Sen's. Stabenow & Levin.. Here Comes the Bacon!!!

[Rideron]

Ohh Boy!!

Whoo HOO!! Sen. Ben Nelson held out on his Senate health care vote until he got $780 Million for Nebraska and state Medicaid tax freedom for Nebraska residents!!

With Michigan well known as being the WORST off state financially; certainly MUCH worse off than Nebraska... I can't WAIT to see what kinda goodies and bacon OUR two sharp, tough, and smart U.S. senators got for Michigan in exchange for holding out THEIR votes!!

I KNOW they wouldn't be so STUPID as to just fall in line and give up TWO of the SIXTY VOTES Obama needs, and get NOTHING...ZIP.....ZERO in return.

They wouldn't be brainless little Obamabots, would they???????

OF COURSE NOT!!

I bet they're organizing a BIG CEREMONY RIGHT NOW to ANNOUNCE what relief they're bring back home here to MICHIGAN!!!!

I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!

[Gistok]

With Riderdon's penchant for "fair and balanced" postings... Admins, please move this to Non-Detroit Issues, thereby leaving the Discuss Detroit threads to the grownups....

[RickBeall]

I got my knife and fork out.

[Retroit]

The Democrats don't have to buy Michigan votes; we're already in their back pocket. No bribery money heading this way.

[Novine]

"China has already warned that there is not enough money to keep buying US treasury notes. This does not bode well for our future."

Since when did the right-wing wackos in America start relying on the Russian and Chinese "press" as their sources for information?

[Lorax]

Since they have a vested interest in America's failure.

It's what they have been working toward for decades now, ever since the John Birch society called Eisenhower a communist!

Propagated by the Bush Crime Family's disasterous run through our national body politic from the savings and loan scandals to the "New World Order" of the Bush/Bildeburger conspiracy, to the current economic collapse and looming hyperinflation.

Cheers to the fascists for a great attempt- you may just succeed yet!

[1KielsonDrive]

The sausage is being made and we're watching it.

[MCP-001]

Two things:

Rideron, this really doesn't directly affect Detroit, so it's more appropriate to place this in the Non-Detroit section.

Lorax, democrats have had a hand in flushing America's financial future down the toilet with their ill-conceived New Deal, Fair Deal & Great Society Programs.

No one can honestly state that those programs had not adversely affected federal spending.

[mauser]

Lorax, democrats have had a hand in flushing America's financial future down the toilet with their ill-conceived New Deal, Fair Deal & Great Society Programs..

Yes, yes - feeding starving American children and regulating banks are both "ill conceived" missions.... No profits to be had feeding starving children, so why would anybody try to do that ?

I'll tell you the democrats that helped destroy our economy and currency system, starting with the worst of them all: William Jefferson Clinton. With his repeal of Glass-Steagall, his tax cuts for the rich, NAFTA, Waco and the Clinton Drug War - Bill Clinton was/is one of the most aggressive and destructive Neo Conservatives on the scene today.

And if you read Matt Taibbis new article in Rolling Stone, you will see that the majority of Obamas puppet masters are straight out of the Clinton White House. And one of the men most responsible for both the deregulation as well as the destruction of one of the mega banks - Robert Rubin - is at the top of his economic team.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Rubin

What a foul piece of shit THIS guy is - and he is calling the shots for Obama right now. This is the same program we had under Reagan, Clinton, Bush and now Obama.

Meet the new boss - same as the old boss.

I say that we roll back the GW Bush tax cuts for the rich, the Clinton tax cuts for the rich, the Reagan tax cuts for the rich and the Kennedy tax cuts for the rich.

The reason red and blue or democrat or republican doesnt matter, is because everything is really about economics. If you look at people as economic groups instead of as the usual political parties, you will find many of the democrats are very hard right neoconservatives. Kennedy, Clinton, Obama - I would think Al Gore too.

Obama:
kept all of Bushs federal prosecutors [[first time in history)
kept the Patriot Act,
has not restored Habeas Corpus,
has not restored Posse Comitatus,
has not withdrawn from Iraq or changed the Bush plan,
escalated Afghanistan,
has not closed Guantanamo,
has not canceled 'dont ask dont tell',
is in favor or privatizing public schools,
bailed out the banks that caused the collapse,
is going to retain Bushs economic advisor-cum-Fed Chairman Benanke..........

It goes on and on and on.

[Fnemecek]

China has already warned that there is not enough money to keep buying US treasury notes. This does not bode well for our future.

This is true. Not as many people are buying cheap stuff that's made in China, which means that they don't have as much cash as they used to in order to keep buying our debt the time.

Of course, one should point out that this makes health care reform all that much more important. According to the CBO scoring, the bill that the Senate passed will reduce the federal deficit by $132 billion over the next 10 years.

Sources
http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc1086...r_Managers.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/bu...1reserves.html

2010 can't come soon enough, I just hope enough people have woken up by then to change things around. I fear it may be too late.

I agree completely. People need to wake up and quit believing everything that some "leader" or "intellectual" tells them without doing at least a tiny bit of work to verify some of the things that they're being told.

Unfortunately, however, there's a decent chance that Glenn Beck will still be on the air and Sarah Palin will still be taken seriously by at least some Americans.

By the way, have you bought some gold lately?

You should, because gold never losses its value - especially when you buy it from someone who charges a 30 - 35% premium like the folks who sponsor Glenn Beck's show.

[East Detroit]

I bet they're organizing a BIG CEREMONY RIGHT NOW to ANNOUNCE what relief they're bring back home here to MICHIGAN!!!!

I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!

Something tells me you'd like to see Michigan suffer more just to prove whatever point you're trying to make.

Partisan.

[Fnemecek]

The Democrats don't have to buy Michigan votes; we're already in their back pocket. No bribery money heading this way.

Well, nothing except for the $82 billion bailout for the auto industry.

[maxx]

Mauser:
I agree with a lot of what you have said although you should be going back to Reagan where the deregulation started which led to the S & L scandal.

But there are some things you mentioned that take time. It's far easier to start wars then to end them unless you don't care what sort of mess still exists when you declare victory and leave.
And Afghanistan/Pakistan is a real problem that the Republicans didn't really address very much.
He can't close Guantanamo until someone sorted out who really were the terrorists as opposed to those poor souls who were nabbed in Afghanistan for the U.S. bounty.He also has to find a place to put the guilty people which has been discussed a lot. We live in a democracy, not a dictatorship, the previous admin. notwithstanding. I don't think the President can just declare a law [Patriot Act] null and void. The ACLU opposed one section of it, but I don't know if that section was ever removed.
What is obvious is that the Congress is not going to do much that will rile the big monied interests that support their re-election campaigns. It's hard to get much out of such a group.

RE: Posse Comitatus
Why isn't the Insurrection Act sufficient?





...

[Retroit]

Well, nothing except for the $82 billion bailout for the auto industry.

The auto industry isn't confined to Michigan. There are auto related industries spread throughout the country. Do we need to have this discussion yet again?

[Fnemecek]

You're correct that the auto industry isn't confined to Michigan. However, it is disproportionately in Michigan.

Moreover, if one were to track how much of that $82 billion went Michigan jobs - in comparison to jobs in other states - it's fairly clear that our share vastly exceeds the benefits that Sen. Nelson extracted for Nebraska. Therefore, the argument that Michigan's U.S. Senators are just blindly going along without getting anything in return is pure nonsense. Hence, my post above.

[East Detroit]

Well, nothing except for the $82 billion bailout for the auto industry.

GM and Chrysler were given loans.

The banking industry in New York was given the bailout. [[$700B+)

[Lorax]

Thanks for making that distinction- the Republicans, even those living in metro Detroit love to blame first the unions, and then the auto execs for promoting corporate welfare.

It's amazing how when Wall Street goes to Washington, hat in hand, they get free money at zero percent interest, continue to invest in risky ventures, and only pay back what they got so the feds don't tell them that 1 billion dollar paydays for their CEO's is excessive.

When Detroit goes with hat in hand, and asks for a loan with interest, at 10% of what Wall Street got as a freebie, then Republicans start stamping their feet.

Gotta love the double standard- it's OK to bail out the folks who put us in this economic mess, rather than nationalize the "too big to fail" banks, as should have been done, but when the guys who shower after work need a short-term loan, to preserve hundreds of thousands of jobs, then all of a sudden there's a problem.

I'm sick and tired of the elitist corporate apologists even having a platform from which to speak. They are nothing more than greedy fascists who could give a shit about their fellow Americans, and are in fact, anti-American, and as far as I'm concerned, are nothing more than a bunch of treasonous bastards.

[Fnemecek]

GM and Chrysler were given loans.

The banking industry in New York was given the bailout. [[$700B+)

The $700 billion to the financial services industry was also structured as a loan. The banks began repaying those loans in July. As of last week, $500 billion of the $700 billion has been repaid. All loans to the various banks have repaid in full. It's only the insurance companies and other firms that still owe money to the U.S. Treasury.

[Fnemecek]

There are numerous factual errors here that deserve a correction.

It's amazing how when Wall Street goes to Washington, hat in hand, they get free money at zero percent interest, continue to invest in risky ventures, and only pay back what they got so the feds don't tell them that 1 billion dollar paydays for their CEO's is excessive.

When Detroit goes with hat in hand, and asks for a loan with interest, at 10% of what Wall Street got as a freebie, then Republicans start stamping their feet.

#1. Republicans in the House and Senate were stomping their feet for both programs.

#2. GM and Chrysler each got money from TARP, which was later rolled into their later bailouts for repayment purposes.

#3. While the banks did not have to pay interest for the TARP funds, they did have to hand over stock in their respective companies.

#4. While the CEOs of the various banks are generously compensated, none of them get anywhere near the $1 billion mark.

[ccbatson]

Obama will double cross them all....devalue the dollar so that 758 million becomes...half that? maybe less, scare jobs away, undermine true prosperity so that even with the huge tax increases, revenues go down.

[Lorax]

There are numerous factual errors here that deserve a correction.

#1. Republicans in the House and Senate were stomping their feet for both programs.

#2. GM and Chrysler each got money from TARP, which was later rolled into their later bailouts for repayment purposes.

#3. While the banks did not have to pay interest for the TARP funds, they did have to hand over stock in their respective companies.

#4. While the CEOs of the various banks are generously compensated, none of them get anywhere near the $1 billion mark.

A few corrections to the "corrections":

1. The Republicans bitterly complained that Detroit got loans, eventhough the amount of those loans was only a fraction of what Wall Street received.

2. I made no mention of this, as it was not part of my initial post.

3. Stock was handed over only as collateral, it was not sold, therefore no profit.

4. Most CEO's of the subject companies when they retire get out for more than a billion dollars in pay and stock.

The heads of AIG, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America all had egregious paydays while receiving public monies, and complained bitterly that executive pay was being reigned in by the feds. GM and Chrysler CEO's took zero pay during this period, what makes Wall Street so special?

This is why they have enjoyed such a great reputation, and are so well liked by average Americans.

The retiring head of Merrill Lynch went on to co-found One West Bank which the feds handed over all good paying loans from the bankrupt Indymac Bank for 50 cents on the dollar, and insures them as well, courtesty of the US taxpayer.

The head of AIG went on to compete in another firm which challenges the health and longevity of AIG- no written conflict of interest agreements were signed to prevent the constant casino capitalism from continuing.

And so it does today. We now have the same firms, which were "too big to fail" now monstrously large, with even less regulation.

[lefty]

Levin and Stabenow were too Stupid to get the real Porkulus.
They could have been BRIBED for a much larger sum than nothing.

They are taxing us for four years before any benefits are received!!!!!!!!!!!! SCAM.
That is how they lie to us and say it is saving us money.
Even I as a conservative feel snookered being out in the cold on these Federal Payoffs.
If anyone of us gave only $1,000.00 and told Leving or Stabenow, to vote a certaine way, we would be thrown in jail, like Sam Riddle will soon be.

If they held out they might have got Michigan another 500 million dollars in taxpayers blood sweat and tears coming into the state. Think about it.
Sen. Ben Nelson's hardly the only lawmaker extracting sweetheart deals out of the health care reform bill. -- Nebraska's Nelson won permanent federal aid for his state's expanded Medicaid population, a benefit worth up to $100 million over 10 years. Other states get the federal aid for three years, but Nebraska's benefit is indefinite.
Vermont and Massachusetts got $1.2 billion in Medicaid money -- a change that was described as a correction to the current system which exempts those two states because they have robust health care systems. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders also boasted Saturday that he requested and won an investment worth between $10 and $14 billion for community health centers.

The Louisiana purchase, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., won between $100 million and $300 million in additional federal aid for her state's Medicaid population. The deal, secured before she cast her critical vote in favor of bringing the health bill to the floor, was immediately dubbed the "Louisiana Purchase," though the actual Louisiana Purchase was considerably cheaper.

The scam continues, suckers.

[elganned]

Wait, let me get this straight--conservatives, who have been pissing and moaning for decades about "pork-barrel spending" and how it's going to bankrupt the nation, are now pissed off that Levin and Stabenow didn't belly up to the trough when the chance came?

Damned if they do, damned if they don't... Hypocrisy, thy name is Conservative.

[Novine]

"Emerging markets are coming on line and will be creating consumer economies. These economies will fill the void as Obama, Pelosi and Reid continue to destroy the dollar. US markets will become more of liability as the left wing do-gooders destroy our currency by continuing to provide free food, housing, medical care and so on and so forth to anyone who claims a need."

Isn't the same clap-trap the John Bircher's rolled out in the 50s about Truman and Eisenhower? Always the predictions of doom and gloom.

[Retroit]

Well, nothing except for the $82 billion bailout for the auto industry.

I saw Stabusnow on television today bragging about how she brought home the bacon for the auto "bail-out", so I guess I owe you an apology, Fnemecek.