Former DNC Chairman Howard Dean spoke on MSNBC this morning (25 Mar 0900 hour) defending (if you can) President Obama’s budget proposals. Touting the party line, Dean said that health care reform and education reform is the way to longterm prosperity and this budget is the yellow brick road that will get us there (my chioce of words, not his).
He praised Dems efforts to create and debate this budget but unleased a scathing rhetoric saying Republicans have “Chosen” to “Remain Silent” in this entire process.
I don’t know about you, but I bet Sen McConnel, Reps Boehner, Cantor and Bachmann would very much disagree with Mr Deans analysis of the situation.
Republicans have, throughout the entire Stimulus, Omnibus and now this budget process, voiced ideas, concern, and opposition against this rampant and wasteful spending of our tax dollars, which have resulted in no new job growth or improvements in the financial markets.
The Obama administration has continuously shunned any Republican ideas and they were unceremoniously told to shush ‘you lost.’
That’s the Obama style of governing.  Sen Reid and Speaker Pelosi are taking full advantage of the situation and are continuing to push their social agenda at the expense of the taxpayer.
And within the Democratic party, a new liberal group has popped up and is actively, this week, targeting conservative Democrats with internet, telephone and emails to the member’s districts to try and bend the ears of those constituents. This Pelosian effort (as I like to call these uber liberal attack machines) is the latest attempt to save those social measures in the budget that pile untold amounts of taxpayer money on pie in the sky issues that do not have any real place in this type of budget.

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02/24/09

While Obama was on TV all day spewing his rhetoric about fiscal responsibility and cutting the Federal deficit in half, House Democrats introduced a $410 billion spending bill.  Associated Press  reports:

WASHINGTON (AP) -House Democrats unveiled a $410 billion spending bill on Monday to keep the government running through the end of the fiscal year, setting up the second political struggle over federal funds in less than a month with Republicans.

The measure includes thousands of earmarks, the pet projects favored by lawmakers but often criticized by the public in opinion polls. There was no official total of the bill’s earmarks, which accounted for at least $3.8 billion.

The legislation, which includes an increase of roughly 8 percent over spending in the last fiscal year, is expected to clear the House later in the week.

Democrats defended the spending increases, saying they were needed to make up for cuts enacted in recent years or proposed a year ago by then-President George W. Bush in health, education, energy and other programs.

Republicans countered that the spending in the bill far outpaced inflation, and amounted to much higher increases when combined with spending in the stimulus legislation that President Barack Obama signed last week. In a letter to top Democratic leaders, the GOP leadership called for a spending freeze, a step they said would point toward a “new standard of fiscal discipline.”

Either way, the bill advanced less than one week after Obama signed the $787 billion economic stimulus bill that all Republicans in Congress opposed except for three moderate GOP senators.

Apart from spending, the legislation provides Democrats in Congress and Obama an opportunity to reverse Bush-era policy on selected issues.

It loosens restrictions on travel to Cuba, as well as the sale of food and medicine to the communist island-nation.

In another change, the legislation bans Mexican-licensed trucks from operating outside commercial zones along the border with the United States. The Teamsters Union, which supported Obama’s election last year, hailed the move.

The Bush administration backed a pilot program to permit up to 500 trucks from 100 Mexican motor carriers access to U.S. roads.

The legislation covers programs for numerous Cabinet-level and other agencies, and takes the place of regular annual spending bills that did not pass last year as a result of a deadlock between the Bush administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress.

Congressional expenses are included. The bill provides $500,000 for what is described as a Senate “pilot program” that will defray the cost of mass mail postcards to households notifying them of a nearby town meeting to be attended by any senator.

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02/22/09

I know I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer and when it comes to mathematics, a butter knife is a cut above me.  However, when I hear the numbers being tossed about by Washington, even I know something isn’t adding up.

The headline reads: Obama Aims to Halve Deficit by 2013.  I had to read that twice.  Halve the deficit!?  I mean, didn’t we just spend $787 billion in pork?  If you go by what the “experts” say, one third of that is tax cuts and job creation so that creates an actual total of about $520 billion in pork spending.  Stay with me, the numbers are about to get even more confusing.

We musn’t forget the $75 billion in mortgage bailout, or is it $275 billion?  I still haven’t figured this one out.  The President said it was a $75 billion dollar plan and yet the same day the news was reporting it at $275 billion.  Get out your calculator folks.  This plan is supposed to help up to 9 million homeowners by renegotiating loans to save them $6,000 on their mortgage.  According to my trusty rusty Texas Instrument, 9 million times 6 thousand equals, 54 billion.  Is your head spinning yet?

On top of all this is Geithner’s yet to be named, planned, or rolled out blueprint to save the world from economic collapse.  We don’t know what it is and he won’t tell us, but we do know it will cost at least $2 TRILLION.  In addition are the trillions in bank, insurance, and auto bailouts.

Now then, the report I read said that the new administration was left with a $1.3 trillion deficit when it took office.  Politicians prefer to say it was left with a $9 trillion deficit.  To-may-toe, to-mah-toe?  To try and reconcile these numbers, I dug a bit deeper.  Guess what I found?  They are both right!  What I learned is that there is a difference between Federal deficit and National deficit.  Say whaaat!?  You read that right folks.  There are two sets of books.  I know some of y’all already knew this but keep in mind… I am aspiring to be a butter knife.

So, when the President says he is going to cut the Federal deficit in half, he just might be able to do it; by moving pork spending and pet projects outside the budget and into spending bills, instead of within the proper budget appropriations where they rightfully belong (remember the stimulus bill).

Now that those trillions are no longer on the Federal books how is he going to halve what is left?  Well, he is going to raise taxes.  He said he will raise them on businesses and on the wealthy.  Now, I take issue with the term “wealthy” because by his definition you are wealthy if your household earns more than $250,000.  Right now, those poor schmucks who work hard, pay their mortgages, pay their bills, and earn $250,000 are paying $87,500 of their earnings in income tax.  When Obama gets through they will be paying $99,000 in income tax.  That’s just income tax, folks!  It doesn’t take into account social security, medicare, and for some, State tax.  Now, if the median household income is $40,000 then that means for every household earning $250,000, there are two jobs that could have been created had they not been taxed.  But Obama doesn’t really want to create jobs, does he?  No, he wants to take money from the so called wealthy and give it to the “poor” so that the “poor” doesn’t actually have to work.

Finally, Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address, “We can’t generate sustained growth without getting our deficits under control.”  He said his budget will be “sober in its assessments, honest in its accounting, and lays out in detail my strategy for investing in what we need, cutting what we don’t, and restoring fiscal discipline.”  How can this guy keep a straight face when he knows he is spewing a bold faced lie!?  To add insult to injury, he is meeting tomorrow with business and union leaders, academics and lawmakers to discuss ways of cutting the deficit.  Then on Tuesday he is addressing a joint session of congress with his budget.  If I were a business leader invited to this faux meeting, I wouldn’t go.  It’s an insult to say you want input on something when you have already made up your mind.  Kinda like when he wanted input from Republicans on the stimulus bill when he had no intention of listening.

One more thing before I go repair the hole in the wall left by my Texas Instrument.  Remember the $13 per week we are to receive?  Evidentally, Obama is using a different calculator because in his address he claims it is $65 per month.  I still haven’t figured that one out.  If anyone can enlighten me please do!

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02/18/09

Declaration of Independence

Like millions of other citizens I am angry; like millions of other citizens I am inflamed about the direction our country is heading; and it’s not just about the trillions of dollars being stuck up a hogs butt.   I am angry because we are screaming and no one is listening.  We have no voice.

Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, Conservatives are an oppressed people.  Millions of citizens playing by the rules, following the law, paying their taxes, doing as their government demands them to do only to be told they don’t count.  We have no voice.

I read countless articles and blogs.  I listen to numerous talking heads. I watch as commentators and talk show hosts lament the direction our country is heading.  I watch Senators and Congressmen give long blustery speeches and yet I haven’t seen a single one of them risk his reputation to stand up and scream like Howard Beale, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.”  Millions of citizens grumbling about deficits, bailouts, and socialism are being ignored.  We have no voice; we have no leader.

The revolutionaries who founded this country did so because they had no voice in the government which oppressed them.  We have elections in which we put representatives in office, but they don’t represent us.  How can they represent us when they don’t listen to us?  Not even the Republican Party represents us; to wit, the three traitors who sold out their party, their constituents, and their country.  We have no voice; we need a leader.

Who among us has the fire and the life of our founding fathers burning within his soul and is willing to stand up and scream, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”   Who among us has the ability and the courage to risk everything, possibly even life itself, to lead us out of this bondage and into the freedom our nation once represented?  Show me that man and I will follow him to the ends of the earth.

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02/10/09

Last night all of us were treated to Obama’s first news conference as our president.  While most of the media is calling it a success I am puking up my cheerios.

As usual, he performed quite well while reading his teleprompters.  He showed his inexperience and inability to stay on point when he began taking questions from the so-called press.  A few of the questions came from actual journalists while others came from bloggers and columnists.  This was the first press conference where those who are not a part of the White House Press Corps were allowed.  However, in case you missed it The Washington Post’s Michael A. Fletcher asked the most pressing question that is on every American’s mind, “What do you think about the admission by baseball star Alex Rodriguez that he once used steroids?”  Idiot.

Obama’s prepared statement was, thankfully, quite short.  For those who are not fluent in ObamaSpeak,  I have provided the short transcript of his statement with what he really meant in red italics.

OBAMA: Good evening, everybody. Please be seated. Hello my little pretties. Thank you for worshiping me.

Before I take your questions tonight, I’d like to speak briefly about the state of our economy and why I believe we need to put this recovery plan in motion as soon as possible.  Before I take questions from my biggest fans like The Huffington Post and Helen Thomas, who really aren’t even journalists, I would like to manipulate you into blindness about my socialist package.

I took a trip to Elkhart, Indiana, today. Elkhart is a place that has lost jobs faster than anywhere else in America. In one year, the unemployment rate went from 4.7 percent to 15.3 percent.

Companies that have sustained this community for years are shedding jobs at an alarming speed, and the people who’ve lost them have no idea what to do or who to turn to.

They can’t pay their bills. They’ve stopped spending money. And because they’ve stopped spending money, more businesses have been forced to lay off more workers. In fact, local TV stations have started running public service announcements to tell people where to find food banks, even as the food banks don’t have enough to meet the demand.

As we speak, similar scenes are playing out in cities and towns across America. Last Monday, more than 1,000 men and women stood in line for 35 firefighter jobs in Miami. Last month, our economy lost 598,000 jobs, which is nearly the equivalent of losing every single job in the state of Maine.

And if there’s anyone out there who still hasn’t bought what I am selling doesn’t believe this constitutes a full-blown crisis, I suggest speaking to one of the millions of fools who are mesmerized by me Americans whose lives have been turned upside-down because they don’t know where their next paycheck is coming from.

And that is why the single most important part of this economic recovery and reinvestment plan is the fact that it will save or create up to 4 million jobs, because that’s what America needs most right now.  Please don’t ask me where I got that number from because I have no idea; it just sounds good.

It is absolutely true that we can’t depend on government alone to create jobs or economic growth. But I am going to try and convince you otherwise. That is and must be the role of the private sector. I hope you can’t see me laughing my ass off right now. But at this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back into life.  Resources we are going to get by borrowing from other countries and plunging your grandkids into unrecoverable debt.

It is only government that can break the vicious cycle, where lost jobs lead to people spending less money, which leads to even more layoffs. And breaking that cycle is exactly what the plan that’s moving through Congress is designed to do.  I hope no one remembers it was government that actually created this cycle.

When passed, this plan will ensure that Americans who’ve lost their jobs through no fault of their own can receive greater unemployment benefits and continue their health care coverage.  Government will ration health care as it sees fit.

We’ll also provide a $2,500 tax credit to folks who are struggling to pay the costs of their college tuition and $1,000 worth of badly needed tax relief to working- and middle-class families. These steps will put more money in the pockets of those Americans who are most likely to spend it, and that will help break the cycle and get our economy moving.  I’m going to give you back a small portion of your wages.  Be grateful I’m not taking all of it to give to people who don’t pay taxes.

But as we’ve learned very clearly and conclusively over the last eight years, tax cuts alone can’t solve all of our economic problems, especially tax cuts that are targeted to the wealthiest few Americans. We have tried that strategy time and time again, and it’s only helped lead us to the crisis we face right now.  Nevermind that I was a Senator at the time and it was my democrat cronies who made sure that Bush’s plans failed.

And that’s why we have come together around a plan that combines hundreds of billions in tax cuts for the middle class with direct investment in areas like health care, energy, education, and infrastructure, investments that will save jobs, create new jobs and new businesses, and help our economy grow again, now and in the future.  I am trying to keep a straight face as I spout fabricated numbers to you fools.

More than 90 percent of the jobs created by this plan will be in the private sector. They’re not going to be make-work jobs, but jobs doing the work that America desperately needs done: jobs rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, repairing our dangerously deficient dams and levees so that we don’t face another Katrina.  I hope you haven’t read the portion of my bill which requires all projects be given to unionized companies.

They’ll be jobs building the wind turbines and solar panels and fuel-efficient cars that will lower our dependence on foreign oil and modernizing our costly health care system that will save us billions of dollars and countless lives.  The global warming scam is working!

They’ll be jobs creating the 21st-century classrooms, libraries, and labs for millions of children across America. And they’ll be the jobs of firefighters and teachers and police officers that would otherwise be eliminated if we do not provide states with some relief.  But no money in this bill will be paid to renovate or repair any school building where any religious activity takes place.

Now, after many weeks of debate and discussion, the plan that ultimately emerges from Congress must be big enough and bold enough to meet the size of the economic challenges that we face right now.  Nancy has been plotting this takeover for several years and it is has only taken two weeks for my glorious skills of rhetoric and spinning to ram it down your collective throats.  What fools you are!

It’s a plan that is already supported by businesses representing almost every industry in America, by both the Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO.  It is a plan supported by those few who have the most to gain. It contains input, ideas and compromises from both Democrats and Republicans. I don’t care if the general population is profoundly against it.  I am the messiah and my will WILL be done!

It also contains an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability so that every American will be able to go online and see where and how we’re spending every dime. Since everyone knows that everything on the internet is true we are going to post how every dime is spent and hope you believe our bull. What it does not contain, however, is a single pet project, not a single earmark, and it has been stripped of the projects members of both parties found most objectionable.  Holding back my laughter right now is about to make me fart.

Now, despite all of this, the plan’s not perfect. because the republicans took out some of my plan. No plan is. I can’t tell you for sure that everything in this plan will work exactly as we hoped since I didn’t get everything I wanted, but I can tell you with complete confidence that a failure to act will not hatch my evil plan of socializing this country only deepen this crisis, as well as the pain felt by millions of Americans.

Now, my administration inherited a deficit of over $1 trillion let me blame Bush for everything one more time in case my plan fails miserably, but because we also inherited the most profound economic emergency since the Great Depression, doing little or nothing at all will result in even greater deficits, even greater job loss, even greater loss of income, and even greater loss of confidence.  Let me hypnotize you with my cadence and eloquence so that you will believe this crap I’m spewing.

Those are deficits that are not as bad as what I am proposing but you are too stupid to know better could turn a crisis into a catastrophe, and I refuse to let that happen. As long as I hold this office, I will do whatever it takes to make you completely dependent on me and my loyal followers as we take over the world put this economy back on track and put this country back to work.

I want to thank my beloved Nancy for hatching this ingenious plan of world domination the members of Congress who’ve worked so hard to move this plan forward, but I also want to urge all republicans to do things my way or you won’t get wagyu steak and martini’s members of Congress to act without delay in the coming week to resolve their differences and pass this plan.

We find ourselves in a rare moment where the citizens of our country and all countries are watching and waiting for us to lead. all of our enemies love me and want me to hypnotize you into complacency so they can bring the war to our soil. It’s a responsibility that this generation did not ask for, but one that we must accept for the future of our children and our grandchildren.

The strongest democracies flourish from frequent and lively debate which is why I won’t allow it, but they endure when people of every background and belief find a way to set aside smaller differences in service to me The One, the messiah of a greater purpose. That’s the test facing the United States of America in this winter of our hardship, and it is our duty as leaders and citizens to stay true to that purpose in the weeks and months ahead.

After a day of speaking with and listening to the fundamentally decent men and women who call this nation home, I have full faith and confidence that we can do it, but we’re going to have to work together. That’s what I intend to promote in the weeks and days ahead.

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02/08/09

Back when I was in college; around the same time paper was invented, I studied conspiracy theories and the New World Order.  I even wrote a thesis on the subject; most of which I have since forgotten.  However, as I opened my newspaper this morning (ok, I turned on my computer but the visual isn’t as compelling) I felt a familiar pang in my gut.

The past two weeks have been filled with the stimulus bill and the ramming of every ludicrous liberal agenda item into it.  Hardly noticed, except by the viligant, has been talks of reinstituting the Fairness Doctrine (aka., censorship); an unprecedented move by the White House to oversee the 2010 census (congressional districts are determined by the census); and now I am reading the NSC is undergoing a sweeping overhaul “expanding its membership and increasing its authority to set strategy across a wide spectrum of international and domestic issues.”

I don’t know if I should be afraid or if I should go into counseling for paranoia.  But, I do know that my gut is telling me something hinkey is going on.  Our government is on track to expand it’s reach into our businesses, homes, lives, and yes even thoughts in a way never before seen in our nation’s history.  For the past 8 years I have been afraid of terrorists and the possibility of another attack on our soil.  Today, I am afraid of our government and its ongoing attack on us.  Or, maybe I should add some Bailey’s to my coffee and just chill.

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02/03/09

About dayum time!  Tom Daschle withdraws his nomination as HHS secretary.

Fox News:

Tom Daschle has withdrawn his nomination for health and human services secretary, after fielding mounting criticism over his failure to pay more than $130,000 in taxes.

President Obama stood by Daschle Monday, telling reporters that he “absolutely” supports the former South Dakota senator. But the president accepted Daschle’s withdrawal Tuesday morning.

It was unclear whether Daschle, with his deep network of ties in the Senate stemming in part from his time as majority leader, would have been able to weather the criticism in confirmation.

Senators were reluctant to state publicly any opposition to Daschle’s nomination in recent days. But that started to crack Tuesday morning, as Republican Sen. Jim DeMint called for Obama to withdraw the nomination — becoming the first senator to say that the former majority leader’s tax problems are disqualifying.

DeMint told FOX News that Daschle’s failure to pay $134,000 in federal taxes reflects a “problem with integrity” that the government cannot afford to tolerate. DeMint spoke out against Daschle as a number of prominent newspapers, including The New York Times, called for the South Dakota Democrat to drop his bid.

DeMint said he came to that conclusion after it became “obvious” that Daschle knew about the tax problems long before his nomination and did nothing to make it right.

“The average American would likely face criminal charges with tax evasion of this size, yet he did not address the issue until he was nominated,” he said.

Daschle has since paid $146,000 in back payments and interest, and apologized on Monday for what he called income tax errors.

The New York Times, in its editorial, complained that Timothy Geithner was already confirmed as treasury secretary despite his tax problems.

“It would send a terrible message to the public if we ignore the failure of yet another high-level nominee to comply with the tax laws,” the Times wrote.

Several other newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Globe, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also have called for Daschle to withdraw.

But Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer earlier said Daschle’s own admission that he had failed to pay the taxes was reason enough to forgive his sin.

“Clearly it was a bad mistake, and Daschle was the first to come up with this in June 2008,” Schumer said. “It wasn’t discovered by the administration’s vetting team but rather by Daschle himself much earlier and he brought it to the attention of the administration’s vetting team when he was chosen as a potential nominee for HHS.”

Obama’s pick to be the White House’s first performance officer, Nancy Killefer, also withdrew her nomination on Tuesday because of her own tax liabilities, namely a $946 tax lien imposed by the D.C. government for failure to pay $298 in unemployment compensation tax on household help.

Noting the importance of the post, Killefer wrote in her withdrawal letter to the president that “my personal tax issue of D.C. unemployment tax could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay those duties must avoid.”

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02/03/09

From Fox News:

A majority of Americans want Congress to either reject or make “major changes” to the economic stimulus package on Capitol Hill, a poll out Tuesday finds.

The Gallup poll, conducted from Friday through Sunday, found that 75 percent of Americans want Congress to pass some version of the plan, which is tagged at about $900 billion in the latest Senate package.

But the survey reflected deepening doubts about the effectiveness of the programs and spending items currently being considered by federal lawmakers. Only 38 percent of those polled favored the existing stimulus proposal, down from a slight majority holding that view in the Jan. 28 Gallup survey.

Thirty-seven percent want major changes and 17 percent reject the plan outright.

The poll also found only 10 percent think the economy will improve this year as a result of the plan. Fifty-three percent said the plan will either have no effect on their families or make their financial situations worse.

The poll reflects a substantial partisan divide, with 59 percent of Democrats calling for passage without changes while 43 percent of Republicans want major changes and another 35 percent reject it outright.

The poll was based on interviews with 1,027 adults and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

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The man who will set terrorists free in a neighborhood near you

02/03/09

With the swearing in of Eric Holder today as the Attorney General, the safety of America is in jeopardy.  At the top of his agenda, according to the AP, is to decide “which Bush administration counterterrorism policies to reverse.”  In addition, he will also “play a major role in the future of terrorism detainees.”  He is creating a special panel that will report back to the President in 180 days on options  for apprehension, detention, trial, transfer or release of detainees.   You can bet that Holder will also be looking to overturn the warrantless surveillance program.

So, it doesn’t take a Harvard degree or thousands of dollars in tax evasion to figure out that this administration is seriously putting us at risk.  The President doesn’t care about us like a father cares for his children.  Oh wait, maybe he does.  His father deserted him and now he is deserting us.

Go buy your guns now before only your neighborhood terrorists have guns.

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02/02/09

Today, Obama claimed the differences between Democrats and Republicans on the stimulus package are “very modest.”  WTF!?  “very modest?”  I guess that’s what you call $900 billion dollars in pork spending vs. a real stimulus package that would actually put people back to work.  His saying the differences are “very modest” is along the same line as saying Geithner’s blatant tax evasion was “an innocent mistake.”

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) begged to differ in today’s press conference.  He also made clear that there is considerable Democratic Senatorial unrest in regard to the bill’s current content.

Sorry, Obama.  Your spin just isn’t reality, pal!

read full article

Obama Urges Lawmakers to Overcome ‘Differences’ on Stimulus Package

By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 2, 2009; 1:27 PM

President Obama today urged lawmakers not to let “very modest differences” block rapid passage of a major economic stimulus package, but the Senate’s GOP leader said most Republicans support a “dramatically different” proposal with a much lower price tag.

In brief remarks to reporters before a meeting with Vermont’s Republican governor, Jim Douglas, at the White House, Obama said there were “still some differences between Democrats and Republicans” on Capitol Hill, and between the White House’s plan and some of the proposals being discussed in Congress.

“But what we can’t do is let very modest differences get in the way of the overall package moving forward swiftly,” he said, adding that he hopes a bill can be passed “in the next couple of weeks so we can put America back to work and start digging ourselves out of this deep hole that we’re in.”

His comments came hours before the Senate was scheduled to open debate on a nearly $900 billion plan aimed at pulling the nation out of a recession that is now in its second year. If passed, the plan would push this year’s budget deficit toward a record $1.4 trillion.
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The House last week passed an $819 billion version of the package, with no Republicans voting in favor of it. In the Senate, where the minority has more power to demand changes, Republicans want the plan to have less federal spending, more tax cuts and more help for struggling homeowners. The Senate Finance Committee last week substantially boosted the overall cost of the package by voting to include a $70 billion cut in the alternative minimum tax. There are also differences between the House and Senate plans on such issues as the amount of spending on highway projects and tax breaks to encourage renewable energy.

Obama said governors and local officials, Democrats and Republicans alike, understand the need for “swift action” on an economic recovery package because they “are seeing the devastating effects on the ground of this contraction in the economy,” including layoffs, declining revenue and increased demand for social services.

“The recovery package that we are moving forward is designed to provide states relief, to make sure that people who are laid off from their jobs are still able to get unemployment insurance, are still able to get health care, and that we are putting in place the infrastructure: rebuilding roads, bridges, waterways, other projects at the state levels that allow us to put people back to work,” Obama said. “And we want to create or save 3 million jobs, and we want to put the investments in place that are going to ensure long-term economic growth.”

On Capitol Hill, however,  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said most Republicans support a package that “would be dramatically different from what passed the House, and, frankly, dramatically different from what we currently see out of the [Senate] Finance Committee and the Appropriations Committee.”

McConnell stressed that “nobody that I know of is trying to keep a package from passing.” Instead, he said, “we’re trying to reform it, reformulate it, put it in a different place.”

He declined to specify the total cost of the package that Republicans would support, saying only that “most of my members believe that we could have a very robust stimulus for less than the amount currently before us.”

The Senate GOP leader said Republicans and a number of Democrats oppose using the bill to increase permanent government spending, especially since an economic stimulus is “supposed to be timely, temporary and targeted.”

According to McConnell, “With regard to this measure that’s on the floor this week, there is considerable — and you’re hearing it — considerable Democratic senatorial unrest about this package — considerable.”

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