US News
US stimulus package passes decisive hurdle in Senate (4th Roundup)
By Chris Cermak Feb 10, 2009, 0:58 GMT
U.S. President Barack Obama walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., USA 10 February 2009. EPA/SHAWN THEW
Washington - US President Barack Obama's economic recovery package overcame a decisive hurdle in the Senate in a key vote Monday that brought the record 827-billion-dollar stimulus bill one step closer to passage.
The Senate voted 61-36 to end debate on the legislation and set up a final vote on Tuesday.
Only three Republican senators supported the compromise bill in the procedural vote, which prevents opponents from effectively blocking legislation with endless debate in the 100-seat Senate. Ending debate requires 60 votes.
Democrats hold a 58-41 seat majority with one empty seat in the upper chamber. The three Republican supporters had been part of a small group of centrist senators who hammered out the compromise bill over the weekend.
The Senate will move Tuesday to a final vote - which requires a simple majority - before the bill will undergo yet another tense round of negotiations with members of the House of Representatives.
'Our job does not end here, it begins,' Senate majority leader Harry Reid, the top Democrat in the chamber, said ahead of the vote.
He warned that the economic crisis was 'far too severe' to be solved by one piece of legislation.
The lower House passed its own 819-billion-dollar version of the stimulus last month. Though the size of the packages are roughly the same, the Senate added tax cuts and removed some spending programmes that could make for contentious negotiations between the two chambers.
Congressional leaders have promised to get a final bill to Obama's desk by the end of the week. Obama has made the stimulus package the focus of his first weeks in office, and during a press conference Monday evening he welcomed the progress in the Senate while urging lawmakers in both houses to resolve differences and get the bill to his desk.
'The plan's not perfect. No plan is,' Obama said.
'I can't tell you for sure that everything in this plan will work exactly as we hoped, but I can tell you with complete confidence that a failure to act will only deepen this crisis, as well as the pain felt by millions of Americans.'
Obama travelled earlier Monday to a small manufacturing city in Indiana to rally support for the record package. He held a townhall meeting with about 1,700 residents of Elkhart, Indiana, where unemployment has tripled to more than 15 per cent in the last year as the wider economy has contracted sharply.
The jobless rate across the United States currently stands at 7.6 per cent, the highest level since 1992. The economy shrank 3.8 per cent in the final quarter of 2008. Obama said the stimulus package will help save or create up to 4 million jobs.
'The situation we face could not be more serious. We have inherited an economic crisis as deep and as dire as any since the Great Depression,' Obama said in Elkhart, warning of double-digit unemployment if Congress fails to approve government aid.
'More people will lose their homes and their health care, and our nation will sink into a crisis that, at some point, we may be unable to reverse. So we can't afford to wait.'
On Tuesday, Obama's Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is set to unveil an overhaul of the country's financial rescue plan - a separate initiative to tackle the banking and housing crisis at the heart of the economic downturn.
COMMENT
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Older Talkback
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Any bill that is guaranteed to have kickbacks, bribes and payoffs for everyone is guaranteed to pass the senate.
... that is: kickbacks, bribes and payoffs for all adults. Of course, their children and the future generation of U.S. citizens are shafted with debt, but as they have no representation the typical U.S. citizen doesn't care about them. They even 'abort' (kill) a million of them a year.
This is the most foolish thing I've ever seen Congress do.
'IF HATING LANCE AND EVERYTHING HE STANDS FOR IS RACISM'
Talking about child raping priests, credit-addicted politicians, and christians that mass kill muslims is not racism, it is simply pointing out facts as they have actually occurred.
If you don't like the talk, then don't do the walk. Then I will have nothing to talk about.
Remember:
'All it takes for evil to succeed is for people to do nothing', and that includes 'talk about nothing'.
How is the weather over there?
By the way, the moderators should leave up all the lance hate monger comments. Intimidation is the main way people get away with horrible acts. For example: Threatening children with hell if they talk about the priest raping them.
Bush also applied methods of intimidation as a matter of foreign and domestic policy.
It is hard to stand up to such powerful bullies, but it must be done. The 'typical U.S. citizen' should stand with me and support my cause. They should even pray that I succeed, because if I don't then their children may be the next victim of rape in secrecy or McCarthyism government or a similar heinous act that only occurs when the general population is silent.
Gee man - ya sure are a cool customer, a real Mussi marvel.
That reply to my savage provocation is unbelievably cool, man. It actually makes good sense to me if I try to forget who said it. Cool under fire eh ? I`d better watch ya baby.
Lancie baby - your diatribe makes Osama Bin Laden look like a Nobel Prize winner. I almost feel a twinge of guilt at knocking the shit out of you and then getting such a gentlemanly response.
Don`t keep chuffing on about all those rapes, pillages and millions of kids who were killed by American maniacs etc., I`ve used up all my tissues, there`s a good chap. Behave yourself, it`ll all sort itself out in time. Get back in your cot and play with that cuddly toy.
QUESTION ?
Lancie baby - WHERE EXACTLY DO YOU EXPECT ME TO TELL YOU WHAT THE WEATHER IS LIKE ? OVER THERE ? OVER WHERE ? Make my day chumbo, come clean, what part of the planet do you require me to divulge such weather details ?
I`m waiting for your answer porky pie. Don`t chicken out like you do on SP4.
'to my savage provocation'
In order for it to be provocation, I would have to be provoked. Which I am not.
You are just spewing out random thoughts. What you need to do is get some fortitude and talk about the message and not the messengers. I am irrelevant to the subject. The subject is what is important.
It is clear that the 'typical U.S. citizen' prefers to lash out in anger rather than know the facts and honestly weigh the evil in their society. They prefer to ignore that evil and disguise their ignorance as patriotism. That is exactly what you do.
OK, stop jerking about. here is mine, now WHAT IS YOURS ?
Weather for Huntsville, TX 10 Feb.2009
23°C
Current: Overcast
Wind: SE at 21 km/h
Humidity: 73%
Go on, do the same for your sandy fly-blown pot-hole - TEHERAN ?
You are nothing but a stooge for that boneheaded idiot
President: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
You are certainly quite deranged, so it is fitting that you also live in the glorious state of Texass, home to more real asses than in the entire rest of the country. You are one sick pup, mentally deficient, totally intoxicated on moonshine, or all of the above. Why don't you try to sleep it off, and try to wake up a day or two later, as a better person.
Answer the question:
WHERE EXACTLY DO YOU EXPECT ME TO TELL YOU WHAT THE WEATHER IS LIKE ? OVER THERE ? OVER WHERE ?
I want to know what the temp is where you are at?
Russia
Pakistan
Iran
Venezula
Cuba
Tell, stop hidding and deflecting...
Has Barack Obama’s presidency already failed? In normal times, this would be a ludicrous question. But these are not normal times. They are times of great danger. Today, the new US administration can disown responsibility for its inheritance; tomorrow, it will own it. Today, it can offer solutions; tomorrow it will have become the problem. Today, it is in control of events; tomorrow, events will take control of it. Doing too little is now far riskier than doing too much. If he fails to act decisively, the president risks being overwhelmed, like his predecessor. The costs to the US and the world of another failed presidency do not bear contemplating.
What is needed? The answer is: focus and ferocity. If Mr Obama does not fix this crisis, all he hopes from his presidency will be lost. If he does, he can reshape the agenda. Hoping for the best is foolish. He should expect the worst and act accordingly.
I want to know how many of you are American so I can rule out whether or not to be offended or amused
Please be more explicit. Or if explicit is overly difficult for you to understand, here's a simpler word: exact.
A)If the person were an American, would you be offended, or amused? Or is it the other way around?
B)If the person were not an American would you then be amused or offended? Or is it the other way around? You see, condition 'B' depends completely on condition'A'.
Whoever you are, where ever you are, your English need upgrading.
Like Lance, you make little or no sense.
'What is needed? The answer is: focus and ferocity. If Mr Obama does not fix this crisis, all he hopes from his presidency will be lost. If he does, he can reshape the agenda. Hoping for the best is foolish. He should expect the worst and act accordingly.'
Exactly. That means being frugal, not going on a buying spree with debt spending.
Being focused and ferocious means saying no to welfare and getting down to real business, the business of a balanced budget and living in a sustainable economic system. Gambling people's futures away is not a prudent thing to do.
Obama can start today the same way all Americans can: By living within their means. Obama is the head of an organization that is bleeding red with trillions of dollars of debt, yet he keeps spending like a wild person, the mentally ill credit-holic addict that he is.
It is important to remember there are two types of debt - the debt to foreign interest and the debt which is used internally (to the US).
The previous administration and its cowboy president who could seldom even complete a sentence let alone a coherent worldly wise policy, racked up its huge military spending while the US consumer in general with enormous imports added substantially to these multi-trillion dollar foreign debts which mean the US is in hock to the rest of the World - particularly China.
Spending on US infrastructure on the other hand, while it does increase the notional government debt, does at least keep the debt within the US and provide US jobs
'Spending on US infrastructure on the other hand, while it does increase the notional government debt, does at least keep the debt within the US and provide US jobs'
The main problem with debt is not principal, assets or loan balance. The main problem is: cash flow.
The interest payments are a method to continually extract value from the U.S. as a whole and transfer that value to other entities. Those entities are private concerns and foreign governments.
When the value extracted is burdensome then the system collapses. At 10 trillion dollars debt the extraction is at a rate of about 500 billion per year. At 20 trillion debt, the extraction is about 1 trillion dollars. When extraction is about 1/3 of total cash flow then the system starts to weigh down and ultimately collapse. The U.S. government is hell bent on getting to that point as fast as possible simply because the people that run the system are credit addicts.
You may covet your new bridge in your town, but a Chinese billionaire covets your money.
I should add: The U.S. spent like wild credit-holic addicts during 'good times' and is spending even faster during 'bad times'. There appears to be no abating the addicts, so collapse and major turmoil is inevitable. It is just a matter of time. The only question is: How will it happen? Currency devaluation? Economic depression? Inflation?
Probably currency devaluation would be the best, it is akin to defaulting on a loan. The U.S. is a debtor nation and needs to go to bankruptcy court, the only court is the 'court of devaluation'.
Lance cannot grasp the basics of logic, it is astounding to see him pontificate about extremely complex matters as Economies and international fiscal matters. The way he goes on and on about the Chinese, it almost appears that the idiotic Noharness has reincarnated under a new name. The only difference being Noawareness ate meat and advocated jesus bombs on anyone who wasn't a redneck, Texass, dung-snorting a-hole, whereas Lance just snorts dung and gets bombed. Lance is nothing more than an insecure, attention seeking web troll with all the intelligence and awareness of a Rutabaga.
'... Lance is nothing more than ...'
Willful ignorance is the main tool of the 'typical U.S. citizen'
That is how they can be complicit in the mass murder of muslims, the huge deficit, unwise spending, etc.
And, one more example:
Afghanistan and the Taliban are supported directly by the U.S. citizen consumer. U.S. citizens snort, smoke and ingest the drug products that make the Taliban strong. Cut off the money and you cut off their power. Yet, the 'typical U.S. citizen' continues to support the Taliban by buying their main product - drugs.
The 'typical U.S. citizen' does not perceive the relationship because they prefer to remain ignorant.
who rattled Lance's carrot patch looking for his excemental output. I was commenting ABOUT the veg-head, not TO him. The idiot never got enough attention as a baby so he figures that anything about him is 'to' him.
His 'views' are so outlandish, factually incorrect, and just plain wrong. What a moron he is. I wonder if he is typical of vegetarians. If he can infer that the typical american is a drug addict, then one can infer that the typical veggie is an idiot.
'U.S. citizens snort, smoke and ingest...' Lance doesn't even understand rudimentary usage of the English language. Snort and smoke are forms of ingestion. Once again: What a moron he is.
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@aboveFeb 10th, 2009 - 14:51:31
hey you racist hate monger, what does your hate have to do with the article?
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