Key Democrat Slams Stimulus, Predicts More Bailouts

The Hill:

A key Democrat on Tuesday lambasted the economic stimulus bill that is headed to the House floor, claiming it was put together too quickly and won't help the economy in the short term.

Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.), who chairs the Financial Services subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises, said on C-SPAN that Democrats have "lost our way" and "shouldn't be pressed by silly deadlines" of getting the bill into law by the Presidents Day recess.

Read the whole story: The Hill

Comments

[research]

05:16 PM on 01/29/2009

1 trillion $ invested in American rooftop solar woulod reaplce all Caol electricity.

another trillion would in efficiency wind solar and eletric cars would reaplce all nukes and oil for cars.

We would save over a trillion dollars per year.

We would end wars for energy.

We would stop global warming.

Wow what a deal

That of give 2 trillion dollars to pay off the

1000 trillion $ bankers derivative debts.

Invalidate derivatives.

Emergency bank audit.

re regulate the banks

Before they are given another cent.

[bygollymissmolly]

12:02 AM on 01/28/2009

So Paul Kanjorski, would you rather we wait until another 3-4 million Americans have lost their jobs and their life savings. Will it then be time enough for you to approve of action?

[FDRJFKLBJ]

11:48 PM on 01/27/2009

He's right.

I'd like to add that stimulus packages don't work.

Do you know how the government gets the money for them? who pays for them?

YOU DO! Through higher taxes and inflation! There's no such thing as a free lunch, people.

[bygollymissmolly]

11:59 PM on 01/27/2009

So you would rather than another 5-8 million people lose their jobs and us go into a Depression. Oh, I forgot. Tax cuts are the answer. Perhaps you can tell us how tax cuts are going to help the millions who don't have jobs. And in case you didn't notice, your tax cuts over the last 8 years didn't create any new jobs and contributed in a big way to the financial mess we are in right now.

[FDRJFKLBJ]

12:06 AM on 01/28/2009

So the way to get out of an economic crisis is to tax more, according to you.

Obama should raise the income tax rate to 100%, then the economy would really start skyrocketing, right!

People losing jobs is the CURE to our problems. We can't afford to buy cars, so car dealers must be closed, and so on. We must move from consumption to PRODUCTION. Doing that requires jobs being lost.

[bygollymissmolly]

12:03 AM on 01/28/2009

If there is a god, you will be one of the next to lose their job. Then come back and talk to us.

[FDRJFKLBJ]

12:33 AM on 01/28/2009

Stay classy.

[SheikPA]

10:30 PM on 01/27/2009

My congressman Kanjorski what is he thinking?. I'm going to his office to express my opinion for him to support this stimulus package. Or I will not vote for him next election

[DelvinMcGee]

11:30 PM on 01/27/2009

You tell em Sheik! You can't possibly have a cogent thinker representing you who is more interested in doing what is right than giving freebies away to ensure reelection.

take a stand!

[jcwtts1]

12:03 AM on 01/28/2009

This is a pretty safe dem district but the reality is that people are nervous about the stimulus package because the bailout was a disaster. Well the first half was a disaster. We're going to have to let guys like this have cover. He knows his district, let him vote against it.

J

[LiberalDemIda]

12:08 AM on 01/28/2009

I saw him on C-Span this morning. I was shocked to see he was a Dem. He approved how the first half of the bail out was used, i.e., boost the banks. He kept saying Americans needed to be educated and that bailing out the banks was necessary. He gave the same gloom-doom scenario saying that had they not done it, the world would collapse, or something to that (dramatic) effect.

Another DINO/corporate-friendly congressman that needs to be replaced.

[brighterlight]

10:12 PM on 01/27/2009

I'd also like to see a renewed effort to "Buy American", but U.S. corporations don't seem to like that idea. Check out what they want out of the Stimulus Bill:

U.S. Corporations Demand the U.S. Taxpayer Should Not Buy American
(http://www.economicpopulist.org/?q=content/us-corporations-demand-us-taxpayer-should-not-buy-american)

[bygollymissmolly]

12:00 AM on 01/28/2009

Of course not. If "Buy American" catches on, they may be forced to bring their business back into this country.

[Lupin77]

08:48 PM on 01/27/2009

No more bailouts please! More money should be now spent on helping Americans to find jobs, fix the infrastructure, small businesses, rather than the big banks which we now know are spending the bailout funds on interior decorating and buying new jets. The first bailout was a sham.

[bygollymissmolly]

12:01 AM on 01/28/2009

The first bailout was a sham thanks to Bush/Paulson.

The second half will go to help main street. Geithner is already funneling money to the banks with the requirement that they use the money they are getting to make loans to main street. They are not giving the banks the money to stuff into off-shore accounts like Paulson did.

[LiberalDemIda]

12:09 AM on 01/28/2009

"Dem" Kanjorski approved of how the first bail out was used. Defended it even on C-Span this morning.

[jcwtts1]

12:11 AM on 01/28/2009

I have to tell you Lupin77 I hear you. Here is my concern though. What happens if Citibank and Bank of America close their doors tomorrow. If you can't get your money out of them, if they are illiquid? The world economy collapses. Now I'm not saying refusing to bail them out will cause that, but I'm asking, honestly, are you sure it won't. Are you sure that tens of millions of Americans won't suddenly lose their homes as citi and BOA foreclose instantly on them? Are you sure that all we will survive the direct deposits of Soc Sec checks etc vanishing into the ether in three days? Hey the money is insured, everyone will get most of it back in 6 to 8 months. Can you wait that long for your savings account? This mess is wildly complicated, wildly. No one on wall street or off it has any idea what the heck is going on. But I know this, people I trust say that the bailout worked, that it stopped us slipping off the edge of the cliff and that while no one can prove it our quick action saved a total world market collapse. That if you think dow 7000 is bad how about dow 900. So I hear you I just don't know that we should be making blanket rules like no more until we understand how this last one worked. Cause you know, it might have.

J

[Emlyn]

08:11 PM on 01/27/2009

HE IS SO UNAMERICAN! HE SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF HIMSELF. HE APPARENTLY DOES NOT CARE FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE USA.

[jerrypl]

07:20 PM on 01/27/2009

PA Rep. Kanjorski exactly what do you want? You never said except he wants to take his time. Time to do what Congressman? You seem to have forgotten your reason for YOUR objection. American wants to hear you. We are open for debate, but show us your hand!!!

I, too, have my doubts on the effectiveness of the bailout as it is proposed, but remember, even under YOUR cryptic call to go slow, more will be asked for at a later date. It all cannot come at once. President Obama needs to demand that outsourcing corporations bring back their $450 billion in profits they are holding in overseas banks, otherwise he should slap a tariff on their imports. They need to bring back the jobs, too.

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

[jcwtts1]

12:15 AM on 01/28/2009

I think he wants time to actually process the bill. I mean there are 700 pages of legislation that are going to get voted on 4 days after the bill came out. There is no markup, no committee review, no anything. I get what he is saying but it is an emergency. We get one bite at this apple. People are angry at Obama for wanting it to be bi-partisan, this is the one chance we get to do this it will define the 4 or 8 years of his presidency. It will decide the well being of our nation. Either this thing works or we are going to be in an L shaped recession, Short but hard down and flat line for years to come, like an L.

[Bec01]

05:34 PM on 01/27/2009

I say only people under 65 years old should be elected to the congress.. No offense to anyone older than 65.

[conniedogs]

07:23 PM on 01/27/2009

There should also be term limits...

[pewty]

10:58 PM on 01/27/2009

so many old men, they may be very wise but in the old ways of the world. Not dumb, just, not hip. Like McCain and that newfangled Internet....thinks of food when he hears Blackberry

[Emlyn]

08:09 PM on 01/27/2009

I agree with you.

[Appleton]

05:28 PM on 01/27/2009

After twenty-five years in office, most representatives tend to become a tad curmudgeonly and egocentric. If Rep. Kanjorski believes the pending package is moving too quickly, perhaps he needs to remember that the lack of any serious effort by his committee in the past to pay closer attention to financial markets has been a significant contributor to the present emergency. He needs to get over his grumpiness and get on with the program.

[Lloyd Anderson]

04:46 PM on 01/27/2009

CHANGE CANNOT BE DERAILED....!!!

Mr.Kanjorski.. like most democrats of the past generations are mired in affluence and good life, therefore they cannot expected to appreciate the need for immediate assistance, for the middle and working, who are and have been , the victims of layoffs for about two years.

The erstwhile Senator is more a conservative Republican than a justice seeking Democrat, whose outlook and service are directed towards the super rich than the workers of the Auto industry or any industry that has severely lost thousands of workers.

President Obama's call to make America service the majority of Americans and for the Majority to serve America and each other, is lost on the Rich. So he wants life to continue at his snail pace whilst the largess, the profits of our country , continue to drift in his class's direction.

So we should understand that the views and outlooks of Senators such as Kanjorski, will always be similar to the most backward Republican in the Congress. So President Obama has a major headache making agents of change, these slow thinking democrats.....But our President will be Fired up ..and Ready to go!!!! Because ....Yes he Can ..be a success

[wrensis]

04:46 PM on 01/27/2009

"If the enemy don't get you, your own folks will"

[Grannysue]

04:15 PM on 01/27/2009

He's got a job so there's really no hurry!!

[unity08]

04:10 PM on 01/27/2009

We lost about 50,000 jobs yesterday. Is he seriously saying that something doesnt need to be done quickly? 50,000 jobs in ONE DAY!

[OlskoolDem]

03:50 PM on 01/27/2009

some one up for re-election in 2010??

[buggedabouttheus]

05:06 PM on 01/27/2009

Yes. Scratching his name at the top. What a knucklehead!