Democratic House Leader Cites Bush's 'Last Act of Economic Malpractice'
Reacting to news of November's massive job losses, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer lashed out at the White House on Friday.
President Bush's resistance to the Democrats' bid for an economic stimulus package constituted "his last act of economic malpractice," the Maryland Democrat said. "Nothing we can do has the power to instantly turn our economy around," Hoyer added, "but that is no reason for Republicans to block action. Democrats have a plan to put millions of Americans back to work by reinventing our nation's worn-down infrastructure, investing in 21st-century energy technologies, assisting the families who are hurting most in this recession, and helping cash-strapped states pay for vital services. Economists widely agree that such steps are necessary and effective responses to a recession."
Hoyer promised that if Bush cannot be convinced, the "Democratic Congress will ensure that President-elect Obama can sign it quickly after he is sworn in."
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, ratcheted up his criticism of the much-signaled Democratic plan for a multibillion-dollar recovery package. "Now is not the time to make matters even worse by asking taxpayers to pay for a slate of new government spending in the name of 'economic stimulus,' " Boehner said in a statement.
He reiterated his call for tax cuts, calling them a "better way to jump-start our economy than increasing spending on government programs." He added: "Republicans would like to work with President-elect Obama and our Democratic colleagues to enact economic solutions that will let working families keep more of what they earn, help them rebuild their 401(k)s, and help small businesses create jobs-instead of raising their taxes and spending more of their money."
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Reader Comments
nuklear option
Time to change the Senate rules to a simple majority to end a filibuster obstruction ! Then we can ignore the Republicans whose only goal to prevent any action on anything, especially if it helps America and its workers; block any progressive actions to make America better, and prevent any changes to the embedded judicial sycophants of regressive ignorance and fascism now infiltrated into our legal system.
As a plus, we can dump that traitorous turncoat, Lieberman!
Economic Malpractice??? No, Just Being A Traitor!!!
George W. Bullstuff began his reign of terror immediately after his inaugeration by beginning a systematic restructuring of our nation beginning with veteran's benefits, contracting government functions, weilding his then Republican majority to dismantle our safeguards, selling our assets abroad, failing to protect our nation, starting unsubstanciated wars, condoning torture, violating our Constitution and basically comitting treasonous acts finally resulting in our economic demise. To term the Bush Era as anything else is to downplay the seriousness of his crimes of outright greed and failure to uphold his oath of office. This moron even changed the time which only cost money but gained no benefit. I am simply hopeful we can recover now that a grownup has won the Presidency!!!
A simple solution
doesn't exist. Roads don't get built with picks and shovels anymore, they're built with equipment that takes years of training to operate. Someone who has spent the last 20-years welding cars together isn't suddenly going to produce solar panels. What kind of jobs is the government going generate and who will be eligible to fill them?
Our politicians keep their jobs by telling their constituents what they want to hear. And stressed out people don't want to hear about all the complexities associated with solving their problems - they want simple solutions that they can understand and have faith in. So that's what the democrats are giving us.
Massive government borrowing so they can spend is going to precipitate inflation - make more money available and everybody is going to want a bigger piece of it, and prices go up. The democrats know full well that if all of us who are working suddenly see our real income take a dive that they will be voted right back out of office. So how much do you think they will really be able to do?
Time will tell.
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