{"id":2947,"date":"2009-02-12T18:26:39","date_gmt":"2009-02-12T23:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=2947"},"modified":"2009-02-12T20:14:28","modified_gmt":"2009-02-13T01:14:28","slug":"on-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2009\/02\/12\/on-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"ON STRIKE!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gregg withdraws Commerce nomination<\/a><\/strong>
By Reid Wilson
02\/12\/09<\/div>\n

Sen. Judd Gregg [R-NH], who would have brought a bipartisan flavor to President Obama’s cabinet and circle of economic advisers, unexpectedly and abruptly withdrew his nomination Thursday, dealing yet another blow to the president’s bumpy first weeks in office. Gregg cited irresolvable conflicts about the president’s stimulus package and a scuffle over control of the coming Census, which will take place after the 2010 elections as the impetus for the dramatic turnaround…<\/p>\n

"As a further matter of clarification, nothing about the vetting process played any role in this decision," Gregg said. "I will continue to represent the people of New Hampshire in the United States Senate"… <\/div>\n

But the White House issued a strongly-worded statement Thursday afternoon slamming Gregg for backing out.<\/p>\n

"Sen. Gregg reached out to the President and offered his name for Secretary of Commerce," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement. "He was very clear throughout the interviewing process that despite past disagreements about policies, he would support, embrace, and move forward with the President’s agenda."<\/p>\n

"Once it became clear after his nomination that Senator Gregg was not going to be supporting some of President Obama’s key economic priorities, it became necessary for Senator Gregg and the Obama administration to part ways. We regret that he has had a change of heart," Gibbs added…<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Looks like the Republican Congress is going ON STRIKE<\/font><\/strong>. I guess that’s really all there is to say about that.  Barring some Party switching, it means they plan to shut down the government, and I reckon that’s what they’re going to do. I hardly know what to say…<\/div>\n
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On second thought, I thought of something to say after all. The Republican Party has no way to deal with the crisis before us. They largely operate on a narrow ideological axis. Free Market economy is good. No governmental regulation is good. Low taxes are good. Strong Military is good. Government involvement is bad. Government regulation of the economy is bad. Social programs are bad. Democrats are bad. So, they are stuck, because nowhere in their ideological frame is there anything at all to bring to bear on the fact that our economy is collapsing and we are headed into a palpable deflationary spiral. In their frame of reference, it simply isn’t true. They are acting as if this is simply a regular old recession that will pass all by itself. Government doesn’t need to be involved.<\/div>\n

They picked over the Stimulus Bill, particular by particular, howling about each little piece, oblivious to the fact that what matters with economic stimulus is getting money into circulation and creating jobs. They’re going to do the same thing with any Bailout Bill. Their ideology is more important than the situation to which it is applied. They say they want to be included in the process, but what they mean is that they want to control the process by applying their rules [which don’t seem to apply].<\/p>\n

Says Boehner:<\/div>\n
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Boehner Rallies GOP House Conference<\/a><\/strong> <\/div>\n

This morning, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) talked to members of the House Republican Conference about President Obama’s rheteoric on the stimulus pachage. <\/p>\n

"Monday night, the president said ‘some people believe we should do nothing," Boehner said, according to a Republican aide who spoke to CBS News’ Jill Jackson. "He was talking about you." The leak of Boehner’s comments appears to be an attempt by Republicans to gain ground in the ongoing public relations battle around the stimulus bill. <\/font><\/p>\n

"I don’t think anyone in this room has said ‘do nothing’ was an option," Boehner continued, according to the aide. "We are for solutions that work, not wasteful spending that won’t. Our plan creates twice as many jobs at half the cost. We need to continue to communicate that every day back in our districts. Don’t let anyone distort our position." <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
George Will’s reflex op-ed in the Washington Post today is exemplary:<\/div>\n
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Runaway Stimulus<\/a><\/strong>
By George F. Will <\/div>\n

The president, convinced that the only thing America has to fear is an insufficiency of fear, has warned that "disaster" and "catastrophe" are the certain alternatives to swift passage of the stimulus legislation. One marvels at his certitude more than one envies his custody of this adventure. <\/p>\n

Certitude of one flavor or another is never entirely out of fashion in Washington. Thirty years ago, some conservatives were certain that their tax cuts would be so stimulative that they would be completely self-financing. Today, some liberals are certain that the spending they favor — on green jobs, infrastructure and everything else — will completely pay for itself. For liberals, "stimulus spending" is a classification that no longer classifies: All<\/em> spending is, they are certain, necessarily<\/em> stimulative…<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I’m a liberal. I don’t think these things, "For liberals, ‘stimulus spending’ is a classification that no longer classifies: All<\/em> spending is, they are certain, necessarily<\/em> stimulative." What I think is that all <\/em>Conservatives think all<\/em> Liberals think crazy things. And frankly, this liberal [me] hates this situation we’re in. The only thing we can do that will help is something I don’t want to do either. I was looking forward to balancing the budget after Bush decimated it! Again! How do they explain these graphs derived from WhiteHouse.gov and the Bureau of the Budget? <\/div>\n
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So they’re going ON STRIKE<\/font><\/strong> because they contend that the Stimulus Bill is something the Democrats just want to do to have some democrat spending fun<\/em><\/font><\/strong>, that there’s no real pressing need, no real financial crisis – just Socialism in action. And Global Warming is just pseudoscience? And humans and dinosaurs walked the earth together 5000 years ago? And Obama is really a Socialist, or a Moslem, or a Moslem Socialist? <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Where are the grown-ups? These people are acting like petulent children…<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gregg withdraws Commerce nomination By Reid Wilson 02\/12\/09 Sen. Judd Gregg [R-NH], who would have brought a bipartisan flavor to President Obama’s cabinet and circle of economic advisers, unexpectedly and abruptly withdrew his nomination Thursday, dealing yet another blow to the president’s bumpy first weeks in office. Gregg cited irresolvable conflicts about the president’s stimulus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}