From the nydailynews.com
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel sat down Thursday night with a handful of print and wire reporters (including the Daily News), satisfied with the final stimulus bill, and insisting President Obama will continue to work to try to build bipartisan support for on future legislation.
“We set our principles, what our job goal was, how much infrastructure we wanted to do, investments that when the economy recovered that there were long term investments that made the recovery stronger for the long term economic growth of the country, be that in the health care space or in the energy independence space, or education, or information superhighway or other types of infrastructure that improves the competitiveness of the economy,” Emanuel said.
“This is close to about 90(%) of the final bill we’re voting on, about 90% of what we were thinking about,” he claimed. (more…)
What Obama promised:
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. Those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government. (more…)
Real life
Congressional Offices Don’t Have the Stimulus Bill, Lobbyists Do
usnews.comWe’re receiving E-mails from Capitol Hill staffers expressing frustration that they can’t get a copy of the stimulus bill agreed to last night at a price of $789 billion. What’s more, staffers are complaining about who does have a copy: K Street lobbyists. E-mails one key Democratic staffer: “K Street has the bill, or chunks of it, already, and the congressional offices don’t. So, the Hill is getting calls from the press (because it’s leaking out) asking us to confirm or talk about what we know—but we can’t do that because we haven’t seen the bill. Anyway, peeps up here are sort of a combo of confused and like, ‘Is this really happening?’” Reporters pressing for details, meanwhile, are getting different numbers from different offices, especially when seeking the details of specific programs. (more…)
So if the bill is 90% of what he wanted, and you promised to do your business “…in the light of day”, why is the final copy of this bill being kept from the public and only distributed amongst (gasp!) lobbyists?
“We’ll Duane, give a brutha a chance.”
“Let’s talk about Chris Brown and Rihanna.”
