C-SPAN: ‘The Truth Behind the Trillion-Dollar Stimulus, the Biggest Economic Recovery Plan in History’

“The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) (Pub.L. 111–5), commonly referred to as the Stimulus or The Recovery Act, was an economic stimulus package enacted by the 111th United States Congress in February 2009 and signed into law on February 17, 2009, by President Barack Obama.”

From The Film Archives

As it turns out, the 2009 Recovery Act to deal with the Great Recession, was essentially a short-term expansion of the public safety net in America to help people deal with the impact of the Great Recession. Actually, not that different from the New Deal in the 1930s.

The Recovery Act had things like an extension of Unemployment Insurance, money to states and localities so they don’t have to further lay people off, as well as infrastructure investment, and middle class tax cuts to encourage consumer spending to help the economy recover and stop shrinking.

As much as Democrats including myself wanted the Recovery Act to about rebuilding the economy and getting the economy back to not just economic growth, but to put people back to work and get the economy back to strength and perhaps get us back to full employment within two years, the Recovery Act was mostly an extension of the public insurance system to deal with the worst aspects of the Great Recession, like unemployment and bankruptcies.

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U.S. Representative Alan Grayson: What is The Republican Health Care Plan?

Source:U.S. Representative Alan Grayson– (Democrat, Florida) on the lack of a health care plan from House Republicans, back in 2009.

“This is Rep. Alan Grayson discussing the GOP plan for health care. Part one, don’t get sick. Part two, if you do get sick… Part three, die quickly.”

From Alan Grayson

Just to make a few points about what Representative Grayson said here:

If this speech was given I don’t know 14-16 months later after the Republican Party had just won the House back picking up 62 seats, if this speech was given in early 2011, instead of 2009, chances are this speech is not given. Why? Because a House Republican would’ve reported him to the Chair and had Representative Grayson’s words taken down. Which in Congressional speak means his speech would’ve been deleted from the record.

Also, further actions would’ve been taken against the Representative, like him losing his committee assignments in that Congress. Why? Because Alan Grayson is essentially saying that Republicans want people to die early to keep health care costs down in America.

Now to speak about the good points that Representative Grayson actually made here:

House Republicans when they were still in the minority in 2009-10, didn’t have an alternative to what became the Affordable Care Act, until that law is finally voted out of Congress (House and Senate) in March of 2010.

Then House Minority Leader John Boehner and his Republican Conference finally released their own plan in late 2009 or early 2010. And their plan would’ve provided health insurance to like 1-4 of what the Affordable Care Act has provided in just 3 years, which is 20 million new Americans who now have health insurance, who didn’t have it at all in 2009.

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Best of World Boxing: ‘Rivals- Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier’

Source:Best of World Boxing– Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier.

“Profile on the greatest rivalry in Boxing.”

From Best of World Boxing 

I realize football is very different from boxing, but the great NFL analyst John Madden once had a great quote about rivalries and what you need for a rivalry to even be a rivalry, let alone a great rivalry. And he was talking about the great rivalry between his Oakland Raiders and the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s, the two best franchises in American Football Conference, if not the entire NFL in the 1970s.

What Coach Madden said for a rivalry to be great (and I’m paraphrasing) the two teams involved have to be good at the same time once the rivalry starts and then have to be good after that. Their games have to matter, to be important, to be well-played, and close.

What made the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier rivalry a great rivalry in the 1970s, was not only did they hate each other (even though secretly they respected each other) but they were not just good, or real good, or even great, but they were the two best heavyweight fighters in boxing in the 1970s. That’s why they had those three great fights against each other from 1971-75.

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The Fiscal Times: Bruce Bartlett- ‘The Coming Revival of Liberalism’

Source:The Fiscal Times– now here’s a symbol of American liberalism. Not the left-wing, pop culture stereotype, of what liberalism is supposed to be.

“A new poll from Public Religion Research Institute shows growing support for a more liberal approach to policy that I think will gather steam in years to come.

For example, 63 percent of people support higher taxes on those making more than $250,000, with only 34 percent opposed. There is now majority support for allowing gays to marry versus 41 percent opposed.
Raising the minimum wage is supported by 73 percent of people, with just 25 percent opposed. And 54 percent of people favor legal abortion, with 42 percent wanting it to be illegal.

The poll also makes clear that people are becoming increasingly concerned about a lack of jobs, the growing gap between rich and poor, and the declining standard of living. They are becoming more receptive to government activism to deal with national problems and less confident that the private sector can fix them.

These are all issues on which the liberal approach to policy is more popular and the conservative position is weak. I think it is only a matter of time before liberal intellectuals begin articulating specific ideas that will find favor with the electorate–conservatives will be left with little to say except, “no.”

Source:The Fiscal Times 

“Bruce Bartlett Steps Into TYT” 

Source:The Young Turks– Bruce Bartlett on TYT.

From The Young Turks 

I guess my response to Bruce Bartlett’s piece would be: it depends on what you mean by liberal and liberalism. Apparently Mr. Bartlett’s idea of Liberals and liberalism falls into the mainstream media, left-wing, pop culture stereotype of what it means to be a Liberal, what Liberals believe in, and what liberalism, is that they’re just left-wing, Social Democrats or Democratic Socialists, who want to transform America into Scandinavia, or perhaps Cuba economically and politically. 

Socialism might be on the rise in America as far as it’s popularity, with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and perhaps Senator Elizabeth Warren being the unofficial leaders for American Socialists. But apparently that’s who Mr. Bartlett is talking about when he’s talking about so-called Liberals. 

Perhaps this silly (no, I don’t believe that) but when I think of Liberals, I think of people who believe in liberal democracy, which is what Liberals actually believe in and what liberalism is actually based off. Liberals believe that the people should have the right to self-determination, which means personal autonomy, the freedom to act for ourselves and think for ourselves, to make our own decisions in life, instead of some big government (socialist, or otherwise) trying to run our lives for us. That’s my idea of liberalism, because that’s what liberalism actually is, the belief in liberal democracy.

If you polled Americans about whether they believed in the right to self-determination, both personal and economic freedom, limited responsible, government, and fiscal responsibility, liberalism would actually poll very well in America. And we would have lot of Liberals in this country, even though those folks probably wouldn’t be aware that they’re Liberals, thanks to our vast ignorance when it comes to political philosophy in this country. 

 

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C-SPAN: U.S. Senator Robert Byrd- On The 1964 Civil Rights Laws (2009)

Source:CSPAN– U.S. Senator Robert Byrd (Democrat, West Virginia) talking to Brian Lamb about his votes against the civil rights laws in 2009.

“Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) explains why he would change his vote on the 1964 civil rights laws. This excerpt is from a Nov. 2005 interview C-SPAN conducted for the 2006 documentary The Capitol. On 11/18/09 Sen. Byrd becomes the longest-serving member of Congress.”

From CSPAN

Senator Byrd seems to be at least trying to put part of the blame for his votes against the civil rights laws in Congress on Dixiecrats that he served with in Congress. I might be over cynical here, but you can understand if you are someone who follows Congress and government and politics in general as much as I do for my cynicism.

In the second part of this interview Senator Byrd talks about losing his grandson and imagined if his grandson was African-American and was in some type of car crash in some area where there were no hospitals that treated African-Americans and probably other racial minorities. I think that’s the Robert Byrd that we can respect here and give him credit for growing up and maturing as a U.S. Senator, at least when it comes to the civil rights laws in America.

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