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2:56 pm — Lights, camera, action — Joe Liebeman is wearing WAY too much makeup as he positions himself behind Harry Reid for the cameras as they announce that a deal has been reached with the House on the stimulus plan.
3:00 pm — House Democrats don’t show up for a conference meeting. Sources say that White House and House Dems want more money put back in for school construction.
3:40 pm — Cillizza drops hint that Voinovich, Murkowski or Lugar could change votes — a deal that could make Collins, Specter and/or Snow vote unneccessary?
4:07 pm — Congressional Black Caucus send House negotiators a letter "asking them to add an additional $4.2 billion for the federal government to lend states money to acquire foreclosed homes, another $4 billion for job-training programs and $14 billion for school construction."
5:30 — House Democratic caucus in an emergency meeting.
UPDATE: Senate camera hogs anxious to cover themselves in bipartisan glory evidently jumped the gun and held a press conference before deal was ratified.
UPDATE II: CNN says "snag resolved in stimulus deal — House, Senate reach $789B compromise"
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And the hits just keep on comin’…
I cannot believe this.
A deal has been reached. Harry Reid is singing the praises of 3 Republicans.
Harry “I don’t work for Obama” Reid shows again how immensely stupid he is.
Most likely it will be a half-assed bill.
I hope the House Dems push back hard. Why the hell is the damned AMT patch still in there for $70B? It is not stimulative, doesn’t create jobs, and it is something Congress manages to pass on an annual basis anyway, rather than just re-writing the tax code. WTF?
Yeah, I wondered about all that camera hogging. Making good use of all the cynicism I learned over the past 8 years, I wondered if they weren’t whistling past the grave, or trying to force some fence sitters via publicity, or some other nefarious purpose.
What would happen if Americans began pulling their money out of the banks and declared bankruptcy on their credit card debt? Bring the beast down.
Looks like a bunch of anxious senators ready for recess to be called for their next holiday …… so how many do they get a year?
I was wondering why Rep. Price was throwing a hissy fit in front of Pelosi’s office about a “leak” on camera. jeeebus, what kids!
I guess nothing ever would get done without those breaks to set deadlines!
I’ll post this again. So far CT *not* happy with Lieberman: Changes In Federal Stimulus Bill Could Cost State $437 Million.
I hope not. I actually have more respect for Speaker Nancy Pelosi than I used to. At least she seems to be growing a spine, and I’m glad she’s listening to the House Progressives who want a better recovery bill. Maybe if they stand firm, there’s hope they can overpower the Senate Centrists?
Literally lipstick on the pig.
I’m pretty sure they get more vacation days than there are actual days on the calendar. Hey…they’re the masters of the universe. If anyone can pull that shit off, they can.
I hope the House Dems can push some more to improve this bill. After all, the fate of the union’s largest state depends on it.
http://www.calitics.com/showDi…..aryId=8036
And really, it’s the beauty on the inside that should show. In Lying Joe’s case, *not*.
Please don’t denigrate pigs in that manner.
Wow, Putnam (R-FL) sounds completely populist. Slash fin co salaries, fire the execs and the boards of directors.
Pelosi and Reid will change, HAVE changed. Their job before this year was to oppose some of the worst of the gooper agenda and to win a controlling majority and the White House.. NOW their job is to actually get an agenda hammered into law. VERY DIFFERENT situation.
It’s Sarah Palin’s birthday, and Shuster has announced a Palin-collage that he claims is not to be missed.
whoa. any idea what the fuck the real fight is about?
I’d like to know how much each state was counting on, and what they lost, because so far it doesn’t look so good for CT either.
Hmmm….
I can hear it now…see how Obama wanted to have “direct talks” with….
Iran...The Republicans!!!!
So, when Obama has “direct” talks with the “terrrrrrrists”…
It won’t work….or it will…or it won’t….or it will…
Depends on who wants to get elected…
It’s a global thingy.
Ouch! LOL
Let’s see we’ve had the original Obama bill, the House bill, a couple of Senate versions, the first reconciled version (now cancelled), and some kind of follow up bill, and none of them do half of what is needed.
Well Obama should have direct talks with republican governors. I agree. He should also have direct talks with democrat governors. Since I’m sure many states are hurting.
Heard he is resigning to run for some FL state position.
pent-up tenseness over stimulus package leads to a premature eruption on the floor of the Senate.
Shuster’s still talking like there’s a deal. What’s the story? He hasn’t heard? Usually they’re more on top of stuff like that.
I saw in a previous thread that you caught someone asking the financial CEOs about their insolvency. They were insulted and came back with capital ratios. It’s a pity no one called them on how BS the equity side of that is.
I mean how can we trust anything they say if the core fact of their insolvency.
That would explain it. But unless it’s gov, would seem to be a bad trade.
ok.
Well he met with the insurgents and even had them to the WH for coctails, football games and meetings.
There is NO money…the Fed is writing a check, but they are making this shizzola up….there is NO money..they don’t have any money, if the “money” they are committing to were presented at a real bank for real cash, it would bounce…that is why we are in this situation. It is the Emperor’s New Clothes. It is the King of all Ponzi schemes the world has known (trillions worse than Madoff)…they ran out of suckers and the house of cards is tumbling down. Our economy is a pyramid scam.
excess stimulation can be dangerous.
Yes, the site of Senators expostulating all over the place is really not for the faint of heart.
My point exactly…
Every time we need progressive House Democrats to dig in their heels and say NO MORE, do you notice who answers the call? The Congressional Black Caucus. For sure they threatened to withhold their votes from the conference committee bill, and got some school construction, state aid, foreclosure relief, and jobs training back into the bill.
These are the same people who tried to convince the US Senate not to certify the election results in 2004 because of Ohio. Think how different the world might have been!
Initially I didn’t catch the name of the rep who asked that, but saw his vaguely familiar face. A little googling and, guess who? Keith Ellison. He was also good when BOA guy said he was insulted. Ellison merely said: Well, I asked, and you answered.
These guys are really in denial, as is Wall St, about the value of their capital.
State Agriculture Commissioner I believe. Maybe he had some kind of epiphany moment on his role in congress.
The definition of “money” usually includes:
Coin, currency, bank deposits, and treasury notes. So yes there is as much money as we want.
Agriculture Commissioner, needs to sound all populist and won’t be going up to Wall Street and Nantucket to fundraise, no doubt.
House members didn’t show up and Senators came early. What can I say?
Nancy hopes the issues can be resolved soon.
Winner!
They are also in denial about the value of their resumes
No wonder things move so slowly in the senate- they’re constantly mopping up.
That the “Centrist” Senators care more about being on teh teevee than helping real people?
Senator Camera Hog- but we repeat ourselves.
Hmmm. Sounds like there’s more to that story than meets the eye. On TV tonight he sounded like he was renouncing the Rs. On exec pay: I’m the perfect person to ask because I think the free market should determine exec pay. But once they come to the govt for a bailout … Perhaps he doesn’t like being forced to bend over & spread his cheeks for the R machine.
rouge
Unfortunately, they’ll never have to face up to how worthless their resumes are, since they have so much wealth that they can retire in a great deal more than comfort.
Pelosi on Shuster LIVE says that the Conference Committee is meeting right now, and that a deal is done.
Yes! Get Jodi Rell (CT), Arnold Schwarzenegger (CA), and whatever other sane GOP Governors left to appear with President Obama and explain why state aid is so badly needed. Partisan politicking over this in DC looks so petty once we realize how many states are about to collapse if nothing is done NOW to save the states.
Now that’s a bipartisanship I can live with.
Really? I hope this is true. And hopefully if Speaker Pelosi says a deal is done, this means we have more state stabilization and education funds?
i’m confused. the sight of lieberman scared me off a few hours ago. jane’s update says there’s is now a deal. but nancy says no? and i just turned cspan2 on to find what looks like the conference committee – which i’ve never seen on cspan before. and if that’s live, they don’t sound like there is a deal.
My 55 for 54.
see cspan2
Congress appropriates “money”…they go to the Fed, and the Fed (who has NO money), writes them a check (i.e., “prints money”) (which would bounce)…but…the banks accept it (they are in the game) and the computers say that there is “money” there…The Fed wants “interest” on the “no money” check they wrote Congress…
So…where does that come from???
This is the problem they won’t talk about, no matter how many Congressmen and women try to rephrase the question???
What is the question they can’t answer without incriminating themselves????
What did you do with the Money????
But I also think that any GOP governor and senators who’ve been trashing the plan should be required to publicly give up any money for their states. If they think it’s so bad for their people, they should not accept any money. If the state has one GOP senator and one Dem, and the GOP trashed the plan, then give them half.
Putnam is giving up his seat in 2010. Wants to be AgSec in FL. Family are long time farmers. If he wants to play populist fine with me. I won’t vote for him for AgSec anyway.
That’s exactly correct, the confusion part that is.
Proving that elections have consequences, I remember watching the AFSCME clip a while back and thought it was fairly funny and clever.
Now of course I’m horrified that Rep. Can’t-or would use such a profane, racist ad.
Life is better.
Thanks. I now know more about FL politics than about NYS politics. Well, maybe not quite, but close. *g*
The fact that the amount of money in the nation is simply what the govt and the fed SAY it is is one of those mind benders that paralye many new students of economics.
well cantor is getting his email shoved in his…face…on the teevee. nice to know what he really thinks.
It is the largest Ponzi scheme of history..and it started at Jekyll Island.
Wake up America…now it is frikkin’ superglobal.
It depends on the intent behind the message. Cantor was clearly saying FU to people who work for a living. what an idiot and I’m glad he’s getting a lot of bad press about it, the smug butthead.
Be sure to see Brendan’s diary on Fun with Eric Cantor’s Office. it’s a hoot.
Wow, good guest on Schuster who’s great at explanation about how stimulus can have longer run payoffs as well as short run oomph.
Madoff etal., are the small fry that will take the fall…for the exact same crime.
All of this is researchable.
Isn’t the problem that if they admit to being insolvent, then the FDIC takes over and they can get fired? Which should be what’s happening, anyway.
Bob in HI
ABCNews is acting like there is a deal. Confusion rains, reigns, and will not be reined.
Joe Lieberman can ‘expustulate’ all he wants,; he’ll still be a scumbag
Did y’all hear Markopolos testify under oath the other day that European Royalty have lost their butts in this economic situation, but that it is being covered up????
This is the Ponzi scheme of all time hitting the fan…
True. In a strange bit of BizarroWorld, the parody preceded what was likely an attempt at serious politic-ing. That’s are GOP all over.
The fed and the govt. can create money at will. For example, if the fed ruduces the reserve requirement on demand deposits, voila, more money exists by the stroke of a pen..
Sounds freaky and many conservatives hate it
thanks. i guess i’m caught up now.
the conference committee is kinda interesting.
Yes, so we are left in the bizarre situation where they can not admit the obvious. It is less clear why Congress can’t say the banks are insolvent though.
conference committee ends, but may be back (?)
they’re just showing us that what the House wants (and what WE need) doesn’t matter — Obama and the Senate are running the show — and we’re the ones who’ll be suffering because of it.
Do you notice that pinched look he gets when he expustulates?
This is kind of a Stimulus WHo’s on First?
is there something like anti-talking points – the words/ideas that are not supposed to be spoken?
which now makes me wonder: what would happen if talking points came in contact with anti-talking points?
Political black hole.
Yes, this indicates either that there is a deal or there isn’t.
Current polls show that Liberweasel would lose his seat to a spirochyte infected crazed terrorist with bad breath.
Comical annihilation.
OT – Just in case you were interested in knowing:
That is what propeled the starship enterprise.
why, yes, in fact, but only ex pussed facto.
All Right (HIGH FIVE)
Don’t know where we are on the economic front, but on the poltical front—who won?
Late to DIGG but never too late. So go ahead and Digg IT!
It really doesn’t hurt!! /s
Wow, that prune looks just like Lieberman. It’s like something somebody would sell on ebay.
the Fed is paying 1.6 Billion (yes with a B) everyday on the interest on Reagan’s debt….. think on that……
That’s good news. Do they need 50 or 60 votes for confirmation?
ewwwww!
This is an easy one. We lost. And really does the rest matter?
pussed hoc ergo propter hoc?
Joe Lieberman’s face looks like a genital. I’m sorry. It does. That thought occurred to me once and now every time I see him I am as affronted as if a flasher has opened his raincoat. I have to turn away quick!!!
Palin collage on msnbc
With what money are they paying such a thing??? They don’t have any money…they “print” money, which are not dollar bills…they are certificates of IOU’s that they give the debtors and require interest paid to them.
on the bright side, i’m glad to see the absurdity of today’s events provide such fertile ground for, um, expanding the market for brain bleach.
oops, foiled again: anything but a cursory pass at Latin is above my pay grade!
That interest is interest to be paid on “no money”..just an IOU..They just call it “money”…and they never really get paid with real money either. That is the scheme. The banks cooperate and they take care of their own cronies. They have power, etc., but the “money” the supposedly use to pay for things is based on “nothing”…just a stroke of the pen…backed by nothing.
It’s the sweet things birthday apparently
Jane is upstairs with more news on the Hilda Solis vote.
MMM
What’s “real money”? Think about it
I know…I’ve thought about it.
Bartering.
never. i bow before your punniness. truly.
On the bank bailout, some things to keep an eye out for: http://informationclearinghous…..e21969.htm
Basically, the article warns that the bank bailout is potentially going to be an attempt to reinflate a bubble (real estate) and that there are even more onerous ways the banks could recover their “losses” from deflated home prices while, at the same time, making it SEEM like the distressed homeowners are getting help or a good deal.
This stimulus is NOT stimulating and the bank bailout is not in anyone’s best interests except the big bankers.
Putnam…Grand Poobah of Agriculture and Minsiter of Fertilizer. Think he wants to drain the Everglades and put up palm-oil plantations.
Er no, the situation is that dire for the little peoples in some states. If my repug governor weren’t countin on the money so bad, as is probably the repug gov of California. . . well let’s say I wouldn’t put anything past any political opportunist. . Those who have been calling the stimulus part of the plan “pork,” and pushing for tax cuts should stand up and do a complete mea culpa, on tv, editiorials.