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Bush Presses for Action on Stimulus, Surveillance
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. - President Bush today gave House Republicans a brief preview of Monday's State of the Union speech by stressing the importance of the administration's two biggest congressional priorities: an economic stimulus package and passage of an electronic surveillance law.
Speaking to members assembled here at the Greenbrier resort for their annual retreat, Bush focused on one issue that has been marked so far by bipartisan cooperation, a $150-billion economic stimulus plan, and one that has definitely not -- surveillance.
Bush pointedly warned against the Senate tinkering with the stimulus package worked out by the administration and House Democratic and GOP leaders now on the table. Praising Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) for their leadership in reaching a stimulus deal, Bush said, "Congress should move it quickly. And I understand the desire to add provisions from both the right and the left. I strongly believe it would be a mistake to delay or derail this bill."
While he lauded the stimulus deal currently on the table, Bush did strike a note conservatives in the audience were waiting for by calling for the major tax cuts approved shortly after he took office to be made permanent. That drew a standing ovation.
On the surveillance bill, which is being debated in the Senate today, Bush called for quick passage of the measure before the existing, temporary law runs out next week.
"Unfortunately, the [current] bill expires in seven days," Bush said. "The threat to America does not expire in seven days."
After the press was escorted out of the room, Bush gave the members what one source who was present described as a "rah-rah" speech, telling them that they can re-capture the House if they work hard and stick to their ideals. Members asked Bush questions on a range of issues, from Iraq and Colombia to children's health care. The source said Bush spent a good deal of time discussing the current crisis in Israel and the importance of finding a long-term, peaceful solution there.
Members of the GOP leadership echoed Bush's themes at a press conference following the luncheon. Boehner said he hoped "the House will move this [stimulus] package as quickly as possible and get it to the Senate," though he said he was not sure when exactly the bill would be on his chamber's floor.
"The Senate is another body," Boehner said. "They've got their own issues they have to deal with. They're going to speak on it. I just hope they do it quickly."
As for whether Boehner and Pelosi can replicate on other issues the cooperative spirit they've shown on the stimulus, Boehner expressed hope that they could.
"At the end of the day, I'm not a very hard guy to get along with," he said.
By Ben Pershing |
January 25, 2008; 4:05 PM ET
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Posted by: 90172 | January 27, 2008 2:34 PM
So all that Lame Duck President and Liar
in Chief George W Bush knows is to take away more and more of our own US Citizens
Constitutional Rights and dream up idiotic
phony cheap unworkable two bit fixes for
our failing econony that Bush tried before
with his first idiotic unworkable rebate.
Posted by: Carleen | January 28, 2008 8:58 PM
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"Unfortunately, the [current] bill expires in seven days," Bush said. "The threat to America does not expire in seven days."
Another "threat" awaiting the U.S.A.; conjured by George "jump the gun" Bush.
He does appear to see anything that goes against his "flawless idealism" and failed Reaganomics as a threat to the U.S.A. But look how long he and his conservative bedfellows in Congress, FOX news and bobbleheaded propagandists like Limbaugh, have taken to acknowledge Global Warming".
The man is a nut case and the Democrats aren't near being the nutcrackers they said they would be.
Here's an email that's been going around:
HOW LONG DO WE HAVE?
This is interesting. The sad thing about it, you can see it...or imagine it coming.
I have always heard about this democracy countdown. It is interesting to see it in print. God help us, not that we deserve it.
How Long Do We Have?
About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh , had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government."
"A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury."
"From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."
"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years"
"During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. from bondage to spiritual faith;
2. from spiritual faith to great courage;
3. from courage to liberty;
4. from liberty to abundance;
5. from abundance to complacency;
6. from complacency to apathy;
7. from apathy to dependence;
8. from dependence back into bondage"
Well, with our manufacturing going off shore we are putting a stop to abundance.
And with the Democrats giving in to Bush's idea of what FISA can do with surveillance to make it more intrusive on us, we are headed towards bondage. Bondage to corporations and the government not for the people but against the people.