Seventeen More Days But Who's Counting

Sometimes when you Google an image you get pleasant surprises like this electronic abacus designed in 1990. Cool, huh?

The sentence above is probably a good indication of just how interesting political news has been of late. It seems all about accounting. A million dollar bailout there and a million dollar bailout here and pretty soon you are talking about real money. Now the state governors want $1 trillion. Poor Christmas sales make poor sales tax and the retail companies are asking for relief from the sales tax they have to pay. The trickle down theory of economics at its worst.

President elect (we can only have one president at a time) Obama is going to be on Capital Hill this coming Monday to talk to Congressional leaders about a stimulus package to get the economy going. He would like to sign it on day one of his presidency - January 20th. And the Republican opposition is already lining up.
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"We agree with President-elect Obama that taking action to turn the economy around is job one. We also agree, though, that every dollar needs to be spent wisely and not wasted in the rush to get it spent," McConnell (R-Ky) said. "And we hope that Democrats in Congress don't attempt to shut the American taxpayer out of this process by trying to pass a bill that hasn't been the subject of bipartisan review and that hasn't been available for public inspection."
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And TARP, the troubled asset relief program pushed through the congress by the Republicans and GW. is spending money wisely and not wasting it? And we got an opportunity for public inspection of the bill? And it was subject to a considered bipartisan review? I think NOT.

Why is it the other party always demands that the opposition not make the same mistakes they are making? And does it in a way that sounds like they didn't make any?
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"Let's be clear," said Boehner (R-Ohio), "it is essential that this legislation be debated in a fair, open, and honest way. Congress should have public hearings in the appropriate committees, the text of the measure should be made available online for the American people to review for at least one week, and it should be free from special-interest earmarks."
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Duh? This stimulus package is all about earmarks. It is about building bridges and restoring our interstate highway system. It is about putting people back to work after all the huge outsourcing of industry to China. This is about trickle up economics. Put Americans back to work rebuilding American (not Iraq) and then we spend money at retail stores and car dealerships. They pay sales tax and the states don't need a bailout.

I vote we take any remaining TARP funds after the Republicans have rewarded all their buddies for tanking the economy and throw it in this stimulus package as well.

Seventeen days and counting.