Sen. McCain Rips Obama, Democrats Abandon American People
Sen. McCain took his best shot at President Obama for not providing leadership on the Political Allies Payoff Act, formally known as the Economic Recovery Act.
In a fiery speech Thursday night before House Democrats, Obama rejected the GOP’s characterization that the stimulus package was merely another spending bill.
“What do you think a stimulus is? That’s the whole point. No, seriously, that’s the point,” Obama said at the retreat in Williamsburg, Va.
On Friday morning, McCain fought back.
“The whole point, Mr. President, is to enact tax cuts and spending measures that truly stimulate the economy,” McCain said. “There are billions and tens of billions of dollars in this bill which will have no effect within three, four, five or more years, or ever. Or ever.”
Notice the difference between President Obama’s statements and Sen. McCain’s speech. President Obama thinks that spending unprecedented amounts of money is what this game is about. There isn’t a hint that he’s thinking about ending the recession and restoring prosperity. There’s no sense that he understands that this isn’t a crisis or that a focused plan would revive America’s economy without risking dramatic inflation spikes.
It’s apparent that Sen. McCain understands what’s most important: stimulating the economy and putting people back on the path to prosperity without risk of dramatic inflation spikes. The only way to prevent those inflation spikes is by preventing irresponsible spending unprecedented amounts of money on wasteful things.
The legislation hammered out tonight still spends between $780,000,000,000.00-827,000,000,000.00. That won’t get the most bang for the buck. It just wastes lots of money.
I just emailed Sen. Arlen Spector expressing my anger with his signing onto this abomination. Here’s the message I sent him:
Sen. Spector, Tonight you didn’t just abandon time-tested conservative principles. Had you stood strong, there was a chance that we could’ve insisted on exercising fiscal restraint during the 111th Congress. You’ve signed onto legislation that WILL CAUSE inflation to spike within the next 2 years. You’ve signed onto legislation that, pardon the French, pisses away alot of money.
This legislation has more to do with paying off the Democrats’ political allies than it has to do with providing a jolt to the economy.
Your signing onto this bill has also guaranteed a primary challenger. When a viable candidate announces his candidacy, I’ll contribute to his campaign. I’ll also do everything possible to help this person defeat you & win in November, 2010.
You could’ve done the right thing for us & for future generations. Instead, you chose to dump hundreds of billions of debt onto future generations & dramatically increase inflation in the short term.
Know that I prayed for you when you battled cancer. Know, too, that that doesn’t mean I’ll give you a pass on signing onto awful legislation.
John Hinderaker notes here that there was a better GOP alternative available when Sen. Spector joined Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins in suspending their common sense and, more importantly, hurting American taxpayers nationwide:
Republicans, meanwhile, continue to come up with better alternatives, most recently John Thune’s proposal to scrub the entire pork bill and:
…replace it with a $936 billion across-the-board-middle-class tax rebate for 182 million Americans. The amendment would result in a tax rebate of $5,143 for single filers and $10,286 for married couples who file jointly.
That’s obviously a better idea, but it wouldn’t increase the power of government, so the Democrats aren’t interested.
John’s nailed it by saying that this bill isn’t about stimulating the economy, that it’s about exponentially growing government. What’s worse is that this additional funding then becomes part of the baseline for subsequent years’ funding.
The negative impact the stimulus bill’s spending has on future economic growth was predicted by CBO. The impact in the out years is to make a tax increase inevitable. The excessive spending will cause inflation to spike, which is like a hidden tax increase.
The best way to think of the inflation spike is that it’s a tax increase for fulfilling everything on the Democrats’ wish list for the last quarter century. When the inflation spike happens, rest assured that I’ll remind people that they’re paying a hidden tax for the Democrats passing their wishlist of irresponsible spending and questionable priorities.
If this legislation extends and/or deepens the recession, I’ll remind people of that, too.
Doing things hastily is a surefire way of wasting money and getting things badly wrong. That’s the path that President Obama and the Democrats charted. Unfortunately, the people that don’t support the bill, all 65 percent of us, are stuck travelling that path with the Democrats.
What I want to know is this: What did we do to deserve this?
Technorati Tags: Inflation, Recession, Unemployment, Pork, Deficits, Budgets, President Obama, Tax Increases, Democrats, Economy, Arlen Specter, Primary Challenger
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
February 7th, 2009 at 1:29 am
Sen McCain,
Don’t you get it? The mess the country is in now is due to Republicans and their rich bunch of thieves who have (right up to the last minute), plundered the American Treasury on the backs of working class Americans. Good God man have you and your rich pals not done enough damage to this country? Have you no shame??? Eight years of a man and the Republicans thieves who stole the election in his first term are enough. Please just go away…
February 7th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Angry, yes; surprised, of course not.
As soon as the RINO in Chief made his appearence on PBS, I knew the fight was over.
We have one last chance with the compromise bill, to perhaps slow down the rate of insanity before the train hits the derail.
Unfortunately Mr. Hogan, McCain does get it, .. . Finally!
February 7th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Oh yea, Senator McCain. I remember him. The last thing I recall about him was losing the presidency elections over his inability to understand the economy.
February 7th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Oh yea, Senator McCain. I remember him. The last thing I recall about him was losing the presidency elections over his inability to understand the economy, among other things.