I was looking at this wonderful document that the White House put out.
It takes the jobs bill and breaks it down by its impact on all 50 states. It's pretty impressive. I mean, all states benefit -- no matter, red or blue. In America today, are there really people in bright blue Wyoming who can say, "we don't need no 8000 jobs. We are doing fine."
Look at Alabama. 55,000 new jobs in two years.
How is this for a plan? During the Conference Committee deliberations, the President would call radio stations in the home states of every one of the House or Senate Members who is giving him a hard time. Imagine the excitement at WAMZ in Louisville when Barack Obama calls during drive time to politely ask why Mitch McConnell opposes creating 50,7000 new jobs in Kentucky.
Back in the day, FDR, JFK, and LBJ had impressive Congressional Republicans like Vandenberg and Dirksen to deal with. They were impressive men, much the Presidents' equal. But look who Obama is up against: a bunch of nobodies.
I'm no fan of Trent Lott but compared to Mitch McConnell, he was John Calhoun. In fact, the whole Republican leadership gang is about as impressive as Alan Keyes, the Republican Obama destroyed to get to the Senate. He needs to take them on. One at a time. State by state.
The White House list is also something we should all use in letters to the editors and calls to radio stations. Make the host argue that South Dakota or Missouri can live just fine without those new jobs. Make them defend unemployment.
But our best salesman is Obama. On Monday, the day before the election, Obama spent hour after hour calling local radio stations producing state-by-state excitement and driving up his numbers. He should do the same thing for the jobs package. The only differences are that this is even more important (on November 3rd, his pollsters told him that he had already won) and also this time he needs to name names. Ohioans need to know that John Boehner is costing Ohio 141,000 jobs and costing millions of working folks tax cuts of up to $1000.
What can they say? Anyway, this approach worked with the two senators from Maine. Two down. 48 to go.
Ben Nelson: Nebraska
In Nebraska, this plan will deliver immediate, tangible impacts, including:
•
Creating or saving 24,000 jobs over the next two years. Jobs created will be in a range of industries from clean energy to health care, with over 90% in the private sector. [Source: White House Estimate based on Romer and Bernstein, "The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan." January 9, 2009.]
•
Providing a making work pay tax cut of up to $1,000 for 710,000 workers and their families. The plan will make a down payment on the President's Making Work Pay tax cut for 95% of workers and their families, designed to pay out immediately into workers' paychecks. [Source: White House Estimate based on IRS Statistics of Income]
•
Making 17,000 families eligible for a new American Opportunity Tax Credit to make college affordable. By creating a new $2,500 partially refundable tax credit for four years of college, this plan will give 3.8 million families nationwide - and 17,000 families in Nebraska - new assistance to put college within their reach. [Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis of U.S. Census data]
•
Offering an additional $100 per month in unemployment insurance benefits to 74,000 workers in Nebraska who have lost their jobs in this recession, and providing extended unemployment benefits to an additional 15,000 laid-off workers.
And so on, and so on.
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Senate Looks To Boost Mass Transit, Highway In Stimulus
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Tuesday to give a tax break to new car buyers, setting aside bipartisan concerns over the size of an economic...
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Where Is The Stimulus Shock And Awe?
During a November 25 press conference, then President-elect Obama promised "a new spirit of ingenuity," declaring that the "old ways of Washington simply can't meet...
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Deal announced on emergency stimulus plan
WASHINGTON — With job losses soaring nationwide, Senate Democrats reached agreement with a small group of Republicans Friday night on an economic stimulus measure at...
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Obama Admin To Unveil New Rescue Plan For Banks
After weeks of internal debate, the Obama administration has settled on a plan to inject billions of dollars in fresh capital into banks and entice...
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List Of What Got Cut From The Stimulus Bill
A coalition of Democrats and some Republicans reached a compromise that trimmed billions in spending from an earlier version of the Senate economic stimulus bill....
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Congress Divided Over Competing Stimulus Bills
The Senate agreement on a roughly $827 billion economic stimulus bill sets up tough negotiations with the House primarily over tens of billions of dollars...
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Krugman: Senate Stimulus Compromise Cuts Most Needed Parts Of Plan
I'm still working on the numbers, but I've gotten a fair number of requests for comment on the Senate version of the stimulus. The short...
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Obama Readies Campaign-Style Approach To Sell Stimulus Package
Beset by criticism of an alleged ethical double standard over some of his Cabinet choices and an intensifying partisan debate over his economic recovery plan,...
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GOP Senators Face Party's Wrath For Supporting Stimulus Bill
The GOP is set against passage of President Barack Obama's stimulus package. Republicans in the House all voted against it (although it passed) and their...
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Economists Agree: Pass Stimulus Package Immediately
While economists remain divided on the role of government generally, an overwhelming number from both parties are saying that a government stimulus package -- even...
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Controversial Tax Break Would Be Eliminated In Stimulus Bill
A tax decision that made it a better deal for Wells Fargo & Co. to purchase Wachovia Corp. would be eliminated by the economic stimulus...
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Schumer: Stimulus Bill Will Be Passed Next Week
WASHINGTON — A top Democratic senator predicts that an economic stimulus bill will pass Congress by the end of the coming week because the stakes...
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McCain On Stimulus: Democrats Just Like GOP
WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. John McCain says that Democratic lawmakers putting together an economic stimulus plan are no more open to input from the opposing...
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Dem Group Heaps Praise On GOP Senators For Stimulus Compromise
A Democratic interest group that has been targeted Republican Senators opposed to the stimulus plan has now invested in a new set of ads, honing...
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Stimulus, Yes; Bank Bailout II, No
If Obama does his job he will mobilize public opinion and isolate Republicans who would rather sink the economy than give a Democratic president legislative success.
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Economic Stimulus: Investing in Vets Delivers a Huge Bang for the Buck
As the Senate begins to debate the stimulus package this week, our elected leaders must ensure that any plan fully supports the newest generation of veterans and their families.
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Billionaire For A Day: A More Entertaining Economic Stimulus Package
Let's do something to capture all Americans attention and by doing so make the economic stimulus package real to all of us: 800 Americans will each win a billion dollars.
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Palin's Facebook Page: Opposes Obama's Stimulus Plan
We learn on Facebook that Palin has "serious concerns" with Obama's stimulus package. Say what?
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Just imagine: What if McCain Had Won the Election and Obama had Shafted him During the Stimulus Debate?
Um, are McCain's feelings after losing an election the big question on people's minds in the nation? I think the stimulus package is the focus of the country right now, don't you?
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Stimulate Me!
Experts seem relatively unified, if such a thing is possible, on the issue of direct economic stimulus to every taxpayer. They're against it.
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Where's Ross Perot When You Need Him?
I'm ready for a little old fashioned Ross Perot specification of the expected outcomes of the stimulus package. This is what we call in education a "teachable moment."
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Rahm Throws Pelosi Under The Bus To Save Stimulus Bill
The story of the morning seems to be that the Obama team is unhappy with Nancy Pelosi and the House committee chairs for delivering up such a liberal, pork-laden bill that they themselves really had nothing to do with.
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Our Twin Crises
That we are unable to manage a functioning economy or deal with climate change because rapacious Wall Street traders have disproportionate political clout is a measure of our political dysfunction.
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Creating Jobs Is Not "Wasteful"
America voted for a change of direction last November, not more of the same. Republicans should listen to the American people and work in a bi-partisan fashion to help get our country on the road to recovery.
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Oh, About That "End" of the Obama Honeymoon ...
Where Obama may have made a mistake is in being too substantively accommodating with people who are basically not going to support him except in the event of an extraterrestrial invasion.
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Patriotic Extortion
Imagine if the Democrats had not pre-capitulated to the Republicans on the stimulus bill. Imagine if they had forced the Republicans to actually mount a filibuster.
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Steele Crazy After All This Year
We are witnessing, not so much the collapse of the Republican Party, as its slide into insanity. What was the GOP's great accomplishment last week? A show of "unity" enough to block the first stimulus package.
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Spaghetti Economics
We need to throw lots of spaghetti against the wall, and fast -- and continue to throw lots of spaghetti against the wall for at least a few years.
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Command and Control?
At a time when the country is virtually pleading with him to exert command and control, he has yielded that role to congressional partisans that the public doesn't quite know and almost certainly doesn't trust.
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Why the Stimulus is Needed, Part II
Given the decreases in personal consumption expenditures and gross private domestic investment, what are the chances of the consumer spending again or business investing again?
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House vs. Senate Stimulus Bills
Some highlights: The House version would spend $60 billion more on education -- the Senate version adds more than $100 billion for tax cuts to individuals and families.
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A Better Stimulus for the Economy
The problem with our economy is not weak spending, which is just a symptom of our predicament. The root problem is lack of confidence in the future.
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The Truth About the Stimulus Package
Until other countries are willing to do their share to stimulate the global economy, the Obama administration is right to lift our boat first.
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Operation Zero Cred
The GOP with Joe the Plumber on the Hill this week to discuss the economy. They should be summarily shut out of this process -- whether or not the president wants them out.
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Stimulus Package: If You Jump Halfway Across a Chasm You Fall Into the Abyss
If we are going to spend two trillion dollars (and most likely more) trying to deal with the economic crisis, shouldn't we do it right?
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Change vs. Bipartisanship: What Happens When You Throw a Bipartisan Party and Half the Guest List Stays Home?
The problem with a message of bipartisanship is that it makes it very difficult to tell the story of why things are so bad that we need dramatic change.
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Delusional or Just Cynical?
A good example of the "frothing at the mouth" reaction to the stimulus plan is a blog penned by Jonathan Tobin, Executive Editor of Commentary.
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Obama Financial Team to Taxpayers: You'll Get Nothing, and Like It
There's nothing that prevents the public from getting their fair share of any future bank profits appropriate to the high risk investment they are being forced to make.
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No, Seriously: Republicans Don't Get It
Investment in bike paths will not only improve our economy, and take our country in the right direction for the future; it is exactly the kind of investment the American people want.
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Obama's Wake-Up Call
Even as unemployment hits 7.6 percent and shows no signs of slowing any time soon, the GOP is falling over itself to protect the ostentatious privileges and prerogatives of a few financial potentates.
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Selling Stimulus
What the administration needs, and what its senior advisers proved so adept at during the campaign, is a simpler, more compelling, campaign-style message for what this legislation is really about.
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A New Movement
There is a movement to strip billions of dollars from the stimulus bill led by Ben Nelson of Omaha (whose Democratic status is debatable) and Susan Collins (Republican) of Maine.
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Energy Self-Reliance and Our Future
You want my opinion on a stimulus plan? Follow Ohio's example and invest in American energy. All of it.
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Stimulating
As muddled as this economic stage may be -- and all major measures taken in crisis usually are -- it is born of the drive to reconstruct and not profiteer, and that alone is progress to applaud.
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Bipartisanship (is) for Dummies
The idea that we can turn this economy around by caving to the feckless demands of those who screwed it up in the first place is utterly bankrupt.
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Pulling the Wool Over Our Eyes
The American people elected President Obama in record numbers to lead our country in a new direction, if the Republicans aren't willing to join him, the least they can do is get out of his way.
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Obama to Speak Monday Night on Stimulus While Rep. Pete Sessions Says Republicans Are the New Taliban
If the media hadn't acted so irresponsibly the past two weeks and President Obama hadn't tried to be so bipartisan, he might not have had to take to the airwaves, but that's not the case anymore.
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Our Phone Calls Are Working, Don't Let Up!
If representatives know that's what their constituents want, they will be both more inclined to keep that critical public investment from the House bill, and act with the speed.
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Obama Undermines Jobs Mandate For the Sake of Bipartisanship
Roosevelt had the New Deal, Kennedy had the New Frontier, Johnson had the Great Society, and Obama has...the stimulus plan. An abstract goal with fungible components that valued process above all else.
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Lions Coach Up Steelers on Stimulus Package
How can anyone take the GOP seriously on economic policy? Agree or disagree on their philosophy; their record is demonstrably terrible. They are the Detroit Lions of Congress.
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Republicans Say They'd Support the "Right" Stimulus Bill, But Stimulus for Them Is Only More Tax Cuts
If you look closely at what the Republicans are saying, this isn't a debate on the merits of this stimulus legislation, but rather another round of policy battles fought during last year's campaign.
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Democrats in Congress Need to Learn How to Lead
I am losing patience with congressional Democrats' innate instinct to capitulate, something that has been evident since the November 2006 mid-term elections.
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YOU ARE WONDERFUL!!!! Let us stand together. We are two thirds of the American public and we can do anything! If we can just stop those who are in our own party from whining too much. Good job!
Great post, except that Wyoming has NEVER been bright blue. It is a red state.
Yeah, I believe the President has the stuff to help us, but... enough is enough. Republicans support the wealthy and "Themselves", most of which "are" all wealthy. They don't care about "We the People"! I feel betrayed. Mr. President, "To Hell with Republicans!" You have all the cards! "The People" elected you and that means that it wasn't those who support the old worn out beliefs. Why are You bowing to their every nod? Stimulus is Spending.. . keep this up front... Spending!!! I don't know, maybe we should've elected Rachel Maddow. She puts the facts out there for everyone to see a couple of times a week. Why are we replacing Spending with Tax Cuts that help those who don't even have to worry about a job? Tax Cuts help working people, but they're not who's in trouble! Tax cuts that show up on paychecks do absolutely nothing for those who don't have a paycheck, and we hear every day that, that is the only segment that shows "growth" daily. What's up? Take them to the mat! Let them know who is in charge; no uncertain terms. Cease with the compromise. They're not going to help You, in any way! Not now! Not ever! They're laughing right now, and I take that personally. God, who is going to save Our Country, if not you President Obama? For 45 years I had a job... now I don't!!!
Never gonna happen;
1) Radio is dominated by right-wing echo-machines that would not take his call, or blowhards like Rush that would yell over him anyway.
2) TV is only in it for the Info-tainment effect. President Obama would have to agree to allow them to ask 3 pointless "have you finally stopped beating your wife, sir?" questions to satisfy their corporate masters.
3) Print is dead. 90% of newspapers only print AP copy anyway.
4) The Internet is like herding cats. People only read the sites that already agree with them (HuffPro case in point.) so that is pointless.
This is my pet peeve and please don't take this personally, but why can't the media, reporters, journalists etc call him President Obama and not Obama. I don't think many people called President Bush, Bush until his ratings went down. Right now President Obama's approval rating is 75% and the media's is less then Cheney. IMO the majority of us want to respect him and we call him Mr President.
President Obama is probably smarter than most in congress, if not all. However, NOT having a ballsy management style to get things done is bringing him down.
4 absolute idiots, 2 dimowits and 2 rethuglicants brought the NATION down last week.
You don't have to be an economist to understand why tax cuts DO NOT WORK --this is all the Repubs care about or talk about. How far do you think $50 extra dollars a month will go for average Americans?? I'm so angry that the idiots who got us into this disaster in the first place are splashed all over the headlines trying to say THEY know how to get us out. What they are calling P O R K is what average Americans call money for Education, New Energy Initiatives, Roads --things we all desperately NEED! Wake up --and stop allowing the MINORITY in Congress and their buddies like Rush Limbaugh dominate the airwaves with this utter nonsense!
So the message is, "a small portion of this bill actually will create jobs, so SHUT UP about the gross amounts of added spending that won't."
Is that it?
The message is --the American people voted overwhelmingly that tax cuts ARE the gross amount of spending that won't work --otherwise we would have McCain as our President. .. The Repubs knew so much about what works that they drove us into this trillion-dollar plus DEBT and they need to recognize that fact.
Name the spending that won't create jobs. Building new schools? Subways in LA? Come on, name specifically the spending that doesn't create jobs. And the Republicans are even against the provisions that the spending must be spent in America on American workers and products. Republican tax cuts do create some jobs, mostly they just make the wealthy more wealthy, but they do create jobs, in Bangladesh, China, other parts of Asia and eastern Europe, not American jobs in America. They are the failed economic theory of deregulation and lawlessness. Cutting edge economic theory for the 1970s.
well i dont think they put the list together for show!
Their list is okay for radio, but frankly, it's just the same generalized talking points, made personalized for each state. What we need are visuals-- charts and graphs! .washingto npost.com/ wp-dyn/con tent/graph ic/2009/02 /01/GR2009 020100154. html
Get a load of this graphical breakdown of the bill-- it DESTROYS the G0P objections :
http://www
(Unfortunately, the print is really light. I had to take the image into Photoshop to be able to see the pie charts. BUT IT'S WORTH IT.)
TAX THE CHURCH AND WE WILL HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO RE-PAY CHINA, AND GET EVERYONE OUT OF DEBT ...
their tax exempt status is illegal, but the govt just forces the IRS to look the other way, as long as a fair share goes to "goodwill" ... the only goodwill they give is to themselves ...
TAX THEM UNTIL THEY GO THE WAY OF THE BUGGY WHIP ...
they own more land than 90% of the citizens put together
and they are so powerful with $$$ that they lobby to get all they want and it is ILLEGAL !!!
TAX THE CHURCH AND WE WILL HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO RE-PAY CHINA, AND GET EVERYONE OUT OF DEBT ...
Put a tax on the gratuitous use of uppercase, and we'd have even MORE money!
do u want my credit card number, now?
NAME Their NAMES
we know thats what they want, they (the gop) cheered mccain on when he promised to do so. lets see how much they cheer when its their name being named by obama!
Lets see how this week plays out... i see a big push coming
This morning Nissan announced 20,000 job cuts. I wonder how the people in Tennessee feel about that Sen. Corker? By the way how is that coal sludge clean-up going? I wonder how the people in Kentucky feel about not having electricity from the Ice Storm Sen McConnell? Did you even go home to find out? Senator Ensign, I wonder how the people and Gov. of your State, Nevada, with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the Vegas area feel about your statement that States budgets are "blouted" and they don't need any money? Senators Kyl and McCain I wonder.... .Oh, never mind, these guys are deaf.
I thought the commentor on another blog had it right.....
..Their states get no money.
Those Senator who don't support the stimulus..
How many Senators would line up for it .... if people from Kentucky or Alabama or Tennessee, etc. threatened a noose and a hanging tree, if they didn't support it.
I'd love to see that.
As long as they don't have to have their kids/grandkids help pay it back, make sense to me..
e." As in already poor, so what's happening now is nothing new for them.
.....
And you forget, the states you mentioned are "low maintenanc
It's those "high maintenance" states that'll suffer the most without the stimulus You know, urban areas where the only thing they know how to grow is crime.....
Those blue states seem to keep the economies of those red states from collapsing.
Ah, yes, that old tired talking point: People who live in cities aren't real Americans. Where, btw, the per-capita crime rate is LOWER than that in most rural areas.
Regarding the kids and grandkids paying back: the infrastructure built by federal programs during the Depression (including tens of thousands of miles of roads, hundreds of dams, thousands of buildings, dozens of airports and levees, and an entire power transmission system) was the basis for the next 3 generations of growth, including jobs for the children and grandchildren of those Depression-era voters.
That infrastructure should have received periodic maintenance in the 80's but Reagan decided to use it as a pawn in his rant against "big government". Now it's crumbling, and now we need to rebuild and expand it for the next round of expansion. You know, for our children and grandchildren.
Sounds childish. Congress as a group passes laws for the entire country.
Obama isn't George Bush.
I will never understand the working-class people from states like Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee, Oklahoma, etc who vote for representatives who have no interest in helping working-class people of their states.
Maybe "No stimulus support=no money for your state" would show these people that there's consequences to voting for somebody who represents lobbyists interests over the American People's.
But it'll never happen.
It's easy, they would rather be poor and try and make it on their own instead of being rich because of someone else's handout. It's called independence instead of dependence.
...
The whole country used to think like that, so let me guess? You're under 30.......
And corporations are now global. Which means if they can make their product somewhere else for a cheaper cost, they will. GM is pumping one billion dollars of bailout money into its operation in Brazil. Corporations will outlast countries. So if lobbyists can't get what they want here, they'll go somewhere else. And there goes your job.......
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