The Transparency of 'Change'

Friday, February 13. 2009

The Transparency of 'Change'

If the various reports I've read are accurate, lobbyists got copies of the stimulus bill before the House Repub leadership yesterday; in addition, we have Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) saying that not one senator has read the bill in its entirety, along with Minority leader John Boehner (R-OH) saying the same thing today on the House floor.

This against President Obama's campaign promise to post all 'non-emergency' bills on the Web for 5 days before he'd sign it.

The House Democratic leadership promised that the bill would be posted online for 48 hours before a vote.

Change.

Update: On Chris Matthews' MSNBC show Hardball, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) just called the stimulus bill "the most transparent piece of legislation in American history."

Interesting.

Update II: With David Schuster on MSNBC, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) called the stimulus bill "the most vetted bill in history," and 'the most transparent piece of legislation in history.'

It looks like the talking points have been passed around...

Posted by Tom Elia in Politics at 16:04 | Comments (30) | Trackbacks (0)

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If the various reports I've read are accurate, lobbyists got copies of the stimulus bill before the House Repub leadership yesterday; in addition,

Lobbyist's got before even Democrats in the house.

#1 Peach on 2009-02-13 16:36 (Reply)

What could Wasserman possibly be referring to? Perhaps she meant least?

#2 Ryan (Homepage) on 2009-02-13 16:37 (Reply)

Rep. Debbie Wassweman Schultz is obviously a raving psychopath. Up is down. Left is right. This is 1984 realized. Everyone should send her a copy of 1984!

#3 Cory on 2009-02-13 16:38 (Reply)

If crap has the ability to be transparent, I guess so. Perhaps she meant "invisible" as in most of the crap in this bill seemed invisible to the Americans.

#4 Illinois GOP on 2009-02-13 16:44 (Reply)

Mmmmmm, I wonder whether Matthews challenged that statement or not?

#5 Scott on 2009-02-13 17:03 (Reply)

ROTFLMAO!!!!

#5.1 David Rogers on 2009-02-13 18:25 (Reply)

The only thing transparent about this fiasco is that we can see right through the bullshit Fascists like Schultz keep trying to feed us.

#6 VLWH Paul (Homepage) on 2009-02-13 17:31 (Reply)

Park Park

#7 barack obama on 2009-02-13 17:35 (Reply)

I sent congresswomen Wasserman Shultz a respectful email from her congressional website. I quoted her above comment. I suggested that she turn on the light.

The website requires that you give your zip + 4 so that she will only hear from her constituants. I felt that she should hear from a wider group. Zip code 33326-2345 is in her district.

Please be respectful but give her plenty of messages.

#8 Ed Patterson on 2009-02-13 17:45 (Reply)

Seeing as how all the House Republicans planned to vote NO in advance (and then did) who cares what info they had or didn't have? They were the wrecking crew for the last 8 years. Now they're in the minority, held in contempt by voters. The sign over Purgatory says, Who Cares?

#9 don on 2009-02-13 17:46 (Reply)

As always, your contributions to this comment section are vital... of course, they were in the majority for 4 1/2 years. But why quibble over details?

But then again, you must know how it feels to held in contempt, eh?

#9.1 Tom Elia on 2009-02-13 18:09 (Reply)

And the liberal dopes that only get their news from MSNBC will think that it is true.

#10 ctmom on 2009-02-13 18:07 (Reply)

That's "be" held in contempt. Nope

Don't even imagine you can throw the eight conservative years under the bus. The last election was a demonstration of disgust against the failure of conservative Southern white male rule. It won't be happening again.

#11 don on 2009-02-13 18:39 (Reply)

Thanks for the editing correction, Don!

See, that's what I mean about you being such a great help!

Of course, discussing the issue at hand in this post would mean you'd have to admit something you don't want!

You sure are clever ...

#11.1 Tom Elia on 2009-02-13 19:25 (Reply)

Don, there are ways you can seek help for your delusions. You see, Democrats controlled the Senate from June 2001-January 2003, and then have controlled both House and Senate since January 2006. In the real world, that equates to 3.5 years of non-Republican majority in Congress. And since Congress is where bills are written, that would make your beloved Democrats at least 50% responsible for 3.5 years of the bills in the Bush administration. But, since you live in denial, we won't point these things out to you and crush your fragile ego.

#11.2 Dave on 2009-02-14 07:25 (Reply)

Oh it's transparent alright! The GOP saw right through the "economic stimulus" garbage and saw it for what it is, an Omnibus Spending Bill for all things government.

#12 Pilgrim (Homepage) on 2009-02-13 19:15 (Reply)

DemocRAT = liar

The most transparent equation in history

#13 torabora on 2009-02-13 20:26 (Reply)

As an American Citizen I am SICKEND by the SPINELESSNESS of Obama and his CORRUPT CHIGACO POLITICS.
First and foremost he has had the WORST Cabinet Appointments of any American President. The ONLY "positive" that the Liberals "parrot" is that Obama has had a "smooth transission". That is SOLELY because of the respectfullness of President Bush. Don't forget that the Clinton PUPPETS did everything possible to undermine President Bush during his "transission".
Pelosi and Reid and Obama = the undermining of America. They are PARTISAN LIBERAL MONEY GRUBBING CORRUPT SELL OUTS.
Between them they don't have the SPINE to say the truth like MUSLIM TERRORISTS, MUSLIM EXTREMISTS, or ILLEGAL ALIENS.
Obama has BROKEN his "promises" and he is a MASTER of selling people on (open ended) words...just words like "change".
Obama will NEVER ensure that ONLY American Citizens get these jobs/benefits.
Obama will NEVER deport the MILLIONS of ILLEGAL ALIENS like his LAW BREAKING Aunt who took THOUSANDS of dollars in benefits from American Citizens.
Obama is an Attorney who has ALWAYS aligned with EXTREMISTS.
Obama said, when asked a question about when life begins, "that is beyond my pay grade" yet one of the first "actions" he took was to SUPPORT Abortion 24/7 without ANY restrictions.
Obama can "cry" when one of his Muslim "brothers" gets 'wet" when trying to protect American Citizens. Yet, Obama can't find the SPINE to support the most VUNERABLE/INNOCENT of us all...the unborn child.
Obama is for ABORTION ON DEMAND - FOR ANY REASON - and up and including the 9th month.
This is "beyond his paygrade" when Science/Medicine can CONFIRM that a child can SURVIVE outside of the womb, without any increased odds of complications, after the 23rd week?
Now Obama is HIJACKING the US Census so that he can add more ILLEGAL VOTERS to the Democrats and find more ILLEGAL ACTIONS for ACORN (who he worked for)to undermine American Citizens their right to Vote.
OBAMA has been "President" for 3 weeks now and he is, by far, the most INCOMPETENT PARTISAN President...ever.
Barack Hussien Obama...18 letters divided by 3 words = 666.
Obama LACKS a spine to do what is RIGHT for American Citizens and unborn children.
Obama is the "Emperors New Clothes" of Politicians and while America starts to "see" what a TERRIBLE PARTISAN WORDSMITH Obama is...America is being destroyed from the "inside out".
Jeffrey Schrembs, American Citizen

#14 Jeff Schrembs (Homepage) on 2009-02-13 21:33 (Reply)

Winners: Pelosi and Reid. Suckered: Obama

#14.1 MIKE F on 2009-02-14 02:08 (Reply)

2009 the year the government became a Totalitarianism state. Yes look up the definition and the Obama Administration fits the description.

#15 Karen on 2009-02-14 07:47 (Reply)

I really enjoy reading the comments, especially the liberal's version of "debate". I am never disappointed by their consistency to bring up the republican's failures as a response to anything the libs do. No matter how corrupt, no matter how much it hurts this country, it is o.k. that they do it because the republicans did bad things too. The liberals are products of failed schooling where the art of debate was never taught, but the art of obfuscation was!

#16 A. Buss on 2009-02-14 10:21 (Reply)

You people need to get it through your thick heads. Liberals don't care about honesty, decency or fairness. To think that they do is the first and worst assumption you can make.
Liberals do not like you, nor do they like the America they live in.
Liberals will stab you in the back for any reason. To believe you can be civil with them is a mistake.

#17 gus on 2009-02-15 10:58 (Reply)

The conservative answer (nevermind "Republican," that's over) to being responsible for years of failed policy and ecomomic calamity, then being thrown out of office by the voters, is to become delusional. It's all everybody else's fault! It wasn't us!
Now we have a popular president who has successfully passed a bill to begin to deal with the economic mess conservatives left behind, and what do they do? Nothing. Vote NO. Voters will remember.

#18 don on 2009-02-15 13:17 (Reply)

Don, you are apparently drunk on Obama Kool-Ade. For starters, please specify a single Bush economic policy that created our current financial situation. Wait, I'll help you out. THERE ISN'T ONE! Bush had a solid economy for six years. Even the Left's beloved George Soros recently wrote that the financial crisis is primarily due to the past 18 months of failed loans associated with Fannie Mae, et al. Let's see Don, who created that problem? Bush? Nope. Carter started it in 1977, Clinton made it worse in 1995, and Bawny Fwank and company ignored all warning signs and said that all was well. Then these bad loans started to fail, as did the many banks that used those bad loans as collateral.

So, Don, you are woefully incorrect in your statements, and you are horrible drunk on the Messiah's love juice. Try doing some research for just a minute and you might actually learn something. Don't bother responding unless you can counter the raw facts I've just presented. I know you can't do that, so have a nice day.

#18.1 Loud Talker (Homepage) on 2009-02-15 17:38 (Reply)

Hold on a second here. I don't agree with Don that W. is the beginning and end of all bad-ness, but it is important to recognize the errors and failures of our 43rd President.

W. and Karl Rove fixated on maximizing Hispanic homeownership as much as the Clintons--and like the Clintons Bush/Rove effectively ignored the problem with lending to the uncreditworthy in pursuit of their political goal of converting Hispanics into Republicans by bribery.

Meanwhile B/R deluded themselves, and attempted to delude others, about the success their HIspandering had in acquiring additional GOP votes.

W/Rove didn't START the diversity depression, but their willingness, even eagerness, to embrace and accelerate wrong-headed Democratic policies that have lead to a world-wide meltdown in credit markets and a completely unforced and unnecessary recession was a blunder of the first rank.

The result: multi-trillion dollar economic losses and multi-million voter losses. At least when the Dems throw the economy into chaos they gain from it electorally.

Sure, W. made some small noises about being responsible, and Frank, et. al. were irresponsible and stupid. But W. was complicit, at the very least.

Republicans who say "W. did nothing wrong" are undermining their credibility, and delaying the day when voters will trust Republicans on economic issues again.

W. screwed up. Rove screwed up. They spent like Democrats and pandered like Democrats. Voters liked it so much they ended up voting for real Democrats, who spend and pander MORE.

The lesson for Republicans was articulated more than forty years ago, most famously by some actor from California who said: now is a time for choosing.

Given a choice between real Democrats and a cheap imitation, the voters will always choose the real thing. We must offer a choice, not an echo.

Being a Republican means saying no. If you can't say no, go ahead and switch parties. You're Arlen Specter in your heart already.

#18.1.1 David Rogers on 2009-02-16 11:23 (Reply)

n.b.: the enormous growth of the sub-prime time-bomb on W.s watch. It was planted by Carter and Clinton, and nourished by Dodd and Frank, but W. didn't defuse it, and he cheered while the fuse grew short.

As the chart below shows, $4.2 trillion in CRA dollars was committed from 1992 through 2005. In contrast, $8.8 billion was negotiated from 1977 through 1991. More than 2/3 of the explosion happened on W.'s watch--in his first term alone (I haven't been able to find data on the second-term meltdown).

http://www.communityinvestmentnetwork.org/nc/single-news-item-states/article/ncrc-documents-trillions-of-cra-dollars-in-communities-since-1977-cra-commitments-1977-2005/?tx_ttnews%5bbackPid%5d=760&cHash=9fc71fab08

Here's W.'s HUD advocating sub-prime lending: http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr04-006.cfm&CFID=13038624&CFTOKEN=76546918

And here's the W. himself, pouring gasoline on the fire: http://www.policyalmanac.org/social_welfare/archive/wh_minority_housing.shtml

#18.1.1.1 David Rogers on 2009-02-16 17:52 (Reply)

You are correct about one thing, Don: the voters will remember!

#18.2 Tom Elia on 2009-02-16 14:31 (Reply)

Dumb Dumb Dumb Democrats. Another talking point/Bush bashing loon. "GOP ran the economy into the ground these past eight-years." No matter who was in charge, when unemployment was at records lows, all we got was hate Bush this and hate Bush that. Now we can just look back and reflect on Bush economics, and it wasn't so bad. The banking industry and the housing had been corrupted by Democrats. Bush, McCain, Greenspan all warning of dire consequences, all Democrats putting up resistance; see video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM&NR=1 . Dodd, Frank, Kerry and Obama all getting fat donations from those groups.

#19 John Patti on 2009-02-16 16:05 (Reply)

You folks have been listening too much to serial liar Rush Limbaugh. Huge tax cuts for the rich and huge deficit spending for wars, plus wildly unregulated capitalism and pure greed on Wall Street banks and financial institutions, all part of the conservative mantra, created the catstrophe conservatives are responsible for today. Now, slaughtered by American voters in the election, and reduced to an abject minority white male Southern party, they are the party of "No."

#20 Anonymous on 2009-02-16 16:55 (Reply)

Um, how do you know who listens to Rush Limbaugh, Don?

I don't.

By the bye, 6.1% of President Obama's 7.25%-victory margin came from the 18-29 age cohort, which would seem to blow out of the water your assertion that the Repubs have become the 'white male Southern party.'

But I'll bet it sounds good at the water cooler with your other, fellow travelers on the triumphalist Left!

#20.1 Tom Elia on 2009-02-16 23:12 (Reply)

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The Transparency of 'Change'

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