First, some humor. Determined not to be outdone with Obama's dire predictions of catastrophe, Nancy Pelosi -- while pushing to revoke Bush's tax cuts -- claimed that the passage of spending cuts in the Theft/Pork bill will cause 'violence to the future'. My best guess for what this means is that someone needs to get Nan back on her medication. Or, maybe the Botox leaked up into her brain. It would explain so many things about her, wouldn't it?
Seriously, though, did you know that the first bank bailout -- TARP 1 -- was not only a $700 billion waste of money, but that it was also overpaid? No kidding:
Yes it does, Ace of Spades, yes it does. Remember those $30,000 toilet seats and $50,000 hammers? Oh, wait...that was in a movie. I guess it doesn't.A government watchdog group says the federal government overpaid for stocks and other assets from financial institutions under its $700 billion rescue program.The chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the bailout funds told the Senate Banking committee Thursday that Treasury in 2008 paid $254 billion and received assets worth about $176 billion.
That's an overpayment of more than a third.
Think there's some overspending in the spendulus?
Again, from , I note an obvious example. In Lewiston, ME, they want $50,000 to build two dog parks.
In Chula Vista, CA, they want $500,000 to build one (1) dog park.
Um... what the hell? What does it even take to "build" a dog park apart from putting up a sign that says "Dog Park"? Does it take $500,000 to make such a sign?
Water parks have now been kicked out of the bill. As Gateway Pundit puts it:
The $2 million Florida water park project was just dropped from the $935 Billion Generational Theft Act.
The total for taxpayers now stands at $934.998 Billion.
Whew! Now it's okay to vote for, right...? Sadly, that's the danger with some RINOs because that's actually how they operate.
It appears that GOP Senators are still putting up a pretty good fight:
[Byron York] Just talked to Sen. Lindsey Graham. He, too, is worried that Democrats will very soon push the stimulus bill through the Senate with three or four Republican votes. And then I asked him about his reaction to the president's speech last night:
John McCain seems to be preempting the idea of 'bipartisanship' as it might currently stand:I was shocked. Because listen, we are opposing this bill for two reasons: It's too large in terms of what it needs to be, and it's unfocused. We agree that you need to do more than cut taxes. He's making arguments from the campaign that are not relevant to the debate. The McCain Amendment, which got every Republican vote, spent money as well as cut taxes.
He's trying to convince the American people that they are wrong about this bill. He's trying to lay blame on the Republican party and convince people they're wrong about the bill. Well, the public is not wrong about the bill.
Ace wonders whether Maverick will resort to his mavericky ways when the bill finally comes to the floor. Watch this 10-minute stemwinder from this morning and let your mind be eased. As I write, we're down to Specter, Snowe, and maybe Collins in the "yes" camp; presumably all Democrats are on board lest The One be humiliated by a failed cloture vote due to defections from his own party.
He's holding townhalls on Monday and Tuesday and his first evening press conference on Monday night. Why Reid doesn't push the vote until, say, Wednesday and let the momentum from that media whirlwind send wavering Republicans toppling into the Democrats' camp, I simply don't know. Exit quotation: "These cuts are very damaging — [the House bill] was put together very carefully."
Visit the link (here) to watch video of McCain - this particular statement happens with about 3 minutes left, but the whole thing is good. It's too bad he's not consistently conservative, because this is a good speech.
Amazingly, it appears that there may be a stalemate in the works:
Update from another Senate GOP source:
as you reported, voinivich is out. its now specter, snowe, collins and about a dozen democrats. Feinstein coming out attacking the bill seems to have rattled the Dems and its not clear now whats going to happen, but finishing tonight looks impossible...
Here's the video of Feinstein proclaiming she "reserves the right" to vote against the stimulus, and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs' reaction to her comments.
Then again, maybe not:Just in from Congress Daily. Grab your wallets. The "compromise" is coming…
Friday, February 6, 2009
Senate Moderates Reach Tentative Stimulus Deal
A group of Senate moderates working on an amendment to cut up to $100 billion in spending from the economic stimulus package have completed a tentative proposal that will be presented to Senate Democrats at a 5:30 p.m. caucus meeting, Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad told reporters. "There is a proposal that is sufficiently fleshed out and we will have a caucus and discuss it," Conrad said after emerging from talks in Senate Majority Leader Reid's office. Democrats hope the proposal, developed by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Ben Nelson, R-Neb. [SIC], will attract several GOP supporters and be acceptable to all Democrats, which would allow for passage of the plan as early as tonight.
Details will be posted on CongressDaily's Web at http://www.nationaljournal.com/congressdaily/ site as they become available.
I'll keep you posted, but...you guessed it...keep calling!
There's my two cents.
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