GOP Made Up CBO Report On Stimulus To Try And Derail It
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New president, same old GOP dirty tricks. Their flaw, as usual, is that somebody checked. When the last elephant is put down it’ll yelp, “Somebody checked!!’
Reports of a recent study by the Congressional Budget Office, showing that the vast majority of the money in the stimulus package won’t be spent until after 2010, have Democrats on the defensive and the GOP calling for a pullback in wasteful spending.
Funny thing is, there is no such report.
‘We did not issue any report, any analysis or any study,’ a CBO aide told the Huffington Post.
Rather, the nonpartisan CBO ran a small portion of an earlier version of the stimulus plan through a computer program that uses a standard formula to determine a score — how quickly money will be spent. The score only dealt with the part of the stimulus headed for the Appropriations Committee and left out the parts bound for the Ways and Means or Energy and Commerce Committee.
Because it dealt with just a part of the stimulus, it estimated the spending rate for only about $300 billion of the $825 billion plan. Significant changes have been made to the part of the bill the CBO looked at.
The CBO numbers were given to a small number of congressional Democrats and Republicans, but were not posted online because they’re not an official CBO product. (Media outlets, while reporting widely about the ‘report,’ have declined to post it online. Here’s the whole thing.) Democratic aides say they are certain that the GOP leaked it to the Associated Press in order to undercut the spending portion of the stimulus.
I recently was talking to a friend of mine who worked on the Obama campaign and we were discussing why the GOP had no ThinkProgress or similar type site of their own. My friend reminded me that ThinkProgress deals with actual, verifiable facts.
Oh, right.
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© 2000-2011 Oliver Willis
Every time you say to yourself, “no way, they’d never do that!” they go and do it. Every time.
And every time the Dems will stand back an let them. Why aren’t the Dems as vocal as the Repubs about these things? They should be crying from the rooftops that “the Repubs are lying and trying to mislead you again”. They should be making sure the general public perception of the Republican party is “They are a bunch of liars. Can’t believe anything they say.”
But…. their Democrats. So they’ll do it quiety, in a way that won’t offend.
I can only hope Congressional Dems will learn from the Obama campaign and grow some freakin’ balls.
Republicans are loathed, nationally. Please stop acting like they’re a party that has to be taken seriously.
Democrats have a mandate from the American people. I wish the leaders of my party would start acting like it.
Jaim: I wish the leaders of my party would start acting like it.
I’m sure if you just give them a little time. I mean, it’s only been two years….
I think you may want to check the sources you read for news there, Oliver. When I read the original reporting about the CBO report, it plainly stated that “nearly half of the stimulus” wouldn’t be able to be spent for a year.
$300Billion is close to nearly half of $850Billion, last I checked.
If you’re getting your news second hand, say from liberals bitching about stuff, then maybe you should look into reading actual news and not OpEd pieces that make you feel warm and fuzzy.
Believe me, I know. Reid and Pelosi tend to act like it’s still 2005.
My friend reminded me that ThinkProgress deals with actual, verifiable facts.
You might want to check out your friends a little more closely, OW. Just because they share your one-sided view of good and bad doesn’t mean they know what they’re talking about.
Was Think Progress dealing with actual, verifiable facts when they accused John McCain on their blog of plagiarizing a speech about his disdain for war that they claimed was lifted by Adm. Timothy Ziemer? Turns out, Ziemer had lifted parts of a speech McCain had given previously. Did they even bother calling McCain’s staff before gleefully going with the story?
The place is staffed largely with kids too inexperienced even to be called hacks. Kids on the conservative side for the most part have higher ambitions for themselves. Either that or they are less in need of the therapeutic benefits of writing piffle.
And every time the Dems will stand back an let them.
True, but a media complicit with the Republican douchebags makes it even harder. They aided and abetted this latest nonsense. Liberal Media my bum.
Yes, TP made one mistake – and unlike the right wing press – owned up to it. So, it’s like 20 million to 1.
Yes, those conservative kids have ambitions like going to Iraq and applying the fucking Laffer Curve to screw the country up worse.
Think Progress rarely does either, OW.
Here, here’s one of their esteemed, ahem, reporters’ Facebook page. His picture pretty well exemplifies the the type people they hire.
“You say if you had voted in 2004 you would’ve voted for John Kerry? Great, you’re hired! When can you start?”
“Mitch McConnell lied? Well, here’s some other guy’s Facebook page!”
Uh…wow!
Dennis says: “Think Progress rarely does either, OW.”
You are a sad, pathetic person, you know that, right?
No side is perfect, but if you think finding one or two mistakes equals the torrent of lies from the GOP, you are sadly mistaken.
You are a sad, pathetic person, you know that, right?
I don’t know that, CS. I’m quite comfortable in who I am and what I believe. As to finding one or two mistakes, I can assure you, Think Progress has made many, many more than one or two. And it’s rare that I don’t make a comment that someone here does the exact same thing. I don’t recall you ever criticizing anyone you agree with for doing so, either.
The issue was some guy wondering why the GOP doesn’t have a website like Think Progress, and I gave more than one or two reasons why that site is not one to be emulated. If it wasn’t a Saturday and I didn’t have better things to do, I’m sure I wouldn’t have a problem listing several more.
As to sad and pathetic, I think, and I’m sure more than just conservatives would agree, that it’s a lot worse to list the criticisms of Think Progress than it is to ridicule conservatives who sign up for the military and do their duty and proudly serve their country in going to Iraq.
And their is nothing wrong with college graduates going in to the financial sector and agreeing with several tenets of the Laffer curve. It’d be a quite and sad pathetic world if no one wanted to serve in our military or go in to the world of finance or economics and instead become liberal bloggers and having the noble assignment of sitting in front of a TV to monitor Fox News or listen to Rush Limbaugh every day to write about his latest musings like the neophytes at Think Progress.
“I don’t know that, CS. I’m quite comfortable in who I am and what I believe.”
Sadly, I believe you when you say this.
apa.org/journals/features/psp7761121.pdf
“As to finding one or two mistakes, I can assure you, Think Progress has made many, many more than one or two.”
And I repeat myself, you won’t be able to find so many mistake, of a high enough severity, that compare to what the GOP is doing or has done in the past.
“As to sad and pathetic, I think, and I’m sure more than just conservatives would agree, that it’s a lot worse to list the criticisms of Think Progress than it is to ridicule conservatives who sign up for the military and do their duty and proudly serve their country in going to Iraq.”
Ummm… I believe Oliver is talking about the leadership of the GOP who went to war with Iraq, not the people who signed up to fight there.
“And their is nothing wrong with college graduates going in to the financial sector and agreeing with several tenets of the Laffer curve.”
Except when they make a mistake with regards to the Laffer Curve. The Laffer curve does not say when you reduce taxes you increase revenue. Saying that means you don’t know enough about economics to go into the world of finance.
Sadly, this describes many members of the GOP, who thought tax cuts for the rich would cure all problems facing the United States.
Phil: “I think you may want to check the sources you read for news there, Oliver. When I read the original reporting about the CBO report, it plainly stated that “nearly half of the stimulus” wouldn’t be able to be spent for a year.
$300Billion is close to nearly half of $850Billion, last I checked.”
Two point…
1.) Not really. It’s closer to a third than a half.
2.) I believe the CBO report said that nearly half of the $300 billion would not be spent this year. (Although I admit I might have misread that part.)
…to ridicule conservatives who sign up for the military and do their duty and proudly serve their country in going to Iraq.
Who, specifically, are the people ridiculing conservatives who sign up for the military? Call them out for some much-needed shame. I’m ridiculing douchebag chickenhawks who actively supported (if not started) the bogus Iraq Invasion. People like Commander Bunnypants, Dick “Dick” Cheney, Jonah Goldberg, Peter Beinart, Rich Lowry, and countless shitweasels at Young Republicans conventions who literally say that it’s more important for them to stay safe at home and fight “the culture war.” Those assholes have blood on their hands.
And their [sic] is nothing wrong with college graduates going in to the financial sector and agreeing with several tenets of the Laffer curve.
The Laffer Curve has tenets, let alone several of them? What THE FUCK are you smoking? So what are those tenets? Which ones do you, yourself, agree with? Are they anything like the tenets of Zen Buddhism (incidentally, “Every Man for Himself” ain’t one of them)? Holy fucking shit, I ask Megan McArdle and she has more sense.
It’d be a quite and sad pathetic world if no one wanted to serve in our military or go in to the world of finance or economics and instead become liberal bloggers and having the noble assignment of sitting in front of a TV to monitor Fox News or listen to Rush Limbaugh every day to write about his latest musings like the neophytes at Think Progress.
The military could use more good people, now more than ever. Why don’t you head down to a Young Republicans club (as the great Max Blumenthal did) and try to get some recruits. Good luck. Repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell would be another good thing. Can we have your support on that? I don’t begrudge anyone going into finance, but malicious dickheads like the right wing Enron crew (who took joy in sticking it to “Grandma Millie”) and rest of the deceitful bastards I can do without. And by the way, keeping Rush Limbaugh and his ilk in check as much as possible. That racist traitor is like Father Coughlin raided Jose Canseco’s medicine cabinet.
Good day, sir!
If it wasn’t a Saturday and I didn’t have better things to do, I’m sure I wouldn’t have a problem listing several more.
Hey, why don’t you deliver to us that lengthy list of easily found Think Progress errors at your convenience, mm-kay?. It’s the Internets. There’s no rush.
Wait. You screwed up the link, but your big evidence is someone’s picture on their Facebook page?
Using that standard, look at this goofy SOB. I mean, look at him. No way he could ever amount to anything!
Who, specifically, are the people ridiculing conservatives who sign up for the military?
–Mister ed
See Oliver’s rejoinder at 12:16. “Yes, those conservative kids have ambitions like going to Iraq and applying the fucking Laffer Curve to screw the country up worse.”
I’d suggest to anyone reading here to read Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell’s excellent book, Lone Survivor to get an idea of the type of conservative kids’ ambitions who go to Iraq.
Then compare and contrast Marcus Lutrell with Matt Corley from Think Progress. Shoot, compare and contrast him with anybody at TP.
Indeed, shame on O-Will for saying that. If he was referring to the Blackwater douchebags or unqualified Heritage Foundation legacies (e.g., Simone Ledeen), he ought to have been more specific.
I wasn’t referring to the few conservatives who actually went over and joined the Iraq War (few and far between). I was talking to the Yahoos who went over with Paul Bremer and felt that instead of doing Iraqi reconstruction they should indeed turn the country into a playground lab for conservative economic theory. Of course, knowing that his happened would require people like Dennis to crack open a book rather than throw out tired conservative tropes.
It’d be a quite and sad pathetic world if no one wanted to serve in our military
Well, Dennis, I am an Army vet and politically somewhat to the left of Obama, in part BECAUSE of my military experience. You?
I spoke with a vet of the Balkans thing in the nineties at my school once – when I was surprised at his liberal attitudes he said “Most of the officers were when I was in. All the bottom feeders they signed up are the Bushies.”
I wasn’t referring to the few conservatives who actually went over and joined the Iraq War (few and far between). I was talking to the Yahoos who went over with Paul Bremer and felt that instead of doing Iraqi reconstruction they should indeed turn the country into a playground lab for conservative economic theory.
Bail. How would anyone know just who or what you were talking about when you said what you did. I seriously doubt that if any popular figure on the right who said something like what you said that Meida Matters, Think Progress or even you on your blog for that matter, would be giving that person any benefit of the doubt, even with your weak explanation afterwards.
Double standard, Oliver. Big time.
Same with your cheering section.
How would anyone know just who or what you were talking about when you said what you did.
People with brains would.
“How would anyone know just who or what you were talking about when you said what you did.”
I figured it out.
It’s based on what has been said in the past.
This is the same standard we use to judge the right.
Problem is, what they’ve said in the past tends to be a little off.
People with brains would.
Right, people with brains when reading your reply “Yes, those conservative kids have ambitions like going to Iraq” should just naturally and intellectually interpret that to mean “I was talking to the Yahoos who went over with Paul Bremer and felt that instead of doing Iraqi reconstruction they should indeed turn the country into a playground lab for conservative economic theory.”
So then, ed, at 8:57, when saying “Indeed, shame on O-Will for saying that” was also being dumb I guess. Ah, but then he offers up an explanation that with a slight modification you repeat immediately after. I must be dumb for not assuming you meant something that someone from your peanut gallery had to offer up as a bailout for you.
And apparently you are also calling CS Strowbridge dumb too, who said “I believe Oliver is talking about the leadership of the GOP who went to war with Iraq, not the people who signed up to fight there,” who in an another peanut gallery attempt to clarify your statement obviously guessed wrong. Or else you decided to go with ed’s clarification for you instead.
So when a fellow like Rush Limbaugh says if Obama pursues a very liberal and socialistic agenda he hopes he fails, the headline in Think Progress is what? You guessed it, Limbaugh: “I hope Obama fails”. No qualifications, no clarifiers afterwards, no nothing from the site you say only deals in actual, verifiable facts.
Obama’s stated agenda for this country is something that he doesn’t support, and he makes it very clear that he does not want that agenda to succeed for what the long-term damage it would do to the country. Not so shocking a revelation coming from El Rushbo. But Think Progress blares the headline ‘I hope he fails’. And you think this is pretty clever stuff, or at least they are a praiseworthy blog with only one mistake ever committed. When I question your intent for a statement you made that appears to denigrate conservatives who have gone to Iraq, not even with any clarification close to what Limbaugh made with his statement, you call me ‘dumb’.
Classy way to argue, OW. I’ll have to take notes.
So then, ed, at 8:57, when saying “Indeed, shame on O-Will for saying that” was also being dumb I guess.
It was a joke, son.
It was a joke, son.
Sure, Mister ed.
Another bail.
Everyone here seems to have an ample supply of out-clauses and mulligans.