‘Read the stimulus’ advocate Dick Armey slammed for not bothering to read the stimulus.
‘Read the stimulus’ advocate Dick Armey slammed for not bothering to read the stimulus.
Yesterday, the House Oversight and Government Reform committee held a hearing on the implementation of the Recovery Act, also known as the stimulus. Republican members invited former GOP Majority Leader Dick Armey, who now leads the corporate front group FreedomWorks, to testify as their expert witness. After listening to Armey argue at length about the merits of even having any government intervention in the economy, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) asked him if he supported the unemployment compensation provisions of the bill. Armey said he might, but conceded that he had not read that portion of the bill. Van Hollen then extracted a confession that Armey had not even read the bill at all, even though he was appearing as an expert and repeatedly goes before the press to criticize the stimulus:
VAN HOLLEN: Let me ask you think. You keep saying ‘if there were,’ did you read the Economic Recovery bill?
ARMEY: No I didn’t. I had no reason to read it, I wasn’t voting on it.
VAN HOLLEN: You’re commenting on it an awful lot, both here and in the press, about the Economic Recovery bill. We ask members of Congress to read it when they vote on it and are considering it. You’ve said a lot about it, so I’m a little surprised that you have not read it. [...] It seems to me we owe it to people we are communicating with we have an understanding an read the information.
Watch it:
Ironically, as part of an effort to obstruct and derail the bill, Armey launched an online petition called “ReadTheStimulus.org.” In another bit of irony, although he postures as a fierce ideological opponent of the stimulus, Armey actually worked as a lobbyist to help businesses gain from the stimulus. According to disclosures, he was paid to lobby on behalf of Cape Wind Associates and the Medicines Company on the stimulus. His son, Scott Armey, who runs his own lobbying shop, has also worked with businesses to gain stimulus funds.
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Why should Dick Armey read the stimulus? He doesn’t need pesky, liberal things like “facts” or “reality” to tell him that the bill provided massive efforts to curb unemployment and extend benefits. No, he just has a gut feeling that it wasn’t in the bill and that any attempt to read it was a waste of time. He’s got truthiness.
There ya have it: the GOP’s expert admits complete ignorance.
November 20th, 2009 at 9:56 amLike most right wingers, Armey doesn’t believe an informed opinion requires reading… all it requires is a loud voice and a 2 second sound byte for Fox News.
The Democrats have to be careful pushing this little bon mot, tho… remember the Patriot Act and how many Dems voted that monstrousity into law and never read it?
November 20th, 2009 at 9:58 amsigh… another child left behind.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:01 amWAY TO GO, Rep. Chris Van Hollen!
November 20th, 2009 at 10:02 amHe just gives the FoxNews dummies their daily quotient of stupid hyperbole.
In the meantime, Armey and his fellow billionaires are ripping off the taxpayer blind, gladly putting all that nasty government money into their own accounts
while we have to go without, as far as infrastructure repair and health care.
I really hate the Teabagger movement, and I really despise the loathesome hypocrites who are capitalizing off it.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:02 amARMEY: No I didn’t. I had no reason to read it, I wasn’t voting on it.
I only the expert telling people how to vote on it and why to vote it down. I dont need to know the small stuff. And why are you asking me this question you must be one of those liburl democrat, i talk about as well.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:02 amThere is a reason we have five senses, Mr. Armey.
If you “smell a dead cat coming from the neighbor’s yard”, why are you assuming it is a dead cat without verifying it with your own eyes? It could be a different dead animal, or it could be something given the scent of a dead cat. Heck, it could be a cat that is not dead yet and that could use some rescue.
Don’t just depend on the sense of hearing (which is not the same as “listening”), Dick; depend on the sense of sight.
That helps the mind come to a consensus decision. Leaving decisions to one sense out of five will likely lead you to assumptions and not verifications.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:04 amAH! Wasn’t this jackass screaming a couple weeks back about how the GOP should get time to read the whole thing? And now he’s saying he didn’t bother?! I can’t stand it.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:06 amDick Armey is doing more harm to the United States of America than Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda combined. For the sake of our country, someone should liberate this traitor.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:06 amYou would think Dick Armey a former economics professor could easily read the Economis Recovery Bill.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:06 amGeesh. The Dick Armey giving “expert” testimony before a House Committee? What’s next? Sarah Quaylin doing a “members-only” book-signing in the well of the House?
The only saving grace in this is that Armey made an arse out of himself in the process. That’s good; however, since when did a greedy right-wing lobbyist have anything worthwhile to say?
November 20th, 2009 at 10:11 amThis says a lot about those who selected Dick Armey as an ‘expert witness’. It is emblematic of the Republican party’s contempt for the ‘work’ of governing. They don’t believe that government can or should work, so they refuse to participate in the work that they were elected to do.
The fact that government CAN work at all, given the number of Republicans involved shows not only the extraordinary dedication of the non-Republican members of government, but also the great potential that government actually has when Republicans cease to have the power to sabotage it.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:13 amSo now I’m wondering exactly how much of our tax money that was put alloted for this stimulus package is ending up in the pockets of lobbyists. These rightie basturds slam the stim left and right for political ends, then promptly get on the phone from their lobby offices looking for a handout.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:14 amShorter Dick Armey:
“How dare you suggest that I should do something to justify my salary?”
November 20th, 2009 at 10:15 amClowns like Armey may not believe in big government, but they certainly do believe in big government money, and lots and lots of it.
Blessed are the rich, for they shall take over the earth.
Evangelicalism has become the perverted whore of materialism and greed.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:16 amThis jerk alone should be reason enough to ban the process of political lobbying.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:16 am#1 HYPOCRITE
November 20th, 2009 at 10:17 am#2 I’ve never been able to take anything said by a person named “Dick Armey” very seriously.
#3 Its amazing that the GOP is this publicly retarded but continues to amass larger electoral support for the next two elections. How do we stop them?
We just went from the deepest recession since the Great Depression with 6% NEGATIVE GDP to 3.5% GDP GROWTH.
How can anyone in their right mind claim that the Stimulus did NOT work?
November 20th, 2009 at 10:20 amContinued Armey, “it was proposed by a Democrat and if successful might help Democrats politically. What more reason do I need to oppose it?”
November 20th, 2009 at 10:20 amI am sick to death of these lying, cheating, stealing, two-faced, backstabbing, double-dealing, reich-winger, nazi @$$holes!!!! Never a decent idea, just shoot down everything Obama tries to do. And for what?! Money. This country is run by corporate whores, and it seems like the only way to fix it is illegal.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:21 amSorry, I’m a little flustered by all the right wing obctructionism, I’ve had my vent now.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:22 amExpert witness my a$$. Freedom Works and the Lewin Group–the best the GOP has to offer.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:23 amThe Armey of Dick is going by the way of dinosaur,because of their hypocrisy,lies,fear mongering and the use of the Bible as a means to criticize and attack the President Obama and his family is a sad commentary on the Re-pukes of today.Thanks to Mr.Van Hollen Dick and his character have been exsposed(no pun intended).
November 20th, 2009 at 10:24 amSpeaking of reading bills and Republican complaints about Congessmen not reading bills, Republicans apparently are backing down on demanding the health care bill be read. I think it would be smart for the Democrats to go ahead and read the entire bill on the floor of the Senate. That way if Republicans do not sit through the reading they will not be able to complain about not reading the bill. Any Republican Senator who is not on the floor for the reading can be called out for hypocrisy. I would say read it real slow take a couple of days to read it and let them sweat it out.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:25 amDefinitions-
Republican expert witness: someone who is ignorant of the facts.
Lobbyist: overpaid leech sucking tax dollars from the public treasury for private interests.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:41 amThank God for progressive sites and news for exposing these guys. For years they have manipulating behind the scenes to stike down everything that helps working class people. MSM should expose these guys for what they are. The rich elite who suck money away from working class people.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:41 amFreeDumb Works has a lot of Dicks in that Armey.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:42 amHe’s named “Dick” for a reason.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:43 amI remember when Dick insulted Joan Walsh from Salon on Chris(Tweety) Matthews show. And Chris didn’t even defend her. Some other guy had to denounce him. Really classy.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:45 amThe GOP members of the house invited Dick Armey
as a witness to what,
the corporate manipulation of American opinion?
November 20th, 2009 at 11:46 amWhat’s with Armey twiddling his thumbs, on the clip,
while answering Rep. Van Hollen’s questions?
Maybe it’s his personal technique to generate more lies.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:58 am“Did you read…”
Thats a typical liberal gotcha question!
Van Hollen knows perfectly well (as do Katie Couric) Republicans dont read anything. So liberals always ask them these “What do you read?” questions just to make Republicans look stupid.
But when Republicans try the same thing those snobby liberals can always brag about how much they read.
Like Al Gore here “Look at me! I’m so smart! I read the entire energy bill!”
http://mediamatters.org/research/200904270008?f=h_latest
/snark
November 20th, 2009 at 12:02 pmIt would seem to me that this video clip could be used against the Republicans. A few TV ads with Dick Armey saying he hasn’t read the bills would be effective even with the health care bill. The ads would be an embarrassment to the Republicans and take the wind out of their sails about the reading of bills. I firmly believe that the Dems need to fight back with ads that essentially hoist the Republicans by their own petards.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:07 pmPretty accurate.
Fellowship leader Doug Coe is described as preaching a leadership model, and a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, comparable to the blind devotion that Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Chairman Mao, and Pol Pot demanded from their followers.[19] In one videotaped 1989 lecture series, Coe said, “Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler were three men. Think of the immense power these three men had…But they bound themselves together in an agreement…Two years before they moved into Poland, these three men had…systematically a plan drawn out…to annihilate the entire Polish population and destroy by numbers every single house…every single building in Warsaw and then to start on the rest of Poland.” Coe adds that it worked; they killed six and a half million “Polish people.” Though he calls Nazis “these enemies of ours,” he compares their commitment to Jesus’ demands: “Jesus said, ‘You have to put me before other people. And you have to put me before yourself.’ Hitler, that was the demand to be in the Nazi party. You have to put the Nazi party and its objectives ahead of your own life and ahead of other people.”[19][20]
Coe also compares Jesus’ teachings with the Red Guard during the Chinese Cultural Revolution:
November 20th, 2009 at 12:14 pmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fellowship_(Christian_organization)
These people are comparing Jesus followers blind devotion of Hitlers, Mao and Stalin and how their followers must have blind devotion.
It cant end well.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:19 pmDick Armey = loser lying pr!ck
November 20th, 2009 at 12:23 pmHe’s the “A” typical Rushpub HYPOCRITE.
…and he’s a fat, sweaty, angry pig.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:36 pmPost 31: okie dokie says:
“What’s with Armey twiddling his thumbs, on the clip,
while answering Rep. Van Hollen’s questions?”
Similar to when he was on Meet the Press and Rachel Maddow sat next to him? You could see how twitchy he was…The more she talked and questioned him, the more twitchy and squirmy he got.
Classic signs of lying?
November 20th, 2009 at 12:39 pmInteresting… An old saying: Before you ask someone to clean their backyard, make sure your backyard is clean first. As much Van Hollen wants to criticize Armey for not reading the stimulus, the lawmakers, themselves, from both parties didn’t read the Patriot Act, but voted and passed a bill that they didn’t read.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:59 pmBy their works shall they be known.
November 20th, 2009 at 1:34 pmDickhead Armey?…is his wife Virginia Foxx by any chance?
November 20th, 2009 at 3:06 pm#34–Never mind that Hitler violated the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and invaded the Soviet Union, leading the USSR to align itself with America and its’ other allies in WWII. I know Stalin got immense pleasure when the Soviets marched triumphantly into Berlin. Hitler was quaking in his boots to the point that he and Braun committed suicide so that they wouldn’t have to face the Soviets.
November 20th, 2009 at 3:36 pmAhh the irony…IT BURNS!!
November 20th, 2009 at 8:37 pmWhy is it the tea baggers keep looking like fools?
November 21st, 2009 at 1:04 amokie dokie says:
What’s with Armey twiddling his thumbs, on the clip,
while answering Rep. Van Hollen’s questions?
Maybe it’s his personal technique to generate more lies
Its one of those body language give-aways that the person is being completely dishonest as he answers questions and he knows it!
November 21st, 2009 at 2:14 amOh, my, Dick Armey, dumb, dumber, and dumbest yet.
November 21st, 2009 at 7:15 amThank you “Lee Fang” for the artical.
From the link “Read the stimulus.org” and to another link “RedStates” was able to post on that sit to a Commentators evaluation of the stimulus.
Above there is mention of history and leaders who have been highlighted as religion seems to enter their dialog.
But this is serious when we become a part of this history.
Could not get over how much the right wing (Empty Barrels) have such a knack for distorting. In this case the Commentator was a natural smaller Government and 61% of income goes to Government and how Americans were to blame for the buying homes they could not afford along with the usual social programs and on and on.
Not once mentioning “Reganomics” or “Bush Tax Policy” or the cost of 2 wars. In essence.
Have noticed how changing history has perhaps been a part of mankind from the beginning.
Have noticed how our Legislators voted on the “Goldstone Report” was in essence a change to history as it will be recorded.
Perhaps as long as mankind has recorded there are those “Empty Barrels” (Empty Barrels make the most noise) that get heard with their beliefs that change historical moments in time. For those with Religious thinking would ask if at any time in history would this have happened before? Or is this just a snapshot of one day of man’s ability to influence history?
Watching Fox Noise is a perfect example of how “Empty Barrels” distort the history of “Regonomics” and the Bush Administration’s role leading to a crisis. Or, why we went into Iraq.
November 21st, 2009 at 10:38 amYea! History is important. People like Dick Armey will help change and cultivate it.
Thank you.
tom
So, let me get this straight. He is violently opposed to a bill he never read. Dick is called as an expert witness by the Repugs. He also is playing the other side of the street by lobbying for stimulus funds.
Send him some fishnet stockings and high heels. He’s a whore.
November 21st, 2009 at 11:06 am
November 22nd, 2009 at 2:30 pmjjj
November 22nd, 2009 at 2:32 pmTest
Test
November 22nd, 2009 at 2:33 pmfff
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:23 pm///
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:28 pmbn v
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:49 pm