Comments on: Stimulus Fight Heats Up in Senate and House

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:36:46 +0000

"It's all about the money." The free money, because it's all borrowed and the next generation pays. Thus, no incentive to worry about how well it is spent. As they say, "capital money is less green." Federal money is fine, except that our children will end up paying for OTHER PEOPLE's wasted federal money. I'd just as soon get rid of it.

By: Wiener

Wiener — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:38:09 +0000

"New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler has introduced an amendment to bump up transit capital investments by $3 billion."

Well, of course he has. His district stands to get a huge share of any additional money for transit. Probably a larger share than any other congressional district in the country. It's all about the money.

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:30:37 +0000

Yikes!

Please implement universal health care (or get rid of Medicare, because we are either all in it together or we are not). Save state and local governments a bundle in doing so.

And to help pay for it, eliminate federal infrastructure spending, because we could afford to pay for our own. Bring those decisions home -- to City Hall, not Albany.

By: Steve Davis

Steve Davis — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:29:24 +0000

Rep. DeFazio was required to withdraw his amendment due to some sort of parliamentary issue. So no operating assistance in the House bill unless something drastic changes. And it's possible that targeting Rep. Slaughter won't make a difference at this point. (But folks in her district in NY should certainly still be calling her.) Obey and Pelosi could be legitimate targets on this, because it seems to be a leadership decision to keep from adding any money or new programs to the bill. Nadler's amendment is still in play and should be supported. We've updated the "target number one" above link to reflect that.