Obama vs GOP: 'Fiscal responsibility'

My grandfather would have said that this is like shutting the barn door after Bessie has gotten out.

That is, of course, if you believe they actually plan to shut the barn door.

Mark Silva should be writing on the OP-Ed page with this pro Obama report.

Yet, the Republicans who voted against the $787-billion economic stimulus that the president won four weeks in office, now say he can start making good on the promise of "fiscal responsibility" by enforcing a spending freeze.

Now they want to get involved?
and all the people to even utter the words "fiscal responsibilities" it sure as heck isn't them. Did Santa leave them some fiscal responsibilty in their stockings???????

Being a conservative, I am all for "fiscal responsibility". Does anyone believe this is serious? The Bush led Republicans grew the debt and used all manner of gimmicks to even hide the true figure. Obama and the current Dems. are even worse. The new 410B spending bill being introduced has a reported 9000K earmarks that Obama has stated he will oppose during the campaign. We lost the budget hawk, Kieffler(?), because she was so worried about spending she forgot to pay her taxes, so who is now watching? I think we should have a summit and study this problem. Or, here is an idea, lets double it for 3 years and then cut the double in half for one. Works for me.

All the retirees who voted for Obama; Social Security and Medicare are next.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090223/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_economy

For those that actually believe that there will be no tax per mile driven...I've got some swamp land to sell you. It's coming.

Restrictions on guns, movement, healthcare, income.

The government will have you marching in lines

Deficits don't matter.

Chicago Tribune says Daley's Stimulus wishlist is still a secret. Mainstream press sure doesn't care that the ONE sanctimoniously declares an age of accountabiity and transparency for Republicans-- but not for Obama, Emanuel, Democratic politicians, or anyone who voted for the ONE. Forget what the ONE says, he rewards his friends and punishes his enemies, always. His consistency is a marvel.

G. W. Bush and the Republican administration from 2000 to 2008.

Finanacial responsibility?

ha, he, ho, he, ho, ha.

George Bush and the rubber stamp Republican Congress (up to 2006) were the most deceptive and fiscally irresponsible in the history of the U.S. It is because of them and their policies that the economy is in the tank and the debt level is at an all time high. If this were a Republican stimulus, they would be drooling all over it.

How about some fiscal responsibility by the recipients of aid ? I'm sick of paying huge taxes for people who seem to just spend it on cell phone minutes within earshot of me on the bus to work.

Isn't a premature effort to balance the federal budget exactly what FDR did?

I believe this is held to be the main cause in turning a depression into the "great" depression and extending it for years. I'd think Bernanke could help in this area as he seems to be a scholar of this era.

This whipsawing from "we've got to do something big and this might not be big enough" to "we've got to get our deficit spending under control" as being diametrically opposed and counterproductive.

I'm glad you're taking glee in bashing Republicans for their fiscal irresponsibility, and deifying Bill Clinton for turning over a surplus. But if you do have any (non-apparent) interest in looking at things fairly, you may want to consider:

1) The Clinton surplus was based on another huge bubble, which then caused the 2001-2003 recession. It was an illusion. Just like the massive decreases in the deficit under George Bush from 2004-2007 seem to have been an illusion.

2) There is a difference between spending tax dollars to prevent a financial collapse and wasting money on liberal spending priorities. If you don't rescue the banks, then they start failing, which causes more runs on banks, which leads to more failures, and eventually the FDIC has to pay for all of it anyway. Spending money for Pell grants and green energy do not prevent a collapse in the financial system.

There's no such thing as a fiscal conservative Republican. Republicans are not about fiscal conservatism, so evidenced by the war in Iraq, the bank bailout and the fact that here on the state level, they're willing to waste tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on a political charade. Anyone who buys the line that Republicans are "conservative" in just about any way is simply allowing themselves to be exploited by these charlatans who play off those too dumb or irresponsible to look at or understand the actual behavior of their elected representatives.

Partisans are the worst voters out there. Anyone who buys a canned ideology rather than figuring one out for themselves deserves to be exploited the way they are; it's just unfortunate that they're so numerous that those of us smart enough to think for ourselves are also held accountable for the ignorance of partisan voters. It's sad that so many people in this country STILL haven't learned even though the lesson is being taught the hard way.

We're a dumber lot than I had originally thought. We don't want solutions, just scapegoats.

Hey Bubba Porter, are you saying that Politicians don't tell you the truth?

Example/Politician: We saved you 5% in taxes. Because we were going to "raise" your taxes 10%, but only "raised" your taxes 5%, so we saved you 5%. LOL,lol,lol,lol............

Bubba, am I wrong but didn't the Democrats (Majority) write the House Stimulus (LOL) bill, without ONE of the Republicans Minority in the House adding one word. If so that to me is a Democrat Majority, Stimulus (lol) bill. And now the President wants to play nice. LOL.

Maybe the President should have used Congress, you know those guys that get elected to write bills, as his focus group. I believe it's called a "debate", with opposing views and amendments to help improve a bill.

So I guess we can now say, "We The People, (oops) We The Focus Groups of the United States of America, do hereby declare Congress, and your vote useless".

"Bush inherited a surplus from Clinton": Congress controls the purse strings. The Republican congress had it right during the 90s, and then blew it the next several years, getting voted out accordingly.

"These would be the same Republicans who enabled the former president to boost spending": True, but what major spending did the majority of Dems not support during the Bush years? They voted for both wars, Homeland Security, NCLB, Medicare Prescription drug, Bank bailout, etc.

Spend 800 billion in pent up pork one week. And talk about fiscal responsibility the next.

No wonder he refers to his critics as "ideologically rigid".

Does Obama have any real conviction about what to do to get this country WORKING again ?

I am truely sorry to say it but the programs thus far - ARE THE SAME OLD STUFF.

I think what we need to understand is that conservatives are directed by two basic principles--the belief that good people (their obedient off-spring like Rush dittoheads etc) need to be rewarded and bad people (anyone not submissive to their control) need to be punished and that control, both in the here and now and in the future, is a necessity.
To achieve the goal of maintaining control, the next generation has to be "secured"--i.e. tied to their parents' apron strings with a steady income stream.

Ergo, any system that promotes financial independence (people not tied to their parents) is bad. That's why the system of social insurance personified by Social Security and Welfare is bad.

Once you've bought into the mindset that good behavior needs to be rewarded, then it's probably not possible to conceive of people being responsible and wanting to give something back of their own accord.

The Republican party is dying a slow painful death right before our very eyes. They haven't been able to sign up new voters the way the Dems have for quite a while now.

Over the years, Repukelicans have devestated the US Treasury, so I really don't get where anyone can say Repukelicans are fiscal conservatives, because it sure the heck wasn't Reagan, Bush 1 or Bush 2.

Fiscal responsibility from the man whose campaign owes Chicago $2 million? Now it turns out he also owes Springfield for costs and anotehr city as well (Philadelphia, perhaps).

Runs up a HUGE deficit that will bankrupt us for years to come, and has the nerve to talk about fiscal responsibility.

hahahahah!!! Let me wipe a tear from the corner of my eye before I keep writing!!! The pugs think that a spending freeze will fix a deficit.....hahahahahahaha!!!! Looks like the party of no will quickly be the party of go. For those here that are too stupid to understand this concept of endless laughter for me......schrub dux rolled another $5T onto our national debt. A spending freeze would all but gaurantee another $5T of debt....if we replicated what they did this last 8 years........oh my sides ache from this stupid rehtoric from pugs that know nothing about finances. But you know what....a spending freeze sure sounds proactive to those that don't understand figures! She-e-e-e-e-e-e-p

Sometimes people forget this: - the GOPer nuts always talk about "you shouldn't raise taxes on those who create wealth"

Well, for one:, lowering the super rich's taxes was and is a nightmare, and two:, we're not raising their taxes, we're just bringing them back in line to what seemed to work...and actually they will still remain MUCH lower than they ever were. Plus the super rich that the Repukelicans love so much still have good ol jurisdictional tax arbitrage at their disposal. Close up tax havens...esp for those who do not create wealth for many.

Nice goal, but these people never account for the unexpected (such as Katrina) after they've already spent all they can.

Mark Silva, c'mon, is that you writing for the trib now Axelrod?

"How about some fiscal responsibility by the recipients of aid ? I'm sick of paying huge taxes for people who seem to just spend it on cell phone minutes within earshot of me on the bus to work.

Posted by: Disgruntled Citizen 1 "

And you know they're on aid, how? Did they tell you? Or I suppose they were talking about it "within earshot" on the bus.

Or, should we just assume that, for your purposes, "on aid" is synonymous with "black people"? Heck, let's be generous and assume you mean "people who are lower-class than me." Still, an ignorant comment at best...

Spend one week, preach fiscal responsibility the next - wish this guy would make up his mind.

I just about spit my coffee all over the keyboard when I read that headline.

Silva is obviously an Obamanot operative who puts opinions into his supposed news stories. Obama rushes through a bill that no one could read and now wants fiscal responsibility? Please!

"These would be the same Republicans who enabled the former president to boost spending, and budget the war outside the budget, driving the annual deficit well past $1 trillion as Obama arrived at the White House. Now they can help him cut the deficit in half."

I'm generally an Obama supporter, but even I say this paragraph is entirely out-of-line for a supposedly objective piece. Shame on you Silva

Clinton surplus my eye. The National debt never went down under Clinton. You can't borrow against Social Security and call it income. It would be like a company borrowing against it's pension plan and calling it sales revenue. Pure bunk.

OK - does anyone understand that the stimulus is a gamble and nothing more? There are no guarantees that this will work; The New Deal of the 30s did not work contrary to present day thinking. We were pulled out of that by foreign and domestic military buildup prior to WW2. That was basic capitalism that resulted in emergence form the Great depression I (as i call it)

For 40% of the stimulus money, they could pay off 1/2 of ALL mortgages in the US. Do you think if you owed 1/2 of your mortgage, you might buy that new car? Maybe take that trip? Maybe get capitalism going? That is the path to success - getting people to spend money. It worked before - it will work again.

The GOP stewardship of the economy is the moral equivalent of repealing the DUI laws.

How does someone who has just spend Trillions and Trillions of dollars in the past 30 days, expanded the size and scope of the Federal Government beyond belief, created over 30 new government agencies that will need to be funded in perpetuality, and rolled back welfare reform......how does that person hold a Fiscal Responsibility Summit and point the finger at the outgoing administration? NO CLUE, that's how.

So is the point of these comments, because the Republicans were not fiscally responsible in the past... they can't say anything about the problems of today?

Weren't the Democrats going to be bipartisan? ethical? and fiscally responsible? How is that going?

Just because one party was bad, doesn't make the other party good. The Republicans are out of power because these abandoned their roots, the Democrats are already going in the same direction because they are EMBRACING their roots... and their roots live in universe that bears little resemblance to reality. I am shocked at how many self-proclaimed "intellectuals" refuse to learn from history or even consider facts that may be unpleasant or detrimental to what they want to do.

Is this reporting, or an opinion piece?

This president is a Yo-Yo champ showing us his skills.

"Baby In The Craddle" (gloom and doom scare tactics to get his pork spending bill FAST)

"Walk The Dog" (chiding the Republicans who don't follow with lock-step insanity)

What's next?? "Around The World" (He did that during the presidential campaign to show all the World how Presidential he could be)

He sure uses both sides of his face!

Sometime over the last few weeks Republicans started to use the phrase "generational theft" to describe the stimulus bill. I found this particularly interesting considering supply-side economics started the idea of massive government debt issuance.

Borrow and Spend Republicans create hollow government while enriching the Corporate Aristocracy with tax cuts for the wealthy, while gutting the functions of government through privitization.

This is are only simplistic policies the Republicans can think to offer us, even in the face of economic disaster when 36 G.O.P. Senators voted for a $3.1 TRILLION tax cut as a substitute to the Democrats Stimulus Package. No sitmulative spending in the Republicans package but plenty of borrowing.
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http://media.photobucket.com/image/surplus%20deficit/leavinit/budget_deficit_or_surplus.gif?o=1
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How does someone who has just spend Trillions and Trillions of dollars in the past 30 days, expanded the size and scope of the Federal Government beyond belief, created over 30 new government agencies that will need to be funded in perpetuality, and rolled back welfare reform......how does that person hold a Fiscal Responsibility Summit and point the finger at the outgoing administration? NO CLUE, that's how.

Posted by: Joliet Jay | February 23, 2009 4:17 PM
.........

Here's the thing little Jay:

WE WOULDN'T HAVE TO SPEND TO STIMULATE THE ECONOMY IF YOU "FISCAL CONSERVATIVE BUSH REPUBLICANS" HADN'T TANKED OUR ECONOMY ON PRE-EMPTIVE WARS AND TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH, IN THE FIRST PLACE.

YOU'VE OFFICIALY LOST THE RIGHT TO EVER CALL DEMS RECKLESS SPENDERS EVER AGAIN, PERIOD, END OF STORY!!!

WE WOULDN'T HAVE TO SPEND TO STIMULATE THE ECONOMY IF YOU "FISCAL CONSERVATIVE BUSH REPUBLICANS" HADN'T TANKED OUR ECONOMY ON PRE-EMPTIVE WARS AND TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH, IN THE FIRST PLACE.

YOU'VE OFFICIALY LOST THE RIGHT TO EVER CALL DEMS RECKLESS SPENDERS EVER AGAIN, PERIOD, END OF STORY!!!

Posted by: A Convenient Fact | February 23, 2009 4:58 PM

DEMS ARE RECKLESS SPENDERS

1) Newt Gingrich had to drag Clinton kicking and screaming to balance the budget in the 90's.

2) Dems voted for nearly all major spending during the Bush Administration, including both wars. (Federal tax revenues grew after the tax cuts).

3) Deficit has skyrocketed since Dems took over congress.

Again, DEMS ARE RECKLESS SPENDERS

When you create a goverment job, you would pay about $60 thousand a year for a regular guy. Government benifits would run another $30,000 in taxpayer funded costs. This person would them pay the government about $20,000 in taxes. So we spend $90,000 to create the job and it returns $20,000.

Now tell me again how we are going to be responsible and reduce the deficit in half by the end of the first term

Read all theses instructions carefully before selecting your answer:

One of these things is not proper management of the nation's finances. Select from the examples providedbelow.

REPUBLICAN EXAMPLE A:
Breaking into the Federal Reserve, taking out pallets loaded with hundred dollar bills, loading them onto C-140 transport planes, shipping them to Iraq, and handing them out indiscriminately in pizza boxes stuffed with money.

DEMOCRATIC EXAMPLE B:
Cutting the deficit by two thirds after allowing a tax break that was written as a temporary measure to expire.

Greg; 1- the idea isn't to just create govt. jobs, govt. spending goes to the private sector which creates jobs 2-the govt. employee will, by your example, have $40,000 to spend on housing, food, transportation, consumer goods, all of which will contribute to the private sector which will create more jobs.

(Anti-Establishment - You are an idiot! (but I state the obvious and digress))

In ALL cases, during the first 6 years of the GW Bush Admin, no bill passed by Congress, no war was being fought, and no extra spending was done WITHOUT Democrat votes. In the last two years of GW Bush's Admin, THE DEMOCRAT PARTY WAS IN CONTROL OF CONGRESS (as they are now.

NOW, BO is in charge, the Congress is fully Democrat controlled, and NOW MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more money is being spent and WILL BE WASTED.

THE COMING FAILURES WILL SURELY REST WITH THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND BO. AND THESE LARGE FAILURES WILL COME!

Was this supposed to be a journalistic reporting article or a commentary, letter to the editor type? Silva, are you a journalist or a cheerleader?

The Bush Republicans never balanced a budget one time during the last eight years. And according to the Bureau of Public Debt, total debt outstanding increased by $500 billion/year starting in fiscal 2003:

*09/30/2008 - $10,024,724,896,912.49

*09/30/2007 - $9,007,653,372,262.48

*09/30/2006 - $8,506,973,899,215.23

*09/30/2005 - $7,932,709,661,723.50

*09/30/2004 - $7,379,052,696,330.32

*09/30/2003 - $6,783,231,062,743.62

*09/30/2002 - $6,228,235,965,597.16

*09/30/2001 - $5,807,463,412,200.06

*09/30/2000 - $5,674,178,209,886.86

So when we hear Republicans talk about generational theft, well, they know of what they speak because they just spent the last 8 years stealing from a generation of Americans.

Another crisis as "confidence in our economy erodes"? I didn't think that there still was "confidence in our economy"! But maybe I'm hanging around too many people who are preparing for a collapse.

The Answers are simple when you dislocate the Propaganda cap from your heads.
Forget about Rep/Dem- They have both been in office the whole time this crap has been going on, and for decades longer than it should.
In order to see what is happening with the economy- You need to separate your personal issues from it, to trouble shoot it Properly...like a Company's broken factory line Machine.
The Economy- with a little common sense Americans understand that this 'independent' Country (America) is actually dependent like a baby on almost every other countries poor sweat shop production, American business in Sales Depends on Exploiting good hard earned American Dollars for poorly made cheap foreign goods.
Believe it because its true- it does not matter if the name is nike, sony, phillips, whatever- if its made outside America- its foreign.
Ever wonder why products Made in USA last so long- because they are Blessed by Americans hands.
Growth, and Opportunity will keep becoming more and more scarce without Private Sector Production IN AMERICA, limited government, and a Free American Currency...

You wonder why the Country is sinking??? Don't blame God, because every single AMERICAN from the Top down Threw the whole economy overseas by TRYING TO SAVE MONEY THE WRONG WAY
and buy foreign products.
Independence from what???
To much given much is expected- if those expectations are not met...bye bye.

Please list all of the Democrats who voted AGAINST all the wasteful Republican spending during Bush's era...
Oh, you can't??? Didn't think so. The Republicans were just enablers. Also please do a little checking - Congress passed the largest spending bill in history to take advantage of those surpluses and guarantee we would have deficits in the future because, my gosh, we never have downturns that won't be able to support all those new programs they passed.

If Obama wants fiscal responsibility he's living in the wrong town.

Mark, you could be a little more objective but the article did spur a good debate. Kudos to all those fine posts!