Overview of Federal Budget to be released at 11 AM

According to the Government Printing Office, an overview of the first budget proposed by President Barack Obama is set to be released today at 11 AM. Politico reports the document is 134 pages long.

Here's a link to the page where the GPO announced the title of the budget:

"A New Era of Responsibility: Renewing America's Promise"

For PDF links to the current budget, click here.

As I mentioned in my line-by-line posts on ARRA titles from a couple of weeks ago, the economic stimulus bill appeared to resemble closely a "typical" federal budget. In other words, it looked like gap coverage for budget shortfalls for the rest of this fiscal year, which ends on September 30, 2009, in addition to spending for public works projects.

As soon as the overview of the budget is released I will begin looking at it when I have time as I am drafting the final chapter of my dissertation.

In the meanwhile, why not check it out yourself?

We're in for a bumpy ride in the coming weeks in terms of bipartisan peek-a-boo.

I promise to do my very best to keep those politicians honest about what's in the budget in order to *correct* any *misinformation* the congressional party of "no" might try to promulgate.

**Update (2/26/09 3PM) Here's a link to the overview as posted on the GPO.

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Some sneaky people are circling the drain

And they want each and every one of us to go along with them.

After all the drama from the last two weeks, ARRA passed congress and will be signed by the President as early as tomorrow.

I have to admit, I think Chris Dodd is an ass for slipping in that pay cap for CEOs (and the next 20 highest paid employees) for TARP recipients. It's retroactive, too. It's not the caps I'm pissed about--it's how it was done in an underhanded, dirty way. I don't care what party you espouse, that's just shitty.

I hope now the press will focus on the meat of the bill instead of focusing EVERY broadcast on how Obama's bipartisanship has failed.

Huh?

Obama didn't fail. The GOP did. Even after meetings and concessions for tax cuts, the GOP still flipped him the bird by voting nay--all but three of them.

Why isn't the press talking about their LACK of bipartisanship?

Some crazy whackadoos are still up in arms about Obama's citizenship. Get over it. Geesh. Here's an article that explains how the whole myth got started and how the lies that have sustained it are dangerous proof that people MUST back up their claims with valid sources-- especially on the internet. It's not a question of validity; it's become a question of ethics.

I have been remembering my feelings after the SCOTUS gave the 2000 election to Bush 43. Yeah, I was pissed, but I don't think I was radicalized by his appointment. Some people on the right are collectively losing their minds.

They are not used to being told no, or that they're wrong, or that they're NOT IN CHARGE anymore. They had eight years and we are where we are because of their so-called leadership.

Seriously, I am starting to think there are two different Americas.

In one, folks care about people, their jobs, their health, their equality, their education.

In the other, they care about power, being correct, and things.

People vs. things.

Kind of an easy choice, right?

Apparently not.

I am continuing to get insults of "elitist" when I correct someone's argument with stuff like, you know, facts. Really, how is "elitist" an argument? It's an opinion. Please see this post from a while ago. I am worn out by retards.

The GOP wants its sheeple poor and stupid and afraid. Those types are much easier to control. Those who don't question. Those who are afraid that the "white way of life" is ending. Those who see anyone who isn't like themselves as an enemy.

I've got news for them. This country isn't a white America. Nor is it a black, brown, pink or purple America.

It's America, retards. In all its glorious colors and diversity.

We are the great social experiment. And I for one am not going to let morons like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter (two very white, very unhappy people) tell lies about our country and its people without calling them on it.

Rush actually had the cojones to tell his listeners the Dems were trying to pull one over on the American public.

Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed that Democrats:

"have reformatted the [economic recovery] bill -- they've made it a PDF file when they posted it. ... And, so, you can read every page, but you cannot keyword search it. It's not a text file as legislation normally is as posted on these public websites. They don't want anybody knowing what's in this."

In fact, as Adobe Systems notes of PDFs: "You can run a search using either the Search window or the Find toolbar. In either case, Reader searches the PDF body text, layers, form fields, and digital signatures."

Are these people really as stupid as they sound?

Yup, I am indeed starting to think they are.

And who says we don't need money for education in this country? The GOP: The Group Of Poop-for-brains.

Hope all are well this fine Sunday.

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Lies, lies, lies

The GOP is lying about everything from:

• The final size of ARRA. It started at 736 pages--- it's now up to 759 pages--- which means 23* WHOLE pages of amendments have been added. John Boehner just claimed on the floor of the House that the bill is over 1,100 pages long. This cements further that this man has not even looked at the bill, much less read it.
• How much time reps and senators have had to read it (um, like two weeks now?)
• The crap about the health care records director being a new position (George Bush created the position FIVE years ago; here's a link to the fella's bio)
• The purpose of the health care record system that Limberger LIED about yesterday, as did Fox without even bothering to verify facts and sources
• The provision that will STOP people like Flush from getting the same prescription from multiple doctors. A doctor, in reality as put forth in the bill, will be able to access a list of prescriptions any patient is currently filling at any pharmacy.
  

There's more, but my complexion is finally starting to clear and Valentine's Day is tomorrow. I want to be in a good mood for my husband's sake and mine, too.

Frankly, I am sick of this whole bipartisan bullshit.

The GOP ideas are the ones that got us here, today, having to spend our way out of this mess in a terrible economy where unemployment is nearing 8%, housing foreclosures are affecting the secondary market now (not just the bad loans), and small businesses are shutting door, after door, after door.

Obama tried, they've all said no, and acted like tools. That's it. They had their shot.

It's time to move on and move upward.

Be part of the solution or get the hell out of the way.

Check out this video of Dave Obey making the closing case against the GOP's lies this afternoon on the House Floor:



PS: We must stand up against the lies. The Bush Administration lied time after time after time. Here's the link to a petition to urge an investigation of these criminals:
http://ga3.org/campaign/btcpetition?qp_source=btc_hp

* Funny thing to prove my well-placed fear of numbers. I had to change this number 3 times today.

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Clusterf*ck to the Poor House: Daily Show

I have not had time to look at the 14 page pdf that shows cuts and revisions to ARRA, so I won't be posting on them.

If you have been directed to this site looking for information on ARRA, click here.

Frankly, I am utterly drained by the whole thing.

And I am despondent by the fact I found out yesterday that Bill O' and I went to the same undergraduate institution of higher learning. Even though I attended many years after he departed, it still makes me feel dirty and contaminated somehow knowing that man got his journalism degree from an excellent communications program and he's starting to run his show like his former glory days as an Inside Edition correspondent. If you had any doubt as to Bill's professionalism, please watch the following short clip.



Here's John Stewart's reaction last PM to the lack of bipartisanship on the part of the Congressional GOP:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - The Death of Hope

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

I am totally embarrassed that I am from Indiana every time I see Mike Pence.

If it's worth anything, he's not my representative.

Hope you all have great Tuesdays.

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Monday, Monday

My posts for the next couple of days will be short.

If you are looking for ARRA information, here's a good place to start. I have embedded links to the Titles I have itemized thus far.

I have a meeting with my chair on Wednesday morning and I want/need to get the chapter finished I am working on.

There's some good stuff online about myths being perpetuated by conservatives regarding the bailout. It's one of two things: they are utter morons who haven't actually read the bill or they are being intentionally obstructive. Either way-- they look like idiots and jerks.

This link in particular is very interesting considering my motivations for listing the expenses in each title.

The congressional GOP is digging themselves a grave with this one. The longer they stall, the deeper they cut spending, the more Americans will be angered as people lose their jobs, their homes, and their sense of confidence in them to be able to do anything other than obstruct.

Scary fact about the economy today:
California is 3.7 billion short for state income tax returns. They're not sending out refund checks because they don't have the money. (The GOP also cut funding for the states. Nice for those of you who live in CA, huh?) If your state is having budget trouble I suggest getting your tax paperwork in sooner than later.

If people think this bill is anything other than absolutely imperative-- they've got their heads up their bums.

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Sunday Constitution

No new ARRA numbers to share today. If you clicked here for that info, here's a link that will point you to the first eight of the sixteen titles (links are below the post title).

Today I present the second in my newest series of Sunday rants.

I need a respite from seeing those wonderfully progressive ideas, ideas that would be meaningful to every last American for generations, thrown away like garbage, or rotten pork--- to borrow the tiresome phrase from those congressional GOP people-like things. I can't call them human beings just yet. I'm related to many, but they don't frequent my blog anyway so no worries about getting hate mail from Aunt Enid or getting stricken from anyone's will. At this point the family fortune has evaporated. Ha-- family fortune.

You know how it makes you feel to keep trying something over and over without achieving a different outcome?

Crazy.

How is it that the congressional GOP has avoided this feeling?

Perhaps they are selfish, greedy, shit-heads who can't think of anyone but themselves?

Or are they all on Oxycontin?

Or they are missing the remembering gene.

Twenty-five years of their tax cutting dogma has landed us squarely where we are (yes, yes, I know Clinton was in office for eight of those years and recall we had a budget surplus that Shrubya quickly blew through and borrowed more for his expensive war games and oil).

They want to blame Obama who has been in office a total of 2 weeks, 5 days.

And they accuse us of thinking he's superhuman.

Kettle, there's a pot on the phone who would like to have a word.

So I intend today to save the final shred of my sanity, squirrel it away like the last seed of fall, and shift momentarily to something a bit lighter. This is a huge undertaking because all I want to do is rant, rant, rant about how unreasonable and inhuman the right side of the country is acting.

I've come to start thinking of them like a relative that you cannot stand--but you are biologically obligated to been seen in public with because you have some genetic material in common.

And you go to their homes decorated with weird, scary ceramic clowns, where they offer you the same, stale ribbon candy that's been sitting in that same candy dish since you were four and they have bequeathed you their extensive taxidermy collection for which you must appear to be grateful.

For the newest of new people here, what follows is not typical (nor really what immediately proceeded), but I am a bit crass--not without self-deprecation at that crassishnessism.

I have posted content suggestions for emails to your congresspeople in the last several days.

Here's a special one for GOP members that neatly sums up how they treat this country and continue to try to treat this country:




The GOP insisted that all education funding get cut out of ARRA, including special education teachers. And we wonder why we have morons who apparently cannot read the bill. Because if they could, they wouldn't be taking their collective dumps on our poor, our disadvantaged, our uneducated, our military, and our unemployed.

I am so grateful to all who have linked to the information on my blog and to all who have stopped by. Really, there's a lot more to this website than ARRA numbers (and tasteless scatological humor), so I hope you peek around in the archives, with the hope you don't click outta here thinking I am a weird, numbers obsessed lunatic.

Numbers actually terrify me. So as you can read, this week has been a successful experiment in confronting my irrational fear of numeric symbols; guess now I need to work on that clown thing.

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ARRA 2009: Titles VII and VIII

Here's a link to funding cuts since the bill has been in the Senate. It's pretty diffuse (for example the TSA lost 200 million, but they still have 1 billion), but a couple programs got hit hard.

For those of you visiting from Margaret and Helen, here's the link Honolulu Sally was referring to yesterday in her kind comment. Also, thanks to Raji for linking to me, too.

If you a perusing these titles, bear in mind when looking at them; they are mostly standard items found in a Federal budget. I am starting to think of the bill as gap coverage brought on by the failing economy. Very few of these fund appropriations are new therefore they should not be considered pork.

Links to other related posts on ARRA 2009:
Titles I and II: Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA (I); Commerce (II)
Titles III and IV: Defense (III); Department of Defense- Civil (IV)
Titles V and VI: Treasury (V); Homeland Security (VI)

This post presents Title VII and VIII funds as found in the earliest revision by the Senate.

Again, look for funds for "construction", "education", "outreach".

These words= jobs.

Title VII: (114-122)
Department of the Interior, Environment and related agencies

135 million: Bureau of Land Management
180 million: construction
15 million: wild fire management
190 million: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service resource management
--110 million: construction
158 million: Operation of National Parks Service
55 million Historic Preservation Fund
589 million: construction
135 million USGS (United States Geological Survey; the earthquake folks)

40 million: Bureau of Indian Affairs
522 million: construction
10 million: Indian Guaranteed Loan Program Account

62 million: Assistance to the territories
7.6 million: Inspector General
20 million: Central Hazardous Materials Fund

EPA
800 million: Superfund cleanup
200 million: Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund

6.4 billion: State and Tribal Assistance Grants
-- 4 billion: Clean Water Act enforcement and construction
--300 million: diesel emission reduction

Department of Agriculture
Forest Service:
650 million: capital improvement and maintenance
650 million: wild land fire management

Department of Health and Human Services
135 million: Indian Health Service
--50 million for contract health services
--85 million for health information technology
410 million: Indian health facilities

150 million Smithsonian

Title VIII (123- 192)
Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education
3.25 billion Employment and Training administration
Not more than 1 billion for youth activies
1 billion in state grants to retrain dislocated workers
--250 million program for competitive grants for worker training in high growth and emerging industry sectors
200 million for national emergency grants
120 million: Community service employment for older Americans
400 million: State unemployment insurance and employment service operations
-- 250 million for reemployment services
160 million for construction, alteration and repairs of buildings Office of Job Corps
3 million Inspector General

1.08 billion: Health and Human services
--88 million: leasing and renovating a Headquarters for Public Health Service Agencies
--1 billion grants for construction, renovation and equipment
412 million CDC repairs for labs
300 million National Center for Research Purposes
2.7 billion Office of the Director
-- 500 million for maintenance of buildings and facilities
700 million for clinical effectiveness research of drugs

2 billion Payments to states for the Child Care and Development Block Grant
-- 93 million for activities that improve the quality of infant and child care
400 million: Social Services Block Grant
1 billion: Children and Families Services Block Program (200 million until September 2010)
100 million: Administration on Aging and Aging Services Programs
--67 million for Congregate Nutrition services
-- 33 million for Home delivered Nutrition Services (Meals on wheels)

5 billion Office of the Secretary Office of the National Coordinator for Health
-- 4 million: office of the Inspector General

5.8 billion: Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund
-- 750 million for the immunization program
--600 million training, grants, loan repayment, and scholarships
-- 60 million for research
-- 40 million information technology improvements
-- 15 million for equipment and treatment related to newborn screening

Department of Education
13 billion: Education for the Disadvantaged
--5.5 billion grants
--5.5 billion: education finance incentive grants
2 billion for school improvements

17.07 billion for School Improvement Programs (Elementary and Secondary schools)
13.5 billion for special education

610 million for Rehabilitation Services and disability research
13.869 billion for student financial aid
100 million: Higher Education
3.5 billion Higher Education Facilities
4 million Office of Inspector General

160 million: Cooperation for National and Community Service
-- 6 million for salaries and expenses

40 million: National Service Trust

Social Security Administration
890 million: Limitation on Administrative Expenses
-- 750 million for replacement of National Computer Center
-- 140 million information technology acquisitions and research
3 million office of the Inspector General

Minimum Wage information starts on page 151
Limitations on use of funds (a lot of them)

Since these two Titles were over 100 pages (see what love of fellow country-people can drive someone to do?), tomorrow's post will not be new title lists.

I need a break from the serious and heavy, and the Republican idiocy.

Look for something on the lighter side for Sunday.

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ARRA 2009: Titles V and VI

*Udpate 2.7.09: Here's a link to funding cuts since the bill has been in the Senate. It's pretty diffuse (for example the TSA lost 200 million, but they still have 1 billion), but a couple programs got hit hard.

Installment 4: Pages 90-114 Titles V and VI

Margaret and Helen visitors, here's the post Honolulu Sally was kind enough to link you to (thank you Honolulu Sally!).

To maintain some sense of continuity, here's the post that is an overall summary of the bill. Here's the post that shows the bare bones figures for Titles I and II; here's III and IV.

For those who are skeptical about this bill, look through each line and see how many items say "construction" or "education" or "outreach". Those words=jobs.

Title V: (pages 90-105)
Department of the Treasury

250 million to "Community Development Financial Institutions Fund Program Account"
--20 million must be allocated for construction, training and outreach designed to benefit Native American, Native Hawaiian, and Native Alaskan peoples (here is what's happening up there in Emmonak in the Yukon Delta; way to go, Palin).
--5 million may be used for administrative purposes

District of Columbia:
125 million to sewer and water authority

Federal Buildings:
9 billion to Federal Building Fund (7 billion available until 2010)
-- not less than 1.4 billion used for Federal buildings and U.S. Courthouses
-- 1.2 billion for border stations
-- 6 billion for to convert GSA facilities to High Performance Green Buildings (construction jobs, communications jobs, etc.)


600 million to procure energy and fuel efficient (including hybrid and electric vehicles) for the Federal Motor Fleet
2 million Inspector General

7 million Recovery Act Supervision Board (these are the people who are going to post information publicly and act as a watchdog over these funds)

84 million: Small Business Administration
--10 million: Inspector General

15 million: Surety Bond Guarantees [sic] Revolving Fund
6 million: Business Loans Program account

(Administrative provisions 97-105; lots of information on protection for small businesses)

Title VI: (105-114)
Department of Homeland Security

248 million for the Office of the Undersecretary of Management
5 million Inspector General
198 million US Customs and Border Patrol salaries and expenses
--100 million for procurement of non-intrusive inspection systems to improve port security
--97 million for procurement and deployment of tactical communications and radios
200 million Border Patrol Fencing, Infrastructure and Technology
800 million construction
27.8 million U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Automation Modernization
1.2 billion for the TSA
572 million for Acquisition, Construction and Improvements for the U.S. Coast Guard
274 million for alteration of bridges

FEMA
6 million acquisition of communications response vehicles
950 million State and Local Programs
--100 million public transportation security, railroad security, system-wide Amtrak security upgrades
-- 100 million for port security grants
--250 million for upgrading, modifying or constructing emergency operations centers
500 million for construction to upgrade or modify critical infrastructure

500 million: Firefighter Assistance Grants
100 million for emergency food and shelter for disaster victims

Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
15 million: Acquisition, Construction, Improvements and related expenses
15 million: science and technology development and research

Again, for those who are skeptical about this bill, look through each line in each of these titles and see how many items say "construction" or "education" or "outreach".

Those words=jobs.

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ARRA and the media: The gap is widening

...between what I am seeing in the cable/national news media and what I have read in the bill.

To save myself a bit of insanity, I want to share words from our leader from yesterday, February 5, 2009:

Part One:



Part Two:


He's rational, funny, and firm. But this is serious people. Make no mistake. We cannot afford to let our country fail.

These are the things the GOP calls pork.

Hungry American children.

Fewer teachers in an already strained education system.

The possibility of creating a ripple effect with public works projects that will help manufacturing.

A new Federal fleet of eco-friendly and energy efficient cars that will come from American auto makers.

This bill is chock full of public works projects.

I read yesterday that the national corps of engineers (you know, the people who worked on that bridge collapse in Minnesota a couple years back?) said there's at least 2 trillion dollars worth of infrastructure that has been neglected in the last eight years and is in desperate need of attention. Literally, our roads, and sewers, and bridges, and water pipes are corroding beneath us.

Our schools will have at least 25% fewer teachers next fall if we don't get this thing passed.

Children of low-income families will not get fed at school, either, unless their parents can pay for the meals (that have been covered by federal assistance programs for years now). And WIC programs will lose funding, too.

This bill is designed to kill two birds with one stone. The American people need jobs and job security. The government has lots of things to work on and needs our help to do it.

It's this simple: create lots and lots of jobs, and hire people to do those jobs.

Win, win every time.

What the GOP is doing in DC is despicable.

The poorest of the poor might never be able to recover. And the longer we wait the chances of any of us keeping our heads above water decrease.

Please, if you care about your life as you know it, and care about the lives of every American: contact your representatives.

We need to know that those who represent us CARE about us.

For your Senators

For your House Representative

It takes, literally, five minutes, the time it takes to write three short emails with these short lines:

Dear So-and_so
Please show your support for the American people by voting for ARRA 2009.

Your country is counting on you to do what we asked you to do in November 2008.

We need to know that you are on our side and can let go of petty politics for something greater than all of us.

Sincerely,
Me

Feel free to copy and paste this even.

We can make this happen. Yes We Can.

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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: YES WE CAN!

Disclaimer: I swear like a sailor in this and use A LOT of capital letters.

***Also, someone in the US Department of Justice has bookmarked my little blog. So if I suddenly disappear, you know why :)*** (That's a JOKE DOJ person, a JOKE; I'm glad you're here. And please, comment on anything you like.)

This post is a general overview of the bill. A primer, if you will.

I will post more detailed information on each section as I can, since I know a lot of people have VERY busy lives. So I will do my best to provide as much information as time allows as I work on my own thing (it's just my dissertation, that's all).

(Update 2/5/09: I have lists of funding for Titles I and II; and posted one today [Feb 5] for III and IV. Here's line by line for Titles V and VI added today, February 6)

However, as an American, it is your civic duty TO READ IT, TOO (when time permits; read it to the kids at bedtime :).

When we voted for Obama in November, only THREE months ago (TODAY!!!!), we made him a silent promise, too.

We promised to do our part.

If he fails, we fail.

AGAIN!

I have read so many people who claim NEVER again. Well, the time has come to walk your talk America.

We stood by for too long and let the politicians tell US how things were going to be.

And where oh where has that gotten us?

This is our moment to say: ENOUGH! THIS IS HOW IT'S GOING TO BE; AND IT'S GOING TO BE GREAT, F*CKERS!

Screw the newspeople and the politicians.

The GOP has been trying to pull the same Rovian psycho-crap on us, keeping us scared and stupid, just as they like us.

What they have been telling us is shyte. Complete and utter shyte.

And frankly, I think these ass holes have NO idea who they are fucking with.

We progressives have a lot of pent up anger (at least this progressive writing this post) at being told we're stupid, wrong, satanists, who want our women to have non-stop abortions, while LGBT folks turn people into LGBT people by getting married, and that WE want our country to fail.

Huh?

Two corrections to WRONG "information" being propagated about this legislation; I know there's more but I must limit this post to a readable length (and get to the point, sha!):

This bill will be effective NOW: not a year from now (yes, appropriations will take longer than direct spending, but it will be better in the long run).

There's no money going to A.C.O.R.N. Look at page 250. "Neighborhood stabilization program:" emergency assistance for the redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes; construction of early childhood and development centers in these areas to promote regrowth and redevelopment.

Here's the truth:

America with everything we take for granted everyday being taken care of: clean water, safe food, safe, reliable public transportation, reliable, clean energy. The knowledge that we can keep our homes and feed our families and keep the doors to our small businesses open, KEEP OUR JOBS or change to a new job that is or will be created as a result of this bill.

The bill being contested by the GOP is one that will plant the seeds to start renewing our country.

Jobs, jobs, jobs
in construction.
in manufacturing.
in research and development.
in science advancement and development of emerging technologies.
in education and training.
in outreach to low-income communities.

Creating a greener America with cleaner power.
Helping farmers reprocess biowaste into energy.
Money for companies to develop advanced battery systems and advanced lithium ion sources for energy.

A safer America with:
Investment in port safety.
Restructuring our rail and water systems (in eco-friendly manners) to help us transport our goods and services.
Engineering projects to prevent flooding and minimize damage from natural disasters (Um, Katrina).

But it's even BIGGER than THAT: We are going to be in hurricane season soon. And if you recall, those seasons are getting longer and producing more fierce storms due to the little thing known as global warming.

A FEMA with the resources to relocate and retrain displaced workers.
Lodging for displaced people.
Loans for local businesses to rebuild.

School lunches for kids with safe food.
Programs for ending violence against women (legal, medical and social programs).
Major funding for WIC programs that need it so desperately.

Creating broadband access for ALL Americans despite class, location, or age.

Provisions for the use of manufactured products (like steel, and technology, and cranes, and bulldozers) MADE IN AMERICA. They don't get funds otherwise (there is a small exception, but it is unlikely).

The creation of an Electronic Health Records system that will streamline medical records and put in place a universal format for patient records and histories available anywhere. And the security to protect our right to privacy with those records. (HUGE penalties for f*ck ups.)

Money to protect small businesses.

IT'S all there, and MORE!

Oversight; quarterly reports to congress, rules and regulations about how funds are to be used and prohibitions on their use.

Transparency to the American public.

Yes, you read that right.

WE get to READ what they're up to and HELP KEEP THEM HONEST!

We dropped the ball with the frickin' banks. It was the whole "only-one-president-at-a-time" BS. Another failure by our former president that we will pay for for generations.

Yes, there are some fuzzy things about big corporations and some whacky thing about film rights as property deductions (strange). I will post on them as soon as I can.

I've been reading this document (all 736 pages of it) since about five PM yesterday. I've been taking notes and deciding how best to present it for you here.

What it boils down to is this:
This package isn't throwing money at problems, it's investing money in problems WE ALREADY KNOW HOW TO FIX, with workers and smart people and funding and stuff.

People get jobs-------->They get paid-----> We get new and better, enduring stuff-----> They spend their money on goods and services---------> American manufacturing is revitalized by all the projects---------> The government gets some money back in the form of taxes on income, goods and services------->More jobs get made--------> More people get paid---------> and so on.

Really, this is what I decided.

This package covers everyone, from small town and rural areas who need food and power and internet access, to cities who need better teachers and renovated schools, their canals and bridges inspected and repaired. And more firemen, policemen, support for our veterans, programs for better schools, better nurses, better everyone!

Programs to keep families of deployed armed service-people IN THEIR HOMES, and not thrown out on the street.

This is IT AMERICA!

WE ARE THE ONES WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!

Do yourself and everyone you know and love a favor:

READ THE BILL.

Talk to people about it.

Provide them with information.

Encourage them to write or call their representatives and senators. I'll bet well over HALF of those BOZOS in Congress haven't read the WHOLE thing. Cherry picking. That's all that's been done and probably by staffers and NOT the legislator her/himself.

We can make this happen by having the TRUTH on our side.

THIS IS NOT ABOUT POLITICS OR PARTIES.

IT IS ABOUT US!!!!!!

And it's about effing time.

PS: I am offering my services for questions. I have read the bill and should be able to field queries about specific details (amount of money, etc.) But really, I mean it. YOU MUST READ IT YOURSELF.

Remember how it felt when we worked so hard to get Obama elected? Remember that feeling of pride you felt when he stood up in front of our great nation and took the oath of office?

Here's that feeling. It will ALL come flooding back. He needs us. And we cannot abandon him at his first first trial. If we do, EVERYTHING the GOP and the RWFN says about us is true.

And I for one, KNOW they are WRONG!

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