American Economic Suicide Watch: It's For Real

Okay, that last post was supposed to have gone up a couple of hours ago.  Oops.  Anyway, the Generational Theft Act/Porkapalooza bill has passed its last major hurdle, and the only realistic -- though it was slim -- hope of stopping the death of the American economy:

A massive economic stimulus bill overcame a key procedural hurdle today as senators voted to cut off debate on the measure, virtually assuring Senate approval in a vote scheduled for tomorrow.

Senators voted 61 to 36 to invoke cloture on the legislation, which President Obama today urged Congress to pass "immediately" to avoid the prospect of a "deepening disaster." He also plans to talk about the package in a news conference scheduled to start at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

Senate passage of the bill tomorrow would trigger a House-Senate conference to resolve differences in the versions of the two houses. Each chamber would then vote on the resulting legislative package, which Obama has said he wants to sign by the end of the week before the Presidents' Day recess. The $819 billion House package includes broader spending proposals and fewer tax cuts.

This evening's vote was on a substitute bill negotiated late last week by a group of Democrats and moderate Republicans. Three Republicans ended up breaking with their party leaders to support the compromise, but that was enough to give the bill's Democratic backers the 60 votes they needed to cut off debate and avert a filibuster.

The architects of the compromise -- notably Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) -- said they trimmed the stimulus package from more than $900 billion to $780 billion in an effort to attract bipartisan support. But Republicans said that when amendments passed last week were included, the package came in at around $827 billion. They denounced the alternative as still too expensive, unfocused and unlikely to work.

In addition to Collins, two other Republican senators voted for the bill this evening: Sens. Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Arlen Specter (Pa.). All Democrats voted in favor of cutting off debate, including Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), who is undergoing treatment for brain cancer and appeared on the Senate floor for the first time since he suffered a seizure on Inauguration Day.

Moments before the vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said Americans deserve to hear five words from Congress: "Help is on the way."

Uh, yeah.  'Help' as in job-killing, inflation-busting, debt-soaring, Democrat-entrenching, nationalized health care-prompting, ACORN-funding help.  Precisely the kind of 'help' that this country needs about as much as a tumor.

Next step: to the House/Senate conference, where they'll haggle out the differences between the two bills and most likely jack up the price some more, then back to the House and Senate for another vote, and then it's on to the White House where Obama will sign into law the single biggest, worst piece of crap ever conceived in this country.

I'll be very interested to see how the markets react to this.  Will they jump up in a positive response, or will they continue the same months-long freefall we've already seen as Obama's socialist anti-business policies have become reality?

Gird your loins - the Democrats have pulled back the hammer.  The gunshot is coming soon, and is going to be bad...potentially fatal.  Time will tell.

I'll post some analysis later, as well as the list of people who voted in favor of all the evils that are about to be unleashed on this great nation so you can refresh your memory at any time between now and the next election.  God help us.  Seriously, we need His help more now than ever before.

There's my two cents.