GOP to leap on spending abuses in stimulus

Better late than never.

And why would the motivation make you sad?

You should be happy that it hopefully will happen.

 

Good questions

 

Hypocrites... It's ok if they do it but no one else should do what they do...

Clearly politics which is why they are trying so hard to poke holes in the bill. If the bill was as bad as they make it out to be, they would easily be able to present the waste. So far everything I've seen them call waste, they had to twist the facts to make the claim. Condoms was really HIV prevention. The mouse was rally a small part of a large project that would also help the mice.

 

Wasteful spending? The bill is wasteful spending. They should be knocking the entire bill itself.

 

$787 Billion verses 9 Billion? Maybe $778 billion is a little bit more than 9 billion. Maybe 9 billion won't mortgage our children's future quite as fast as $787 billion.

The democrats already had oversight...and led us to this crisis.

The democrats oversaw a hearing in 2005 where auditors revealed abuses at Freddie and Fanny. The did nothing.

The democrats on that committee pontificated about how the concerns where much ado about nothing (while receiving compaign contrabutions from those same intities).

The democrats on that committee "grandstanded", saying the institutions where financially sounc and doing a good job.

Please, please, please, don't hold it against me if I don't have confidence that these same democrats are going to have adaquate oversight over a Trillion dollars in pork-barrel spending.

And yes, I wish the Republicans had the guts to engage in the same kind of knock down, drag out, take no prisoners, politics that the democrats have always engaged in, even during a time of war.

peace to youraying:

 

Facts conveniently ignored and or forgotten.

 

Willful ignorance on your part will not change the truth of what happened. I believe this hearing was discussed on this board.

peace to youraying:

 

And just what willful ignorance on my part are you talking about?

 

This is a fairly biased view of what happened in 2005 but it made a really good GOP talking point in the last election. What the add didn't say was McCain didn't sign on to the bill until a month or so before it went to committee.

Where I agree the Democrats spoke out against the legislation in 2005 the Republican's controlled both the house and the Senate and could have passed the bill without the Democrats. The facts are the Republican's never brought the bill to the floor for a vote yet they want to put all the blame on the Democrats. It would have been like blaming the GOP if this stimulus didn't pass.

The bill was also too little too late because the housing bubble busted about two months after the legislation was introduced. By the way, the was other legislation presented in 2000, 2003 and 2004 that called for an independent agency to regulate the two entities but none of them ever come to the floor for a vote. Keep in mind the Republican's were the majority in congress so controlled the agenda.

I really think the blame needs to properly distributed to everyone from home buyers to Wall Street and from mortgage brokers to Alan Greenspan. There is no single party or single bill or single act that made this happen. There was deregulation of the banking industry in 1999 which was introduced by a Republican house but signed into law by Bill Clinton. There are so many contributers to this crises that blaming the Democrats and one bill is extremely short sighted and biased.

But I do agree government oversight is normally an oxymoron but I think we should see what this website does for transparency before we condemn the new effort...

 

What happened to the $150B given to AIG in Buish's bailout?

 

Big difference between $787 billion with a B and $9 billion with a B. Just in case you did not know.

 

The Republicans never had a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. In fact I believe the Jeffords switch gave the democrats the Senate in 2001, 2002. Also, recall it was only the so called gang of 14 that enabled Bush to get many of his appointments for Judges/Justices approved.

 

You accused me of willfully ignoring facts concerning the hearing in which democrats repeatedly stated that fannie and freddie where financially sound and doing a good job.

What facts did I willfully ignore?

peace to youraying:

 

You don't need a filibuster proof senate to bring a bill for a vote. The legislation in question was never presented on the floor. It never made it past committee which when you're the majority should be easy to do. You set the agenda.

 

No one said it was OK.

Jamie, suppose your best friend short-changed you $9 dollars for a bar-b-que you two were planning together. Would you make a big deal about it? Would you even confront him on the matter? What if he denied it? Would you pursue it? Would you sue him? For the sake of your friendship, would you drop it? Would you say, "I need new friends"?

What if that same friend used your credit card to charge $789 dollars? Would you pursue it with the same intensity as the $9 dollars? Can you see the difference?

It is true the monitoring should have started years ago. It is true the republicans failed to shrink the size of government when they were in charge. It is true the republicans failed to control spending while they were in charge.

Whether they are grandstanding or are truely comitted to conservative principles, I don't know.

But I am glad someone is finally saying enough is enough! We must stop the spending spree for the sake of the country and our children's and grandchildren's future.

peace to youraying: