Maybe these senators simply realize that funding veterans hospital construction, highway construction, new electricity grid construction, schools, or preserving police or firemen jobs are good things for American society? Good luck finding serious candidates to oppose such things.

Well, time to go buy Pesos...

Good point, Hooson -

Now explain where the other 620 billion is headed, and maybe you'll realize your own shortcomings at understanding the bill...

But it was a bipartisian bill

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0209/Manley_sacks_Shuler.html?showall

Reids spokesman

"Maybe Someone should tell congressman Shuler that under the leadership of President Obama we have put together a bipartisan bill that will create or save 3 to 4 million jobs, and that We have been more than willing to work with our republican friends. We have accepted some of their ideas and will continue to do so."

Ah yes the call of Bipartisianship already. 3 "republicans" (RINOS) out of what 200?

Billions for ATV trails, STD prevention (which is already funded), ACORN, etc. is not stimulus, it's spending. Construction jobs for anybody but white males (ask Bob Reich), and for pork for congressional projects and to pump up the bureacracy is not stimulus, it's spending. Thune had a good stimulus package, this is just a spending package. You can NOT spend your way out of a deficit.

As for selling out the American people..The latest Gallup poll shows that

'Obama's 67% approval rating on the stimulus is more than twice that of Republicans'

The American public gives President Barack Obama a strong 67% approval rating for the way in which he is handling the government's efforts to pass an economic stimulus bill, while the Democrats and, in particular, the Republicans in Congress receive much lower approval ratings of 48% and 31%, respectively.

Kim seems to forget The GOP/ Bush administration economic record of ballooning the American public debt for eight consecutive years and delivering a panicky 800 billion dollar Wall Street bailout in the fall. The GOP doesn't exactly have much political capital on this score, of reigning in public spending.

And they had their 'accountability moment', to use a George Bush phrase in the recent election, and were decisively rejected in large part because of they had no trust in the GOP mantra of the self-regulation of the free markets, for some reason.

What is a "conservative"?

What kind of insanity is it that ignores the past 8 years as "conservatives" drove the country into a tree.

You would never give your children the kind of free pass you have given Bush et al, not for a second.

Can someone please explain the mental processes involved in totally ignoring reality?

In a SANE country anybody who spent this much effort Screwing our children would be locked up as a pedophile...
Reid Diddles His grandchildren- pass it on

crickmore - "Kim seems to forget The GOP/ Bush administration economic record of ballooning the American public debt for eight consecutive years and delivering a panicky 800 billion dollar Wall Street bailout in the fall.

Excuse me?

Who had the majority the last two of those 8? Furthermore, you seem to gloss over the reality of ALL the congressional dems that porked up funding bills not only in the last two years but for the previous 6. (Not to discard the reps contribution)

And as long as you want to play the "Polling Game," fine let's do so:

With the Senate poised to vote Tuesday on an $827-billion version of the economic recovery plan, 62% of U.S. voters want the plan to include more tax cuts and less government spending.

Just 14% would like to move in the opposite direction with more government spending and fewer tax cuts, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Twenty percent (20%) would be happy to pass it pretty much as is, and five percent (5%) are not sure.

Republicans and unaffiliated voters overwhelmingly want to see more tax cuts and less government spending. Democrats are more evenly divided: 42% agree with the Republicans, 32% want to pass the plan as is, and 22% would like to see more government spending and fewer tax cuts.

An analysis by Scott Rasmussen notes that the stimulus debate is now driven by a tug-of-war between the popularity of President Obama and the nation's deeply ingrained reluctance to increase government spending. Forty-eight percent (48%) of voters believe that increased spending is generally bad for the economy. On the other hand, 57% say tax cuts are generally good for the economy.
Most conservative and moderate voters want to see more tax cuts. A plurality of liberals say the plan should be passed pretty much as it is.

Graccurl, it is you who should explain your alternate reality to us.

I and I am sure most conservatives are for a stimulus. But this is not the time to waste. It is you hypnotized trolls who think that Barry said it, it must be good.

We need honey bee studies, yeah! Sure. ww

"What kind of insanity is it that ignores the past 8 years as "conservatives" drove the country into a tree."

The same kind of sanity that believes "conservatives" were in office for the past 8 years.

PIMF.

Sanity=insanity.

"Can someone please explain the mental processes involved in totally ignoring reality?"

Easy. Anyone who thinks the Porkulus bill is a stimulus bill is ignoring reality. Next.

"Kim seems to forget The GOP/ Bush administration economic record of ballooning the American public debt for eight consecutive years and delivering a panicky 800 billion dollar Wall Street bailout in the fall. The GOP doesn't exactly have much political capital on this score, of reigning in public spending."

The fact that you want even more of the same economic policies is rather humorous. There were countless times conservatives bemoaned the economic policies of the Bush Administration, ESPECIALLY during the fall of 2008 when Bush admitted he was abandoning free market principles to "save" the free market.

The Porkulus bill is even worse than any bailout package or any other legislature Bush backed and signed into law from an economic standpoint, yet you're all for it.

What is a "conservative"?
What kind of insanity is it that ignores the past 8 years as "conservatives" drove the country into a tree.

They are not "conservatives". They are "Republicans". When in power, they borrow and spend, spend, spend the country into ruin. When not, they pretend they're conservatives and give big speeches about it, even though there's no evidence to back them up. They are blind to the fact that they haven't been conservatives for over 30 years. It's like when an amputee still thinks they can feel the part of them that is no longer part of them. Although typically a rational amputee knows that the feeling is only phantom; Republicans have not figured this out yet, and still believe that they are conservatives. Conservatives do not like Republicans.

Brian:

I couldn't agree more with your last comment. I think hell just froze over. :-)

This vote should mark the end of any Republican supported candidacy for those three RINO's .

"The RNC needs to start looking for conservative candidates to run against them in their next primaries."

Absolutely! We need to make sure we hold them accountable (and every other Republican official that votes against the will of the people especially the will of the people they are suppose to represent) and remind them that they work for US! I'm so sick and tired of these people doing what they want when the American people are speaking and saying something else. We've got to get off our butts and take our country BACK!

Spectre(sic) is in office in no small part thanks to the efforts of the RNCC in 2004 who led the fight against his opponent, conservative Rep. Patrick Toomey. They donated heavily to his campaign even after he had repeatedly stabbed the party in the back with votes against conservative judges and bills designed to eliminate waste in government.

Snowe and Collins are two elected officials pretending to be from one party while clearly siding with the opposition on almost every issue.
That they are re-elected election after election proves PT Barnum's adage that there's a sucker born every minute and a lot of them live in the state of Maine.

Oh Michael Steele, I've got an idea for you.

How about contacting these three and notifying them they'll be needing to raise a little extra campaign dough next time around as the RNC will mysteriously run short of cash when it comes to supporting them.

Well, I don't care if you guys run Spector and gang out. Don't expect to get more right leaning Republicans in those blue states though. Most likely you will give Obama 3 more democratic senators... and I'm all for that.

Sure seems like the debate on the bill is more who to blame for the current economic problems. How about making the debate over the bill that is on its way to conference. Somehow I cannot see how so much money for unions, community action groups, sex ed or std prevention, health care policies (that might take away my ability to decide my own health care or for that matter decide if I even get health care) - how are these things going to stimulate the economy -

All i see is hatred for one side or the other here. It was all Dubya's fault. No, it is all Obama's fault whaa whaa whaa. Grow up.

I mean look at how you attack your own if they even dare to vote against anything neocons don't like. LOL.

Not one of us knows what will happen when this bill comes into effect, not one of us can predict the future. The last spending bill, the bailout failed. We borrowed massive amounts of money from China to the point where if they call in their loans we're screwed. Now this spending bill comes along and to some of you it's the worst ever. No it's just like the last one and all the others that have preceded it, only this time a Democrat is in the White House so it's obviously worse. *eyeroll*

As i said none of us can predict the future, we don't know that any of the pork won't work. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. But to just say it'll fail when the bill hasn't even gone into effect yet is simply what i've come to expect. This site is exactly like KOS, because of partisan politics you'll never see the woods for the trees.

I don't hope the bill fails like some, i hope it works. I may be partisan but i'd like to see my country back on top where it belongs not down in the gutter. I don't care if they're blue or red, if they get us out of this mess i'll back them, i won't hate them for voting against party lines. *eyeroll*

You know, the 600MM for TV converter boxes (built in China) will REALLY push up the GDP and throttle that nasty old unemployment number.

"Collins, Snowe, and Specter sold out the Republican party and American people today. The RNC needs to start looking for conservative candidates to run against them in their next primaries. "

Good fucking luck in Maine and Pennsylvania. LOL, you lose!! Again and again it feels so good.

"Most likely you will give Obama 3 more democratic senators... and I'm all for that."

"Good ******* luck in Maine and Pennsylvania. LOL, you lose!! Again and again it feels so good."

If either of you will be just as happy to wear the albatross of failure and an even bigger deficit around your neck as you're willing to hang it around the necks of others, then hey, I'm all for it too. There's nothing more satisfying than have someone else to blame, right?

And I pray you're young enough that 20 years from now I get to hear you whine and complain about the cost of the (non)services your government promised, but never produced.

What in the world makes you think that a majority of Republicans in government was bad for us, but a majority of Democrats will be good? I mean, just look at them. How many hands will it take to count the ones of either party who aren't looking out for themselves first? While conservatives talk about particular republican reps and senators who carry a card with an [R] but behave like a [D], you gleefully announce that as long as it's really a [D] you're happy.

We listened to liberals piss and moan for 8 years about Bush's domestic spending. Conservatives complained too. Now that Obama wants to spend even more, liberals are ecstatic. What a bunch of hypocrites you are.

Brian:
They are not "conservatives". They are "Republicans".

I've got to agree whole heartedly.

I was astounded when I was flipping around the TV over the past few days and caught the end of some interview with Paul Krugman (of the NYT) saying that the modern Republican party was "hard line conservative". Puhlease! Most conservatives have voted Republican recently because they were the least, worst option not because of the Republican were conservative.