Recession Reality: Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint’s South Carolina.
Recession Reality: Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint’s South Carolina.
South Carolina Sens. Lindsey Graham (R) and Jim DeMint (R) have been two of the most ardent opponents of President Obama’s economic recovery plan. “They’re trying to jam through the Congress a bill that will have long-lasting consequences that will not stimulate the economy but grow the government,” said Graham on Fox News last week. “This bill is not a stimulus, ladies and gentlemen; it is a mugging. It is a fraud,” said DeMint last month. The CBO estimates that the Senate’s stimulus plan could create 3.9 million jobs by 2010. Instead of opposing it, the South Carolina senators should take note of the “recession reality” in their state. Watch it:
As the video above notes, South Carolinians are facing pay cuts, lay offs, and the elimination of Medicaid benefits. Some families are so hard hit that they’re even “getting rid of the family pet because they can’t afford it anymore.”
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The stimulus package isn’t about Americans, in the mind of Republicans, its about political gamesmanship. They are so determined to ‘win’, that they forgot what they’re supposed to be playing for.
February 10th, 2009 at 11:56 amGraham certainly wasnt worried about spending when it came to paying for the welfare state of Iraq or no bid contracts to Halliburton.
February 10th, 2009 at 11:59 amReality, this is linsey graham you are talking about……
February 10th, 2009 at 12:00 pmAnd just where was Graham when Dubya was growing the goobermint at record rates and creating record deficits?
February 10th, 2009 at 12:01 pmDon’t forget that South Carolina kept Strom Thurmond in the Senate long past his sell-by date, so I’m not all that impressed with the overall intelligence of the voting public just south of us (of course, I’m not always impressed with the overall intelligence of the voting public here in NC, but we DID turn blue last November!).
Graham and DeMint will remain steadfast in their opposition to ANY stimulus package Obama and the Dems try to pass — purely because it’s Obama and the Dems trying to pass it. They will tell their constituents how bad it is for America to recover the economy using any method other than whopping tax cuts for the rich, and the non-rich guns-and-religion clingers will nod and believe.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:01 pmNo, Senator Graham, that first $350 billion of the TARP money was a mugging, a fraud. If your fellow Republican Hank Paulson had his way, we wouldn’t know how a dime of that money was spent. BTW, have you hauled Paulson up before the committee to ask him why he spent the money in a different way than he told Congress he would? Because, you know, to us taxpayers, it looks like he robbed us blind to enrich his friends.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:01 pmFolks, we may be witnessing the permanant demise of the GOP. By obstructing the stimulus, they appear to hold party ideaology over what is good for their own country. How about the southern Senators wanting the big three auto makers to fail, so that their individual companies and states could take advantage. That is not American – it is financial partisanship. The citizens of this country are watching very closely. If the GOP plays politics with OUR LIVES, then they are destined for the trash heap. The GOP are uneducated thugs.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:03 pmAnd yet, South Carolinians are so anti-Dem that they’ll continue to vote against their interests in order to maintain that RED designation.
It’s all about teh gay, teh fetus and teh turrists. Unless they find themselves getting their mail delivered to their cars, don’t expect much change from S.C.
PEACE
February 10th, 2009 at 12:03 pmWho are the people of SC going to believe, Demint and Graham or their own lying eyes.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:06 pmLindsey Graham threatens President Obama on upcoming economic problems like the Housing and Banking sectors
http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/lindsey-graham-threatens-president-obam
also, just found this:
GOP Group Threatens to Campaign Against Republican Stimulus Backers
February 10th, 2009 at 12:07 pmFOXNews – 49 minutes ago
The National Republican Trust PAC is threatening to provide financial support for primary challengers to any stimulus-supporting Republican in the next election.
The southern states, I am afraid, are just not up to the task of being part of the nation. Maybe they are still angry the civil war didn’t work out. Maybe they are mad that their own party has slid into a ditch. I don’t know. I do know that their region has been hit very hard and they need help in getting back to work. But as Spencers Mom says, they continue to vote against their very own interests. Just to stay a red state? Wow, maybe they are just pissed off.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:07 pmUh oh StratRat, you’re going to summon the troll JDavis back to explain it to us. Well to try to explain it.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:09 pmWith the Republicans, it is always, “Republican Party First, America Second”.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:10 pmSC Governor Mark Sanford has been an anti-stimulus big mouth too. I think the only SC member of congress who voted for the package was Clyburn.
I really wish the state of South Carolina could be denied any funds from the stimulus. Don’t give them one nickel!! Then we would see some light bulbs going off over some citizens heads and hopefully some heads rolling in 2010, 2012 and beyond.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:11 pmHere’s an unemployment map, from August of last year. I saw a more recent one last week that I can’t find at the moment. At any rate, South Carolina is at present in the same high unemployment category…
February 10th, 2009 at 12:13 pmhttp://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20080924/
Come on, folks. The republicans were very fiscal with the TARP money. They knew exactly what it was to be spent on, and made Paulson lay out a carefully designed program of distribution that showed strong positive economic growth for every dollar spent. They were fiscally responsible over all of Bush’s expenditures, dragging out sessions, fillibustering and making their cases for careful, planned, and demonstrably productive use of all money.
And the earth is 6000 years old.
And dinosaurs are a hoax.
And elvis works at a gas station in Kansas.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:19 pmRepublicans hate ordinary Americans, even from their own states. Sometimes I think they are just evil.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:20 pmlarkohio Says:
Republicans hate ordinary Americans, even from their own states. Sometimes I think they are just evil.
Is self-serving greed REALLY evil? Come on.
Republicans don’t hate ordinary Americans. That is just not true. Republicans hate everyone who is “not-republican” with equal zest and inhumanity.
Republican POLITICIANS hate everyone who is “not-a-rich-republican.”
February 10th, 2009 at 12:24 pmRethuglicans do not go to DC to help their constituents…it is about power and how much they can accumulate so they can take more from the constituents. Republicans are basically bad people who have a hard time showing compassion or love for their fellow citizens.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:24 pmIt took 30+ years for these right wing bible thumping southern morons to achieve power. They’re not going away overnight. However, the state of the economy and their ‘talibanesque’ insurgency may speed up that process. God I hope so. The republicans and the Raygun revolution set this country back 30-40 years.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:25 pmGraham continually knocked Obama about his ‘lack of experience’ during the campaign, conveniently never acknowledging the fact he had the SAME LENGTH of TENURE in the Senate as Obama.
He became McCain’s personal servant while Lieberman served as chief whisperer. Wow!
I don’t hate all Republicans. I am beginning to grow very, very tired of a certain handful, including Graham, Cantor, DeMint, Sessions, McHenry and a few others.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way to educate voters in their districts is to allow these same politicians to display their ignorance, prejudice and racism in public on a daily basis.
…much like their ‘President’, Boys’rUs Limdick.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:53 pmDon’t confuse those 2 buffoons with anybody that gives a royal sh*t about the people in their states. The only time they want to hear from them is when it’s vote time maybe it’s time for those people in South Carolina to send the clowns a message.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:55 pmWell, when you vote against your own best interests this is who you get – Graham and DeMint
February 10th, 2009 at 1:02 pmYou know, we could save the country a lot of money by taking out every single infrastructure program and jbos program and tuition benefit and tax cut that was destined for the people of South Carolina. That’d save a few billion dollars right there.
I’m sure Senators DeMint and Graham would not mind this – in fact, they’d applaud their state not contributing to the “national mugging.” I’m sure their constituents would appreciate it as well.
February 10th, 2009 at 1:19 pmMaybe South Carolina needs to secede from the union again. We’d all be better off.
February 10th, 2009 at 1:22 pmcitizen_pain Says:
“The republicans and the Raygun revolution set this country back 30-40 years.”
Could you imagine how advanced our Country’s economy, oil independence, education, general health, standing in the world, technological and scientific advances would be now if it weren’t for Ronnie Raygun and 30 years of regressive policy? I have quite a vivid imagination and I can’t fathom how far we could have come. I mean the first actions taken by King Ronnie were to rip the solar panels off of the White House while simultaneously making traitorous arms deals with a country that was holding Americans hostage and the Republicans never looked forward since. We may have lost the last thirty years to these fools but NOW is our time. We now have a President with the capacity to right the ship and point us towards the horizon. Let the Repugs live in the past, pining for their dead patriarch, longing for the days before the internet, youtube and a watchful citizenry.
February 10th, 2009 at 1:42 pmSouth Carolina. Last in education. State Motto: Thank God for Mississipi.
February 10th, 2009 at 1:44 pmOr better yet, let the Repugs look FORWARD to a future dictated by Rush, Sean, O’Reiley, Colture, Malkin and Palin. Either way they are locked in a perpetual cycle of non-progress due to the simple fact that they are Republicans. For years they tried to make “Liberal”, “Progressive” and “Democrat” into dirty words that people would be ashamed of admitting to being a party to. Well, that sure backfired on them. The identifier “Republican” will long hold conotations of failed policy, failed economies, failed military efforts. In one word…FAILURE! Suck on THAT Limpballs!
February 10th, 2009 at 1:47 pmShoeless Joe Jackson of SC is kicking Graham/DeMint ass just about now in the netherworld. A real country boy unleashed could kick these phonies into next week without straining any. Shoeless Joe’s dedicated playing field in Greenville stands for the country folks who live in SC, not these self serving phony a-holes.
Worst possible kind of representation to be had of my home state to go to DC.
February 10th, 2009 at 2:10 pm“According to Center for American Progress’ Will Straw, the “centrist” cuts to the Senate recovery bill will cost South Carolina between 7,225 – 8,785 jobs.”
Hey, what’s another 8,000 job losses for the sake of politics?
Again, people putting party ahead of country. When will Repugs get it that you are supposed to put country before party.
It’s real easy to remember. C comes before P ie. country before party!
February 10th, 2009 at 2:10 pmPerhaps another Sherman’s march to the sea?
February 10th, 2009 at 2:25 pmNothing good comes from the South – NOTHING GOOD!
February 10th, 2009 at 2:25 pmSouth Carolina Sens. Lindsey Graham (R) and Jim DeMint (R)…
It’s still the Blue against the Gray.
But the working-class is learning more and more who has been screwing them and it isn’t the forces of Progress.
February 10th, 2009 at 2:41 pmOur local shelter which usually doesn’t have pedigree dogs now has several older pedigree dogs that were dropped off by their owners.
Americans love their pets but with this downturn in the economy, more and more people are putting their pets up for adoption. When the choice becomes feed the family or feed the pets, it is the pets that lose.
If these Senators wanted to really know and understand what is going on then they need to spend more time with the average American in their districts and spend less time with the big money people.
President Obama was correct in his judgment when he talked about the isolation of Washington DC politicians.
February 10th, 2009 at 3:44 pmIt was the delegates from South Carolina and Georgia that wanted to protect the right to own slaves during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia, PA. I not convinced that either of these states has progressed much beyond the mindset of 1787.
February 10th, 2009 at 3:49 pmctcadguy Says
February 10th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Nothing good comes from the South – NOTHING GOOD!
___________________________________________________________
Now, now — I happen to like Coca-Cola (Atlanta, GA). Pepsi, too (New Bern, NC).
Martin Luther King, Jr. came from the South. So did Jimmy Carter. Louis Armstrong. Hank Aaron. Helen Keller. George Washington Carver. Elvis Presley. James Earl Jones. Edward R. Murrow. Maya Angelou. And many, many other people who have contributed in positive ways to our political scene, our sports, our entertainment, our business, and have invented things that have changed our society forever.
And let’s talk about geographic treasures — like the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Everglades. The Smoky Mountains. And some of the softest whitest sand beaches in the country.
Yes, a non-southerner can get blinded by the history of slavery, Jim Crow, and states that pride themselves in their “redness”. But that’s not all the South is. Not by a long shot. I happen to live in a very definitely southern state that voted for Obama last November.
February 10th, 2009 at 4:01 pmmiss molly – apologies if I offended you. It’s just that the good people in SC and GA that stay home on election day don’t realize how their absence at the polls effect the rest of the nation. I don’t really believe that most of the citizens of SC and GA are racist or ignorant. And yes, there are some really beautiful places in the South and I have met many wonderful people from the South. I especially like NC.
February 10th, 2009 at 4:58 pmOUR biggest problem is that we had NO ONE to run against LG and I can only hope we have someone to go against DeMint. Neither, I feel, are worth the space they take up OR the air they breath! Scum repos!
February 10th, 2009 at 4:58 pmCats are flyfishn….sorry to burst your bubble but I worked the polls elections day and when the polls opened, we had a rather long line and it continued almost to the end of the session. OUR precint was blue but the city and state went red. I can’t stand Sanford (gov), Graham (cancer) or DeMint (cancer). Graham ran unopposed. Hitler or Stalin would have gotten MY vote over Graham. I write him fairly regularly but get stupid form letters not even addressing MY concerns ion return.
February 10th, 2009 at 5:09 pmBTW…. I saw plenty of blacks asking about how to vote straight ticket repug. Even some of the well educated blacks in our precinct. I also saw plenty of white asking about how to do it Demoicratic. WE all aren’t racist pigs here. Not in MY precinct. Can’t speak for others. :wink, wink:
ctcadguy
February 10th, 2009 at 5:14 pmPLEASE DON”T ever come down to our world renown beaches. WE dont want you.
Please don’t paint all of us in South Carolina with the Graham/DeMint brush. There are more liberals/Democrats here than it seems, but our state party hasn’t run enough candidates. I wrote in Michael Cone against Lindsay this time, but he had lost the Democratic primary to an outsider who came in at the last minute, a formerly registered republican from another state who was backed by the flat tax people, a sideways way to run against Graham. All that said, you all may get your wish about our state not getting any stimulus money; Sanford is so “principled” he may just turn it down.
February 10th, 2009 at 11:42 pmThis is a direct result of conservative ideology run amuck!
Tax cuts tax cuts deregulation deregulation.
February 11th, 2009 at 2:53 am