Please be kind in your responses, as this is my first post. I am excited to finally be a member here at ATS. I troll the site everyday, and now I can add in my $.02.

This spending bill makes me so angry I don’t even know where to begin. First of all, I voted for Obama, and to be honest I like him personally, but this bill is stunningly awful. This is not change!!! This is the same old Washington D.C. game that has been played for decades; reward those who put you in power. Both sides are guilty of this, but this bill goes way beyond the normal back room, secret handshake business of the past.

I don’t want to attack this bill from a printing / borrowing perspective because that always happens in Congress and for either side to get sanctimonious about that now is at least somewhat disingenuous. Where I am angry is the lack of vision. The focus, if you will. They are taking a Trillion… a TRILLION dollars and spreading it amongst all their interest groups, unions, pet projects, etc., etc., etc., and effectively canceling out any major benefit to the people because the spending is offset by the interest we will have to pay, and the inflation it will surely cause.

If Obama, I should say, President Obama, really wanted to change the way D.C. operates, why not do something that D.C. very rarely does, and that is simply… pause for dramatic effect… DO SOMETHING WELL!!!

Like I said, I’m philosophically opposed to borrowing / printing and spending, but if you are going to take $1,000,000,000,000.00 and spend it, at least have the courtesy to spend it wisely. I would propose that the government pick one maybe two things and focus on “changing” that. Take energy for example (I use energy because that is in-fact the most important issue in civilization, and rightfully so, but I digress). For that kind of money we could have invested in Orbital solar arrays that can focus the light back down to earth and power whole cities, wind power, cold fusion technology, (I forget the name, but basically water current energy generation), enhance / modernize our power grid, and numerous other ways to produce cheap, clean energy. My point is simply that for that kind of money we could have really invested in something that will change our nation, our world, and our species for that matter, for the better.

Congress and the President had a duty to do what is right here and they failed. Many who voted for the bill, and even the President himself have said that this bill isn’t close to perfect… So MAKE IT BETTER, or change it, or I don't know, come up wit a totally different idea. The point is, make sure we are spending this kind of money in a way that will definitely have a positive effect on future generations.

There was an opportunity to fundamentally upgrade and change our civilization and it is being squandered right in front of our eyes and there is nothing we can do about it. We could have changed the world with a trillion dollar investment and instead all we have done is line the pockets of the trail lawyers, the unions, the special interests, and the lobbyist that put these criminals in power to begin with.

Friday 13th, 2009. The day Hope for Change in the U.S.A. officially died.

Sad, just sad.

Of course I put my first post in the wrong forum. Figures. If a mod could please put this in the correct forum I would really appreciate it. Sorry.

Congratulations on your first post and Happy Friday the 13 to you!! Nice post. There is a lot of pork in that bill that I do not agree with. Especially the money going to ACORN to register more illegal aliens to vote.



[edit on 2-13-2009 by groingrinder]

Originally posted by groingrinder
Congratulations on your first post and Happy Friday the 13 to you!! Nice post. There is a lot of pork in that bill that I do not agree with. Especially the money going to ACORN to register more illegal aliens to vote.



[edit on 2-13-2009 by groingrinder]

Yeah, my mistake. Kind of takes the luster off my rant.

Originally posted by RDR17

Originally posted by groingrinder
Congratulations on your first post and Happy Friday the 13 to you!! Nice post. There is a lot of pork in that bill that I do not agree with. Especially the money going to ACORN to register more illegal aliens to vote.



[edit on 2-13-2009 by groingrinder]

Yeah, my mistake. Kind of takes the luster off my rant.

Your rant is very lusterous and I'd suggest you might want to save you $.02, we're gonna need it soon.

Seriously, you are correct. Government never seems to do anything well and I can't figure out why.

I think the reason why they can't do anything well is that they simply don't care to. They spend billions and billions of dollars of other peoples money then act as though it were theirs to begin with, and we should feel lucky to have them in D.C. to spend it for us... After all, Government knows best right?

"Whatever the Private sector can do, the Government can do half as well, for twice as much."
- Tom Joanides - Comedian, Comedy Store, 2007


[edit on 13-2-2009 by RDR17]

Since you originally posted this on the UFO forum, I might as well add my 2 cents.

While I agree with you guys, I wonder why nobody ever complains about the Black Budget spendings? Oh yes it's okay to spent trillions a year for stuff that we have no idea of. Anyway we can't do nothing about black or white.

Originally posted by DesmoSedici
Since you originally posted this on the UFO forum, I might as well add my 2 cents.

While I agree with you guys, I wonder why nobody ever complains about the Black Budget spendings? Oh yes it's okay to spent trillions a year for stuff that we have no idea of. Anyway we can't do nothing about black or white.

Again, my mistake on the wrong forum thing. Oops!

You make a great point as to the "black budget", and I offer no answer except to say that the reason many don't complain about it, is maybe because they don't know what it is spent on. At least that's why I have yet to complain about it. But now that you brought it up, it is annoying how much is spent on things the public have no right to know about. I mean it is the public's money. Of course I understand the need for such secrecy in many areas, but it is incredible that so much capital is spent with a "trust us" attitude, when in reality there is nothing anybody can do or say about it anyways.

The whole operation in D.C. is a mess IMO.

Oh, don't be mad, be glad: I feel that this 'scam bill' is supposed to help the global community at large and not only Americans. Call it what you will - spending, recovery, reinvestment, etc. - at least it's a start keep some people afloat temporarily until 'capitalism' as we once knew it here in America works out its own mess. This is my understanding as sold by Obama and pals so far.

Good first post! S&F As you can see, I'm new too.

There is something that makes me as mad as or madder than the passage of this stimulus bill - not being able to do anything about it.

Legislators should have been given a digital copy of the bill to ponder while they're on vacation. I'd like to believe that at least a few would actually read it cover to cover.

Obama put a great deal of pressure on them too. Do you think he would have stomped his feet if he'd been told "we need to at least read it before we sign it"?

Thank you all for the "Welcome to ATS's". I am very excited to be apart of this great site. I look forward to the many discussions and debates that I'm sure lie ahead.