Memo to Republicans: Your whining makes things worse - LetsGoPitt's Blog

LetsGoPitt's Blog

Memo to Republicans: Your whining makes things worse

Posted on February 22, 2009 at 04:24 PM.

(59)

Recently, in a stunning display of total partisanship, all but three Republican members of Congress voted against the Obama Administration's economic stimulus package. Whether this was a toeing the line by those members, simple obstruction, or legitimate votes against because of differences in philosophy is irrelevant. They can vote however they want to. Who am I to tell Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor, John Boehner, or anyone else how to vote? That's not the problem. At the end of the day, democracy worked: the majority got what they wanted, with, I might add, a fair bit of compromise from the minority.

The problem is this: the bill passed anyway. A bill that is designed to try to get the economy out of this awful recession, which in turn is caused not just by bad policy and other decisions, but by fear. Fear that things are only going to get worse. And here these same Republicans are, going on national television and other media outlets every chance they get and moaning about how all the bill is going to do is make things worse. Maybe it will. Maybe it won't. That's something that no one can really predict at this point. But what all this complaining is doing is feeding the fear mentality. Every time someone sees you on TV saying that this bill is the worst thing to come along since the Great Depression and how it's only going to cost more jobs, do you think that's going to encourage that person to go out there and spend? Of course not. So what if you voted against the bill? Like I said, you have every right to do so. But now that it's passed...SHUT UP ALREADY. If you really cared about the economy and this country, you'd cross your fingers and hope that things will work out despite the passage of a bill you didn't support. Maybe go out there and encourage people to invest and spend. Say, "While this bill isn't what we had in mind, it's the one we got, and now it's up to us as a nation to make the best of it." What you're doing instead of the equivalent of those old Brett Favre Monday-morning quarterbacking commercials: "I would have double-bagged it" Yeah, that really helps the fool whose groceries just spilled all over the place. In fact, it made it worse, because now he's probably even more pissed off. No one is saying John Boehner should go on TV and suddenly be all warm and fuzzy about Obama and the stimulus, but at least stop adding to the problem by feeding the fear monster (again).

Comments

# 31 LetsGoPitt @ Feb 24

Sorry, but no. The past 8+ (going back to during Clinton's second term) years have shown that left to their own devices, the private sector will do whatever it can to pad its own pockets at the expense of everyone else. The reason government is stepping in to tell the banks what to do is because when the first round of TARP took place, the banks came crying about insolvency, were given money, and then they turned around and payed out dividends instead of using the money for what they said they would.

# 32 CFav @ Feb 24

Memo to Letsgopitt: have you been paying attention to Obama and the dems the last few months??? Who's being the fear monger??? Seriously, Socialist America is on our doorsteps. I almost can taste the revolt. When "they" try to re-write the amendment that gives us the "Right To bear Arms" in the constitution, it will be on...trust.

# 33 CFav @ Feb 24

P.S. I lean to the left, I'm by no means a GOP guy, but anyone w/ the ability to think for themselves and w/ a half way decent I.Q. should have a bad taste in there mouth right now...

# 34 LetsGoPitt @ Feb 24

Um..what does the Second Amendment have to do with anything that I'm talking about?

And I should have mentioned it earlier, but I also point my finger at Paul Krugman et al. when it comes to doom and gloom proclamations.

And finally, for anyone on the right to complain about fear mongering is laughable after running the 2004, 2006, and partially the 2008 campaign on the "Vote for us or your children will be killed by terrorists" platform.

# 35 LetsGoPitt @ Feb 24

Oh, and yes, I do agree that Obama needs to dial back the "tough times ahead" rhetoric. We'll see if that happens tonight.

# 36 Computalover @ Feb 24

Obama's getting the money from the same place bush got it. china and the arab states... thats what you do not see folks.. we owe billions to the communist and the arabs.. dude..tell me this.. how did we go from an almost 2 trillion dollar surplus to a trillion in debt? GWB thats how.. ask yourselves this.. how much TARP money did you get? where did it go? we should have never given that money to the banks without EXPLICIT rules and regs.. we shouldnt have given back those pre 9/11 rebate checks.. we shouldnt have bailed out the airlines post 9/11 etc etc.. but we did.. republicans no tax but spend, no regulations behinds guided us into this mess. keeping the IRAQ war budget off books, then borrowing from the commies and the arabs.. and now they want to be FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE?!!?!?

BHO is doing what FDR's new deal tried to do.. build up our infrastructure and supply jobs.. it worked then.. (with the help of WWII) in can work now.. but at least.. the middle class is getting some help this time.. not the fat rich cats... like when W was in office..

# 37 kcq71 @ Feb 25

After 8 years of creating this mess now the Republicans have allllllllll the answers.Bush spent like a crazed teenager and no republican opposed him.Billions a month spent on Iraq and they said nothing.Now you want to lecture us on spending.Please NOT.America voted down your worn out tired ideas.Support your president or move to Cuba

# 38 LetsGoPitt @ Feb 25

Quote:


	Credit Card companies are actually raising interest rates on most people now...How is that going to help?All at the behest of DC and the banking lobby

You're totally right about that, and it's one of the biggest problems to deal with going forward. The last thing that people need is to pay even more interest on their credit cards. This is exactly what happens when you deregulate an industry, they go wild. John McCain wanted to do pretty much the same thing with the health insurance industry if he were elected president. Why do you think all of the credit card companies operate out of Delaware? It's because that state has the most lenient laws governing their activity. While the lobbiests for CC companies in Washington are the problem, it's not too much government oversight, it's too LITTLE.

# 39 bamalam @ Feb 25

they are all republicrats , imo. both sides heading us down the same path while they keep folks arguing which side is better. sheeple need to wake up. i hear some tea parties being planned soon around the country. too little , too late.

the big G slowly take our rights away and then welcome to 1 world citizenship. get ready.

# 40 LetsGoPitt @ Feb 25

Okay, first off: enough with the name calling. I'll delete any comments that use immature "nicknames" for either party. I'm all for debate, but do it intelligently.

Second, I'm heartened by the fact that some of whom my blog was aimed at seem to have gotten it, based on their comments before and after President Obama's speech last night. Whether it will last or not remains to be seen.

Third, I don't know who advised Bobby Jindal last night, but that person should be fired. I've seen Jindal talk many times before, and I've never seen him look nearly as dorky as he did there. It seemed to me that he was trying to hard to be personable and not come off as negative. The whole thing was a disaster.

# 41 kcq71 @ Feb 25

7stringking that's exactly what I'm saying.Obama won.The election is over.People went to the polls and voted how they felt the Republican controlled House , Senate and White House have governed.Republicans squandered 8 years of power.They have no message to offer anyone on how to get out of this mess.Its like a drug addict giving advice on how to stay clean.Tax Cuts.Been their done that.What else do you have? Rush and Hannity calling Obama a socialist? The Republican Party is party is dead.All this talk of socialism? Nobody is sticking a gun to the banks head to take money.Dont want government involvement? Dont take the money.By 2010, the GOP's refusal to vote for the stimulus bill will been seen a as decisive event in the party's fortunes--for the worse.People understand and they are displaying great patience and don't expect the economy to turn around anytime soon.But what is so laughable and transparentto so many is the GOP's charade of purporting to stand for fiscal discipline-after plunging the country into $1 trillion of debt over the past eight years.What does it have to do with gaming? When Daddy or Mommy lose their job, Jr. cant get that new game because all of a sudden $59.99 for a game has to be used to keep the lights on.

# 42 Romsaer @ Feb 25

According to Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_dea...the_Depression

51% of economists think the New Deal prolonged the Depression, not 90%. Admittedly, 25% believe that it made things better with caveats, but those are unstated. But not "over 90%," unless you have another source?

# 43 MeanMrMustard @ Feb 26

Quote:


	Good points and counter-points all around. Keep up the mature discussions people.

LOL

# 44 WaddupCouzin @ Feb 26

Quote:


	After 8 years of creating this mess now the Republicans have allllllllll the answers.Bush spent like a crazed teenager and no republican opposed him.Billions a month spent on Iraq and they said nothing.Now you want to lecture us on spending.Please NOT.America voted down your worn out tired ideas.Support your president or move to Cuba

AMEN!

# 45 LetsGoPitt @ Feb 27

Well, I never advocated the end of capitalism. Capitalism works fine, but like anything else if allowed to run rampant, it can be very destructive. Once the financial markets became almost completely de-regulated (which, by the way, happened on Bush's watch via the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in December 2000), the banks became a form of capitalistic anarchy, which ultimately lead to their downfall. So while it's disingenuous to directly blame Bush for the economy (as a lot of left-wingers are doing), he certainly helped open the door to what happened (though Phil Gramm was the real culprit here).

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