A Note to President Obama!
Why is this Economic Stimulus package THE biggest defining moment of Your Administration? I have some questions as a citizen who wants you to succeed.
Is your vision of wanting solutions for this country more important than politics? It doesn't seem to be represented well in this economic stimulus package that deals less withn stimulus, and more with future programs that could be better dealt with separately rather than at this desperate moment when an immediate infusion is needed.
Can you pull in the reins on the Pelosi-Reid Alliance? Do you realize that they want the president under their thumbs, and Congress to have the power? You are in a battle with them and if you lose, you become a lackey to them. You must define who is setting the agenda now!
You should not be interested in giving Republicans what they want, but rather the American people what is best. If that happens to include some Republican ideas, you ought not fear it. If you do otherwise in terms of paying back those who put you in power with earmarks and pork in this drastic moment for our country, then you have failed to recognize that what you are really doing is politics over good policy.
Many in America have thrown in their lot on a general vision of hope and change with you Mr. President. There is unprecedented hope in a time of unprecedented distrust and disgust with our government. Your words have carried you to this point with no actions to back them up. Your words can uplift, but they can't provide the programs Americans need in a very drastic moment. Your job is to consistently match your words with the actions you demand. Your expectations are higher than any recent president coming in, and if you prove to be just another golden-throated political hack, it could be the finishing off of any trust the American people have in their political institutions. On the other hand, you could start us in a new positive direction toward the kind of new policy you talk about compared to the same old politics we have come to detest.
Respectfully,
Gary Sutton--Just a Citizen.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Policy or Politics? A Note to President Obama.
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14 comments:
Since you bring up the stimulus bill Gary, I want to get something off my chest. This isn't about your post per se as much as it is about the bigger picture of reporting, etc.
I've been hearing a number of lectures lately from Republican mouthpieces about the size of this stimulus bill. "Do you understand," they ask, "how much $1 trillion is?"
Then they trot out these dramatic numbers of how much "waste" is in this bill...and it is clear they either A) have no concept themselves of the numbers or B) they are playing silly political games.
When/wherever you hear Republicans whining about the 'useless spending' or whatever in this bill keep this in mind. CNN recently published a fairly extensive list of GOP complaints. There are 32 items on the list, so believe me when I say fairly extensive.
Now I don't agree that everything on that list is "wasteful" or unable to create work for people, but for the sake of argument, let's grant every single item.
Then do the math. When you add up all the numbers and put the final tally up against the total bill of $819 billion their complaints amount to less than 2.5% of the whole package.
Puts a different perspective on the number of reports we are hearing about the gargantuan "waste" in the bill, doesn't it?
Denny's free Grand Slam on 2/3. Now there's a stimulus package! I smell a riot (and bacon).
Gary, thanks for returning to the blogosphere. Don't listen to the excuse for the former GSS that now airs 6-9a. But thanks for the memories.
ps.lose the dead weight on your new am show and maybe things will be original and real again (honestly)
To Reality_Based,
A question for you. Going on your premise of giving the benefit of the doubt, if what you say about the waste is only 2.2%, I reviewed the list you referred to and that list added up to $18,325,000,000 ($18 billion and change) in wasteful spending. How many mortgages could be brought up to date to prevent foreclosure? How many poor people could be helped with that money?
Maybe it is time for everyone in Washington to start thinking about the DOLLARS of waste, not the PERCENTAGES of waste. When THAT starts happening, maybe then our country will be able to really move forward financially.
To Gary,
Great Letter!! I wish that our president would actually read and heed your letter. Obama promised real change but so far has not delivered. I, for one, am still waiting.
Brian, I see what you are saying. And it is a worthy discussion to have.
My complaint is more about how this discussion is happening, who is getting air time to state their position, etc.
Generally speaking, economists across the spectrum agree that some significant $$ needs to be poured into the system to prevent a total collapse of the economy.
There seems to be agreement on $800 billion of spending, but our press seems to think the only voices worth airing about the issue are those who have A) a problem with, relatively speaking, a miniscule amount of dollars or B) are arguing nonsense.
As for "A", yes $18 billion is a lot of money. But you will never, never have a perfect bill that everyone agrees with every detail. For example, I was trying to be generous in allowing each of those examples to be counted as wasteful. In the end, though, you can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. If you don't take issue with the vast, vast majority of the bill, why try and derail it over something so relatively insignificant?
"B" is the bigger issue. Too much nonsense is making its way over the airwaves. Take a character like Senator John Thune from South Dakota. He gets a prominent spot on at least one of the morning cable news shows. This is a guy whose main argument on the Senate floor yesterday was that a stack of $1 trillion in $100 bills goes very high...or that placed end to end they wrap around the earth several times.
What does that have to do with anything? Using that premise, let's take those mortgage holders you reference and see how high they would go if you stacked them on top of each other. In both cases it is a nonsensical way of approaching the issue. Yet he gets a prime spot to air said nonsense.
Hopefully this makes sense...I've edited this response a bit so it may not flow as intended.
To Brian, get off Mars my brother and join us here on Earth. "Obama so far has promised real change, but has not yet delivered."?????????? The man has been in office a few weeks!!! I'm sure you are one of the blowhards who call into Gary's show on a regular basis and ruin the listening experience for all of us with your senseless rants.
I wish we would have had the same scrutiny and discussion applied to the billions and billions and billions of dollars we've dumped (and continue to dump) into the re-building of Iraq. For some reason when it comes to spending dough in the Middle East, we ask for little or no accountability, but hey, when we want to spend money on ourselves, everybody's knickers get knotted up.
Crazy, isn't it?
There's a lot of people expecting Obama to solve this mess overnite. It was a long party, it's going to be a long hangover.
Gary
Why don't you hold a mock funeral for the death of capitalism? It would bring warranted attention to this travesty. All the fools who think that because Obama was elected president and now we should all roll-over and vote for his ideas. Give me a break! Granted, he has some fresh ideas and perspectives. But to just do it 'because'? This country is drunk on 'change' and needs to sober up.
Political hugs & kisses
-Pork Chop
Pathetic.
Simply pathetic.
I used to listen to Gary Sutton's Show on WSBA 9 to 12 often.
It was a show that was able to pull in a wide number of views and explore a topic from those different angles.
Now if I hear it for more than a few minutes, I turn it off.
Why?
Because all it is is bashing of the Democrats,
Pro-Republicanism without reserve.
I don't mind Democrat-bashing . . . most of 'em have earned it. Many should be in jail, not office.
But after the disaster of the last 8 years, anyone who is pro-Republican either has brain damage or brainwashing.
The policies of the Bush administration led directly to where America finds itself today.
Read history.
Gary, who taught social studies, seems not to know much about history---and has a very selective understanding of what happened.
Every time America ever went to war, it ended up seriously in debt afterwards.
Finances of the USA prior to WWI were in the black. By 1919, seriously in the red.
WWII was nightmarish for what it cost. Yet America was still coming out of a depression and while it was making financial progress, it was again horribly in the red after WWII ended. And again after the spending for Korea.
And then the nightmare of Vietnam which went on for 12 years------
America loses money every time it goes to war.
Iraq has cost approximately 1.5 trillion, if all of the costs are added up. This is money that America could have used to promote businesses here, to provide infrastructure rebuilding, education, healthcare for its citizens, proper regulation of financial markets, the list is endless.
It was spent on sending young Americans to kill foreigners.
And it distracted Americans from concentrating on anything else. The "war"-----it isn't a war, because Congress didn't declare it, and yet we call it a war...? allowed abuse of the American treasury, abuse of civil rights, abuse of other nations, and essentially bankrupted the coffers of the US. The Republicans are proud people.
But what really gets me is the extraordinary intelligence of Gary Sutton who knows so much about what works, and what doesn't. His official pronouncements on air---which carry the pretense of true knowledge--- are based on Gary's extensive background in politics, economics, education (he was a high school teacher, which is right below Harvard professorship on the academic scale) etc.
Gary doesn't know anything about higher system functioning with certainty....yet he declares the opinions of others to be faulty, and his own superior.
This is hypocrisy.
What I have heard from Sutton and the rest of the mouths on the WSBA lineup---which I cannot stand to listen to, but find myself hearing sometimes where the radio is on----is their desire for Obama's policies to fail.
It is the exact same protest I heard from them re the way those opposed to the "war" in Iraq, claiming they wanted America to "fail," that is, to lose the war ----but the two are apples and oranges. The "war" in Iraq was completely false, predicated on lies. Wasteful in the extreme.
A boondoggle for the arms profiteers. A pox on everyone else. It was unnecessary.
The need to stabilize the economy before it tanks, and takes the rest of the world down with it is totally different----it is necessary. And unless something is done, all indicators are that we are heading into a global depression.
Some of the best minds we have have been working to do what is deemed by their consensus the safest course of action. Would it be better to allow the economy to tank? In the natural world things live and die----why not economies?
It is because the cost of the human suffering is excessive. It wouldn't be humane to do nothing. The rich would ride out the storm since they are well buffered, but the middle and lower class who aren't so protected would lose terribly. The entire social framework would suffer. Local governments and services would go down. We'd lose schools, teachers, police, fire, libraries----many of the services we take for granted would disappear. It would be difficult for the elderly especially.
I hate hypocrisy.
Get real or get off the soapbox.
I'd rather hear someone say "I don't know" than to hear them say they know when in reality they don't.
Or at least preface what is said with "My opinion is..." without the false superiority.
I listened to Gary's show this morning.He was criticizing President Obama for giving flashy speeches and cheerleading, but not offering any substance or "meat on the bone." What?? Gary might not like the meat that's on the bone and that's fair, but to suggest that Obama's been anything but proactive in attempting to solve this economic crisis is completely false.
Don't you guys get it. This is York County. WSBA makes their money off of York County and what York County wants to hear. It is that simple.
There ARE other avenues of early morning news and entertainment.
WSBA will not change, unless York County does, so if you don't like it, look for some other alternative.
Hello?
Is this blog on?
RB, I think it officially croaked.
It was almost predictable when Gary got yanked from his 9 to noon time slot and replaced with Glen Beck. Yeah, like none of us had a chance to listen to Beck spew his poop anywhere else on the AM dial almost anytime throughout the day.
Let's support the 'fairness doctrine' and bring Gary Sutton back to prime morning listening before every radio station across America becomes a copy of a copy of a copy.
I connected with Gary Sutton and his show, not because I agreed with him all the time, but because he gave me a voice on the airwave. As it is now, the AM reception from the WSBA signal before 9 o'clock in the morning is so bad I don't even bother tuning in anymore, and I only live 20 miles away from the station.
http://sonsofjohnburns.blogspot.com/
since this is now a dead site I thought I'd promote my site!
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