Treasury: Trillion-plus economic plan

As soon as Geithner spoke, the stock market plunged! The Obama administration is doing everything to wreck our economy, destroy our savings, and kill more jobs under the guise of a massive socialization program. Didn't the Soviet Union teach these guys anything? Or is that their purpose?

As soon as Geithner spoke, the stock market plunged! The Obama administration is doing everything to wreck our economy, destroy our savings, and kill more jobs under the guise of a massive socialization program. Didn't the Soviet Union teach these guys anything? Or is that their purpose?

Your grandkids would like to thank him for saddling them with all this debt. And remember, Joe Biden puts the estimate of failure at 30%.

I can't decide which is more insidious- the Obama-nation of a bill (which he had no part in writing, but will no doubt take credit for) that is a stimulus plan which includes ANYTHING other than direct stimulus (this plan holds not only a questionable stimulus plan, but a plethora of expenditures which DO NOT BELONG IN THE BILL, but which will serve to continue our lurch towards communism- not socialism- COMMUNISM).
Mr. Obama can certainly be shown to be the Adolph Hitler of our time, in that he is seducing our country with words that will ultimately destroy what is, and has always been- despite it's flaws- the most noble nation on the planet, and the world's only hope going forward.
Shame on anyone who doesn't report this fairly.

You folks elected him!!!!

From Illinois and you see how well things work here !!!

Welcome to the obamanation!!!!

Hamilton...Turn off Faux news...I heard the same insane, ridiculous claim. He hadn't even finished and the market was down and I heard the bozos making the same BS claim. How quickly you forget that your own party brought us here. How nice to wash your hands of this crisis. Shame on you.

Jeff.....My grandkids want to thank you for Rayguns mess that they are paying for now. He talked a big game....and really that's good enough for you guys. If you didn't want a big stimulus...maybe you shouldn't have let your party ^%$ America over.

Obviously Obama just doesn't get it, isn't as intelligent as people had HOPEd, and the only CHANGE is for the worse. Tax cheats, lobbyists and inexperience - funny stuff.
Obama makes Bush look (and, uh, sound, uh) like a genius

The bailout has failed and this economic stimulus bill will fail. Ronald Reagan said it best "you have to take the money out of the goverments hands and put it in the hands of the people". If you put the money in the hands of the people (we need the money, not the creation of low paying menial jobs) we will square our debt (morgage companies and credit card companies get thier money back) and we will begin to spend money again. What are there, 350 million americans? Send each tax paying citizen (not illegal aliens and people who don't pay taxes) $50,000. This will cost far less that the Democratic Plan and will get the economy going. The $40 a month Obama's plan will give me will allow to order pizza (not including the tip) once a month for my family of 5. Thanks Barrack! Kids, who wants cheese and sausage?

" Geithner, who helped engineer the Bush administration's financial rescue plan last fall...(b)ut he admitted the actions ultimately were "inadequate." They failed to halt the rapid deterioration of the economy and fueled public disenchantment as the Bush administration shifted its original strategy and used most of the first half of the $700 billion fund to inject money directly into banks."

So why the heck should we think another trillion thrown at the scammers who threw standards and ethics out of the windows of their penthouse offices and corporate jets will get us anything? Screw the banks and the bankers, let them fail, and all of their 'supporters'/investors too. We need examples of what happens when you screw up. Not a nanny-hug from the government and a soothing "there there it'll be alright". What exactly is the point of a FREE-MARKET economy if it doesn't prune out the inefficient/inept from the ranks of businesses???

And what about all the set-aside programs that are built into all these state and federal construction projects? Is this bailout for ANY and ALL Americans, or only the minorities?

Just like anything else, when the grownups step in after the irresponsible kids have screwed things up, a certain amount of pain will be involved. Unfortunately, in this case a fair number of kids have gotten theirs, and left the rest of us with the bill.

Got to love the Republipukes on this board. Obama hasn't even been in office for one full month and he's being blamed for everything wrong that Shrub created. Wake up morons! Bush funded two wars solely on CREDIT! 6 of the last 8 years have been under complete repulicrook control. The American public put the adults, er, Democrats in charge in both houses and the Presidency. Shut the hell up, repubs, and let the dems have their shot. If the Dems fails, then maybe Repubs will have a shot in 2010 or 2012. If Obama succeeds, which is what the Repugs are trying their best to prevent, Repubs will be the minority party for a couple of decades at least.

I love that any effort to spend tax dollars on anything but huge military campaigns is immediately labelled "communism." For all you Obama naysayers, today's financial crisis is the culmination of decades of poor decisions - by both democrats and republicans - and we need something radical to stabilize the markets. Obama doesn't claim that this will be the solutions to all our troubles, because no one knows how to fix this debacle. But it's a start, it's something different than what's been done in the past, and massive government spending has worked in the past (e.g. Great Depression).

As for comparing Obama to Hilter - how can you claim that trying to stabilize the banking system so that more people can stay in their homes and obtain credit is comparable to starting a world war and killing 6 million people who are different for one reason or another? It's people like you who take attention away from the real issues for shock value - and who are ultimately to blame for the state of our political system today.

Fannie May and Freddie Mac buyout - tens of billions
Bush's TARP - 700 billion
Obama's Stimulous package - 900 billion
Buying toxic backed securities - 2 trillion
Total spent on economic recovery - almost 4 trillion

Cost to the average taxpayer and future generations of taxpayers for the next 100 years - priceless

Red blooded Anerican[sic]

Do your math again.......

The markets are TANKING!

Obama = Jimmy Carter 2.0.

Worst. President. Ever.

Talk about scare tactics! Can't we just take a break here and think this thing through. Obama is like a car salesman. He is trying to get everyone to buy into this disaster before we have time to think about the damage that will be done. Maybe this will get the republicans back in control of congress in 2010 but by then communist rule could be in effect.

Reagan did "take the money out of the governments hands and put it in the hands of the people". It's too bad the only people he was referring to were the same people of extreme wealth that got us into this mess. Too bad he also destroyed our public school system so "Red Blooded Anerican" doesn't realize that 350 million times $50,000 is actually 17.5 trillion dollors. Even at 200 million taxpayers, that's 10 trillion dollars. Of course, maybe he was thinking of the deficit Bush ran up in his 8 years.

Obama continues to show contempt for any other plan, or for any opposition to his plan. If this is going to be typical of the way he will operate for four years, we will see stalemate and partisan battles like we have never seen before. These amounts are breathtaking, yet we are not allowed to debate them?

This is what you get when you have a nation thats obsessed with political correctness. Idiots that knew nothing about politics and wouldnt have voted if their wasnt a black candidate voted in mass numbers for the chance to elect a "black man"..

The funny part is, these less politically informed idiots who voted for Barry Obama will never know how big of a mistake they made due to their lack of knowledge.

This package is nothing more then socialism.

Here's what I don't understand:
If all these bailout packages are meant to get credit flowing AGAIN, just who are the projected borrowers supposed to be? The same uncredit-worthy miscreants who have already demonstrated their ability to drive the banking system bankrupt?

I don't understand just who exactly the banks are supposed to open up the lending spigots for? Congress is already bemoaning the banks' reluctance to extend credit to marginal borrowers; do they just want to recreate the boom-bust unrealistic market values cycle again?

Sorry, but isn't the cure bringing real estate values back down to reality and tightening up credit standards so that we don't have sub-prime borrowers monopolizing the credit markets?

Just wondering...

Nick........Politically correct? Try racist SOB. It sounds more to me like you voted against a "black man". The people voted for Obama because the alternative of what your party offered just plain and simply "sucks the big one". Whitey!

The repubs let Bush mess up for 8 years and are already bashing Obama because he is much smarter than the average racist Repub. What kills me are these ignorant poor racists who call themselves Repubs. Wake Up!

Obama is trying to rescue something akin to a market economy. You haters perhaps ought to think twice about your opposition. If this fails, and the situation only gets worse, the proletariat will indeed unite and rise against the power structure, because they will have no alternative.

This is not without precedent. We were on the road to socialism in the early 20th Century. Unless something occurs to save our "market" economy, it's a goner.

As true progressives kept saying throughout the campaign, Obama is no liberal (much less a socialist). You haters need to either get on board, or get ready for a revolution. The devil you know beats the one you don't.

Oh boy, those are big numbers!

Trillions on the Come? Maybe we should just let Obama toss the dice one time in Vegas to see what will happen to America?

Maybe he would prefer the roulette wheel? Put it all on BLACK!

The guy who helped put together the Bush bail out, yeah the one that president Obama says was BAD is in charge of the Obama bail out? What the heck is Obama thinking folks. He's criticizing and blaming Bush on the first one financial bailout so he'll just have the guy who created that one do it again for him?

This takes the Bush waste of taxpayer moneys and multiplies times THREE. When the person who puts together such a massive debt burden, has no confidence in his own plan, we're screwed.

Big numbers, i think americans will be suffering for a very long time, the guy might be black and look democratic but i do not think he will be any different than BUSH.

Solution for my kids to pay off these trillions and fix the economy forever:
1.) Invest in more money printing machines and paper. 2.) print everyone $100K
3.)Sell all the debt to the rest of the world.
4.) When they want repayment just say "we need a bailout from you."
5.) Create a new holiday on the day we no longer have any national debt.
7.) Exchange current system of taxation with a 10 percent flat tax on personal income and business income to fund the federal government and it's entitlement programs.

"I don't get it" has a good point. Just exactly who is supposed to be borrowing all this stimulus money. Borrowing money we could not pay back is what got us into this mess in the first place. How about the government just buys up a couple trillion worth of foreclosed homes and bulldozes them all. The will get rid of the huge surplus in the housing market and will get the construction industry back to work. Right now, hardly anything is getting built because there are empty houses around almost every corner. Of all the construction workers I know, only 1 still is working and he is only working 4 days a week. The rest of the guys are unemployed and will soon run out of unemployment benefits. Then their houses will end up on the auction block.

And not to be selfish, well just a little bit, what about the rest of us that did not contribute to the collapse. We kept working, spent within our means, saved what little we could. Now we are going to have to pay for the cleanup of this mess. How about the banks knock a percentage point or two off of MY mortgage. Haven't missed a payment in over 13 years and I think I deserve SOMETHING for having to carry the weight for those who spent recklessly, or were duped by predatory lenders.

Isn't that what they were supposed to do with the original TARP funds?? Didn't they tell us that they were going to buy up the foreclosed homes and the bad paper that goes with them? One again, nothing but lies from DC. DC no longer stands for District of Columbia, it stands for Deceit and Corruption.

Posted by: Jeff | February 10, 2009 12:03 PM

My grandkids want to thank Bush, Cheney and the Republic Party for adding $5 trillion to the National Debt in the past 8 years, Jeffey.

To quote P J O'Rourke 'Giving money and power to the government is like giving whiskey and car keys to a teenage boy".

To quote P J O'Rourke 'Giving money and power to the government is like giving whiskey and car keys to a teenage boy".

For all of you who are crying socialism, remember that it was W who started involving the Feds taking control of private economy. So the road to American socialism is, and always will be laid at the feet of the 2008 version of the GOP. Reagan never would've allowed something like that to happen.

Obama's lack of business experience show itself in this pork filled bill that is does little for job creation. Also, there was no bi-partisanship -- it was my way or the highway. Our kids grandkids will be paying the trillions in debt for generations to come.

We're among the few in this country who don't carry credit card debt. Strange as it sounds, we actually live within our means. What a concept. Make $100, spend about $80 and save the rest. Simple math. This stimulus is obviously designed for all those who might take the money and "jump start the economy" buy buying a new car they can't afford just so we can "keep America working." We'll take ours and put it in a savings account until this mess starts to clear. Wake up, people. This is NOT the time to spend. Cut out all unneccary expenses and retreat. It's the only way to survive. We have to move away from this spending spree, but no one wants to focus on that!

Um, Tribune. What is in the bill?

How about some specifics?

Who is getting the money?

Has anyone over there read the bill?

A few bullet points on the largest spending bill in world history from the biggest newspaper in one of the world's biggest cities would be nice.

Journalism school really paid off, you should be embarrassed.

Stealth Health in the Stimulus

Rush Limbaugh may have been the first to go public with news of a feature of the stimulus bill buried deep in the bowels of its 778 pages that is far less stimulative and more consequential for Americans’ health than any other part of that monumental proposal.

The plan is to begin rationing medical care ala the U.K system in which patients are evaluated and a government bureaucrat determines if and when medical treatment is necessary.

“The bill’s health rules will affect ‘every individual in the United States’ (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. . . . One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and ‘guide’ your doctor’s decisions (442, 446).” http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_mccaughey&sid=aLzfDxfbwhzs.

National health care is on the way, folks, that same national health atrocity which Hillary tried to perpetrate on the American people in 1993. She flopped miserably but it’s baaaack!

The same types who run the Postal Service will be determining whether we really need that appendectomy, that stent, that transplant, that gall bladder surgery or whether it can wait a few months–by which time we may be dead which will save the system a bunch of money.

This afternoon (Tuesday, 2-10-09) Sen. Arlen Specter (nominally, a PA. Republican) told Fox News, “We are not going to let the federal government monitor what doctors do.”

Specter, one of only three Republicans to succumb to pressure and vote for Obama’s pork-laden, nearly-trillion dollar stimulus bill added, “This is one of a number of provisions that has popped up that we have to revise and be very careful about.” ...

(Read the rest of this article at http://genelalor.com/.)

Alert to the clueless: Somebody will have to pay the tab, and it ain't going to just be the elusive "guy behind the tree."
Spending, no squandering, our children's future is CRIMINAL. And, heck, it won't even halt the recession, either.

Alert to the clueless: Somebody will have to pay the tab, and it ain't going to just be the elusive "guy behind the tree."
Spending, no squandering, our children's future is CRIMINAL. And, heck, it won't even halt the recession, either.

Alert to the clueless: Somebody will have to pay the tab, and it ain't going to just be the elusive "guy behind the tree."
Spending, no squandering, our children's future is CRIMINAL. And, heck, it won't even halt the recession, either.

Posted by: obalamadingdong | February 10, 2009 7:55 PM

Amazing that when we said that about Bush's ill-conceived and incompetent blunderings with our economy during his administration/regime, Republicans couldn't pooh-pooh the naysayers quick enough. Yet, now that we're paying off his mistakes, it's Obama's fault.
.
If you guys had demanded Bush's head when there was time, we wouldn't be in this mess. I don't got no pity for ya.