I read that Pres. Obama has worked to remove from the economic stimulus package the funding for contraception that Catholic Speaker of the House Pelosi (D-CA) was so quick to defend.
Neither Republicans nor Obama have indicated where they may be willing to make changes to the legislation, but both sides have said they don’t have any "pride of authorship" of the huge package.
In a sign that Obama may be willing to compromise, officials said the president made a personal appeal to House Democrats to jettison from the package family planning funds for low-income people. Republicans have criticized the provision as an example of wasteful spending that would neither create jobs nor otherwise improve the economy.
"He asked them to take it out he established a set of principles for spending to boost economic growth over the course of a two-year period and the contraceptive funding was not part of those principles," said Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton. Burton said the contraceptive funding issue had become a "lightning rod" and that without it the large bill had a better chance of winning bipartisan support.
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…surprising, and nice…
Good on him! Thank you for listening, Mr. President!
Don’t give him too much credit. It is not like he took it out for the right reason. He took it out becuase “it does nothing to add jobs and that is what the economic stimulus package is all about.” Insiders also think he was motivated to take it out because, by inference, it was demeaning to poor people.
If President Obama really wants to stimulate the economy he should have Congress authorize cuts in the payroll withholding taxes immediately. That
would get money in the system now when it’s most needed. All of this other “stimulis”, i.e. building of infrastructure, will take several months, maybe
years to get going. By that time, the economic crisis could be over. I guess “fiscal responsibility” (the former mantra of the Dems when the
Republicans controlled Congress) is no longer important. Tom
All the tax breaks in the world are not going to stimulate the economy. Rather they might make the debacle worse in the future by increasing our debt. The economy is shrinking because it was inflated because of irresponsible lending. We were riding a wave of contrived economic growth. Now that the credit market has shrunken spending is back to where it should be. The only cure for this downturn is fiscal responsibility, time, and population growth.
Ryan, time after time after time, when taxes have been cut accross the board the economy has grown and the feds actually rake in more revenues. You appear
to believe in static analysis.Let me give you a simple example. When President Bush proposed cutting the capital gains tax, the believers in the
static analysis school, screamed that federal tax revenues would be “lost.” Guess what happened when the capital gains tax cuts passed. Federal
revenues soared. The reason? Because people who were sitting on substantial gains decided that with the new low rates it made sense
to sell and that caused a huge influx of revenues that would not have existed but for that tax cut. If you don’t believe me the Office of Management
and Budget has documented this fact. Now you points about fiscal responsibility, time and population growth are also true. However, the Dems support
suppressing birth rates, spending money like drunken sailors (worse than the Republicans when they controlled Congress), and engaging in protectionism,
which ironically will cause more job losses in the US. Tom
Tom – I do not believe Barry and the Democrat Congress would cut taxes even if it meant it would wipe out the entire megadeficit.
The House Rules Committee only issued a general debate rule today, but not an amendment rule.
They will generate this tonight. It will be interesting to see if they self-execute a change to the bill by removing the contraceptives. Somehow I doubt it.
I think more likely that they remove it through conference or through amendments between the houses.
Obama really has no power here, just political persuasion.
TomB,
I think you are probably right because for the Democrats (I used to be a party official before I decided my Faith was more important to me than
party affiliation) it’s all about power. The more money flowing into Washington the more power politicians have. Also they appear to want people
to be dependent on the government for hand-outs because that gives them a raison d’etre. Tom
“the contraceptive funding issue had become a ‘lightning rod'”
A clear admonition to keep up our prayer-pressure and unequivocal advocacy on behalf of all God’s unborn children.
Does anyone think that Obama is perhaps taking heed over his recent actions via the Mexico City policy in light of the letters from the USCCB and the plans for the postcard mailing this weekend at parishes across the U.S.? See link:
http://www.headlinebistro.com/en/news/church/focapostcardcampaign.html
“Pres. Obama has worked to remove from the economic stimulus package the funding for contraception that Catholic Speaker of the House Pelosi (D-CA) was so quick to defend”
I cannot help wondering whether Ms. Pelosi might have a distant Phoenician ancestor by the name of Queen Jezebel.
If mr. Obama really wants to stimulate the economy I suggest he step down and officially resign. In fact; Obama, Biden, and everyone appointed by him should all resign. Then Polosi and every member of congress besides should resign. If they shut the federal government down, just long enough for the average American to realize they did so, we would see a booming economy again within a week. We would save 42% of our GDP from being wasted and that would be a big help. Then Polosi can go get a real job like picking cotton.
But hey, I don’t really have room to state my opinion of American politics anymore, I renounced my citizenship. Now when I fill out a form that ask Nationality I write “Catholic”. I could really care less at this point if the so beloved constitution penned by atheist lives or dies. As a Catholic I am held to a higher standard then those of mr. obama or his anti-Catholic bigot buddies.