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(CNN) -- President Obama took his pitch for an $838 billion economic stimulus plan to conservative southwest Florida on Tuesday, making a campaign-style pitch to a region hit hard by the current recession.
President Obama has spent weeks trying to convince Congress to quickly pass a stimulus plan.
"We can't wait and see and hope for the best. I believe in hope, but I also believe in action," Obama said. "We can't afford to posture and bicker and resort to the same failed ideas that got us into this mess in the first place."
Obama's town hall-style event in Fort Myers, Florida, came as the Senate voted 61-37 to approve the proposed $838 billion economic stimulus bill. Only three Senate Republicans voted for the plan.
The measure will now have to be reconciled with an $827 billion version the House of Representatives passed on January 28.
The president held a similar town hall event Monday in Elkhart, Indiana, another town hit hard by the recession. He expressed the same themes in his first prime-time news conference Monday night.
Southwest Florida is a heavily Republican region that supported GOP nominee John McCain in November's election. But Obama was introduced by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a prominent McCain backer who has become one of the few national Republican figures to endorse the stimulus package.
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Transcript: Obama takes questions on economy
"This is not about partisan politics," Crist said. "This is about rising above that, helping America and reigniting our economy."
The jobless rate in the area is 10 percent, up from 2.3 percent this time in 2006, and the area's foreclosure rate of 12 percent is the highest in the nation.
"We're not just talking about faceless numbers," Obama said. "We're talking about families. We're talking about some of the people in this town hall meeting today -- your neighbors, your friends."
In an interview before the event, Fort Myers Mayor Jim Humphrey told CNN that Congress needed to move quickly on the stimulus bill. Humphrey, a Republican, said he could put money from the stimulus bill to work "immediately" to repair damaged roads and shore up failing water and sewer systems.
"We believe that we could exceed over 400 jobs in just a matter of months if they could move forward and adopt this program, and we can start having some assurance that we will be able to move forward and bid and commence construction," he said.
According to the White House, nearly 12,000 jobs have been lost in Fort Myers in the past year.
To make matters worse, the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation last year, with 12 percent of housing units receiving a foreclosure-related notice. Median housing prices in the Fort Myers metropolitan area have plummeted from $322,000 in December 2005 to less than $107,000 in December 2008, the Obama administration notes. Watch more on Obama's push for the stimulus plan »
"People are very nervous, maybe even scared," Fort Myers restaurant manager Debbie Kendall said. "Everything is so up in the air."
In Monday night's news conference, Obama admitted that the stimulus plan is "not perfect" but urged Congress to approve it "without delay." He argued that only the federal government has the power to break the "vicious cycle" gripping the U.S. economy, and said the package would create up to 4 million new jobs. He also said that 90 percent of those jobs would ultimately be generated by the private sector, a rebuttal of some conservative critics who say the plan amounts to little more than a government jobs bill.
He has said he wants a final bill on his desk by Presidents Day, which is Monday. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on the stimulus package
Much of the package involves infrastructure spending, long-term energy projects and aid to cash-strapped state and local governments.
Republicans opposed to the plan say it includes too much wasteful spending and too few tax cuts. The measure received no Republican votes in the House of Representatives. Watch Republicans blasts the president's plan »
Polls show the public is split over the stimulus plan. A slight majority, 54 percent, favor the bill; 45 percent are opposed, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Monday.
While Obama was pushing for the plan, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced a substantial overhaul of the ongoing federal financial bailout Tuesday.
Among other things, "clear oversight" will be required for the second half of the $700 billion in financial bailout funds, Obama said Monday night.
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President Obama has spent weeks trying to convince Congress to quickly pass a stimulus plan.
"We can't wait and see and hope for the best. I believe in hope, but I also believe in action," Obama said. "We can't afford to posture and bicker and resort to the same failed ideas that got us into this mess in the first place."
Obama's town hall-style event in Fort Myers, Florida, came as the Senate voted 61-37 to approve the proposed $838 billion economic stimulus bill. Only three Senate Republicans voted for the plan.
The measure will now have to be reconciled with an $827 billion version the House of Representatives passed on January 28.
The president held a similar town hall event Monday in Elkhart, Indiana, another town hit hard by the recession. He expressed the same themes in his first prime-time news conference Monday night.
Southwest Florida is a heavily Republican region that supported GOP nominee John McCain in November's election. But Obama was introduced by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a prominent McCain backer who has become one of the few national Republican figures to endorse the stimulus package.
Don't Miss
Stimulus plan is 'theft,' some lawmakers warn
Transcript: Obama takes questions on economy
"This is not about partisan politics," Crist said. "This is about rising above that, helping America and reigniting our economy."
The jobless rate in the area is 10 percent, up from 2.3 percent this time in 2006, and the area's foreclosure rate of 12 percent is the highest in the nation.
"We're not just talking about faceless numbers," Obama said. "We're talking about families. We're talking about some of the people in this town hall meeting today -- your neighbors, your friends."
In an interview before the event, Fort Myers Mayor Jim Humphrey told CNN that Congress needed to move quickly on the stimulus bill. Humphrey, a Republican, said he could put money from the stimulus bill to work "immediately" to repair damaged roads and shore up failing water and sewer systems.
"We believe that we could exceed over 400 jobs in just a matter of months if they could move forward and adopt this program, and we can start having some assurance that we will be able to move forward and bid and commence construction," he said.
According to the White House, nearly 12,000 jobs have been lost in Fort Myers in the past year.
To make matters worse, the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation last year, with 12 percent of housing units receiving a foreclosure-related notice. Median housing prices in the Fort Myers metropolitan area have plummeted from $322,000 in December 2005 to less than $107,000 in December 2008, the Obama administration notes. Watch more on Obama's push for the stimulus plan »
"People are very nervous, maybe even scared," Fort Myers restaurant manager Debbie Kendall said. "Everything is so up in the air."
In Monday night's news conference, Obama admitted that the stimulus plan is "not perfect" but urged Congress to approve it "without delay." He argued that only the federal government has the power to break the "vicious cycle" gripping the U.S. economy, and said the package would create up to 4 million new jobs. He also said that 90 percent of those jobs would ultimately be generated by the private sector, a rebuttal of some conservative critics who say the plan amounts to little more than a government jobs bill.
He has said he wants a final bill on his desk by Presidents Day, which is Monday. iReport.com: Share your thoughts on the stimulus package
Much of the package involves infrastructure spending, long-term energy projects and aid to cash-strapped state and local governments.
Republicans opposed to the plan say it includes too much wasteful spending and too few tax cuts. The measure received no Republican votes in the House of Representatives. Watch Republicans blasts the president's plan »
Polls show the public is split over the stimulus plan. A slight majority, 54 percent, favor the bill; 45 percent are opposed, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Monday.
While Obama was pushing for the plan, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced a substantial overhaul of the ongoing federal financial bailout Tuesday.
Among other things, "clear oversight" will be required for the second half of the $700 billion in financial bailout funds, Obama said Monday night.
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
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Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Written by a Glenn Beck fan...
"Once upon a time there was a very happy couple. Their names were freedom and capitalism. They married and had many wonderful children. Their names were independence, self-worth, hard work, dignity, charity, faith and hope. They all lived happily for many years and the children respected their parents and loved them both very much. But freedom and capitalism later had several naughty children, very naughty. They weren't so respectful and never appreciated their parents. Their names were wealth envy, environmentalism, animal rights activism, racism, feminism, ultra liberalism. These evil children blamed their parents for everything and hated their parents' freedom and capitalism. In fact, these unappreciative children began to hate their parents since they didn't realize their parents gave them everything they had and didn't realize that they wouldn't even exist without their parents. They hated their parents so much, they began to plot with their neighbors to kill their parents and to keep their home. Their neighbors' names were socialism and communism who on the outside were a very lovely couple but inside they were very, very ugly. They and their children, whose names were despair, poverty, suffering, and repression had been welcomed into every neighborhood they had lived in. But then thrown out after years of suffering and the loss of many lives. So late one night in total darkness because socialism and communism did everything in darkness and the way from the light of the truth, while everyone was asleep, wealth envy, environmentalism, feminism, animal rights, by their younger obnoxious brother, Hollywood, disguised by socialism and communism and let them into the house, freedom and capitalism. It wasn't hard for the two parents, freedom and capitalism, always left their gates and their door open for everyone. Wealth led the way because he knew the house oh, so well. The evil children led socialism and communism throughout the house, one room at a time. And one at a time they killed hard work, then dignity, then independence, self-worth, charity and faith. They finally found the room of freedom and capitalism and killed them as well. It wasn't hard to do, since freedom and capitalism always left their door unlocked and open for everyone. Only hope survived. Hope survived hiding in the closet. She ran out during the ensuing celebration. After socialism and communism moved in, things went well for a while but then they decided they didn't like freedom and capitalism's evil children, either. They wanted their own children to have the rooms in their new house. So late one night in total darkness because socialism and communism did everything in darkness and away from the light of the truth, they sent their children to kill freedom and capitalism's remaining evil children. Poverty and suffering killed environmentalism and animal rights first, for they were so hungry, they had to kill all the animals for food and the trees for their wood. And besides, why should animals have rights if people don't? Hopelessness killed liberalism, the retarded brother of communism. Then poverty, suffering, and repression killed feminism. The retarded sister of liberalism. And Hollywood, the young obnoxious son of freedom and capitalism, was also killed. Finally, wealth envy, who led the attack on his parents, died at the hands of poverty since there was nothing left to envy.
So socialism and communism and their children, poverty, despair, hopelessness, suffering, repression lived in the once beautiful home of freedom and capitalism which was now in great disrepair and they all lived sadly ever after. All that was left of the family of freedom and capitalism was hope who was quietly hiding in the woods.
So socialism and communism and their children, poverty, despair, hopelessness, suffering, repression lived in the once beautiful home of freedom and capitalism which was now in great disrepair and they all lived sadly ever after. All that was left of the family of freedom and capitalism was hope who was quietly hiding in the woods.
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