Comments about ‘Stimulus plan saddled with old-era pork’

Great article!! I hope the president can get rid of the pork by threatening a veto and putting pressure on congress to put together a very focused recovery bill. I will be pleasantly surprised if he is willing to do this. If he does he will take a great step forward and win support from the doubters such as me.

It seems to be a fact of life that in our present state of affairs, the Commercial Interests have the bulk of influence over our government. In order to provide a benefit to ordinary people the government must provide a huge profitable benefit to some commercial or private interest.

In truth the only way to stimulate the economy is to provide jobs, income and spending ability to the vast consuming public. At other times a big war came along to save the economy, I dont think this is good option for now and I hope that another way can be found.

perfect evidence that the dems in congress, headed by queen of pork nancy, really have no idea of how to lead or what to do. Beyond being anti-bush, they are totally clueless. You got your wish, bush is gone. since you've removed the rust from the water, don't go replacing it with arsenic.

if the NYT is critical of something the dems put together, it must really be bad.

How different it was when the repugs took over Congress in 1995. They had a ten(?)-point plan and implemented as much as they could get through Slick Willy, including a budget as close to being balanced as we've had in 200 years. But they became complacent and couldn't control their spending. Now we have queen nancy, who can do nothing but load pork and bush-bash. Of course, that's enough for her constituents and her party.

Let's see if BO can really lead and get something workable out the disorganized mess that is congress.

You want anything done in Washington, you gotta let the Congressmen have their pork. Even our Utah representatives (gasp!) take pork.

I think the new Pres. is about to learn who really runs the country.

The President has the veto pen, and we'll see whether or not he's really committed to change when the pork-laden bill representing the worst of Washington D.C. status quo reaches his desk. That's how you'll know whether he's really the change agent he purports to be.

A Democrat spending bill filled with pork. Must be the first time that ever happened.

President Obama was way too naive to believe Dems would fall into line just because he asked then to.

Most of these opinions presupose that Obama is naive and doesn't have a clue as to what is going on.

He is in Charge and he knows exactly what his fellow socialists are up to. He is still being handled and managed by the likes of Bill Ayers and many good racists reverends.

What if $800,000,000 was added to give BYU a project to develop clean coal? Maybe federal dollars to improve facilities in Utah's national parks?

Where are you going to get this rediculous number of $800,000,000?
To the socialist money truly does grow on trees!

In case you haven't heard, America is BROKE!!! Stop the insane spending!!!

I thought President Obama promised to go through the Federal Budget LINE BY LINE and eleminate all wasteful and unnecessary spending. I guess I should have been smart enough to translate that as " We're going to add about 1000 lines to the Federal Budget.
What really floors me is that part of the pork errrr.. stimulus will be used to bail out States that spent way beyond their means. How is that fair for my kids to pay back money that Ah-nuld spent in CA?
And I thought the Democrats were the party of fiscal responsibility? They sure didn't mind criticizing the Repubs (and rightfully so) - I guess Queen Nancy wasn't getting her fair share of kickbacks.

"I thought President Obama promised to go through the Federal Budget LINE BY LINE and eliminate all wasteful and unnecessary spending." The bill hasn't passed so, you're speculating.

I picked $800,000,000 because it was a lot but less than a billion. I've never seen a Utahan with his hand out for federal money say it was pork. Was the Winter Game pork? That was 3.2 billion, which is much more than eight hundred million dollars.

I don't watch the Olympics. Why support corruption?

If you were broke and with a five dollar loan you could buy a hammer to make money with you would sit and whine about how broke you are?

I don't know if you're independently wealthy from selling mortgage backed securities or getting a bonus after your corporation failed.

Most Americans have a stake in having jobs. We need a stock market growing.

If our economy is contracting with negative earning stocks will fall. Twenty-five percent unemployment as costs.

We need the stock market growing. You are correct in this assertion. Now, how do you propose to get it growing?
I think it will start growing if we let the market make its correction. If we get in the way, it will continue to jitter, and we will be in for a lot more pain!

I agree with you on the olympics, it has turned into a racket. Just like all things touched by politians. Same game as ever: greed, power, money.

@ 3:31 - the Federal Budget is different than (but now includes the stimulus pkg if passed)
Graet Britain has spent more on economic stimulus than we have and what has it gotten them? No stimulus and a currency worth half what it was a year ago... something tells me this new pork....errrr stimulus pkg is going to hurt more than help. What if it doesn't work? You want to just keep printing money in perpetuity?
I've never advocated taking Federal money for any local projects and certainly not the Olympics

this is not surprising
this is totally what the country wanted
the only thing now is that our wonderful news media is going to tell us how great it is
so now we will end up paying the piper
I just hope we survive

Let's call the stimulus what it is. It's the national equivalent of running up the credit card so we can live well today and hoping for rising housing prices to bail us out. In order to prevent a painful recession from running its course, we will borrow and spend our way to prosperity! Have we learned nothing from this mess?

I understand there is concern over losing jobs. One of the hardest hit areas is construction. The state of Utah recently put billions of dollars of roadway work on hold due to decreased revenues. The economy will turn around. Why can't the stimulus help fill the revenue gap for the next 12-24 months to preserve the jobs, and then when things get back to normal end. The federal government wouldn't need to pay for entire projects, just help make payments in the short term to keep things on track. This would preserve thousands of jobs (engineers, construction workers, suppliers, etc) and give the taxpayer a product for their money. I believe that a major investment needs to be made in our nations infrastructure, but that should be a long term plan that is well thought out, not something slopped together in a couple of months.

For every dollar CA pays to the federal govt., they get 80 cents in return. For every dollar Utah pays to the federal govt., they get $1.08 in return from the federal govt. Just a reminder, Republicans didn't vote for the first bank bailout bill until it was laden by earmarks. It was also the Republicans who passed a record amount of pork/earmarks during Bush's first term. The main thing economists are saying is any stimulus or attempt to turn around the economy has to be done NOW. The longer it takes to pass a stimulus bill, the less likely it will be successful.

And here I thought the 3 stooges didn't exist anymore and here you capture them all in the same photo: Pelosi(Curly), Murtha (Moe) and Obey (Shep) ! If it wasn't so discouraging, it would be funny! The 3 stooges love their pork! Always have, always will and it is no suprise to see that they haven't "changed" anything in Washington!

Nobody here knows enough to express an opinion. The first stimulus package has freed up the money market. Credit is flowing again. Now the problem is the economy itself is tanking. The problem with the new House bill is that it isn't big ENOUGH. Infrastructure spending is essential--and a lot of it.