What About The Stimulus Bill?
First, a president is the head of his (or at sometime in the future, her) respective political party. As such, President Obama is going to have to show that he is indeed in charge of his own party, and that major bills submitted to either house of Congress have been largely crafted by his administration, with input from congressional leaders. This president and his administration should never have permitted the bill that just passed the House of Representatives to be advanced by congressional Democrats. Since that bill passed, I've seen the White House and the president talk about the changes they expect to be made by the Senate. I certainly hope so!!!! Now, I realize that there is a separation of power between the president/the executive branch, and the Congress/the legislative branch, but this whole episode seems to tell me that the administration did NOT have its ducks in a row. Contraceptives, lawn care for the D.C. Mall, etc....come on now House leaders!!! Let's get with the program!!! THE ECONOMY, STUPID!!! After all the touting of infrastructure repair, there really wasn't much in the House bill!!! Much more is needed. The president needs to smack some folks up side the head!!! I'd like to know how much Treasury Secretary Geithner and economic advisor Summers had to do with this House bill. I have a feeling, it wasn't much.
Myself, I'm of the opinion that there needs to be a larger amount of money spent to help fix the economy.*** Now, to be fair, the stimulus package now being discussed in the Senate will only be a part of any recovery plan for the economy. From everything I've heard, many of the banks are still unsound and they will require much more bailout money. Further, until the housing and credit situation is stabilized (notice I didn't even say "fixed"), I can't imagine the economy advancing much at all. Keep in mind folks, this mess has now spread over much of the world!With more people losing their jobs, do you seriously think that foreclosures will somehow go away? Or that credit card bills will get paid by magic? They need to start throwing lifelines to those folks who are drowning, not just keep giving money to bankers and rich folks.
Further, states and local government entities are in terrible financial shape, and that situation isn't getting better either. For years, when the economy turned down, we saw many hardships in cities. Now the problems that had for so long been associated with cities have spread into suburbs, which really are nothing more than extensions of cities anyway: unemployment, foreclosures, food pantries, closed businesses, lack of money for resident services. The mess is going to take years to fix, IF we can even fix it.
There are some who feel that the country can't spend its way out of this economic situation, but I find it interesting that I frequently hear some saying things like, "The New Deal didn't stop the Depression." (True, but it helped many people, and unemployment did come down substantially, although nowhere near to the level needed to reverse the Depression.) Then some of these same people say, "The big spending for World War Two ended the Depression." You can't have it both ways, "Spending doesn't stop economic downturns, but World War Two spending ended the Depression." Duh!!! Further, while I hate the comparison, but there's certainly evidence that Hitler's (the SOB) infrastructure spending and military buildup in Germany during the 1930s ended the Depression there.
*** The link provided will take you to my REAL overall beliefs about what needs to be done to fix this mess we're in, but I'm not naive, the wealthy and business interests will NEVER let anything like this happen, as long as they have any say in things.
http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2008/11/bailout-money-no-questions-asked.html
Note on Word History:
In the last posting for "one," I should also have noted that the indefinite articles "a" and "an" (as in "a pear," or "an apple") both developed from our word for "one," which at one time in English was spelled "an," and pronounced with a long "a" sound.
Harry-(not the name)-verb-This word is probably more familiar to most people in the past tense form, "harried," as in, "Our aircraft harried the enemy troops as they tried to withdraw." The word goes back to Indo European root "koro," which meant "war" (Lithuanian^^^ still has "karas," meaning "war). The Old Germanic noun offshoot was "kharjaz," which meant "a force armed for war;" that is, "an army." The Old Germanic verb form was "kharohan." The "k" sound died out, leaving the "h" sound, and giving Old English "hergian," which meant "to make war, ravage, or plunder." It also took on the meaning of "raiding enemy positions," and eventually also meant "to harass, cause distress." The noun in Old English was "here," and meant "army, armed force." Close English relative German has "Heer" (pronounced like "hair") for army, which developed from Old High German "har." Old Norse had "herr." In English, "harrow" also developed out of the same word, and we say, "I had a harrowing experience."
^^^ Lithuanian is also an Indo European language related to English, but further down the family tree. Many linguists feel that it is the closest "living" language (that is, still in use) to Indo European.
Myself, I'm of the opinion that there needs to be a larger amount of money spent to help fix the economy.*** Now, to be fair, the stimulus package now being discussed in the Senate will only be a part of any recovery plan for the economy. From everything I've heard, many of the banks are still unsound and they will require much more bailout money. Further, until the housing and credit situation is stabilized (notice I didn't even say "fixed"), I can't imagine the economy advancing much at all. Keep in mind folks, this mess has now spread over much of the world!With more people losing their jobs, do you seriously think that foreclosures will somehow go away? Or that credit card bills will get paid by magic? They need to start throwing lifelines to those folks who are drowning, not just keep giving money to bankers and rich folks.
Further, states and local government entities are in terrible financial shape, and that situation isn't getting better either. For years, when the economy turned down, we saw many hardships in cities. Now the problems that had for so long been associated with cities have spread into suburbs, which really are nothing more than extensions of cities anyway: unemployment, foreclosures, food pantries, closed businesses, lack of money for resident services. The mess is going to take years to fix, IF we can even fix it.
There are some who feel that the country can't spend its way out of this economic situation, but I find it interesting that I frequently hear some saying things like, "The New Deal didn't stop the Depression." (True, but it helped many people, and unemployment did come down substantially, although nowhere near to the level needed to reverse the Depression.) Then some of these same people say, "The big spending for World War Two ended the Depression." You can't have it both ways, "Spending doesn't stop economic downturns, but World War Two spending ended the Depression." Duh!!! Further, while I hate the comparison, but there's certainly evidence that Hitler's (the SOB) infrastructure spending and military buildup in Germany during the 1930s ended the Depression there.
*** The link provided will take you to my REAL overall beliefs about what needs to be done to fix this mess we're in, but I'm not naive, the wealthy and business interests will NEVER let anything like this happen, as long as they have any say in things.
http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2008/11/bailout-money-no-questions-asked.html
Note on Word History:
In the last posting for "one," I should also have noted that the indefinite articles "a" and "an" (as in "a pear," or "an apple") both developed from our word for "one," which at one time in English was spelled "an," and pronounced with a long "a" sound.
Harry-(not the name)-verb-This word is probably more familiar to most people in the past tense form, "harried," as in, "Our aircraft harried the enemy troops as they tried to withdraw." The word goes back to Indo European root "koro," which meant "war" (Lithuanian^^^ still has "karas," meaning "war). The Old Germanic noun offshoot was "kharjaz," which meant "a force armed for war;" that is, "an army." The Old Germanic verb form was "kharohan." The "k" sound died out, leaving the "h" sound, and giving Old English "hergian," which meant "to make war, ravage, or plunder." It also took on the meaning of "raiding enemy positions," and eventually also meant "to harass, cause distress." The noun in Old English was "here," and meant "army, armed force." Close English relative German has "Heer" (pronounced like "hair") for army, which developed from Old High German "har." Old Norse had "herr." In English, "harrow" also developed out of the same word, and we say, "I had a harrowing experience."
^^^ Lithuanian is also an Indo European language related to English, but further down the family tree. Many linguists feel that it is the closest "living" language (that is, still in use) to Indo European.
Labels: Congress, Democrats, economy, English, etymology, Germanic languages, President Obama
posted by Randy at 1:56 PM
1 Comments:
The mastermind of the whole financial crisis is Arthur Leavitt, Sandford Weill's partner at Cogan Berlind Weill & Leavitt, now known as Canned Grief With Madoff. Sandy Weill hired Clinton pal Bob Rubin at Citigroup just after he got him to repeal Glass Steagall by eliminating Al Damoto to avenge Hillary. Arthur Leavitt repeatedly used Bernie Madoff's services while he headed the Securities and Exchange Commission for Clinton because Madoff grew up in Rockaway with Weill. Now Clinton Rhodes classmate Bob Reich will get to exploit all of this to eat what is left.
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