I Guess The Economy Isn't So Bad

Whether one is in business, health care, fire rescue or anything else, when an imminent and dangerous threat arises, the SOP - or what's common place is left to wait. So why isn't the Congress acting like there's an emergency?

Obama has admitted that much of this new spending has nothing to do with a short-term economic stimulus for the country. If the situation is so critical as to warrant this type of additional emergency spending on top of the trillions that have already been spent, the responsible thing for Washington to do would be to include only those items that are relevant to creating jobs and getting the nation back on its feet.

If the politicians in Washington won't do the right thing and support a plan like that, there's no reason for the American people to trust them with spending this money. If there's an emergency, they should start acting like it, instead of the usual bunch of pigs at the trough.

And if Republicans have any sense, or principles left at all, they won't support a package that obviously hasn't been done right.

Comments

[epobirs]

Either, A) the economic situation is grossly overblown, or B) the longterm socialist plan is to break the economic system so badly people will accept anything offered in its place just to gain a semblance of stability.

I've yet to hear a single prominent politician call for the repeal of the CRA, one of the major contributors to the our economic woes and something our new President litigated for in the 90s. So B) is looking stronger all the time.

[mary]

Through out December and early January we noticed a significant drop in people in local restaurants and at local malls. You literally could make stock picks by vising the malls and surveying restaurants. Three weeks ago we were in a popular nationwide chain a little before midnight on a Saturday night and there were literally a handful of occupied tables in a place that, in the past, had been hopping until 3 am.

This weekend we noticed a significant increase in people, probably back to levels of last year and the year before and maybe more. We began to say to one another "was there some kind of signal given"? "Did we miss it?" We visited that same restaurant last night at the exact same time, the place was jammed and we were handed one of those devices that goes off and told the wait was two hours. It was quite carious and we have been commenting all day to one another trying to figure out "what changed?" One of our friends has searched for coupons, checked if the restaurant increased advertising, checked if the menu was changed or the prices lowered. Nothing, the variables are the same as that Saturday night three weeks ago. I would be interested to hear what you guys think.

[jharp]

"I would be interested to hear what you guys think."

I think you should put the crack pipe away.

[Frank Schober]

I think there is a huge conspiracy, aided and abetted by the main-stream-media to convince us that the economic sky is falling. I ask businessmen around town andthey report that business is good.

Yhe goal of all this is to create a "problem" and get credit for solving it---and in the meantime radically socialize and collectivize our economy.

[Lala]

I vote for item B/

Why don't they just get those printing presses going and print some money? It's what they're going to do anyway, so do it now.

[SacTownMan]

There's only one plan Dan, shove the socialist agenda down the throats of the American people!

By using the MSM to continue their message of doom and gloom they are using the same scare tactics that got them into office.

The reason they want to move fast is that the normal process of debate has been tossed aside. What better time to sneak some of their favorite radical agenda items including massive spending on pet leftist projects.

Just go to the new white house website and get a taste of radical socialism 101!

They don't care if there are real, working class jobs created. They want Americans to go running to their government for EVERYTHING!

They WANT the economy to remain in the tank for a little while longer to push through their leftist agenda! It's time for some reason to return and consider just where these funds are going before it's too late!

[John D]

They think it is an emergency. But remember what Rahm said, “Rule one: Never allow a crisis to go to waste, they are opportunities to do big things.”

So, it being an emergency, they are loading as much other baggage on as they can on the theory, probably correct, that, with the situation so dire, they can get away with it. By the time the citizens wake up and realize what happened it will be too late. Some probably will never wake up.

If this goes through, the Republic is dead. Long live the Empire.

[b]

Mary,

What I think is that you should not actually try to pick stocks based on the restaurants you go to. Anecdote != data. In any case, there is more pain to come, and it's an open question how much longer we will be able to dump T-bills on foreigners at such attractive rates. Slashing corporate tax rates is one of the simplest, cheapest, and most effective actions Washington could take now, so that's why you don't hear anyone there discussing it.

[GW]

Re Mary. My wife and I experienced the same thing. Went to the movies on Saturday and the theater was busier than it has been in months. After the movie we went to a bar/restaurant across the hall and the place was jumping. Two weekends before both places were all but deserted. I said to the hostess, "Maybe the Depression is over."

[Noelie]

Maybe the October surprise wasn't effective enough without it going into December and January.

However to defend Mary from the "crack pipe" comments, my husband and I saw the same thing here in Utah last weekend. We had to change our plans because we couldn't even get a parking spot where we had planned.

[UnObamacon]

My experiences here in Charlotte have been a bit different, I live close to an area that has just about all the chain restaurants and fast-food places you can think of. Parking lots have been jammed in the evenings, the malls are doing very well. And it's been like this since we moved here last summer. Go to one of the stores like BJ's or Costco, people are streaming in and out of them with items like big screen televisions, game systems, etc. These aren't items that people in a deep recession/depression would be buying. My wife and I asked each other all the time what is going on with the economy? The news and politicos say one thing, our eyes see another. Yes, I know things aren't great, people are getting laid off, but is it really the doomsday scenario it's being made out to be to justify this huge governmental intrusion into the free market? Or did I just answer my own question?

[kat]

jharp is a moron. I just wanted to add as much as she does to the conversation.

[templar knight]

Same here in Texas, folks. On Saturday, we had to wait 45 min. just to be seated at one of the local eateries, and as we traveled to the mall we noticed every major restaurant was full. The mall was rather thin in traffic, but stores not in the mall were doing very well, including Coldwater Creek, Chicos, Joseph A. Banks, and Kohls.

[WBestPresidentEver]

Harp, we don't have any crack pipes to put away. YOU HAVE THEM ALL.
May I suggest that "you" put them all away and get off your high.
You are one sick indiviual. Extremly off balance and dangerous just like all your cohorts on the left.
Actually "You suck" ! You are Barney would get along real well.

[WBestPresidentEver]

I want to see the balance sheets of all these companies for the last 10 years and I want to see them "now". Show me the money. I want to see. No one ever asks about any of this bullshit. They believe every damn thing the governement tell us is going on. Where is the proof ??
I think our own governement is feeding us a daily dose of bullshit only to get all their agendas passed. Propaganda, brainwashing and communism at work in our own county. Imagine that.
"We the people" need to get together and have an independent group to do a huge investigation into all the shit going on in this country today. All senators, all house reps and all parts of government need to be investigated.
Congress does not have the right to investigate itself.
They are the damn crooks. All of them are crooked, liars and theives and they all are guilty of wrong doing.
Our country is screwed.
Things going on in this country remind me of PUTANS RUSSIA.
I never dreamed in my lifetime that it would come to this.
The president bought the election, the senators and the house bought their positions. They are all rich and could care less about the real people in this country.
We have 435 house of representative and 100 senators directing this country of 300,000,000 million people. Most of them are useless pieces of crap. They are lairs, thieves and scum. They do not care about the common people in this country. We matter not to them. They are no more than a bunch of glorified crooks.
No wonder our country has gone down hill.

I guess a new revolution is in order. ????

WAKE UP AMERICA AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT OUR CORRUPT GOVERNMENT OR THE NEW WORLD ORDER AND THE NEW WORLD BANK AND THE NEW WORLD COURT WILL SOON BE IN CHARGE OF ALL OF OUR LIVES.

[mary]

Wow, the extraordinarily powerful job of Secretary of State and the nominee is confirmed with an embarrassing 60 to 34?

[mary]

Sorry meant Secretary of the Treasury. I guess I should post and multi task at the same time.

[Enemy of the Sectionals]

The government is intruding into the "free market" because the banks and corporations are too incompetent to manage in a free market economy. Socialism for the Rich has long existed in America. Indeed, US companies succeed largely by cheating via methods such as tarrifs and subsidies from the taxpayer.
The bank cartel that calls itself the Federal Reserve has been stealing from US taxpayers for nearly a century, and orchestrated the financial crisis. Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke being the chief villains.

Henry Paulson, the outgoing treasury secretary, took billions of taxpayers money and then generously gave it to his friends on Wall Street, bailing out his former employer Goldman Sachs, and letting their biggest rival, Lehman Brothers, go down the tubes. The words "crook" and "scum" spring to mind.
Incredibly, Bush and Paulson just handed a stack of taxpayers money to the banks and did not demand CEO resignations, suspension of all bonuses etc as pre-conditions.

If a company is too big to fail, it should not exist.

Look at the CEO's of these companies, they get paid huge bonuses regardless of their performance, so if they mess up it does not matter to them anyway, they sail away in their golden parachutes while the taxpayer is left with the bill.

Bailouts of banks should carry the following conditions:
1. The CEO must resign
2. All bonuses cancelled
3. New CEO must work for wage of average taxpayer.

Furthermore, let us look at that parasitic socialistic bureaucracy, the Pentagon, populated by perfumed princes and, it seems, dedicated to screwing the US taxpayer with its ridiculous budget.
Look at all these military branches, an absurd number of them, making private defence contractors very rich, good for Halliburton, I suppose, bad for the US taxpayer.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

"My experiences here in Charlotte have been a bit different,....."

Same down here between Wilmywood and Myrtle Beach...Housing starts have slowed some in big developments but everywhere you turn people are still building. It's pretty steady in metrolina and the coast but the rest of the state isn't so lucky.....so we elect Perdue who makes Easley look like an honest man and they've already raised taxes.....in short save your Confederate money, it may be worth more than a green back soon.