Obama holds that the tax cuts are in response to his promise to deliver a middle class tax cut right way. I'm willing to give him this instead of presuming the obvious, that it was a bone thrown to the GOP. However, even if it was his idea, it seems to be a case of poor judgment, since this is not a tax reform package but a stimulus package and tax cuts are not stimulative at this juncture, any more than zero % interest.

Military spending is another issue. Obama was wiser than to try for increased military spending in the stimulus package, but that doesn't mean that he won't be asking for increased military spending separately. Given his agenda, he is going to have to, although it will be masked with some cuts to military spending also. But on balance, military spending is going to rise rather than be cut.

I know you're making $0, but now you owe the government 5% less of that $0!

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http://bexhuff.com
Of COURSE you can trust the US Government! Just ask the Indians.

If rapid spending on things that need to be done is a criterion of choice, the plan should include higher defense outlays, including replacing and repairing supplies and equipment, needed after five years of fighting. The military can increase its level of procurement very rapidly. Yet the proposed spending plan includes less than $5 billion for defense, only about one-half of 1 percent of the total package.

Infrastructure spending on domestic military bases can also proceed more rapidly than infrastructure spending in the civilian economy. And military procurement overwhelmingly involves American-made products. Since much of this military spending will have to be done eventually, it makes sense to do it now, when there is substantial excess capacity in the manufacturing sector. In addition, a temporary increase in military recruiting and training would reduce unemployment directly, create a more skilled civilian workforce and expand the military reserves.

Talk about chutzpah. "will have to be done eventually" ... ahh the fine eschatology of military industrial keynesianism. a more skilled civilian workforce = fat guys in aviators with contractor access cards. what could be better than another $123XYZ billion for Booz Allen Hamilton to spy on us some more? Un-freakin-believable. sorry to be redundant here, but rlly we need a strong counter message to this, such as "our global empire of bases is a colossal waste of money that is bankrupting America, and the contractors have been great at pocketing the cash so far."

KBR just settled an amazingly huge bribery kickback case. When do people like this guy have to account for the staggering billions in graft, or is that part of the 'velocity' of currency that must be increased!?
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Hongpong.com

walked over a cliff in unison like the bunch of lemmings they are. Good riddance. The Senate is even now stripping out the crap that was put in the stimulus bill that the Republican Congress members wanted. Why keep it in there? F&%k em.

I like the ad campaigns being put together in all fifty states as well. They are identifying specifically how the stimulus helps the constituents in each state, district by district, and then noting that your repub rejected the help.

All the stats I've been watching indicates another ten seat loss in the house and three seats in the Senate. They keep playing the Party of NO and it will be more than that.

hat tip to cryptogon.com - via a Treasury administrative ruling, they borked the tax law setup in 1986 (presumably to curb Iran-contra/Savings & Loan intentional-collapse shell games) - now Wells Fargo Et Al get to scurry off with zillions of bux.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/09/AR2008110902155_pf.html
It never ends!!!
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Hongpong.com

Civilian Spending = Investment (We get something for our money)
Military Spending = Expense (We get nothing, except carbox dioxide, for our money)

for helping me make my point. If it was about occupying and controlling the oil..., they would have planned for that. They didn't. They didn't even have proper body armor for troops or Hummvies. They RUSHED to war for one objective..., to make sure the money dumped on it had time to trickle through the economy before the next election. The war went too well and didn't last long enough to genrate the kind of capital needed..., so we stayed and the focus was changed to "nation building". I will certainly buy the premise that "nation building" means insuring our supply of oil now..., but not at the outset. And it certainly hasn't kept the price of oil cheap. It will be back up there once the scorched earth of the current economic crisis has burned off.

To illustrate how strongly I feel about this I will risk incurring the wrath of everyone here..., and tell you that I have only voted in one presidential election in my 30 years of eligibility. That was to vote against George Evil Bush. I have never called in sick to work when I was wasn't really sick..., until the day after that election. Maybe I should say I have still never called in sick when I wasn't.