I'm interested to see how this 'economic recovery package' works out.

There's a lot going on. I just hope our representatives put the country first, and get down to business. Are you loyal to your political party, your ideology? Or are you a patriot, who cares most about the well being of our citizens.

I hope we have enough patriots in Washington to get us out of this hole.

I'm sick of the he said she said crap that passes for political discourse. I'm sick of the perpetual campaign, where you're always trying to make 'my colleagues on the other side of the aisle' look evil. I'm sick of power struggles, political favors, and games. I'm sick of hidden agendas.

I don't care what party you're in, you were elected to represent the will of the people. We elected You, because we trust you to look out for us, NOT to look out for yourselves.

I don't want to be too hard on the Republicans, I'd really hate to be in their shoes. And I'm sure the Democrats aren't going to be easy on them. When the Republicans had power, they used that power to exclude and marginalize the Democrats. Payback has got to be appealing..

It's not going to be easy to put this bitch back together.

I gotta say though, this past weekend was a stunt. All the Republicans doing a full court press, all over TV, to tear down the stimulus package. Every one of them saying they'd vote against it. This was a game. A decision by the Republican party to begin the 2010 campaign now. Start attacking Obama, and drawing lines in the sand. I really don't think the country has patience for that shit.

Some fanatics out there must believe that the Democrats are evil, or something, because they'd rather see Obama fail. They'd rather see the next 2 years land us in a Great Depression so they can point fingers and say "see, I told you so, the democrat party was in power, and look what happened. You fools better elect some Republicans to fix their mess." Boy that would be great for the Republican party, the more Obama fails, and the more the country and the economy are destroyed, the better their chances in 2010, or 2012.

But I hope those are only the fanatics. Because the people in Washington have more important things to do than watch the country burn.

Every person I've talked to since the election says, "I hope Obama gets something done quick, we got some serious problems in this country, I hope he can deliver." It's not just democrats, everyone has a family member who isn't making both ends meet. Laid off, part time, pay cut, can't find work, turning off the cable and internet, getting rid of a cell phone or a car. Americans are not as divided as we were, we all have the same problems. I think we're also optimistic that we can solve those problems. We're a proud nation, we have faith in ourselves.

You know what the public wants, Fix it, get 'er done. Get to work, putting us back to work.

I feel unified.

This must be the most gracious and humble president we've ever had.

There is something about public ritual that inspires a certain awe. It seems an appropriate way to take pride in our country and our democracy. I've been in big cowds, It's a unifying thing, and to think of how many people are watching the same thing around the world. It's like half of humanity just took part in this moment, at the exact same time. And it's a time when we need to be unified, and determined to meet the challenges facing humanity.

It's nice to feel hopeful about the future. Maybe the world will feel like working together a little more. Feels like we all have a responsibility to help.

Barack Obama, the people's president.

Cheers to the 131.2 million people who voted this year. that's 63% of eligible voters. Congratulations to The People's President.

Hey all! it's been a while. We're doing good on the house, I plan to post some more pictures soon, but first a bit of politics.

If you're looking for the economy, you'll find it in the crapper. We've got lots of unemployment, less credit, less spending, less confidence, and less consumption.

Everyone agrees that something needs to be done to boost the economy before it gets worse. So what will get us the "most bang for our buck"? Is it tax cuts, spending on public works projects, aid to the states? What is the most effective use of dollars. We already have a trillion dollar deficit, so it'd be nice if we could avoid simply throwing money at the thing, like we did with the banks. We should be making targeted investments, and we should be able to see exactly where that money is going.

Tax cuts work different for different groups. For the working class it's supposed to encourage us to buy stuff. Pay down our debt, and get a new laptop or something. It's real similar to the rebate checks we got last time around, except it comes out of our payroll taxes instead.

Tax cuts on the upper classes, that's where we expect tax cuts to do the most good, because if they have more money it inspires them to go ahead and create more jobs for us poor working stiffs... right? I doubt it, if people aren't buying their product they're not hiring. If you sell fewer cars this year, why hire new people? And when people don't have decent jobs, then they can't buy your cars... we're still broke.

I think tax cuts are the equivalent of throwing money at the thing... "Here, everyone have a little cash, go spend it, and this will probably work itself out." Sounds like a faith based economic philosophy to me. I don't have any confidence that the invisible hand of the market will save us. I'd rather a more practical approach.

You know what inspires companies to create jobs? Better sales!!!! Increase demand, and guess what, they'll increase the size of their workforce.

If we want this recovery package to work, the government needs to buy stuff, lots of it, because that creates demand. Buy new computers for the schools, fix roads and bridges, make government buildings more energy efficient, buy some hybrid cars for the postal service, modernize some hospitals...

There are a million things in this country that have been neglected because of an anti-spending attitude in Washington. We live in Buffalo right, we've got a hundred plans and a hundred projects that are ready to go, if we just had the cash to go ahead and build. You don't even have to be creative just give states, counties and cities the money they've been waiting for. But remember, local governments can be just as corrupt as the Feds, make sure that we know exactly where the money is being spent. I love Obama's idea of making all this information public online. Transparency in government is so important.


Article supporting tax cuts


US News article


NY times roundup