has a habit of doing that. Lower my tax rate and I can stimulate the economy, lower the tax rates of the small businesses and they can grow and hire more people to stimulate the economy. Lower taxes didn't work during the Bush administration because Bush and Congress spent like drunken sailors, just like Obama and Congress are trying to do now. The only difference is Bush and the Congress spread it out over 8 years and Obama and the Congress are trying to do it in a few weeks. Their adjendas are different but, either way, spending more than you have gets you further into debt.

 

[lorihadams]

Okay, here's what really gets me ticked off...I live in a rural area and constantly see businesses creeping into the country, meanwhile businesses that are already in the city are closing and buildings are sitting vacant when these new businesses are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on clearing land and building new buildings instead of just buying established properties and spending much less on the cost of renovating the building for their needs.

This country has become so wasteful it is pathetic. We have gotten into this "bigger is better" mentality and we have forgotten that things don't matter, people and relationships and love and family are what matter.

I went into a home for sale with my real estate agent and when we got up close you could see the holes in the roof. When we got inside there was a hole in the ceiling as big as a recliner with a sheet over it to try to cover it up. Now, here is my problem....they had a living room full of nice leather furniture and a 42 inch plasma. Helllllllllooooooo?

No amount of money or rebates or tax incentives are going to fix anything if people can't get their priorities straight. Big business needs to realize what a disservice they are doing to the "regular" folk when they ship jobs overseas only to have their crappy products shipped back to the US for us to spend what little money we have left at the end of the day on, only for those products to end up being pieces of crap that break or don't work or being recalled because of some health scare.

I hear my granny talk about how her life was growing up as a kid...she is in her mid 70s...on a farm, working every day for their own food, going to the well pump every day to get water, using an outhouse, cooking on a wood stove, heating stones in a fire and wrapping in blankets to keep their feet warm when they were riding in the back of a wagon to the fields to pick tobacco (by hand), listening to the radio and cutting out fabric to hand stitch a quilt together, and being totally happy (albeit tired) at the end of the day. I long for those types of days myself...maybe someday I'll get there...but I can tell you this much, I bet one of our presidents won't help me get there!

I'll get down off my soapbox now...

 

[Beekissed]

Soooooooo glad I don't watch TV or follow politics! Just one less thing to worry about, in my thinking! I guess that is the beauty of having little material possessions or money....I don't have to worry about losing it.

My theory? Whoever is in office, they won't work any miracles, they all lie to get there, and there is no use to get in a stitch about it all. I just work, keep my corner of the world easy and happy, and let the world fret and stew all around me. Very few people get a chance to save the world, even less from a political office now days~but one CAN work to improve their own little space on earth.

Why borrow a cup of trouble by getting stressed over something you cannot change? :/

 

[reinbeau]

I want to be informed because I don't feel helpless to change anything. I contact my senators, representatives, whoever I can and tell them what I think. There are enough people contacting them right now telling them they don't want this package that it's making them notice. Really.

What makes me angry is they won't just give us the money so we can spend it on what we need, not make-work projects that have no intrinsic value, and, as VT-Chicklit said, creating jobs that are dependent on government funding, they'll end when the project ends. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

We can't bury our heads in the sand. Passiveness and lethargy gives them power.

 

[plucky]

I had to shake my head and chuckle this morning...

This morning NBC had an "expert" on from MSNBC (I didn't catch his name) talking about "how we know if the stimulus is working."

He had three categories with which to gauge - unemployment, inflation, and housing. He launched into this big explanation about what we "should" see that will show us that things are working.

The jist of what he said was that unemployment will go down...but it might go up first, but that's how we know it's going to get better...it might get worse, but then that's good because we know it will get better.

Same wilth inflation...it might look like it's getting worse, but it's going to look worse in order to get better. Then we have to worry about deflation, which the plan may cause. But it will get better.

Same with housing...foreclosures will increase, maybe, but eventually it'll get better.

When asked for a timeline, he said it could happen quick, or it might take years.

HUH? I'm sure I wore the same confused expression as Meridith. It seems they are preparing the American people to just blindly accept whatever comes down the pipe...


(edited for typo)

 

[Wifezilla]

I live in a rural area and constantly see businesses creeping into the country, meanwhile businesses that are already in the city are closing and buildings are sitting vacant when these new businesses are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on clearing land and building new buildings instead of just buying established properties and spending much less on the cost of renovating the building for their needs.

There is actually a reason for this. Cities tend to STRANGLE existing business districts with taxes, fees, regulations, etc... Zoning forces businesses to often deal with a small pool of select landlords. These landlords are often absentee. They do not make repairs on the buildings. They would rather let a building crumble in to decay than spend money. Businesses trying to expand often choose areas outside of city limits so they can get their own building, not pay ever increasing rents for buildings that are falling apart, and get away from city stupidity. Of course, once an area crumbles and decays, the city then looks to annex the thriving business district just outside it's door.

We moved our business to avoid being annexed in June. Our old neighbors who got annexed are being driven up the wall by city regulators.

 

[Homesteadmom]

Just like FDR did with his "New Deal" Obama is doing with his "stimulus" we are heading for a worse depression.

Oh to the poster who was talking about the $500 tax cut, it is not a cut we are getting. A cut actually reducing your taxes by that amount. We will be getting a check(that will be taxed on this yrs taxes BTW).

More earmarks: ATV trails to be refurbished!! Community organiaztions(ACORN) will get millions of our $$$'s for getting him elected. To name just a couple.

 

[VT-Chicklit]

This is me back under my chair again. I am heart sick and afraid. I was watching the news this morning while they were discussing the health care provisions in the stimulous bill. These provisions, in addition to providing the funding for placing all medical records on the WEB, also will limit the procedures and medicines that your doctor will be able to perscribe. It does not directly state that certain prcedures and medicines cannot be used BUT it will require the central governmental agency that will be in charge of interacting with your doctor when he/she is perscribing procedures and medicines to use the less expensive procedures and medicines and avoid the more epensive ones. This will effectively shut down medical research and new, life saveing drugs because the doctors will not perscribe things that will not be paid for. This bill will also deny reimbursement to insurances that ok these more expensive procedures.

I am someone that is on a necessary medication that is very expensive. I will be on this medication for the rest of my life and currently have insurance that pays the $1600 a month to cover the cost. Without the medication my life would be difficult at best and severely shortened at worst, I am currently 50 and hope to live a long and productive life. My medication would probably be denied by the new government rules. There are alot of people using this medication so it is not experimental.

There will be little if any research on new drugs and procedures if there is no market for them. It costs alot of money, millions of dollars, and many years of experimenting and testing before new life saving procedures and medicines can be used on the genral population to save lives. The people and companies that develop these things must be adequately compensated to insure we progress in the area of medicine. That is why these things have a large cost. We all must rember that things like bypass surgery on the heart, many types of cancer treatment, transplants and medicines to treat MRSA were once considered very expensive and experimental. These things are common place now and saving lives.

England detirmines the type of care her citizens recieves based on cost. This is one of the ways that they keep costs down. I wonder what the death rate is for the Brits on diseases that we currently treat differently here to save American lives. There are some very expensive breast cancer medicines that will probably be denied, while mastectomies are cheap. Should someone that is retarded and crippled be given expensive drugs and procedures to treat a chronic lung condition? Is someone that is 50, young enough to be allowed to have a transplant or is their life expectancy not long enough to warrant to cost? This is only a half step away from detirmining the type and quallity of health care based on age and disability. I dont trust this, or any government, to make humane decisions regarding these matters. We know that they can be bought. This is evidenced by our lack of representation in Washington, while the lobbiests for big business get what they want. Health care will be treated the same. Those that are rich and can grease palms, will get what the rest of us cannot.

I know that things will never be equal but, at least now we all can get the life saving care we need, even if it comes with a payment plan to the provider. It seems, from what I am hearing, there will come a time in the near future when this will not be the case. I would rather be in debt, and be alive due to an expensive life saving procedure, than not have those procedures available to me.

I have called my Congressman and Senators. Unfortunately not enough people know about this provision in the bill and are not calling to complain. Additionally, I think many people think that they will never have a disease that falls into this catagory. If you think that is the case, remember breast cancer and other cancers are having better cure rates every year due to newer and more expensive drugs and procedures. Many of these would probably be denied. I dont want to take that risk.

Anyone who feels that they want to contact their Representatives and Congressmen in Washington can do so by calling the government switchboard at 1-202-224-3121 and ask for your Congressman or Representative to complain. I will now get off my soap box.

 

[Wifezilla]

I am heart sick and afraid.

That means your brain is in fine working condition