From AU:
Protect Church-State Separation in the Stimulus Package!Urge the Senate to keep funding for the Compassion Capital Fund outThe House recently passed its version of the economic stimulus package, which would provide funding for many services designed to relieve Americans from the burdens of our current economic crisis. Throughout this process, the staff of Americans United has engaged our many allies in Congress to ensure that this bill, which provides $819 billion dollars of funding, does not disrupt the important separation of church and state or diminish important religious liberty or civil rights protections that we hold dear.We applaud the drafters of the House bill for their wise prohibition on the funding of private or religious schools. This is consistent with the Constitution and an important safeguard to place on the expenditure of our tax dollars. We are disappointed, however, that the House economic recovery package contains funding for the Compassion Capital Fund. The Compassion Capital Fund has a myriad of Constitutional problems. The Fund lacks oversight, sends money directly to Houses of Worship, and allows recipients to hire employees based solely upon their religion for government-funded jobs. Clearly, more taxpayer dollars should not be expended on this program.Fortunately, the Senate version of the bill does not contain unwise funding for the Compassion Capital Fund – and we need it to stay that way! Please thank your Senators for eliminating this funding stream and urge them to use our tax dollars wisely in this important time. As we all know, now is not the time to continue unwise and unconstitutional practices of the Bush Administration. Please enter your information below to urge your Senator to maintain the ban on funding religious schools and the elimination of funding for the Compassion Capital Fund. With your help, we can ensure that the separation of church and state is unharmed in the first major act of the 111th Congress.
This would not be the first time the country was caught up an a fervor that led to inappropriate spending. We need to make sure this doesn’t happen. Use our legislative page to find your Senators and Representatives and CALL THEM ON THE TELEPHONE to express your concern for funding discriminatory religious organizations with the stimulus package, specifically the “Compassion Capital Fund”. Don’t forget to mention you’re an atheist!Do it NOW and post about it.
I did it. It took five minutes to find and leave messages for both my senators and my Representative.
It would be nice if that 3 billion/year that funds Israel’s genocide and apartheid machine were cut as well. Talk about faith-based! Whew.
I sent letters to my senators by e-mail, using AU’s legislative action alert system. Going by past experience and considering that my senators are John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, my communications will have no effect. I do keep trying, though.
I was able to get through to an actual person at Sherrod Browns office and expressed my thanks for the removal of funding for the compassion Capital Fund in the Stimulus package.
George V Voinovich’s line was busy. I think his line is busy on purpose, as he cannot even be reached by email. He isn’t running for re-election and doesn’t need the “little” people any more I guess.
Jim Jordan is my representative, and having emailed him once, I know he is Ultra conservative and does not believe that there ever was meant to be a separation between Church and State. Anyone wanting a copy of his letter ask and give me an email to send it to and I will do so.
What kind of idiot (Phreeky sock puppet) would be pushing for tax cuts as a means to battle our present economic crisis?
Rush “Druggie” Limbaugh and the dittoheads – That’s who.
All tax cuts should be stripped from this bill.
Obama should nix this emerging ineffective plan to buy toxic assets from banks. It will not achieve the desired results and will create extreme moral hazard.
from banks-> from banks at non-market value.
What…do I know, you’ll soon find out which work…
Tax Cuts or Government Spending…
Everytime tax cuts have been used, revenues to the Feds have soared…
You fail to comprehend the basic understandings of economies…
Unless the Feds simply print money (which devalues currencies) there is a finite amount of money in any economy. If the Feds take 825 billion out of that pie, that’s 825 billion less for public use.
Only a fool would believe the Feds can spend the money wiser then the public…
Tax cuts are also the quickest way to put money back into an economy…
Saddly, as I stated…it will only be a short amount of time before you come to learn the basics of economics…
Now, here’s the question…Can give a coherent argument agaist these facts without resorting to emotional outbursts and name calling…?
Wow the Phreeky is as stupid as we think.
The reason that our government has been charged by the people with working to combat our economic decline is that the present dynamic will potentially lead to catastrophic job loss with a lot of nasty consequences for our society. So how do we best stimulate the economy? Well the Federal Reserve’s only real tool, setting the overnight interest rate (which is really a tool for fighting inflation anyhow), is tapped out – they have set interest rates as low as they can go. And that wasn’t enough – understandably so.
So now what do we do? How do we best spend (and borrow) money so that jobs are produced. The rethuglicans would like us to think that the government’s response should be tax cutting. Not a chance in hell of that working. If you gave families tax cuts now they would save it – not spend it. If you gave businesses tax cuts – they are struggling to make their balance sheets look good and are desparately looking for liquidity – they would save it as well. So cutting taxes would be ineffective at best.
The government’s only other reasonable choice is to spend money on job creating projects. The most effective projects will be those that can get started as soon as possible and will yield long term benefits as well – like improved infrastructure. So spend and spend wisely.
What…the Feds have no money.
You believe them spending is the only solution. OK. They aren’t going to raise taxes…yet. So there is only 2 ways to obtain the 1.2 trillion dollars.
Print or borrow. Printing leads to inflation and at these levels, hyper-inflation. So they will need to borrow…
So here’s the question(s)…
Would you rather buy from China?
Or work for China?
phreedm:
You may never work for China, but your children likely will (there is a price to be paid for all these years of Voodoo economics). That said… I share your concerns about potential hyper-inflation. I would much rather see this funded with “emergency special issue bonds”.
Cascadia…
If this spending bill goes through, the one country that will hold most of the debt is China. We will all be working for China…
It’s fascinating that the party that complains about jobs leaving America and ending up in China, are willing to mortgage our childrens future to China in order to bail us out…
You see. Phreeky has to be a sock puppet. There he goes again with stereotypical RR stupidity. Well at least he appears to have conceded his stupidity and realizes now that tax cuts would just be throwing money away.
Of course our government is going to have to raise money if it wants to spend it on job creation. There are only a few ways to do that: (1) The government could use its savings. Whoops, no can do. BushCo wiped out the surplus inherited from Clinton. (2) The government could sell assets. We have lots. (3) The government could borrow against assets. Rates will be high. (4) The government could cut out unnecessary spending. Bye bye Iraq and the war on the islamobogeyman!
All of these means of raising money will be painful in themselves and have painful consequences but they will keep people employed and keep food on the table while our economy recovers. That’s what you get after decades of voodoo economics.
Phreeky misses his free ride. Poor Phreeky. Got to be a sock puppet.
“Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man. Soci*lism is the reverse.â€Â
Quoting myself:
It looks like the aggregator or “bad bank” idea has been put on indefinite hold. Good.
From Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE50T5TN20090130
What shows his mental prowess again:
“Obama should nix this emerging ineffective plan to buy toxic assets from banks. It will not achieve the desired results and will create extreme moral hazard.”
You know, once in a while, you make a statement that has a molecule of reason in it. This wasn’t one of them.
Item 1. Do you even know what a toxic asset is? Well, it’s not really toxic at all unless you are a lending institution, and all your available liquid funds are tied up in repossessed residential and commercial property that cannot be sold for what the institution has invested, if at all. Question: Which would be the better investment, preferred stock in a failing institution which is only as good as the idiots voting themselves bonuses depite their collapse, or property that has real value that can be held until it regains its intangible value?
Item 2: Once the government owns that residential or commercial property, Obama could create energy jobs and construction jobs by converting each and every one of those houses and commercial properties into energy efficient buildings. Solar panels, windmills, insulation, high efficiency appliances, and if he mandated that all material be manufacted in the US, viola, new jobs in manufacturing as well as construction.
Item 3: During the savings and loan crisis, the federal bailout consisted of buying toxic assets. It worked, and by the way, it didn’t cost taxpayers a cent, in fact, the plan turned a profit.
I’m sorry, What, but you are one of the most outspoken advocates of uninformed dimentia I have ever encountered. You should try to become a paid contributer to the Rush Limbaugh show where reason prevails.
NeoWolfe
NeoNazi
Hey dimwit, can you read. I said that we should not be buying up the toxic assets at what the holders are calling “fair market value”. BECAUSE THE FAIR MARKET VALUE IS NOT KNOWN. THEY ARE NOT ABLE TO SELL THE ASSETS WHICH IS HOW THE FAIR MARKET VALUE GETS SET. Idiot.
I will further quote Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman on this matter.
In your characteristic manic style you once again contradict yourself how many times in this undipherable spew?
WTF. Do you just pick a bunch of econ jargon of the web and string it together in some remotely grammatically correct manner in hopes that the end product will magically make sense and have some relationship with reality. Good luck with that. Don’t forget to take your Litium.
Litium -> Lithium
What:
I agree with you, our policymakers have become too lazy to see the process through. They start doing the right thing, but they don’t follow it through. I’m pretty pissed off about the way it’s (TARP) being handled.
What, you simple mental midget:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/09/news/classic.tarp.fortune/
NeoNazi
What are we supposed to do with the content-free article you cited? Is that where you get your analysis? CNN? Those of us with functioning frontal lobes know who the experts are and read their work. Get a clue.
What demonstrates his ignorance again:
” Those of us with functioning frontal lobes know who the experts are and read their work.”
First of all, you pathetic worm, the frontal lobe of the brain is the emotional center, and while I am quite convinced your frontal lobe dominates your thought process, I have no desire to suffer the same affliction.
Furthermore, there is nothing wrong with studying the work of economists, especially renowned econonomists, if any of them agreed with each other, and they don’t, so you just cherry pick one who shares your absense of insight. While it’s true, that news has become more and more a consensus of opinions rather than the old “Who, what, where, how, and when,” it is no excuse to ignore the reality of real value as opposed to abstract value.
You try to MAKE sense, but all you MAKE is a fool of yourself.
NeoWolfe
NeoWolfe said:
OK. How many of you are falling off your chairs laughing?
Can anyone decipher that paragraph ?
Krugman’s column should be required reading for all Americans. Monday’s column:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/opinion/02krugman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
Don’t create moral hazard by buying toxic assets at “valuation model” prices. There is no valid valuation model when the crap isn’t selling.
What was apparently seeking further embarrassment with his laughter, so I decided to help him out by educating him about the frontal lobe:
http://www.neuroskills.com/tbi/bfrontal.shtml
Now that he’s figured out it’s not a good place to form opinions, lets help him with the rest of his retardation. He said:
“Don’t create moral hazard by buying toxic assets at “valuation model” prices. There is no valid valuation model when the crap isn’t selling.”
Ridiculous. Their is no moral hazzard whatsoever for lowballing those greedy bastards who wrecked the global economy. You send in an assessor, determine present market rate, and demand substantial discount for bulk purchase. Something like, “HOW BAD DO YOU REALLY WANT TO GET OUT FROM UNDER THIS CRUSHING SELF INFLICTED CRISIS, YOU SELFISH GREEDY BASTARDS?” They take a soaking as well they should, just like their stockholders did. You see, even an earthworm could learn if he could read.
NeoWolfe
Neo
Why do you continue to make a fool of yourself here? You are confusing the frontal lobe with the limbic system. Even that very poorly written article you linked to contradicts your silly assertion when it it says that the frontal lobe is the “emotional control center”. See that word “control”. It controls the impulses originating in the limbic system which most people with functioning frontal lobes know to be the emotional center of the brain. Then in the following sentence the article states “The frontal lobes are involved in motor function, problem solving, spontaneity, memory, language, initiation, judgement, impulse control, and social and sexual behavior.” Does that sound like the “emotional center” of the brain to you. Maybe that explains your ahem … difficulties.
Why do you do this to yourself?
Really! By what magic can one determine the “market rate”, as you call, it when nobody will buy the crap?
#$$%^ Huh? A substantial discount on an asset of indeterminate value?
Would you tell me again what keeps your head from imploding?
What, also known as doctor earthworm,
Here’s another link to clear up your ,not confusion, but deliberate evation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontal_cortex
And you f’ing fool, when you have money in a buyers market, you name your own price. Take it or leave it. That’s free market in it’s truest form.
NeoWolfe
Neo
You are irrelevant.