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Ear to the Ground

Bush Ready to Stimulate America

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Posted on Apr 25, 2008
Bush
boston.com

You say recession, I say slowdown: So far, Bush has steered clear of using the R word to describe the state of the U.S. economy.

President Bush announced that rebate checks will start winging their way to taxpayers as early as Monday, helpfully observing that Americans need a little help paying for necessities like groceries and gas during this economic “slowdown”—a slightly different story from his initial justification for this economic stimulus plan, and one that wasn’t lost on his critics.


AP via My Way News:

Democrats said they were glad the rebate checks were about to go out, but suggested that multinational oil companies were not among the businesses the stimulus package was originally designed to help.

[...] House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., agreed that people “need this rebate to cope with the rising cost of gas and groceries.” She said that, while the rebates would help to get the economy moving, there was a need for a second stimulus package “and we have begun some conversation with the administration and Republicans.”

As he had earlier in the week, Bush used the word “slowdown” to describe the state of the economy. He has denied that the nation is in a recession, although many economists say it is.

“It’s obvious our economy is in a slowdown. But, fortunately, we recognized the signs early and took action,” Bush said.

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By Fadel Abdallah, April 28, 2008 at 8:59 pm #

My Plan to Stimulate America, both Spiritually and Economically

First, a publicity campaign comparing the Jewish Holocaust that will never be forgotten with the Afro-American and Native Americans Holocausts that should not be forgotten either. Rev. J. Wright is the most qualified and most eloquent to lead this campaign; he has already started.

Second, a financial plan for reparations should be prepared, with every family of these two victimized groups receiving at least one million dollars, so they can be financially uplifted and they can build businesses and create dignified jobs.

Third, a similar economic uplifting plan for poor Americans, of all backgrounds should be divised and implemented.

Fourth, outlaw all racial and ethnic census and classifications. Just one nation of all nations.

Fifth, all this compensation for both groups should be borne by well-to-do Americans, not as charity, but as an overdue duty, especially the wealthy ones. And the cost of this reparation plan can be easily born by the government at less than one year cost of the Iraqi war. So, it’s doable.

Sixth, two huge memorials should be built to commemorate the victims of the Native Americans and the Afro-Americans.

Seventh, a formal apology by the U.S. Congress and Government should be issued to both these groups.

My sense of justice tells me that this is the minimum that can be done to heal the wounds of the past, and to start this nation on the path of healing and rebirth. Though I do not belong to one of these two victimized groups, nor I am a victimizer, being a recent immigrant myself (30 years), I am willing to accept a special tax to help finance this plan if necessary. However, I think the financial aspect of the project is the least problematic. The problem will remain with creating a noble political and social good will and sincerity to attempt to right great historical wrongs.

Finally, unless and until a plan of this nature will be enacted, with good faith and sincerity, America will continue its downward movement towards destruction; all the signs are already there!

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By ProUnionProLabor, April 28, 2008 at 4:19 pm #

I guess I did.

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By Conservative Yankee, April 28, 2008 at 8:53 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

ProUnionProLabor, I believe you may have misinterpreted my thought.  The “fairy-tale” to which I referred was the belief that GWB would do anything “for pro-labor, or pro-union people!

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By ProUnionProLabor, April 27, 2008 at 10:29 pm #

H. Ross Perot said it best….. “If NAFTA is passed there will be nothing but a HUGE sucking sound of American jobs”..... among other things… how right he was, and getting worse every day.

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By ProUnionProLabor, April 27, 2008 at 10:15 pm #

No, boggs….No extradition. And already protected by an armed force, if you believe all that is written about that deal. Not to mention, it’s supposed to set on a mega-large underground fresh water supply. The next Bush generation’s family fortune.

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By ProUnionProLabor, April 27, 2008 at 10:09 pm #

“IF (and I know this is fairy-tale-stuff) the administration…..” Hasn’t this been done before? Oh, yeah in the ‘30’s, right after a Republican admin., during a depression, by a Democratic admin. MMMMMmm. But I only heard about it from my relatives.

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By msgmi, April 27, 2008 at 8:03 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Based on GW’s track record starting at the Yale House to the White House left a trail of stimuli that warrants caution.

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By Potassium, April 27, 2008 at 7:41 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

you sound like me

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By Conservative Yankee, April 27, 2008 at 4:10 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Please tell me what good $600 will do.  half a mortgage payment? 2 weeks of food for a family of four?  six fill-ups at the local puke and screw?

IF (and I know this is fairy-tale-stuff) the administration in Washington REALLY wanted to stimulate the economy, they would hire a shit-load of folks to fix the roads tunnels and bridges that make up the transportation system… want greener than that?  OK, fix the rail beds and put the freight on trains…

That would be a good use for this money.. $600 per person isn’t squat. I’d need about 90k to make up for what this administration has stolen from me in eight years.

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By Iconoclast, April 27, 2008 at 3:21 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

but then what do the corporations do with the money?

Hint: Trickle, Trickle.  Don’t stop. Ask yourself “and then what?”

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By boggs, April 27, 2008 at 2:53 pm #

Bush realized that a lot of this stimulus would “trickle down” to his coat pocket, by way of the gas pumps.
He just as well wear a funnel in his jacket pocket, because everything he has undertaken while President was for his benefit only.
I’m wondering if the ranch purchase in Paraquay was a money laundering scheme!?

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By W.C. Varones, April 27, 2008 at 1:52 pm #

Bush just admitted that this is not a stimulus; it’s a partial refund for victims of Bernanke’s inflation.

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By samosamo, April 27, 2008 at 1:15 pm #

You right about that Dr. Knowitall, PhD, PhD. Another republican trick to just turn the whole 150billion(or whatever) into a corporate give away because it will all have to be given back to the corporate elites for people to maintain another day of scratching their heads.

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By Fadel Abdallah, April 27, 2008 at 11:20 am #

How does anyone in his right mind expect anything good to come from this epitome of evil and disaster, hurled on us as a curse eight years ago under the name of G.W.B?!

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By Expat, April 27, 2008 at 10:46 am #

^ hell every time I hear that “Bush Ready to Stimulate America” I think we’re going to get free sex.  Imagine how disappointed I was when some one told me we would get $600 instead.

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By Dr. Knowitall, PhD, PhD, April 27, 2008 at 10:37 am #

You may recall that I suggested when we first got wind of this “stimulus” that it would be far more efficient use of taxpayer money to load up several trucks with pallets of $1,000-dollar bills and haul them directly to the corporate offices of Big Oil.

Oh, but I forgot, we’ve already done that!

Everyone should set aside just a couple bucks from their stimulus and on a designated time and date, have a nationwide lifting of a glass to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and our venerable congress for all they’ve done for America.

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By Expat, April 27, 2008 at 10:37 am #

^ but all the evidence points to a gullible population whom the pundits would have us believe want a third term of Bush.  $600 is a cruel joke and an insult to the American people.  But, apparently they will take it and remain mute.

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By Jim Yell, April 27, 2008 at 9:41 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

I already only drive to see the doctor and to get my monthly shopping done. There really isn’t much more I can stop doing in that regard. I put inserts in my windows winter and summer to try and cut fuel usage, but for people who work and don’t have the option of not traveling, and no real public transportation, they will spend most or all of what they get for fuel to get to work. They don’t have any option.

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By TDoff, April 26, 2008 at 8:59 pm #

A sure-fire way to stimulate the economy would be for the government to employ tens of thousands of workers to build full-sized replicas of the Brooklyn bridge.

These could readily be sold to all idiots who confess to believing a single word this corrupt, mendacious maladministration, from The Dummy and Dick-Head all the way down, utters.

The terms of purchase would be for the dolts to use their rebate checks as down payments on their very own Brooklyn bridge, with the balance carried on adjustable-rate mortgages.

So the government would get back all the money it borrowed for rebate checks to republicans, and possibly make a hell of a profit in the future, depending upon the bridge-contract default rates.

And all the workers building the bridges would contribute a large part of their earnings in taxes, and create giant bonuses for the CEO’s of the schlock finance companies issuing the bridge mortgages.

It’s a Win/Win/Win deal.

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By Kiwi, April 26, 2008 at 8:16 pm #

Internationalism is nice theory, like communism, but in practice it is just another tool for the aggressive and repressive destruction of society by greedy self aggrandizing bastards. True ..but ..
Capitalism is a nice theory, like communism, but in practice…. So are you going to buy more gas?

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By Kiwi, April 26, 2008 at 8:00 pm #

One of the best comments I have read, Attila Gyenis.
If you buy gas you know who you is getting the profit from your money. If you buy Chinese-made you know you are contributing to the National Debt and China makes the profit. It’s ok to do that if you are happy to live with the consequences. That is freedom. But you do have to live with the results of these decisions. If you want different results make different consumer decisions There is a 30 year old lemon bush in my garden -planted 3 owners/2 generations ago I give the surplus to my local High School. Their Home Economics dept. hasn’t needed to buy lemons for their cooking classes for 5 years. For your Health ( in all forms ) think LOAF when you can Locally grown Organic Animal friendly Fair Traded. And if you have to drive hundreds of miles to visit family and friends ( one of the benefits of modern living is that you can) drive the most milage-economic one you are able to.

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By TDoff, April 26, 2008 at 6:29 pm #

Bush is also saying, and ‘Let ‘em buy the cake from my Texas BigOil bidness buddies with their own money I borrowed in their name from their descendants’.

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By felicity, April 26, 2008 at 4:33 pm #

If you get a $600 government check and you spend it on gas and you pay $4/gallon and your car holds 30 gallons you can look forward to being able to fill up your tank 5 times.  Feel better?

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By felicity, April 26, 2008 at 1:04 pm #

Kevin Phillips recently wrote an article ‘exposing’ - better yet - putting the lie to government published economic ‘numbers.’ 

For the last 5 years:  unemployment is 8%, not 5%;  inflation is at 5%, not 2%;  average annual growth is 1%, not 3-4%.  And a $600 government check is going to make all those numbers suddenly moot?

What Bush is really saying is, let ‘em eat cake.

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By Fadel Abdallah, April 26, 2008 at 12:36 pm #

Mike! You’re really misguided by liking and quoting the Zionist Chuck Schumer. Instead of calling a spade a spade as to the big oil companies making huge profits on the misery of the enslaved working masses, you are supporting Chuck Schumer whose real intent is to blame the crises on Arab oil producing countries.

I am wondering if it ever crossed you petty mind that the Arab oil rich countries have only oil as a natural resource, and it just make sense that they have to sell their only commodity to survive, whether at cheep or high prices. You should know better that the rich oil companies of the West and the market forces of demand and supply are the ones that determine the prices of oil, but Zionist thinking people Like Shumer and their blind supporters want to blame the problems on countries half way around the world! Wake up Mike!

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By C Quil, April 26, 2008 at 12:13 pm #

The citizens of all three countries want nothing to do with the S.P.P. Dubya, not elected twice as Prez and with ratings in the 20% range, Stephen Harper, a minority prime minister with only 36% of the vote at the election who used every dirty trick in the book to get there, and Calderon, who won a “surprise” victory in Mexico when all the polls gave the popular vote to Lopez Obrador. Three illegitimate heads of state who care nothing for their citizens and everything for the big business interests they represent.

Time for a change, I think, in all three places - and fast.

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By TDoff, April 26, 2008 at 11:42 am #

Not only will Bush’s ‘vibrator up-the-a**’ stimulate the economy, it’ll also solve the unemployment problem, as the US Treasury hires thousands of folks to print and mint the trillions of dollars of fake, inflationary money needed to keep up with Bush’s ‘conservative value’ dreams and policies.

Unless he outsources the printing to Paraguay, to the newly-formed ‘BushBros Monopoly Printing, S.A., a subsidiary of HalliBlackwater’.

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By TDoff, April 26, 2008 at 11:40 am #

Not only will Bush’s ‘vibrator up-the-a**’ stimulate the economy, it’ll also solve the unemployment problem, as the US Treasury hires thousands of folks to print and mint the trillions of dollars of fake, inflationary money needed to keep up with Bush’s ‘conservative value’ dreams and policies.

Unless he outsources the printing to Paraguay.

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By Jim Yell, April 26, 2008 at 9:13 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

The Republican theory of government is much the same as that of a Banana Republic, where Democracy is a thin facade hiding the lies and theft by the investment and corporate class. The average person is encouraged to ignorance and violence, in order to deflect any thought to why a rich country is for the average citizen poor.

Internationalism is nice theory, like communism, but in practice it is just another tool for the aggressive and repressive destruction of society by greedy self aggrandizing bastards. Why do you think the Communist government of China gets along so well with the Republican Government of the US?

We have borrowed twice as much money in order to give a small amount to each taxpayer, while enlarging the already monster debt we owe China. China doesn’t give away its money, without expectation that it will pay more in the long run.

Now with the overwhelmning grab by petroleum for all of America’s money, a great part of this “prop” will be spent for gasoline, whose price has been manipulated so that these tycoons can get ever greater control on the countries wealth. They will get even more into their pockets, although the increase will be a debt for all of America. A debt is a “slaves chain” for individuals and for nations.

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By Potassium, April 26, 2008 at 2:24 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

seems more like BUSH wants AMERICA to SIMULATE DEAD.

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By DennisD, April 26, 2008 at 1:13 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

First he was the “uniter”, then the “decider” and now the “stimulator”.

If there was real justice in this country he would be called a prisoner, serving life with the rest of his cabal.

Pelosi you fraud, count yourself in too. I’d be the first to contribute to build enough prisons for all our elected criminals.

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By Mike, April 26, 2008 at 12:40 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

...what Sen. Chuck Schumer said - he said Americans will be disenhearted when they realize that their “stimulus” will be lining the pockets of OPEC…

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By Outraged, April 26, 2008 at 12:29 am #

The link for whatever reason it isn’t transferring correctly.

The article is at: http://www.gregpalast.com

Called “Jose Can You See, Bush’s Trojan Taco”.

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By Attila Gyenis, April 26, 2008 at 12:27 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

This is an opportunity for people to spend their money where their mouth is. Take this money and invest in those companies and products that are sustainable, organic and give to society instead of taking.

Buy used stuff, don’t buy gadgets. Buy books for kids. Buy a fruit tree and plant it. Don’t go to Wallmart or Target. Don’t buy a ‘consumer goodie.’ Buy toilet paper made from recycled paper that may have been a little too expensive. Don’t think that this allows you to drive more. Drive even less.

Remember, this money that you are getting is borrowed money from our future tax dollars. Make a statement. Spend on those sustainable industries that are operating sustainably. Donate to local causes that you haven’t donated to before.

Give to our future by investing wisely in how you spend it. And please, don’t believe that Bush is doing this for you out of the goodness of his heart. He is finding any way necessary for his corporate friends to get richer.

Be smart. Spend smart.

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By Outraged, April 26, 2008 at 12:23 am #

You know the guy and his corporate cohorts are always up to something.  According Greg Palast this is one of the latest, have you heard about this…?

“While you Democrats are pounding each other to a pulp in Pennsylvania, the President has snuck back down to New Orleans for a meeting of the NAFTA Three: the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of Mexico.

You’re not supposed to know that…..

...When the three chiefs of state meet privately with the thirty corporate chiefs, they are also expected to erase a bit more of our borders. Technically, they will expand the “NAFTA Highway” - which is, in addition to lots of new blacktop, a set of regulations governing transcontinental shipment. Some fear NAFTA Highway expansion will allow a new flood of cheap Mexican products into the US and Canada. Not so. The Council’s hunger to widen the NAFTA highway is to bring in even cheaper Chinese goods.

Say what?
As trade expert Maude Barlow explained to me, the new NAFTA Highway will allow Chinese stuff dumped into Mexico to be hauled northward as duty-free “Mexican” products. That’s one of the quiet aims of this “Summit for Security and Prosperity,” the official Orwellian name for this meet. Think of the SPP “harmonization” as the Trojan Taco of trade with China.”

Check it out.
The Palast Site:  http://www.gregpalast.com/jose-can-you-see-bush’s-trojan-taco/#more-1999

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