[johnforbes]

It includes help for Dem states which mismanaged their budgets, and such help comes from Repub states such as FL which ran a budget surplus via sound management.

Thoughts?

[sillydaddy]

Watched a little of Biden reading the teleprompter last night...
This morning the liberal brownnosers on CNN were almost in tears hailing Biden's
speech equally inspiring as the Gettysburg Address...overlooking the fact, Biden took
credit for Trump's work...

[Clownkicker]

sillydummy watches CNN...!

[johnforbes]

ook, if you’re really happy about getting a $1,400 check — again, imagine that, giving free money to people is popular, I get that, but here’s the thing: it’s costing you $5,700, give or take, and if you’re not paying for it, your kids are,” Crenshaw said in the interview. “Look, if this is really as popular as the Democrats say it is, we’re in a lot of trouble as a country. It means that we have fully given in to this notion that we should be bribed by our government for false promises. And that is not an American thing to do. We have to stop collectively doing that. It’s going to destroy the next generation. It’s already threatening to cause massive inflation.”

“Here’s the other thing about this bill,” he continued. “There’s already trillions, hundreds of billions, about a trillion unspent from past relief bills. There is money in the PPP fund that could go to small businesses if you change the standards of how they get it. That would be smart. Half of this money won’t even be spent until 2022 or later. It is an absolute lie for them to say that this is an emergency relief bill that goes and invests directly in the people. It is for a lot of different nonsense that has nothing to do with COVID. Only 9% of it has to do with COVID healthcare. Only about 1% is for vaccine distribution.”

[Clownkicker]

johnny, if there is some specific spending in the bill that you think is a bad idea, then say so. Stop your partisan sashaying around the issue.

If you think the spending is good but just not related directly to COVID relief, I don't care. If it is indirectly related, it's good enough for me. If it's not related at all but it's still something America will benefit from, I still don't care what it's called or how much it costs compared to some spending in the 1930s. Pandemics are not the same thing as depressions. It's quite possible they require different responses at different price tags.

The only people who care about what good spending by the opposing party is called are partisan hypocrites. I guess that's your only problem with it--semantics. "But it's not about COVID! Whine, whine, whine..."-johnfoibles
That's your sole raison d'etra--being TECHNICALLY correct while being practically and morally reprehensible.

Republicans are just scared shitless that America won't go down the toilet under Democrat control. There is no other reason they don't like the bill. It's almost like they hate America.

[johnforbes]

Clown, you know as well as I do that such bills are spending bills, and in this instance the covid aspect was just an excuse for an orgy of spending.

There are arguments about percentages, but I'm plowing through this thing and it looks like something about like 10 or 15 percent relates to covid.

There are pro-Left "fact checking" sites saying the whole bill is dandy and that Biden's mind is razor-sharp, but come on...

[Clownkicker]

So go to a pro-Right "fact checking" site and tell us what THEY say fer cripes sake, you lazy bum. Why is your only contribution always more partisan whining?

And why is it your only defense for your political positions is irrelevant ad hominem attacks? Who cares if it comes from "the Left" or "the Right"? I care if it's true. You never bother to tell us anything true. You only tell us what is politically expedient, just like FOXnews and Marco Rubio do.

If you have some facts that are damning to the bill, then by all means present them and tell us why they are bad. But you never do that, do you. (Incidentally, "15%" is not an argument one way or the other. It's just a number, neither good nor bad, and certainly not damning.)

Stop your partisan whining and tell us why you think the bill is bad. (But you don't really think the bill is bad, do you. You refuse to tell us about anything in it that is actually bad for America.)

[elklindo69]

A debate over the GOP’s stance on the national deficit played out in real time on Fox News on Friday as host Chris Wallace called out former White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow over his criticism of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package.

Kudlow had torn into Biden’s legislation, warning it would “kill the economy” because of what he said would be an inevitable rise in the national deficit.

“Larry Kudlow, when he was working in the Trump White House and passing huge tax cuts and huge spending plans, including multitrillion-dollar bills for COVID relief, there wasn’t so much concern about deficit and debt,” Wallace said Friday. “He seems to have found religion now that he’s back out of the government.”

Republicans supported big spending measures during the Trump administration that helped fuel a rise in the deficit, which increased by about 36 percent during his administration.

However, lawmakers have indicated that they will oppose plans under Biden out of concerns for the deficit. That effort was put into action for the first time as the White House pushed its coronavirus relief package.

“I think that’s kind of getting back to our DNA. ... I think spending, entitlement reform, growth and the economy are all things that we’re going to have to be focused on next year, and, yeah, I would expect you’ll hear a lot more about that,” Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, said in November.

[johnforbes]

Elkin, no, I won't go to some Right-leaning fact checking site.

Instead, I will do the proper thing -- go to the primary source and read what is in it.

For example, Vista has been around for decades as a sort of domestic anti-poverty version of the Peace Corps, where earnest young college grads to to poor areas and try to help, then put that on their resumes, and go become stockbrokers.

This so-called covid bill has 1 billion for Vista spent over 3 years, but this -- like huge chunks of the bill -- has really nothing to do with covid.

[Clownkicker]

Okay, so you don't support VISTA and the help they give to poor people in even worse difficulty because of COVID.

And you don't understand that there are a whole lot more of them to help now because of COVID.

And you believe that helping poor Americans is bad for America.

We knew all that. You're a Republican.

But as I said, unlike you, I do think helping the poor in America is a good thing that benefits all of America, so spending money on that program and those Americans is just fine by me. And I couldn't care less if some privileged whites put something worthwhile on their resumes. That costs you nothing.

What else ya got, johnny? What else about the bill, besides the fact that it helps poor Americans, is so terrible?

[Clownkicker]

More hypocritical Republican weasels... they want to take credit for the good the COVID bill does but voted against it anyway.

Fortunately for Republicans, their constituents are stupid and ignorant Trump supporters, so they will believe the benefits they receive from the COVID relief bill were supported by their Republican representatives when they weren't.


"Two recent tweets from members of Congress illustrate how, in the wake of President Joe Biden signing the Covid-19 relief bill, Republicans are trying to “have their cake and vote against it, too,” as Barack Obama once put it.

That $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which Biden signed into law last Thursday, didn’t receive a single Republican vote, even though recent polling shows a majority of Republican voters have said they somewhat or completely support it. The popularity of the legislation puts Republican members of Congress in a bind: How does one message against a bill that most Americans like, and that will cut child poverty in half, while also juicing an economy that’s been ravaged by the year-long pandemic?

Some Republicans, perhaps understandably, are instead opting to instead focus on culture war distractions like whether Dr. Seuss is being “canceled.” But others are shamelessly trying to take credit for Democratic policy right after they voted against it.

One example of this came last Friday, when Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) patted herself on the back for a decision made by Biden’s Small Business Administration to extend deferment periods for Covid-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL).

“BREAKING ... So proud to announce that the Biden Administration has just implemented my bipartisan COVID relief bill as part of @SBAgov,” Salazar tweeted, linking to a statement on her website in which she’s quoted as saying, “I am so proud that my bipartisan legislation has officially become SBA policy.”

While it’s not correct to say that Salazar is trying to take credit for the Covid-19 relief bill, her claim that the Biden administration “implemented” her “bipartisan COVID relief bill” is false. The bill in question hasn’t come up for a vote in Congress, and it doesn’t appear that the SBA’s decision was inspired by it. An SBA press release announcing the deferment extension doesn’t mention Salazar."

Even more egregious than Salazar’s tweet was one from Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) lauding the $28.6 billion in aid to restaurants included in the relief bill.

“Independent restaurant operators have won $28.6 billion worth of targeted relief,” Wicker tweeted on Wednesday. “This funding will ensure small businesses can survive the pandemic by helping to adapt their operations and keep their employees on the payroll.”

It’s true that Wicker pushed for restaurant relief — he and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) proposed an amendment to the bill with the funding. But Wicker ultimately voted against his own amendment."

There’s precedent for Republicans trying to take credit for legislation they voted against. As Amanda Terkel detailed for HuffPost, they did the same thing for the 2009 stimulus that, like the 2021 one, passed without a single Republican vote:

A similar pattern happened after the 2009 stimulus, when GOP lawmakers who voted against President Barack Obama’s legislation then went back into their home districts and took credit for the money that flowed to their constituents. At the time, ThinkProgress counted 114 Republican lawmakers who blocked the bill while touting its benefits. They sent out press releases taking credit for money that funded projects in their district, even though they voted against it."-Aaron Rupar/Vox


Criminy, always more scumbag Republicans...

[johnforbes]

Vista was long ago the domestic equivalent of the Peace Corps, where some draft-dodger would go to weasel out of military service.

Sure, a clipboard and a button down shirt and khakis will stop poverty.

[Clownkicker]

Yes, we get it, johnny.

You don't support helping the poor in America, even those adversely affected by COVID. I already said that. You're a Republican.

[johnforbes]

Heck no, I'm a person who has read Burke.

And Locke and Hobbes and Rousseau on states of nature and the emergence of social man.

I've voted Dem in the past, including my idiotic vote for Jimmy Carter.

But, unlike Clown, I have corrective capability for my youthful folly.

Per contra, Clown will become an elderly socialist like Norman Thomas, deluded to the end.

[Clownkicker]

The point is, you have yet to come up with any spending contained in the COVID Relief Bill that is bad for America, johnny.


And the philosophy? By all means, do all the mental masturbation--uhh, I mean "reading" you like.

But please sit quietly and get out of the way of those who want to improve things while you're doing nothing constructive; just partisanly whining about semantics.

[johnforbes]

That's not the issue.

I don't think Vista is the most awful waste of money ever, but it hardly did much good despite decades of huge costs.

The real issue is -- only a small percent of this does anything for covid relief.

[elklindo69]

The other day Lauren Bobert claimed that the government doesn't have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.

I'm not sure what is supposed to mean, but I do find it mildly entertaining.

[johnforbes]

She is correct.

The federal government has plenty of money coming in, but wastes it.

For example, the covid bill spent 1 billion on Vista which has nothing to do with covid.

Vista is where some naive young college student aspiring to do good in the world -- sort of like Elkin but with less experience -- wanders around some poor area and tells them how to improve.

[Clownkicker]

johnny, the name of the bill is "The American Rescue Plan" Act. It isn't just about COVID, dummy. It isn't just about the pandemic. Nobody ever said the bill could only address specific COVID medical issues.

The bill is about saving America from all the related fallout of a pandemic, including recession, jobs, homelessness, hunger, schools, and anything else that needs rescuing after an especially bad year for the economy.

VISTA helps people in the poorest parts of our country. The poorest parts of this country were especially hard hit by the pandemic and need the most help. VISTA also makes jobs. Giving money to VISTA is perfectly in keeping with the aims of the bill. What else ya got?

Besides, if all you could come up with is a $1 billion dollar 'problem' out of $1.9 trillion in spending, then the bill is as close to a perfect spending bill as you can ever get out of Congress. What are you complaining about?

The fact is, you couldn't actually come up with anything to bitch about in the bill. You haven't presented anything in the bill that doesn't help America.

[johnforbes]

Sure, but you are making my point.

This covid relief plan has very little to do with covid.

This is a Democrat spending plan.

To me, 1 billion is real money.

[Clownkicker]

Sure, but you are making my point.

Of course it's a Democrat spending plan. What's your point?

This is not just a covid relief plan for the direct medical costs of covid as you keep pretending. Nobody ever claimed it was and there is no reason it should be. You are just arbitrarily saying spending not directly related to COVID is wrong, but that's just made up stupid shit.

It is the "American Rescue Plan" of which just SOME of it has to do directly with COVID. So what?
Its purpose is to save America from the damage incurred due to the pandemic, such as evictions, homelessness, hunger, lost jobs, lost businesses, unemployment payments, lost rents, school opening expenses, and all sorts of other things that could put us into a recession or depression.

Regardless, despite your insistence in dishonestly mischaracterizing the titled "American Rescue Plan" bill as just a "covid relief" bill, if all you can find 'wasted' in the $1.9 trillion "American Rescue Plan" Act is .053% of the total spending, then you should be singing the praises of the Democrats for such a fiscal achievement.

If only Republicans could do that well instead of putting all that pork in theirs. Remember the "Bridge to nowhere" Gravina Island Bridge scam perpetrated by Republicans not so many years ago that would have cost over $400 million and would have served a whopping 50 island residents? Democrats had to put a stop to it.

Now THAT is wasting money like only Republicans can.

[johnforbes]

Surely Clown realizes that responsible Repub states will have to pay for dumb Dem states like CA and NY?

[Clownkicker]

johnny, Democrat states have been subsidizing Republican states for decades, but that doesn't bother you in the least. You've never complained in the past that it was unfair.

That said, it's only right that some of the money should flow the other way occasionally.

But the truth is, no Republican state money is likely to end up going to Democrat states.

Any Republican state money will just go to subsidize other poor Republican states. And there's a lot of them.