Republican Rep. Peter King: Obama’s stimulus plan needs more infrastucture spending.
Republican Rep. Peter King: Obama’s stimulus plan needs more infrastucture spending.
Today, Rep. John L. Mica (R-FL) called the infrastructure spending in President Obama’s recovery package “almost minuscule,” criticizing Obama for not funding rail more generously. Matt Yglesias called him a “Republican worth listening to.” Add another to the list: today on MSNBC, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) said he would like to see more infrastructure spending:
KING: In fact, it’s not often that I vote with Congressman Nadler. But he’s going to have an amendment tonight to increase the mass transit money I think by several billion dollars. I’ll be voting for that. Even that is not enough. We do need more money on infrastructure spending. … We need more on the infrastructure. We need more on the infrastructure.
“I am conflicted. I said this is a very close call to me. But on balance, I’m going to vote no,” he said. Watch it:
Rep. Pete DeFazio (D-OR) recently remarked, “I think he’s [Obama's] ill-advised by Larry Summers. Larry Summers hates infrastructure.”
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I know that, eventually, Obama is planning that his work program is going to be the avenue to shore up the infrastructure of the United States, but I have to agree that there are serious defects in the country’s infrastructure that need to be taken care of now, not sometime in the near future.
January 28th, 2009 at 5:43 pmOK, let’s put the Washington Mall part back in for King’s vote. Seriously, they should and if R’s complain say “hey, you asked for it, go blame King.”
Although I also think that transportation infrastructure such as light rail should be a much higher priority than it’s turning out to be.
I suspect they have to make up reasons to justify voting against it at this point.
January 28th, 2009 at 5:44 pmJebus. You could hand these Repuke morons a pile of gold and they’d still find something to b*tch about.
January 28th, 2009 at 5:44 pmpassed
January 28th, 2009 at 5:46 pmActually, I’d like to see more infrastructure, too. Hopefully, it will get passes soon. California is handing out IOUs.
January 28th, 2009 at 5:47 pmObama stated he doesn’t want “group think”. He and the U.S. is already suffering from it!
January 28th, 2009 at 5:52 pmTax cuts DO NOT create jobs…period.
Business’ that get tax cuts do not hire people who are not needed, as our economy gets worse and worse (and it’s not coming back) people will buy less and less.
When a business has products that people can’t buy and they have inventory they DO NOT hire more people, they lay them off.
Then we have even more people who cannot buy stuff, and the vicious cycle goes on and on.
A nation of consumers cannot continue to consume, it is unattainable, and soon caves in on itself.
Capitalism is a failed system that only profits the few at the expense of everyone else.
Get ready for a Road Warrior society in the near future unless we turn into a nation that produces stuff and consumes less.
January 28th, 2009 at 5:53 pmUh-oh. Rep. King and Rep. Mica are now going to have to apologize to Rush Limbaugh.
January 28th, 2009 at 5:54 pmMore infastructure spending and less on trying to provide contraceptives! What BS!
January 28th, 2009 at 6:02 pmMore infrastructure spending and less on faith-based initiatives that haven’t kept track of where our money was spent. Seriously, they said they didn’t keep records. How the feck does that happen?
January 28th, 2009 at 6:05 pmA: They want tax cuts, and only tax cuts will do.
January 28th, 2009 at 6:06 pmFailing that..
B: They won’t have anything to do with mass transit as that takes money out of the oil companies pockets.
Failing that…
C: They can always cling to their stupid prejudices and sex fears as that plays nicely to the tiny base they still serve (they sure as hell aren’t serving the rest of us).
Anything but actually GOVERN!
First the Repukes were saying that infrastructure wouldn’t boost the economy because there wasn’t enough shovel ready projects and since it wouldn’t stimulate the economy soon they didn’t want it. But they want more tax breaks that haven’t worked in 8 years and take even longer. They’re all a bunch of whining babies just like windsor.
January 28th, 2009 at 6:07 pmRail not Roads… Rail, Rail, Rail!!! And Barges!!!
January 28th, 2009 at 6:13 pmHmm, One gallon of diesel pulls one ton of cargo 59 miles by truck, 202 miles by train… citation and citation
It’s simply amazing how many ideas these GOPers have lately to “help” America when for the past eight years all they had to say was “yes, sir, whatever you say, sir, how high, sir”.
Note to journalist: NO ONE CARES what the GOP has to say these days. In case you missed the news, there’s a new president and a Democratic controlled congress.
PEACE
January 28th, 2009 at 6:14 pmWindsor – I realize that you are an idiot but look -
Unregulated Capitalism doesn’t work – hence where our nation is today.
The extremely greedy got very rich at the expense of the entire nation, and guess what, those jobs that went away….they are not coming back…until we as a nation are poorer than the chinese.
Suck on that, idiot.
January 28th, 2009 at 6:15 pmsome sanity among the insane
I have a problem with obama’s bill as well, he is trying to fund the programs with “tax cuts”, a ponzi plan
he needs to fund the program by eliminating the cause of the problem in the first place
this problem was caused by eliminating tax load from the wealthy had having middle class pay those bills, a redistribution of middle class wealth from us to those who have more money then they will ever spend
we need to go back to the progressive tax structure that made our economy the jewel on the planet, the same progressive ideas our founders wrote about, jefferson and paine, the great thomas’s
plain and simple, obama needs to fund the programs with the middle class assets that were taken from us
January 28th, 2009 at 6:17 pmLeftside Annie Says:
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Jebus. You could hand these Repuke morons a pile of gold and they’d still find something to b*tch about.
And I concur. If a hangnail was omitted from the economic stimulus bill, the GOP would bellyache over that. Not everything in the bill will be an overnight action. Much of the GOP are picking and choosing of what they want inside that bill. They simply don’t want to admit that they want pork in that bill and they are not getting that.
As President Obama said that this is phase I of a stimulus package of much more to ask later. The GOP tend to forget is that many of them had no problem to hand Bush a blank check for the Iraq war and never questioned it. But, this money is long overdue and a dying need for this country in a long road of economic recovery.
January 28th, 2009 at 6:18 pmthey were against it before they were for it or do I have that backwards. Hard to tell with the gop.
January 28th, 2009 at 6:19 pmIt passed without one repug vote.
January 28th, 2009 at 6:25 pmFred, whether they are for or against anything, they vote in lockstep as was just demonstrated with the House vote. Not one single GOPer crossed over to vote “yes”.
And might I just say how young you look? You are under 25, aren’t you? Sorry, couldn’t resist…
PEACE
January 28th, 2009 at 6:28 pmIsnt peter king worried that all those terrust that obama is gonna let loose on us all by closeing gitmo are gonna get on that newly built infastructure and and come visit him or mabey ask him for one of those jobs??? Im surte if he thinks about he will be out there whineing about that next.
January 28th, 2009 at 6:34 pmtell the rethugs to go pound sand or atleast pull there heads out their colective asses and get with the program or keep listening to lush limpballs and become even more irrelevent
You’re so right mom, lockstep is all they have left but it’s a dwindling number…..the real battle will be the senate.
It’ my youthful, idealistic thinking that makes me look so young(I wish). I still play guitar with my college kids though. Jeff has no idea that I was in nam and home before I could vote the first time, against nixon.
January 28th, 2009 at 6:36 pmWe need high speed rail, connecting all major cities at first. Rail is 200 to 300% more efficient than jet aircraft. It would put millions to work and we can eventually run the system through alternative green technology. Limit the tax cuts to only 100 billion, and target it to individuals and families who make less than $100,000 per year.
January 28th, 2009 at 6:51 pmIs this a joke?
Obama’s infrastructure plan would do more in six months than what Bush proposed and got done with his in eight years.
The GOP has now officially jumped the shark. All that’s missing is a Republican sitcom akin to Joanie Loves Chachi or After M*A*S*H
January 28th, 2009 at 8:17 pm“We do need more money on infrastructure spending. … We need more on the infrastructure. We need more on the infrastructure.”
Just when I think I hate everything about Republicans they say stuff like this.
It’s going to take a lot more though to keep their party from dying.
January 28th, 2009 at 8:57 pmAbsolutely agree with the Congressman and his Republican colleagues. As one small example, I’m sure country club clubhouses across this great nation are in disrepair and deserving of massive federal spending, Pop that rider onto TARP next time and it’ll pass unanimously.
Schmucks.
January 28th, 2009 at 9:56 pmthere is a $100 billion PER YEAR in infrastructure spending sitting in the useless monstrosity called the defense budget. At more than $700 billion PER YEAR on the books, and hundreds of billions more PER YEAR off the books, Americans’ wealth has been drained buying useless bombs instead being used for job producing infrastructure.
January 28th, 2009 at 10:40 pmOINK,OINK,OINK! Sausage,pork chops! Get your pork here! Step right up!
January 29th, 2009 at 12:43 amUnreal, but it’s in as part of the bill:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87322
What the heck does that have to do with stimulus??? This whole thing is about a sudden, swift removal of our freedom and subjugation to One World Government — they’ve bought the banks, now working on stripping every last vestage of privacy and freedom!
January 29th, 2009 at 12:48 amYeah, for all of this talk of “infrastructure” and “the new green economy,” that doesn’t seem like enough.
January 29th, 2009 at 8:11 amadviceguy_07 Says:
Oh my GOD. Did you REALLY link to WorldNUTDaily and then whine some stuidity about the one world government? Adjust your tinfoil hat, increase your mediction, give it a day or so then get back to us.
January 29th, 2009 at 1:03 pmlaworder Says:
Good idea that would be a good start
January 29th, 2009 at 1:04 pmKing was one of the RepubliCon a$$wipes behind the Criminal Bush stealing the White House. King is one of the RepubliCon a$$wipes behind the Bush Depression. King belongs in prison, for his complicity to treason and war crimes.
January 29th, 2009 at 8:09 pmDumb Question: If repub King were to advance a bill calling for additional funds for infrastructure and convince the other repubs to support it, wouldn’t the additional bill have a good chance of passing ?
In other words, adding more money for infrastructure should be easy for King, if that is really what his complaint is.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:17 pmDuring the presidential and primary campaigns, President Barack Obama promised to fix the nation’s infrastructure and change the mindset that got us into this mess. Unfortunately, his economic advisory team is antithetical to fulfilling this promise. For the most part, they are the same folks who are evangelists for neoliberalism, a fundamental cause of the current crisis. There is nothing new (neo) nor liberal in this ideology. It’s the same debate that the founders had at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, leading to the inclusion of slavery as the only economic system actually mentioned in this document, and thereby undermining every core principal on which the revolution was fought. Neoliberalism is self-centered regressivism found in conservative capitalist dogma with one primary aim: the accumulation of capital for a few and the control over the labor of the majority.
Obama is making the same mistake as the founders, compromising with today’s social conservatives whose interests are their own, not the Republic’s. At this time, though certainly he would not agree, he is not a good pack leader despite the fact he won. His fundamental error is that he does not recognize the fact he is dealing with dominant canine mentalities (alpha males) who, as Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic channel, would say are unstable. And, President Obama lacks the tools to make them balanced and submissive. As we all know, Obama is only now welcoming an actual dog into his social orbit.
Cesar Millan informs us that to rehabilitate unbalanced dogs a good pack leader must use exercise, discipline, and affection. The bankers, unlike the automobile industry, were not fully exercised, not disciplined, but received all kinds of affection from Congress through TARP, which they now use to reward themselves in bonuses while the tax code protects their greed.
Of course, Congress made the problem worst by passing along these billions of dollars of borrowed money without insuring accountability. Obama and Congress must begin again with these folks by unmasking their anonymity and bring them before the American people to testify about their actions. But, rather than Congress spending 1000s of unproductive hours grilling them, use the 4th estate, the press, to do so. Congress just needs to provide the environment. In the House, I would recommend that Dennis Kucinich be appointed as the bulldog to get this done, give him a budget, and he will insure that these bankers and their institutions are properly exorcised before the press. Rather than whole committees sitting idly by during the Q&A, rotate congressmen and women as one would do in a filibuster and waste the time of these folks as they are doing with the American people. Their anonymity protects them and this is one way to put their mugs before the public so that the entire nation knows who they are.
Unless there are consequences for their bad habits and are rehabilitated, the bankers and Wall Street will continue to work against the national interests and not respect the President nor Congress. Their job is to accumulate capital for their clients and themselves. Being human, their first interest is themselves. In whose hands are the interests of the American people? They are in our representatives and our representatives must act or be held accountable in ways that a financial collapse could make horrific.
Finally, Rep. Dennis DeFazio needs to invite the President and members of his staff responsible for developing the national recovery act back out to Oregon and show them again how infrastructure projects can create economic development, stimulate local economies, and promote capital flows. However,Larry Summers can be left at home in his sandbox. He is an unrepentant, insecure canine who discovered that bad economic theory masked by computer-generated charts could mystify computer and economic illiterate folks and make him appear grander than he actually is. Better yet, Obama should be pressured to appoint a more progressive economist.
January 30th, 2009 at 10:58 am