Sunday, March 1, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
(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.
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.
E-mail to a friend
Share this on:
Mixx Digg Facebook del.icio.us reddit StumbleUpon MySpace
Mixx it Share
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.
E-mail to a friend
Share this on:
Mixx Digg Facebook del.icio.us reddit StumbleUpon MySpace
Mixx it Share
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
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.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Halo 3
I am obsessed with this game, what is wrong with me? I was up until 3 am the other night playing online. Okay seriously, it's fun. But maybe it's because I have played Halo from day one and I am evolving with it. I know there is obviously a problem though. I am mother of two playing against like 10-15 year olds. To me it's like therapy. I can get all my frustrations out by killing these little adolescents. Hey at least I didn't get the head set, that would be a little too overboard. Even though I was contemplating it. Ha!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Santa Claus
Alright I am not really sure if it is spelled clause or claus. I guess I never really thought about it before. Anyways, I took the kids to see Santa yesterday. They were so excited. As soon as Ava saw him, she bursted into tears. She did not want to sit on his lap. So, I had to sit next to santa and hold Ava on my lap and duck behind Mr. Claus. They did pretty good in hiding me out of the picture. But Ava was not happy and did not want to smile. After we left, Logan got upset and asked," why didn't Santa ask me what I wanted for Christmas? Now he'll never know what to get me." So I explained to him that I already told Santa for him. He felt a little relieved but later told me I should give him a call and remind him.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Glenn Beck
Okay, so for those of you who don't know, I obviously have an infatuation with Glenn Beck. I have to prepare you for what you are about to read seems pretty nerdy I know. So I listen to fox news every morning on am radio (dork, I know). Glenn Beck has a program on from 9-11. But before him is Mandy Connell. She was asking a trivia question about Glenn Beck on the radio. The first caller with the correct answer gets a signed copy of his new book, "The Christmas Sweater." I was that person. I called in and got the answer right and went to pick up my signed book later that morning. I couldn't wait to read it. I read it in two days. Well this morning I hear that Glenn Beck decided to come to Fort Myers for a book signing. He is doing a show in Tampa tonight in which the tickets sold out. So I drive right over to the book store and waited in line to meet him and have him sign my already signed book again. I was number 259. When he arrived, he said that he will not: personalize signatures, pose for a photo, or shake hands. One arm was signing while the other was in a sling. (I missed why) So when I finally got up there. I snatched a pic with my phone. He started talking to me and I was such in awe, I don't even remember what he said. And he didn't really talk to anyone except for a , "Hi." Well one of his team members almost gave my book to the person in front of me until I noted, "I believe that one is mine, it has already been signed once." Then Glenn put down his marker and came around to shake my hand. I explained to him how I already had it signed and he replied, "God bless you." along with a wink. We had a moment, I know. So I was so excited afterwards, I made a few phone calls and not one person even knew who he was. That was dissapointing. Well whatever, it made my day! Those of you who don't know should get in the know!
Glenn Beck quote of the day...
Good for you, you have a heart, you can be a liberal. Now, couple your heart with your brain, and you can be a conservative."
Monday, December 1, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)