WASHINGTON (CNN) – The war of words between House Minority Leader John Boehner and the Democratic Party over the impact of President Obama's stimulus plan escalated Wednesday - with each side accusing the other of lying to the American people.
The Ohio Republican told reporters that Vice President Joe Biden's weekend comments that the administration had "misread" the extent of the economic crisis were "the greatest fabrication I've seen since I've been in Congress."
"I found it also interesting over the last couple of days to hear the vice president... and the president mention the fact they didn't realize how difficult an economic circumstance we're in," Boehner said. "Now, this is the greatest fabrication I've seen since I've been in Congress. I sat through those meetings at the White House with the president and the vice president, and trust me, there's not one person that sat in those rooms that didn't know how serious our economic crisis was.
Obama told NBC on Tuesday that "rather than say 'misread,' we had incomplete information."
"What I would say is that in some areas you're seeing the economic engine turn," Obama said in that interview. "But what we always knew was that a.) This recession was going to be deep; b.) It was going to last for a while."
Hours before Boehner's comments to reporters, the Democratic National Committee released a tough new Web video blasting him for critical comments he made over the weekend about the stimulus. Boehner told Fox News that the stimulus hadn't delivered for his state.
"In fact, millions in recovery act funds have been committed to dozens of projects creating jobs for people right here in Ohio," the narrator says in the DNC video. "Fact is, John Boehner supported the Bush economic policies of the past eight years that brought our economy to its knees. Now John Boehner is using baseless attacks to mislead the public about the success of the Recovery Act. John Boehner: from the Party of No, to the Party of No Facts."
Democrats continued the assault Wednesday with e-mails aimed at Boehner's claims. A DNC spokesman on an afternoon conference call accused Boehner of lying and said the House Minority Leader should "apologize" for his comments.
On Thursday, Biden will visit Cincinnati - a trip that comes days after a Quinnipiac poll showed the president's approval ratings dropping dramatically in that key swing state.
Boehner isn't the only GOP congressional leader to come out against the stimulus and face a fierce Democratic response: earlier this week, the DNC went live with a cable buy aimed at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The DNC's also taking shots at much lesser-known GOP targets - candidates in Ohio and another key battleground, Florida, who've criticized the stimulus.
The battle heated up as both parties faced off Wednesday over the proposal at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing. Republicans criticized the White House for referring to the number of "jobs created or saved" by the package, calling the metric impossible to verify.
The White House Office of Management and Budget defended the plan, arguing that every dollar spent had helped to ease the pain of the economic crisis.
From CNN Politics
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Obama has skated along on charisma and charm with a thin resume of any sort.... time to start showing results, something, anything, to earn your keep.
They have to try and defend their pork billed failure. How does spending money to study why pigs stink stimulate the economy. was that a saved union scientist job? Anyone who believes the pork the Democrats are trying to feed you, deserve to be first in line for the brain transplant.
Boehner can have it both ways... either we were not that bad off (reason to vote NO on the stimulus) or everyone knew this was really bad (Dems don't get to say that the turn around is going to take longer)
trust me tax cuts wouldn't have done a thing
If this is the biggest fabrication Congressman Boehner has heard since he has been in D.C. then he must have slept through the eight years of the Cheney/Bush administration.
Yeah, let's put Republicans in charge of things again. The past 8 glorious years were full of fun-filled job loss, the biggest recession since The Great Depression, financial collapse due to deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy, loss of respect around the wordl, torture, stripped civil liberties, abuse of power, and a war based on lies.
Yeah, let's put the Republicans isn charge of things again.
Republicans love to quote the smallest part of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" – the "invisible hand" – and use this to suggest that governments should stay out of the economy. However, they are quick to ignore the bulk of this book which decries the greed of an unchecked and unregulated economy. When governments deregulate sectors of the economy, we always see problems begin to creep up. Regulation is needed and Wall Street has proven what happens when we turn a blind eye and let the invisible hand of the economy operate.
The Republicans controlled Congress from 1994 – 2006, with the economy taking a nose dive at the end of this period. Coincidence?
Dems are a ridiculous group. They always seem to either misunderstand or not get the full story. Remember when the Bush Admin didn't get the full story on weapons of mass destruction? Who was complaining the most....."why it was the Dems." They are certainly a "laugh." The sooner we get rid of them the better. Cry babies, cry babies.
Leave it to the Democrats, first they block out any differing views on their health care plan on the networks, then when challanged on something this clearly failing, blame it on the "other guys". Look, it's July, you spent a total of 15% of the package, what were you thinking? Placing the facts in thousands of pages of documents you didn't read only shows that you have no clear idea of what you are doing. Instead of trying to win the point, try helping out your country.
Back when the stimulus was passed, it was about putting people back to work. The GOP said we shouldn't spend a dime.
Since then, we discovered that GM and Chrysler were on deaths door. The GOP said these companies and every single supply company for them should shut their door.
Where I come from it is unpatriotic to want your fellow American to lose his job, lose his house, not feed his/her family. Either stand up and fight for jobs or leave this country.
Don't point fingers and tell me that they didn't do anything when you present a stimulus plan that is 3 pages long. The GOP can take their 3 page stimulus document and wipe their backsides with the 3 cents that paper stimulated the ecomony.
Hey man, don't bash Obama! He's busy "saving" jobs! Ha!
"Saving" jobs by stealing money from the very people who create the jobs we all work.
Yeah, tell me how that works out for you.
Welcome back, Carter.
Where is the leadership in Washington D.C.?Democrats voted on and signed the stimulis package and did not READ IT.How can they defend the wasteful spending when they did not know what was in the bill?..2 million jobs lost since the Stimulis was signed,After Obama promised it would create jobs...Now the Democrats have added language to the Cap and Trade bill, incase it costs jobs,instead of creating jobs like Obama promises. Whats up with that? We don't need to lose any more jobs.
If it fails the GOP will say "we told you so" and pretend they never said the economy would fix itself. If it succeeds they'll say the economy would've fixed itself anyway and "we told you so." If it succeeds and we can measurably prove it, the GOPers will just ignore the evidence and go on spouting off at the mouth...just like they do with respect to climate change, evolution the absurdity of trickle-down economic theory and people pointing out that the definition of socialism doesn't fit how they're using it (and certainly is inane when they couple it with accusations of fascism, the two being diametrically opposed). The only real option is to shout over them, becuase their disinformation campaign will never stop until they've regained control and can climb back under the CEOs desks to receive their rewards.
Republicans should keep quiet and not argue at all after 8 years of silence,
Why didn't they open their mouth to criticize Bush's policy?
Obama does a great job but we have to be patient – it's not a piece of cake to restore a crumbling economy – and only the Republicans are to be blamed for that.
'Misread', 'Incomplete Information', ... HUH?
And we the people are supposed to trust the government to manage our health care?
No, thank you.
Although, I figure if Rahm Emanuel said something that got George Soros' knickers in a wad, it's a good day. : )
Most of us recall Obama and Biden among the fear-mongers declaring this to be the worst economic crisis since the great depression. Now for them to say that they didn't know how serious it was... Hillarious. Boehner too should laugh at the double talking duo, as they wiggle in unison (trying to find more wiggle room than they left for themselves). Pretty talented wigglers if you ask me.
So the Reps are experts at handling money, are they? I say "Sit down and shut up!" You Republican legislators are so polarized against any stimulus for this country, any hope for the economy, that we'd prefer you think before you speak, think about 8 years of fiscal failure; think about America instead of your petty little snipes and anti-everything-the-duly-elected-administration-does mentality. Do it for the country, not the party..
I guess spending money frivolously to stimulate the economy is not the kind of stimulus we needed, especially since I just read that most of the stimulus money is going to prop up state medicare and education costs and hasn't had it's intended effects. Another stimulus package will just put us deeper in debt and further hinder an economic rebound by expanding the national debt. Sooner or later, inflation will rear it's ugly head and recovery will become nearly impossible.
Time for the GOP to QUIT pointing their finger at someone else for the mess this country is in and how Obama is trying to get us out of it. For the last eight years I saw our savings shrink down to nothing as my husband's income (commission only) shrank from auto sales to 0. Isn't it the GOP who supported sending our manufacturing to countries like China, Mexico, Thialand, etc. It is really difficult to find clothing, housewares, tools, appliances, etc. made in the USA.
Just how long to we have to listen to the whiners in the GOP? If they think they are going to bring new support through their pointing the finger at Obama all the time, they really don't know Americans very well. Bush/Chaney had eight years, Obama hasn't had six months yet.
Spend another trillion on "stimulus". Spend another hundred trillion...who cares? We're never going to pay any of this money back. Of course, when the Chinese and other investors realize this, there will be trouble..but until then, spend, spend, spend! Let the good times roll!
Everyone, except of course the White House and President "Moveon.org", knew that the so called $787B stimulus plan would not create one single sustainable job, just like everyone knew the stimulus plan back in 2008 would not create one single sustainable job. It is true that the $787B spending spree helped ease the pain of the econmic crisis, no doubt about that and anyone who argues it did not is not being honest. Wasn't this spending spree was sold as "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs" by Dem's and that if passed the unemployment rate would NOT go over 8%?
Government spending does NOT create jobs, except of course Government jobs and all that does is just run up the cost of Government. The American public deserves better, but we get what we elect.
It's obvious this country is in alot of trouble from economic crises to military situations with these two incompetent people in charge. George Bush is looking more and more like a genius every day when compared to Obama and Biden. But we had to have change.
We may not like to hear it but the republicans are right. That first package was wasteful spending, not stimulus. Most of the money hasn't been spent yet and the states are diverting it for ongoing operations rather than some of the intended programs. The TARP (under bush and obama), the so-called stimulus, the cap and trade bill and healthcare reform are all expensive deficit ballooning programs that are going to harm our economy in the long run. Don't shoot the messenger – - debate the issues at hand. We have to stop borrowing from our children and grandchildren because we refuse to live in a economically responsible (or realistic) way.
I wonder if the 100,000+ union members who lost their jobs, and the 200,000+ suppliers and vendors who also lost everything, will blame the Obama Administration for pushing GM and Chrylser into bankruptcy. The 2010 and 2012 elections could get interesting....
If you don't want the stimulus funds, just give them back. Let's see how your state fairs without it. Taking the money, spending the money and then complaining about how it hasn't helped you makes no sense at all! What exactly is Boner proposing to solve the economic crisis? Go ahead...I'm still waiting for a full plan for the gNOp.
Whats the problem here? I don't get it? barack certainly didn't have all the facts...its not like barack has ever said one thing, then reversed or denied his assertions. Oh wait, I'm thinking of a different barack...the president barack is a lying politician.
They're entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.
Boehner has proven himself to be a liar, as if that's any surprise.
The republicans are like my neighbors yapping dog – they bugged me at first, now I don't even hear them anymore. Unless they decide to provide solutions, they're opinions just don't matter to me.
Citizens of Ohio,
Please do us all a favor, and vote this idiot Boehner out of office. He is so interested in his own party getting ahead that he doesn't care if it happens at the expense of all Americans.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 32% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-seven percent (37%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of –5.
When are we going to wake up and realize that idiot bankers lending money to people without sufficient means to cover their expenses started this economic problem. Now because of these numbskulls, our country's elected leaders have decided that the best way to correct these problems are to "nationalize" (aka SOCIALIZE) our banks with bailout funds, control healthcare, bailout automotive companies, and whatever else these power hungry people can get their hands on.
Ronald Reagan said, "You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream - the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order - or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, 'The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.'
What Rep. Boehner forgets to tell you is, does he, or his Republican Party have any more answers to solve this mess that were all in? The answer to that is simple, No.
I am not advocating which side is right or which side is wrong at this point. It is July 2009 and my expectations was that this would not be cleared up by the 4th of July weekend. Maybe some people have that expectation but not me. Now after a reasonable amount of time have passed and the money have been spent, I will judge at that time.
Boehner and McConnell are two of the greatest threats to America.
hey Boehner! First you announce that stimulus was generating jobs in your state. Almost took credit for it and then turn around and complain that stimulus money wasn't doing anything to generate jobs.
First Only 10% of the money has been spent so far so give it time.
Second, the policies that caused this mess in the first place started with Reagan and every President since. Obama needs to roll back Reagan’s tax credit for starters.
Let’s stop the madness and get rid of Milton Freidman’s economic policy of doing business.
Bonhead speaks again. He told his state about how many jobs the stimulus has provided and then told the national press that it hasn't provided any jobs. I guess he hasn't caught on the TV thingy and the internet thingy yet. Rep. Boener is the classic GOP idiot. Whine, complain and lie.
Do you know how to tell when a democrat lies. When their lips move.
One can only wonder why they claim "incomplete information". Have they not seen the downfall in unemployment before now? How long will this administration blame the previous administration for errors they have made by the creation of massive spending to save Banks and Auto Industries that should NOT have been "bailed out".
These Republicans sadly need another history lesson (again). The last time our country followed Republican "Hooverville" mentality and stopped spending during a time of need, we ended up in the Great Depression.
It was Roosevelt's New Deal stimulus that helped steer our great country out of the Depression. Today's stimulus is projected to assist with this recession in the same manner towards more economic recovery.
First off mr spray on-tan-boehner, your 100% support of George bush policies is what got us into this mess in first place! The stimulus just got passed give it time to work! Obama has barely been in office 6months and has done more to help America than bush did in 8 yrs or could ever do in 16yrs. Americans are aware fixing George bush mess will take some time. The Republicans are grand standing for Party interests only and obviously really dont care about the American middle class. Shame on you!
Johnny boy, I guess you've been in congress since last November. You should have seen Iraq war fabrication. Now that was a good one. Oh wait, you were there – short memory I guess.
Why can't Obama admit he's adlibbing with the economy and mamking this up as he goes along? He's just throwing money out there and hoping some of it does some good.
First it was "misread" now it's "incomplete information."
Isn't this what democrats were accusing Bush of during the Iraq war?
Time for a third party.
Face it Egobamaniacs, this president may sound better than the last one (or is that 'read a teleprompter better'?), but he is quickly showing that he no more informed or capable than W. Most worrying is the liability who stands to inherit the presidency if anything happens to Obama. I feel sorry for all the suckers who bought the polished rhetoric..... Misread the situation?!! Are you kidding me? Obama/Biden made it the core of their campaign. Even if the two of them are being truthful, this is a case where the truth is more worrying than a lie. Get ready for a second 'stimulus' and even more debt for future generations.
Based on the Democrats angry reaction to Boehner, the truth hurts. So blame the messanger. But the truth is that a majority of Americans believe the stimulus is not working as advertised by Obama. And the polls show his approval dropping at both a national level and in key battle ground states. Most national polls show it has dropped to under 60%, and in Ohio and Virgina under 50%. This is not due to Boehner complaining. This is due to the American people putting two and two together. What Obama said and promised is not what is happening.
If Bone-head knew all this, then why was/is fighting ALL efforts by the current adminsitration to try and help the people.
Answer: Bone-head does not give a crap about the people and only cares about his own interests.
If John Boehner says "Now, this is the greatest fabrication I've seen since I've been in Congress.", I wonder what he thinks about the 'weapons of mass distruction' promises from the Republican party while he's been in Congress.
DISGUSTING. They ran up the debt and did nothing. NOW they want to point fingers.
Don't they have a governor to chase down in Buenos Aires, Alaska or who knows where?
The Republicans are nothing but mere ambulance chasers. Boehner and Cantor scare me. Talking points like Palin.
Remember when the president was promoting the stimulus? He said we were in the middle of the greatest economic crisis since the great depression. how could we forget all the doom and gloom scare tactics obama employed? and now we are supposed to believe they underestimated the crisis? please!
The stimulus was a farce and most everyone knows it. It was predominantly social programs and low-impact work projects. Obama and the dems are going to get called out on the contents of the stimulus package as the recession continues and folks are going to see what a load of garbage it was.
Funny, we believe in 'trickle-down' spending and growth if it's coming from the government side, but we don't believe that cutting taxes works – if you're a democrat, that is.
Some of the stimulas money should have been givin to the American people. Pay down bills and c.c. debt, any left over to spend around. 70% of the economy is the general public, do you follow me?
No one can really know what needs to be done with something like this until it is over. I would have hoped that this wouldn't have happened, but it did. We must move on and do what we can. To say the stimulus is a failure is unfair because it hasn't all gone out the door.
Good, stick it Obama and Biden.
Talk about lack of ideas.......the only thing Obama knows how to do is spend and tax. And millions of Americans are finally realizing what a pair of communists now run the country.
Let's just say this: If Obama says something is a crisis, then it's the exact opposite. Because they are using crisis in order to expand the federal govt.
It's all part of the plan, but now people are starting to catch on. Too bad the mindset around the last election was:
"lets elect the 2 most Liberal members of the Senate, because we hate Bush"
What a joke! the dems are shocked that a bill they didn't even read isn't working. Lets let them waste another trillion of our hard earned dollars!
CNN needs to go straight to the city and county that have recieved the money and see how far they have progress if they really want answers. It is not going to happen over night. All you have to do is check out the website. Oversite please! No need to rush the money off the door if you can not keep track of where the money is being spending. The Repubicans really praying that the Stimulus don't work just to get back in office at what ever cost. Repubicans do not care about the American people. All their care about is getting back their power in the White House they truing believe belong to them and them only.
Yes as promised Bi partisanship. Right?
My fellow citizens these two major parties are only representing their party not the people of the United states of America! By golly I bet they believe that people (FREE CITIZENS) are irrelevant and immaterial.
There is definitely some 'throw everything and see what sticks" going on. But at least along with that, I hope we will see some true regulation and planning. That is why we are, where we are. No rules for the predators and no planning.
The economic illiteracy on display in these comments is breathtaking.
DEMAND MANDATORY K-12 ECONOMICS EDUCATION NOW!
Boehner is a moron. Which staff aide does his fact checking? They need to be fired!
What don't the Dems get? Spending money is NOT THE SAME AS GETTING RESULTS FOR IT!!!
To Dems, it's just about spending the money, NOT whether or not it actually achieves any purpose. This is precisely why Dems got the label "Tax and Spend" in the first place, and it's still true.
What's perhaps most telling is how fiercely the DNC is daring to attack anyone who dares challenge Lord Obama...but you're starting to see the cracks as the average person realizes that the Dems are NOT delivering. And it's NOT because of Republican opposition; it's because they don't have good ideas!
And what Ideas do the Republicans have to Fix the Mess they made? oh thats right continuing the Mess they made! I think until Republicans can come up with some different ideas to fix THEIR MESS Then they should shut their trap and worry about their Pathetic party thats in shambles!
Republican Party is looking better and better every single day while Obama and Biden (and the entire administration) shamelessly lying to the American people.
Mr. Boehner, we love you sir – KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
Hey "Fla", I think it's YOU who needs the economics lesson.
The New Deal actually kept us in poor economic condition longer than we would otherwise have been, as much as Rahm Emmanuel and other Dems would have us believe.
"Repubicans do not care about the American people. All their care about is getting back their power in the White House they truing believe belong to them and them only."
Were you on some small island far away from the usa without tv, radio, or internet from 2001-2009?
It upsets you that some people don't believe in socialism and are speaking up about it, but hoping and praying for our soldiers to die in Iraq and Afganistan for poltical benefit was no biggie, unbelieveable, or shall I say liberal.
I am SO SICK of these republican'ts!!!!!!!!! And all you idiots who are so quick to criticize the President, have you already forgotten what the previous eight years brought us??????? How the hell do you think we got in this mess in the first place?????????
How can the stimulus be waisteful spending when only less than half of the money has been distributed.. I can see if all the money have been handed out. The Administration still has 80% of the money. That's like saying I waste my paycheck away when I still have 80% of it still in my account. Are the Republicans that negative til they are ready to cry foul before one has been committed? I see people are asking for result only after 6 months in office. Please do so when a full two years has past. Right now you are being plan stupid. You have one guy trying to turn-around an entire country... I wish more pork project would have been funded, atleast they help create jobs.. That is what all this is about anyways.
Let's examine this. Bailouts have gone out to "create jobs" and help stop the wave of foreclosures. Unemployment is sky high, and the bailout hasn't done its job. Foreclosures are still not slowing down. The bailout has not done its job. Consumer spending is down. The bailout has not done its job. Looks like the Republicans may just be right on this one.
Obama lying? How about Bonher lying about how much stim money has been spent in his own state of OH.
On Sunday this chump said none has been spent in his state yet a couple months ago he took credit for OH being one of the first to get stim millions from the stim package he voted against!
This lying crock-of-bronzer should be careful about who he's says is lying before checking in his own rear view mirror.
Pink on the Moon!!! Green in China!!! What does it prove? Soale searchers looking for Dreams... Wasting time and money. Most of all promising Black Toto's in America nothing, from a do-nothing Black President.
Can you democrats at least try to use both sides of your brain for once. Infrastructure spending is not what is going to spur the economy. It takes too long to get going and it's temporary. If we must do something it's get money into the hands of people to purchase goods and services which will get the economic wheels turning which will then provide jobs and capital for business expansion which will create more jobs and increase the tax base which will THEN provide revenue to the government for infrastructure.
Perhaps you democrats should mix in an economics class with your pottery and basket-weaving classes.
"In Ohio, the infrastructure dollars that were sent there months ago — there hasn’t been a contract let, to my knowledge. And the fact is is that I don’t believe it will create jobs." – John Boehner this week.
"With Ohio’s unemployment rate the highest it’s been in 25 years, I’m pleased that federal officials stepped in to order Ohio to use all of its construction dollars for shovel-ready projects that will create much-needed jobs." – John Boehner last month.
What a tool.
This is pretty amusing. The only response that Democrats have to the concerns that we're spending ridiculous amounts of money to no benefit is:
1) Well, do you have a BETTER idea?
Answer: YES! Think before you spend to make sure it's a good use of the money. I know that's a foreign concept to Tax and Spend Dems who consider any spent money good money.
2) Bush was evil, last eight years, blah blah blah...
Answer: This is about the present, not the past. How much longer do you seriously think you can try to divert people's attention with your bile and bitterness. Not much longer.
Wagon,
Trickle down economics got us where we are today. It would have happened sooner if Clinton had not been in office. At least with Government trickle down economics you can see where the money is going. Rich people just stick that tax break into a new boat or second house at the beach.
Funny how the republicans willing to spend our kids future on a war based on lies from the Bush administration, but not willing to spend that much on it's own country.
Wagon, I suppose you want to keep giving tax breaks to the rich?
Bush did that 2 trillion dollars worth and the economy tanked and they busted the goverment bank accounts to boot. 2 trillion given to trickle down economics and it got us here. This is 2 trillion that has no chance of getting paid back. At least with the stimulas the banks and car manufacturers have to pay the money back with interest.
The recovery is going to take time. It took 8 years to drive the economy into the ditch; it will take more than 5 months for it to recover. I have to say, I was never all that thrilled by the Republicans and their Trickle down nonsense. Now, to see them gloating over this mess that they created, I will never vote Republican again. Not even for Charlie Crist.
I can't wait for Oliver Stone to come out with Wall St. 2 so these GOP numbskulls can see what an unregulated market can do to our economy. All they ever complain about is too much government. Well, government has been missing for the last 8 years. Boehner and his colleagues have been on an 8 year vacation. Deregulate this, deregulate that. That's why our economy is in shambles.
VAL IN MA
Says Republican party is looking better and better everyday hahahahahahahahah oh thats funny hahahahahahah a cheating Govenor that lied and wont resign and a crybaby Govenor who wants to blame everything on the media looking better hahahahahah lolol funniest thing i heard all day!
President Obama is TRYING to fix the economy... this is huge... it won't happen overnight.... there is no handbook on how to fix it... took Republicans 8 years to wreck our Country. The repubs need to realize that it is no longer business as usual. Start working FOR the American People and quit putting your party politics first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Either Put Up or Shut Up!!
Yes John Boehner! Doing what you were elected to do. Hold this administration and congress accountable as they try to backpeddle their way out of their poorly guided, greedy decisions.
They rammed that lousy stimulus bill through ( or should I say up ) amid serious questions about it and now they need to be accountable. They need to know we will not put up with that kind of waste in Washington...not when so many Americans are tightening their own budgets!
Just blame it all on Bush......dont you fools know the Dem`s started this whole mess with the thought that all people should own houses???? please please but your crack pipes down, and go to work.
Biden will be in Cincinnati touting the projects funded with stimulus dollars. His focus will be on a shuttered manufacturing plant that is being converted to office space and apartments. All the while, vacancy rates for both continue to climb.
Boehner,
What exactly is YOUR proposal to fix the economy?! "Tax cuts" for the rich and Hooverville slashing have proven NOT to work and only exasperate the problem.
So, what is it from the Party of No ideas, No credibility, No cooperation, and No direction are we Americans supposed to take serious? Really?
Mr. Boehner should just be quiet. He has no credibility criticizing the Dems after so many years of failed policies under him and his Replican colleagues. Somebody, please removed the cameras so that we can be spared of his partisan attacks.
Here's my take:
We should never have been in Iraq. That was the biggest waste of money in my lifetime. We'll be paying the loans off related to that war long after we'd paid back the money we borrowed for the stimulus package.
The housing boom on top of all of this did not help. I don't care where you live – no 900 square foot house is work $500,000 to $1 million. It just isn't. People had to have realized they could not sustain the kind of monthly mortgage, insurance, and taxes that go with that kind of loan. Especially if their salary was $150,000 a year or less. But, can't fix stupid.
We should give tax credits to those companies that bring back jobs from overseas and hire Americans/legal immigrants (not illegal immigrants) and tax those who do not.
Finally, we have got to get energy costs under control!!!!
Are we supposed to be so dumb as to not remember events beyond 6 months ago?
As I recall, half of the stimulus bill was tax cuts. The GOP wanted more of a trickle-down-economics approach to the stimulus, and the compromise was tax cuts. Then they griped that it wasn't bipartisan, because it they only got to control HALF of the money. Now they are griping that the bill didn't work, trying to pin all the blame on democrats? Good grief.
For one, give it time, and secondly, take half the blame.
I think these guys are slimy and dishonest to a new level. I won't vote for another Republican, until all the current ones are flushed out the the system.
For all those who say the stimulus has not created jobs, you are wrong. People have been hired who's job it is to decide where to flush – i mean spend the stimulus money.
I love the idea that 8 years is not enough to properly judge Bush's policies, but a few months is all we need to give Obama's.
@ Mike in MN,
That might be true. But as an economist I can tell you this. The average American knows fickle about economics and how things work.
A recession is a continual decline in GDP, essentially continued decrease in spending. Consumers get worried when there's a recession and stop spending as much which makes things worse.
The unemployment rate takes time to drop. It can even increase while the economy is actually expanding.
Tax cuts in and of themselves do nothing to help the economy unless they are spent AND the spending creates jobs. Increased government spending in and of itself will not necessarily create jobs either (see how the states are currently spending things)
But above all else, just like how things didn't get bad over night, THINGS DON'T GET FIXED OVERNIGHT! The sources of the troubles we have with the economy stretch back decades.
Dems push back hard," eh? Well it's about time they grew a spine. These cynical Republican attacks are getting out of hand. It's almost like they want America to fail so they can recapture the reins of power. How pathetic!
Here's what got us here:
1 Trillion dollar illegal war
Sustained tax cuts for the rich
Deregulation
Lax financial oversight
All courtesy of the GOP. If I go to your house and set it on fire, would you blame the firefighters for taking too long to put out the fire? Of course not. Boehner can go suck a big fat one.
John Boehner is the biggest example of fabrication that I have ever seen in my life! We were in a recession during the end of Bushs term, yet, did any Republican make mention or warn the country? Of course not. They continued to spend like there was no tomorrow so they could leave the next president a huge disaster to clean up. At least Obama acknowledged that there was a recession. Of course it's worse than they thought originally.You never realize how bad something is until you start cleaning up the mess! I'm thankfull that a Republican is not in the White house because it would be a lot worse for us than it is now!
The States need to be held accountable as to what they did with the money. If it wasn't used for jobs, they should have to pay it back.
I'm so sick of that Orange Senator getting everything wrong (or maybe just lying) I can't see straight.
"Now, this is the greatest fabrication I've seen since I've been in Congress."
Apparently he wasn't paying attention during W's reign of error.
So, if I understand correctly... The criticism is that we raced into war without getting the facts. Using that SAME criteria, is the Obama criticizing their own policy by saying their made a mistake by rushing into something without getting the facts as well?
ABC, 123, Do Rae Mi, Obama lied to you and me..