Chart of the day.

Via Zandar...

Here's a stimulating idea - maybe we should do some more of what works.

Yes, Virginia...

...there is a difference...

What we have.

A reminder from Dave Johnson...

We have: Work that really, really needs doing. People that really, really need work. Borrowing money is really, really cheap.

Really.

Chart of the day.

Via Ezra Klein...



Hey, maybe he isn't just as bad as...no, that's crazy talk.

Cheer up.

It's getting better all the time…

Obama Approval on the Rise

Democrats Grab Back Lead in Generic Ballot

Support for Health Care Reform Increases

Stimulus Package Worked Better Than Projected

Republicans Losing Hispanic Voters in Big Numbers

Cathy McMorris Rodgers may be…

"...simply the next lawmaker hypocritically trying to 'trash and cash'" the stimulus bill to Think Progress, but she's also my mom's own personal congresscritter, so when she's lying to her constituents, well, it gets personal...

Yesterday, GOP.gov, the official website for the House Republican caucus, continued the anti-stimulus drumbeat, blaring press releases calling the stimulus a failure. Ironically, posted just above two releases attacking the stimulus, the website features a release from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) taking credit for $35 million dollars in stimulus highway money...

...The $35 million in TIGER highway funds were provided by the stimulus McMorris Rodgers tried to kill. McMorris Rodger’s press release, however, claims she was a “champion” in gaining the funding.

The real champions of the folks in WA-5, of course, were the Democratic leadership and our Democratic delegation in DC who saw to it that the needs of the folks across the Cascade Curtain were tended to while McMorris Rodgers was busy representing the ideological interests of the Republican leadership instead of the real needs of the people of eastern Washington.

There's a part of me that thinks it's high time that every constituent of every Republican member of Congress was cut off from federal disbursements their Rep voted against until they get fed up or starved out and send us a better Congress.

Then I remember I'm talking about Mom, and Sis, and my nieces and great-neices, and I'm more inclined to applaud the generous hearts of our Democratic Congress. Enjoy the jobs and new roads, folks, but don't let McMorris Rodgers take even a bit of credit.

Chart of the day.

Via Ron Chusid at Liberal Values...



We're gonna have Bush to kick around for years to come. Not much satisfaction in that, and no quick fix in sight, but there it is.

From the "Me too" file.

Brad DeLong...

...I agree that the stimulus and the banking-sector recapitalization and the expansionary monetary policy are working, but more of each would be working even better...

And a reminder - if it's jobless, it's not a recovery.

They want to have their cake…

…and hate it too. Dan Nowicki at the AZ/DC Blog...

Kyl maintains this year's stimulus law isn't working as advertised and argues that taxpayers shouldn't have to stay on the hook for money that hasn't been spent or won't be spent until years from now.

On Monday, four Obama Cabinet secretaries sent letters to Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer asking if she, too, wanted to shut off the spigot of federal stimulus cash.

“I believe the stimulus has been very effective in creating job opportunities throughout the country,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wrote to Brewer. “However, if you prefer to forfeit the money we are making available to the state, as Senator Kyl suggests, please let me know.”

McCain shot back on Tuesday: “I strongly support the comments of Senator Kyl and call on the administration to retract its threat against the citizens of Arizona."

Let's see, Kyl says "Don't spend it." LaHood asks the Governor "Whattaya think?" McCain calls the question a threat.

Of course, there was no threat in the administration's question, just a question. The Governor, of course, opted to keep the cash. That means one of two things is true - either the stimulus money is doing some good, meaning Kyl and McCain are lying, or the Republican leadership of Arizona is unanimously standing behind pouring taxpayer's money down a sinkhole, at least as long as the sinkhole in question is in Arizona.

Or, perhaps, the Republican leadership of Arizona is simply hypocritical.

Yeah, I know. That's redundant.

I mean, who needs Sarah…

…when there's a Boehner boner just laying there?

When U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner told a newscaster Sunday that not a single stimulus-funded road contract in his home state of Ohio had been let, he was wrong.

The Ohio Department of Transportation has OK'd 52 stimulus-funded road and bridge projects at a cost of nearly $84 million.... An ODOT spokesman called Boehner's statement "disappointing."

And Scott Varner noted that ODOT had just OK'd six more stimulus road projects which will cost about $43 million.

Can he even find Ohio on a map anymore?

Hat tip to Steve Benen.

One man's "pork"…

…is another's employment. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) explains How A Bill Becomes A Job…

The Forest Service has begun the process of awarding contracts for forest health projects. In Oregon, they’ve already allocated over $10 million with more to come. The Medford (Ore.) Mail Tribune recently looked at how $3 million of those funds will be used. They found that because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 150 people will be put to work promoting forest health and helping prevent wildfires in Southern Oregon, with some of those people to start work immediately. Many of these jobs are coming to Jackson County, which currently has a 14 percent unemployment rate.

Sorry scoffers, turns out that clearing brush is economic stimulus.

A "Me two-fer".

President Obama...

...it's a little hard for me to take criticism from folks about this recovery package after they've presided over a doubling of the national debt...

Me too.

...I'm not sure they have a lot of credibility when it comes to fiscal responsibility."

Me neither.

(Actually, I am sure. They don't. And I'm sure he knows that, too.)

Quote of the day.

Dean Baker, in The American Prospect…

Spending that is not stimulus is like cash that is not money.

Hat tip to The Gavel.

From the "Since you asked…" file.

John Aravosis inquires…

So, yes, Joe and I could have posted a "call Congress now!" action about the stimulus package weeks ago, but who would we have had you call?

Since you asked, and I know this is a touchy subject when talking to D.C. residents, almost every American has a member of the House of Representatives and up to two Senators (offer not currently valid in Minnesota) to call their very own that they could, and should, call. Seems like a good place to start, anyway.

What would the message be?

Still asking? Still happy to oblige. The message would be to support any stimulus package endorsed by President Obama. That would be mine, anyway. If you don't like that one, choose another.

Either way, don't wait. Do something.

What's happening…

…via Bernie Horn...

The word on the street here in Washington is that the right is killing us with phone calls to Congress on the Obama economic recovery plan. One congressperson said the calls are running 100 to 1 against it.

What's at stake...

$142 billion for a middle-class tax cut
$47 billion to extend unemployment benefits
$16 billion to expand food stamps
$17 billion in one-time payments to low-income Americans
$26 billion to expand access to health care
$87 billion to help states pay for Medicaid
$24 billion to modernized health information technology
$46 billion to fix bridges and roads
$80 billion to improve public education
$19 billion for school construction
$14 billion to make college more affordable
$32 billion for clean energy

… for starters, and, of course, millions of jobs.

So, what can you do? You can…

…pick up the telephone and call 202-224-3121 (or use the toll-free service at 866-544-7573). Ask the Capitol operator to transfer you to one of your state’s U.S. senators. When you’re connected, say you’re calling to urge your senator to “support the Obama economic recovery plan and oppose all conservative amendments.” Call back and repeat for your other senator. Then contact everyone you know and urge them to do the same.

Did I say you can? Check that.

You must.

This information from a Carl merits front-paging…

Direct lines to the DC offices of the Upper Left Senators:

Cantwell: (202) 224-3441
Murray: (202) 224-2621

Keep those phones ringing, folks!

There it is.

jnfr...

The reason the Republicans don't have a lot of input into this stimulus bill is that they have no good, workable ideas.

That's it. Whatever 'post-partisanship' may turn out to be, it surely doesn't mean solutions that ignore science, defy experience and erode the Constitution, and that's all they've got left.

From the Department of Redundancy Department.

Joe Sudbay

The Republicans are lying...

Yep.

Again Still.

From the "Elections have consequences" file.

Oliver Willis…

Off the top of my head I can think of 69 million reasons why John McCain doesn’t get a rewrite of the stimulus bill.

Of course, one'll do.

He lost.

Stimulate me!

Neil Sinhababu wonders...

...why not lock up the waiter/waitress vote by making tips non-taxable in 2009?

Tax free income for waiters, waitresses, bartenders, busboys and, well, me! What a (ahem) stimulating idea.

Meanwhile, always tip in cash when you can.