While President Obama and his team continue to push the stimulus package, the Republicans in Congress refused to support it. Do the Republicans don't see the need? Are the Republicans so stuck in the mud, so backward-thinking that they are unable to think in a direction other than their usual "tax cuts" for the rich?
Democratic Rep. Barney Frank had a response to the Republican naysayers.
Raw Story:
.....Rep. Frank placed blame once more with deregulation for creating the worsening economic conditions that led to banks receiving hundreds of billions of dollars in government aid. "The complete absence of regulation in the financial area has, I think, been a disaster," he said. "And I think we're back to where we were when Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson stepped in or Franklin Roosevelt...No tax cut builds a road. No tax cut puts a cop on the street. No tax cut educates a child in the way that it ought to be done."
When DeMint cited the proposed package the "largest spending bill in history," Frank indicted the occupation of Iraq on its costly consequences to the treasury. "The largest spending bill in history is going to turn out to be the war in Iraq," he charged of the effort, which was widely supported by Republicans throughout the George W. Bush years, which also fostered three major tax cuts and the addition of $4.9 trillion to the national debt. "And one of the things, if we're going to talk about spending, I don't -- I have a problem when we leave out that extraordinarily expensive, damaging war in Iraq, which has caused much more harm than good, in my judgment....."
I'm glad he said it. Bush's war in Iraq is currently costing us TEN BILLION DOLLARS PER MONTH! The Republicans would rather continue the war and the spending of American lives and money in Iraq because they don't want to make it seem that their beloved George W. Bush was wrong. The Republicans just want to give more tax breaks. That is their solution for everything. Tax breaks won't work because it won't put money in your pocket like having a job will.
Barney Frank is right. If we can't get some of our people back to work, we will continue to remain in our present condition, with the chance that things will get worse.
Yesterday on Meet The Press, Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison were guests. Sen. Kerry clearly supported the stimulus package. However, Sen. Hutchison continued to push for tax cuts, a cut in the capital gains tax, and refuted the claim that the Bush administration had not spent enough money on infrastructure. Is Hutchison unable to see that those tax cuts didn't work?
Hutchison also appeared to be against expanding high speed internet access throughout the country. (This is all part of the pre-historic thinking of the Republican Party.) Opening the internet to all communities in the U.S. could benefit everyone. It encourages people to set up web based businesses, education, commerce, communication, etc.
Sitting around letting the Republicans lead the conversation won't get anything accomplished. We've had an election and we voted for change. We must let our elected officials in Congress hear our voices in support for the stimulus package. We cannot delay because we must make progress as soon as possible.
