When Bush spent $40 to $50 million on his inauguration in 2005 there was a media outrage because of the war. Where is the outrage for the Obama inauguration cost of $150 million in this deep recession? How about stories on the emergency funding needed by the local governments? On Google I see it only in the British press.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnew...

http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/...

If ya wanna stimulate the economy take away the capital gains taxes.

The additional stimulus is completely unnecessary. Once Barry is inaugurated, George Soros, and his band of billionaire thieves, yes Marc Rich among them, will dive back into the market they shorted to within an inch of its life, and set the proper mood for the Obama reign..

If you want the economy fixed then let the people fix it. You can't make people want certain goods. If it's a given that money is going to be given away, then give it to the tax payers that you have taken it from. Stop giving it to businesses that the government thinks needs it. That is centralized planning...This has never worked, and never will. Are there any republican's left? Both parties have become different degrees of the Democrat/Federalist parties.

darwin1 your point on loss of jobs to manufacture is way off base. There is no way under the moon the sun and the stars you could manufacture an Ipod here for $2 first off.
However the demand would not need to be at the current level to still make money. It would go down due to rising cost of manufacturing in the USA but it would still create new infrastructure and jobs. The natural resources to build an Ipod are brought in to china they do not exist there solely we can buy them cheaper than China. The major difference between the cost of production in US and China it the cost of expending waste and utilities. China has little to no EPA,DNR which is slowly changing.
These are some of the many costs business have endured that have forced manufacturing out of America. Don't blame jobs lost here solely on wages either. The cost of manufacturing wages overall are on par with our economy, in fact we're conservative at the moment compared to Europe and the benefits and wages paid out under law there. China is now modernizing and wages are inclining as well. Manufacturing jobs are needed here. Phasing out processing raw goods into a finished product will be the doom of our economy. We need to shift the balance back in our favor.

Unhappy events abroad have retaught us two simple truths about the liberty of a democratic people. The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any other controlling private power.

The second truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if its business system does not provide employment and produce and distribute goods in such a way as to sustain an acceptable standard of living. Both lessons hit home. Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing.

I've had a fascination with FDR since I did a report on him in 5th grade!! Obama could just give FDR speeches for the first six months and nobody would be able to tell that it was from 70 years ago.
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This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.

Next thing you will tell me is that this FDR guy was a handicapped liberal socialist who won a war in four years.

Isolationism and protectionism lose more jobs than they save. Requiring them to spend that two dollars to manufacture an iPod here would cost more jobs than it saves. Sorry.

The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. The millions who are in want will not stand by silently forever while the things to satisfy their needs are within easy reach. We need enthusiasm, imagination and the ability to face facts, even unpleasant ones, bravely. We need to correct, by drastic means if necessary, the faults in our economic system from which we now suffer. We need the courage of the young. Yours is not the task of making your way in the world, but the task of remaking the world which you will find before you. May every one of us be granted the courage, the faith and the vision to give the best that is in us to that remaking! ~FDR

Dire consequences? Just like the TARP money (which never made it to main street) was needed due to dire consequences. Don't fall for the fear tactics.

I really don't care what country the excess money goes to long as people here have jobs so they can feed their families and keep roofs over their heads. When the economy recovers we can take up the issue of what country the corporate profits go to. Right now we are dealing with high unemployment and people struggling to eat. What we need right now is jobs where people can work and spend money to support their families in this country.

Comprehension and reading is not a strong suit of our great nation. I could comprehend darwin1 posts quite clearly. His point on manufacturing jobs is dead on the money but flip side of that coin is even 2 dollars spent on manufacturing an ipod is still better spent here.

Do you often see words and sentences that aren't actually there? If you actually read you would not see the words union or GM. You would see the word "If" at the beginning of the sentence. Clearly, you have difficulty actually seeing someone else' point of view. I never said that doctors and street sweepers are paid the same You're not really reading, your scanning and poorly at that.

You are totally out of touch to think union workers make Doctors pay.

aletheia
1. Producers need consumers more than the other way around. And again when they cash those bonds those dollars will be worth less then when they were purchased. Get your facts straight.
2. Manufacturing is basically working as a human robot your whole life. It isn't good for your body or your mind.
3. Only $2 of an iPod for example goes to China the rest is spent on highly paid engineers, designers, programmers, shareholders and other people here in the US. However, you have to be smart to get these jobs. Dyson in England has over 100 engineers and is opening another design center. Without China they wouldn't be able to hire as many engineers and designers.
4. We need to improve our educational system so that we have the designers and engineers that can be highly paid and whose skills transfer easily.
5. One second your complaining about how there are no manufacturing jobs (meaning high wage low skills) and the next whining about Marxism. Isn't giving people lots of money to do a job that anyone can do Marxist? If you pay street sweepers and Doctors the same guess what you get? Lots of street sweepers.
6. Your rants are nothing more than a bunch of wild statements devoid of context and reality. Clearly, you need a manufacturing job.

It`s described, by the House Republicans, as a "feel good bill." There are no appropriations attached to it, hence no cost. The U.S., along with 180 other countries are to join together to try and combat world poverty, part of the war on terror.

A home is not a commodity because of its classification under bankruptcy law and the fourth amendment. It has a protected status because it is where people live. Annexation, eminent domain and condemnation all have to follow due process rules even if you don't pay your taxes. You can also start your own non-profit and transfer ownership of you home to it and not pay taxes on it at all. However, there are rules to follow.
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Yes, they are then going to occupy it. Would you please come back to reality. You could give it to them and then re-nationalize it if your going to play every bloggers favorite games show "Crazy Scenarios". All of your scenarios are fairly devoid of any reality. Which is more probable? Your scenarios or this one: China keeps buying our bonds until the recession is over and we no longer have a deficit and then starts to cash them in. It is important to remember that these bonds serve as cash reserves to keep their currency low in value compared to the dollar.

The Danes allow their citizens to buy their own mortgage bonds. You are then paying interest to yourself or you can cash them in - in exchange for your home. This would make it easier to bail out individuals instead of banks and corporations.

Reagan and Bush got us up to $9 trillion already,it`s not likely another trillion is going to hurt much. What do you want them to do? I`d like to see taxes back to Clinton levels. out of Iraq, a national sales tax for health and education, revise the subprime mortgages to better reflect the real worth of homes. Can`t just sit and wait for the "free markets" to bring us back, they got us here!

"Federal Reserve governor Randall Kroszner, a conservative economist on leave from a teaching post at the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business, says the Community Reinvestment Act isn’t to blame for the subprime mess, despite some accusations to the contrary."
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/12/0...
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That's the Wall Street Journal, not some left-wing rag.

Isn`t it better for all parties to change the terms of the mortgages? People still have the house, and the bank has money coming in instead of a slew of more unsold houses to try and market.

No country backs their money with gold.

Part of the "bubble" problem in housing was that buyers were lied to. Deregulation made it easier to draw people in, then the sellers took advantage. You should know if you can handle a home payment, but when the "expert" tells you not to worry, the value can only go up, you want to believe in the American dream.

1. Homes are not considered a commodity.
2. You are selling land not people and the land is public land not your private land.
3. Transferring ownership of a tree does not cause a disaster. Instead China could use them to offset carbon emissions.
4. Your confusing deregulation with trade standardization. The European Union provides greater trade with more efficient and effective regulations by standardizing the regulations of trade.
5. Buyer Beware has no place in a market based economy. Adam Smith said in the wealth of nations that markets require transparency and honesty to function properly with the invisible hand. Buyer Beware violates not only market principles but it generally violates laws pertaining to fraud and deception.

We don`t have the ability now to make things cheap enough for the American public to consume, especially textiles, clothing, toys. The only thing we can still lead the world in is agriculture, and instead of using that as a bargaining chip, our government pays us not to grow! We were trying to stay out of globalism during the "New Deal", and it prolonged the depression.

South Africa, gold and diamonds rule!

The Communist Manifesto only states that there are two classes, oppressors and oppressed. It says nothing about health care either."When you compare the U.S. with Canada, Western Europe and Japan, the news is sobering. Our child-poverty and infant-mortality rates are the highest, our life-expectancy is the lowest, our budget deficit as a share of GDP is the highest, and our 15 year-olds rank among the lowest on tests of math and science. Our mostly private health system, at $8000 per American, is twice the cost of Europes mostly public system, yet with worse outcomes. And nearly 50 million Americans lack health insurance." Time Magazine, 1/19/09. If I`m going to be accused of being a "liberal" for wanting a better system for all Americans, so be it! Repeal the Bush tax cuts, get out of Iraq,start "a well managed system of public financing of health care to allow us to cut the horrendous sums paid to health insurance companies."(Time) In the long run, a national sales tax devoted to health care, education, and infrastructure, would be less costly to our descendants than these deficits that government has brought us since Reagan. Obama is not the Messiah, but hopefully he will be like a Moses and lead us out of this economic wilderness.

You can back currency with any commodity: land, timber, wheat, corn, gold, silver. Yes?
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How EXACTLY does some obscure statement about RNA replication disprove evolution? I mean Darwin wrote a giant book with actual evidence. He even admits in the beginning that it wasn't even his idea and lists all the people who said it before him including oddly enough some members of the clergy. Please elaborate.
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Global trade is a human activity that governments have been trying to control since the beginning of civilization. They have always failed. Could you please provide the name of an isolated country that has provided some great advancement to the world or has generated unprecedented wealth for its people? Please elaborate.
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Considering Social Security, Medicare, and everything else, it seems we already are a socialist nation and have been so for quite some time. Buts that's what We the People want I guess. You are aware of the process by which a democracy works. Yes?

The Constitution is always being interpreted by one side or the other. It says only white men can vote, and that Congress shall meet once a year in December. It`s an ever changing document. Promoting the general welfare can mean anything you want it to. It does not say the government has to provide health care, but it does not forbid it either. Depending on how you read it, only the organized militia should have guns, or every Tom Dick and Harry should have an F16 in his barn. To me, promting the general welfare means to keep your citizens safe, fed, educated, and healthy. When you have the means to do this and don`t, you are not living up to your responsibilities. We have many small companies banding together to negotiate health care for their employees because they can get a better deal because of their greater numbers. If 300,000,000 people were negotiating, just think of the deal you should get!

Analogies? The economy is a bucket? Wow, with that grasp of economics you could have worked for the Bush administration. When people use analogies with few details it clearly demonstrates a lack of understanding. We already have nationalized health care: emergency rooms and bankruptcy. Who is going to do a better job than the government? You? Business? Our government is actually more accountable than the CEO's of every major corporation. They have to be elected every so many years. Shareholders, the actual owners of a company, are denied their rights and lied to all the time. Look at Yahoo, last year MS was offering way above the stock price but the CEO said it was worth more. HA HA HA. People who believe markets are free or effective are simply lying to themselves.
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First, it isn't just about warming its about CO2. Once levels are high enough the oceans turn acidic and all the fish and mammals start to die and the ocean belches this acid out onto the surface. Second, you people have vague criticisms of an issue you clearly don't know anything about. What specific problem do you have with the research data. The IPCC has recently change outcomes to lower temps because they had underestimated the role of cloud cover in reflecting heat back. I bet when your wrong you don't admit it but science does.
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We are China's largest consumer so it is in China's best interest to keep buying our bonds. If we really wanted to eliminate the deficit after the recession the government which is the largest land holder in the US could simply sell some of that property. Money can be backed by something other than gold. No other country in the world is as good for it as we are.
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If citizens in a Democracy vote in socialism then that's what the people have decided and if you don't like that then I guess democracy isn't for you and you can find a nice dictatorship to live in.

We did not "allow" the government, we needed it. The Constitution says, "to promote the general welfare." That means to make life good for everyone, not just the rich and powerful. Government is like you and I, they don`t always accomplish what they want to do, but you try again. It`s admirable that you took care of someone, but not every body has the means, personality, or time to do that. Just as kids should not take it as a "right" for Mom and Dad to give them a college education, parents can`t really expect their children to provide for them in their old age. It`s hard enough to support a couple of kids these days without adding the elderly. They worked and paid taxes their whole lives, and now their government has a commitment to help them. Let`s get a tax cut to those that work in this country instead of those that just invest and live off inherited money. At the risk of being labeled a Socialist again, it is time for National Health Care. There is enough money in the system to cover every person in this country. The biggest cost would be to set up the computer network with all our medical facts in it, and that was supposed to have been started already. Once that is in place, the costs to administer health care would plunge, no forms to fill out, no insurance "boards" deciding your hernia is a pre-existing condition. We could pay for medical students to go to school, and have them spend a few years working it off in our country. Sure, people would visit the doctor more, in the long run prevention and diagnosis of ills is cheaper than treating it later. That would "promote the general welfare" better than an ill conceived bailout of the richest in this country.

Everyone agrees there's "a hole in the bucket" in our nation's current economic situation. One solution is to fix the hole, which will take some time and some overdue pain. The other solution is to pour in water faster than it's draining out. The "water" is money; money taken from taxpayers on a Zimbabwean inflationary scale of TRILLIONS. Where's this "unprecedented" water coming from? The government has no money except for what it takes from taxpayers. And why is it so "urgent" to start pouring it out without thinking about any long term consequences? Can we please slow down and THINK ABOUT THIS?

I`m glad you`re fixed for life, but not everyone has the ability, or the wherewithal to be. There are times that people have to use credit, not for "toys", but in their daily lives. There are people who followed the rules, and saved for their "Golden Years", only to be told now, "sorry, your nest egg is gone, and so is your health care, and by the way, Social Security is in big trouble!" There are seniors and disabled people living, trying to, on $700 a month. Every year when the Federal budget comes out, I would like to go through with a red pen and take out the expenditures I consider to be wasteful(Iraq!). Other people would mark different things than I. Who is right? The Government makes mistakes because people run it, not machines, but if they don`t try to better the lives of the citizenry they are`nt doing their job

I`m pretty sure that "McCainPalinMessiah" would have been pusuing the same course as Obama, probably with a few different priorities, but the same course. What manufacturing jobs do you want? Steel, cars, appliances, textiles, drugs, airplanes, most of these we have already lost or are in the process of losing. About the only thing left is agriculture, and with "free trade"(we don`t really have it) that is growing smaller. Since WW2 this country has let itself be used as the worlds biggest charity, and in our need to always buy on the "cheap" we have killed our own industries. An unemployed person that gets a "recycled" job will be happy to have a job, period!

Obama made broader arguments, too, saying that the private sector cannot do what is needed now.

Boy is he right how many times are we gonna beat this horse.
Start from the bottom up.
Feed the masses and it will feed the economy.
Put the masses back to work. Government ditch diggers, build roads with shovels and picks for all I care as long as it pays well enough to earn a living wage with out being supported by welfare.

They`ve only been harping about global warming for 3-4 decades, not really enough time, for an earth millions of years old, to really see any changes. We`ll see more a hundred years from now, and maybe we will be sorry we didn`t(or did) do something about it. Bush is threatening a veto if congress doesn`t release the $350 billion of the bailout money. What is he going to veto? It`s a little late in the game to be posturing now, besides, in regards to the bailout, the vote for that was 75 for, veto proof. I don`t like seeing the debt skyrocketing, but I also don`t feel we can just ride it out and do nothing like Herbert Hoover tried to do.

It`s not just Democrats pushing for a stimulus, just as it was not just Dems that voted for the bailouts. As for global warming, the weather has always been cyclical, not just 10 or 20 years, but hundreds. By the time we know for sure if mankind is doing something to the environment, it could be too late to correct. Might be now for all we know. In regards to "free markets", I`m waiting for them to have an effect on health care costs that are rising at twice the cost of living rates. And that is for care that puts us toward the bottom of the charts for fetal deaths. $15,609 for a family of four, even with employer offered insurance, the family pays 40% of that themselves.

Darwin1 - we've been printing money since 1913. As a result, it now takes $2,000 what $100 used to buy in 1913 when the Federal Reserve Private Bank Group was created. By the way, check out the latest news on China not being interested so much anymore in buying our debt. Big trouble coming.
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Noone blamed one person for the bubble. It was suggested Clinton helped it. Please see my post on how 3 parts of government and the Fed interference caused this past bubble.
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Unfortunately, government tends to interfere in the free markets only when lobbied and influenced by special interest groups (both dems and reps share the blame). Bills now are written by lobbyist groups and corporations. Our elected officials take the campaign money and vote yes. As an example, look at Medicare Part D: pharmaceutical lobbyists wrote the bill, big pharma made campaign contributions, and now big pharma is now making billions.

I was wondering, if you substituted the terminology Obama and any other democratic politician was using about this financial crisis with terminology being used about the environmental crisis and global warming I find a unique similarity.
With global warming we must do something now. We can't wait to enact massive taxes on carbon emmissions. Sounds all to familiar and suspicious to me.

First, we can print money because the dollar is the worlds reserve currency. Notice the fact that it still hasn't depreciated considerably. Think of it as green gold. (Psst everyone else deficit spends too).
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Bubbles occur. Period. Trying to blame a single individual for the actions of millions of people and banks worldwide is a bit conspiratorial and devoid of reality.
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The "invisible hand" of markets only occurs when there is transparency and competition in the marketplace. Governments should interfere to ensure both. Clinton tried to use the Justice department to ensure competition but was criticized by many people even though MS was found guilty. Private lawyers were restricted by tort reform from suing companies for lying because business cried that it hurt their profits. Yes profits that weren't there. Let's face reality. Companies lie and often we and our government buy the lie.

Elaborate

Part of the housing bubble can be laid at Clinton`s feet. When he ran against Dole, and Dole came out for big tax cuts, Clinton had to fight that message. So, he came out with the idea that you could sell your house after 2 years and pay no capital gains taxes. Or, 5, 10, 20, houses, if they were under $500,000. Frank, and some other Democrats have been saying since 2002 that there should have been more rental units built instead of single family homes, but no one wanted to hear that.If the Fed is the "ultimate", why can`t even they find out where the bailout money is?

It's a media myth that free markets created the current economic crash. Dig deeper to find out that 3 areas of government interference with capitalism led to the current meltdown. 1) Regulation was put in place (by Reps and Dems) to force banks to lend to subprime borrowers. 2) Government backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guaranteed risk taking by banks. 3) This housing bubble, like past boom and busts, could only have happened with cheap money created by the Federal Reserve Private Bank Group's artificially low interest rates. The Fed is the ultimate in banking regulation.

raystone, recent history has all but killed the idea of self-regulated free markets, possibly for the next couple of generations. If the US, the firmest advocate of unfettered capitalism, can't guarantee its own economic stability, maybe those free markets aren't exactly as beneficial as everyone has been saying.

No "purchase"of stock in the auto loans. National health care is long overdue, and will result in lowering the rising costs of care. "Free" markets put us into this mess, that and deregulation. Nobody was watching over the lenders, and some who raised questions were fired. The Republicans would never let any kind of a re-regulation vote take place(one in the House)since 2001.If you want to talk debt on our children look in the dictionary under "Bush!"

whythink - agreed. The current redistribution of U.S. citizen's money through bailouts, stimulus packages, and subsequent price inflation is an aspect of socialism, not the complete definition.

Ray

I agree with you, however looking back throughout history, if the Gov't is going to spend I would rather it be on US than some war in some country.

At least Obama is putting US first.

Plus, FDR did some nice things with his investments and those investments continued until recently.

I don't like the Gov't spending like this but sometimes to fix the mistakes of the past you have to take risks. This is a risk by the Obama adminstration.

Oh, and it is NOT SOCIALISM. There is no Government OWERNERSHIP.
Webster Definition
Main Entry: so·cial·ism
Pronunciation: \ˈsō-shə-ˌli-zəm\
Function: noun
Date: 1837
1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods

NOBODY is proposing that.

The "jobs" rhetoric has been used by politicians throughout the ages. Truth is, only capitalism creates a productive society. The makeshift work created by a bankrupt government now will be paid for by placing more debt on the backs of our children and grandchildren. Regardless of what the work achieves, roads, etc.

But Ray it's hard to save/spend money when you don't have a job, free market or not.

And the socialistic propaganda begins...when will everyone, Republicans and Dems, realize that free markets grow the economy, not government spending. Government regulation and the Federal Reserve Private Bank Group got us into the current economic disaster, free markets are starting to bring us back. People are saving more, that's a great start.