Disappointed, But Not Surprised.

Liz, I have written this response five times already this morning expressing my disappointment in our congress. Each time I have deleted my writings. I believe the majority of Americans feels as I do. My confidence in America has not been shaken. My confidence in our leaders has been decimated. Your title "Disappointed, but not surprised" pretty much sums up the feelings of most Americans. That is a sad situation. Thanks for your work.

Nancy Pelosi looked way too pleased with herself at the passage of the PORK-BARREL-STIMULUS package in the House. When the average unemployed Joe & Jane realize that their jobs were forfeit due largely to the actions of Congress and their Wall Street friends. And, that the "we need this now" assistance from Congress and our new President is mostly symbolic, ineffective, and loaded with pork and political posturing, maybe the electorate will finally kick these selfserving leaches out on their ears. We can only hope and pray that justice will be done. It will get far worse before it gets better. They get it. They know. However, our leaders just don't care about anything but feathering their own nests and furthering their own adgendas! It's a new deal, folks. Even Roosevelt, the consumate socialist, is rolling over in his grave!

Liz, how does one respond to what's going on without making it political. Clearly we are in a slowdown. Not yet a crisis, and not even close to some prior slowdowns. If you oppose it looks like you're taking the R line, and if you are for you must be a D. The bill is 600+ pages. There is no way anyone really knows exactly what's in there, yet they all line up to cast their vote to spend the people's money. $850 billion amounts to @$28k per person. Put another way, if it produces 3 million jobs, then each job created would cost the taxpayer $280,000 to create.

If the bill passes, can individual bills be written afterward to change things that aren't really 'stimulus'? I have a problem with millions spent on things like family planning - that doesn't put people to work. I have a problem with "tax cuts" for people that don't pay taxes anyway - this is just more welfare and demoncrat vote-buying. There are way too many pork-barrel projects that should have a scaple taken to them, as BHO promised, but will be passed as part of this massive future debt burden. Just like TARP, this is being pushed through too fast, reason and sense left at the gate.

I agree absolutely. As with TARP, Congress, not to mention Treasury, rushed a decision through without "thinking it through." We will all pay for their panic.

I think you're exactly right, Liz. We've been fed a lot of smoke and mirrors. Maybe we ought to return the favor with tar and feathers.

I would be curious what Joe Main Street thought he was going to be getting out of this $825B package. I know the numbers were close to 90% for Americans across the board for rejection of the fiasco that was TARP I. I would not be surprised if those numbers will be higher than that when Joe Main Street finds out his share of the $840B pie is only around 5%. Intrestingly enough, I heard a sound bite from the President describing this plan as the "American Rescue Invesment Package" or acronym I immediately thought to myself, "A RIP" as in a rip off!

Without doubt, there are serious problems with the economic bailout bill that is dependent upon unprecedented, and almost unfathomable, borrowing by the taxpayers of America. I am convinced that the biggest mistake will be not knowing exactly what went wrong in the first place. And not knowing the exact nature of the problem as we side-step forward with our democratically established patchwork of solutions. If you read the Volker economists committee report, you will see that the nature of the problem is unpayabe debt service costs. The debt-money system has reached its achilles heel. The system cannot create new debt-money fast enough to pay the interest on the old debt-money. Some people are calling that insolvent. That would be the whole money system. If you read this, you can learn "HOW Debt Money Goes Broke". http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/2005/1212b.html It's a serious two-pager for sure. The solution is a new money system.

Completely agree. Neither party has a long term strategy, so we inevitably get money spread around like peanut butter. Our problem is a lack of confidence. To boost confidence we need business to hire, not gov't handouts. Gov't should take a three pronged approach. First, build a "bridge" to get us through the short term recession, until monetary policy steps already taken start working. Second, build trust by putting put the worst of the criminals in jail. Third, create a focused set of initiatives to drive investment. Bridge. No tax cuts. Focus on extending unemployment benefits, help with COBRA expenses, etc - anything that keeps people afloat without fear of bankruptcy. Focus on people. Trust. Put some people in jail for defrauding the country. We need to believe in the integrity of our institutions. Right now, we don't. Focused initiatives. A rough history: The depression ended with World War II, establishing our manufacturing base. The 50's had the Interstate system; the 60's the space program. The 80's were driven by the defense buildup; and the 90's were about the dot com boom (which really started in the 60's). Our focus now should be on energy independence, health care rationalization, maintenance of bridges and interstates, and a national technical infrastructure. Everything else should be off the table.

Huge waste of money that will do little for the economy. Lots of new "entitlements" created to guarantee future huge deficits, though, not to mention the current enormous deficit.

All the hullabaloo about this Economic Recovery plan is just that....hullabaloo. The programs that are being promoted as a stimulus to the economy are only intended to reward those areas in the country who voted for Obama and to penalize those areas that did not. $40 Million to rebuild a private waterfront area in Miami? Please explain to me how this is going to help here in the midwest. It is time for the people in this country to stand up and say "enough." This is our money and our kids future you are playing with. Do something that is NOT politically motivated and actually help people who are losing their jobs and their homes and their 401(k).

I, too, have a sick and sinking feeling this second stimulus won't work either to make the economy turn around. As we said after the first $700 Billion, they'll only want more and more. In fact, I am saving every nickel and dime I can get my hands on. When the government acts in such an irresponsible way, only the worst is coming down the pike. The government is doing its best to encourage protectionism among taxpayers and I am all about protecting my family in any way I can. The government does not know or care about what is going on out here in middle-class land. Yet, we the taxpayers are funding these outrageous and unnecessary expenses. Like most Americans, I was raised to be a survivor and don't believe in government give aways. Might even lose my job but I'd still work - clean houses, babysit the grandkids, raise vegetables to sell. Hmmm, matter of fact wouldn't owe the government as much in taxes! Now that is a silver lining.

When they talk about quick stimulus in infrastructure, they have never actually built a gov't. project. Unless the government can fast track the Engineering and Bidding process, it will take 2 years for a new bridge or road project to result in a new construction job. That's not quick stimulus. Even previously delayed projects in which the engineering has been done will still have to be verified and rebid. The Federal Acquisition Regulations make the bidding process very time consuming. By the way I enjoy your show greatly. You are the most intelligent and intense great looking woman on TV.

Liz, I too am sadden but not shocked. The President had the chance for real change and true bi-partisanship. But nooo. He proposes a bill that is not a stimulus package but the democrat platform for the last 40 years. I know the members of Congress are power-hungry, greedy, corrupt, gutless, clueless, spineless, and have no knowledge of basic ecomoics. I now know that about our new President. My dad always told me that I lived in the 'greatest country' on earth and I told my kids the same. Not anymore.

Congress is a joke.....it is all about social programs and not one thing about creating jobs. As you stated, $30 billion for infrastructure!! Eisenhower spent $550 billion. We are on the road to Moscow and socialism and our representatives don't give a damn, and they are leading the parade.

So many have drunk the grape kool-aid during the election that no-one is willing to ask questions about this deal. If government spending works to stimulate the ecomomy then why have we not done this more frequently?

I think it would be better to have several smaller bills, say 100 each rather than one great big one. It looks like a lot of non-stimulus items are being pushed. The actual stimulus is being held hostage to other agendas.

The economy would recover faster if congress did nothing at all. TRAP did not help and neither will this. If this bill is passed the recession will last at least through 2010. The markets need to correct. Congress spending money prohibits this correction. Further, the dollar is being destroyed at an accelarated pace because of the growing deficit. Where is the money coming from? Please tell me?

Hey Liz, thanks for letting me get that previous post of my chest. Back to you comments. I agree this is being huried to much and not providing the right answers. Thelast I saw there wher emillions to replace chair lift on a ski hil in Duluth Minnesota. Huh, why. How much of htis thing is pork? 75% We have state budgets that ae short. Why not giv the moeny to the states. Or maybe that's the next one. Even the tax cuts aren't helping to start with. Why not just set aside 500Billion and stop collecting payroll tax tomorrow! Including Social Security taxes. All of us would see a 10% to 30% increase in our pay checks. Next month. And so what if dont' spend it all. We will likely put it in the bank or pay off our debts. Is that goingto help the banking industry. And worst of all there is stillno help for the foreclosures! So sad, so much money, so much waste!

I think parts of this plan are good, but most suck. Many states are in trouble. Here in AZ the university system is about to see its state funding cut in half if something doesn't change. California is even more screwed. If we are going to bail someone out, a billion or two on the crippled state governments is going to go a lot farther than 15 billion on GM or 2 billion on "alternative energy." This will save jobs and up hold this nations' great public university system. I also think tax cuts, not stimulus checks, are in the end the only way to really help the tax payer. So I might get $500 from the government in a couple months. WHOOPY! That's less than one weeks pay for guy that makes just $35K a year. That isn't going to do anything. Or giving $1000 back to a couple... They will just use it to pay off existing debt in most cases. Then that is still just about 1-2% of the median house hold income...again no big deal. Then of course their is all that pork..... It is so much we can't even begin to state it all, and Obama and Democrats aren't giving us the time to anyway. And that's the plan. They want to pull the wool over our eyes while they push their pet projects. Now, had congress (the democratic congress) just given us, the tax payer, all this TARP and stimulus money directly what would be happening? ~2 Trillion dollars spread out over the ~150 million tax payers? That's about 10K per tax payer. Now we're talking significant stimulus in spending.

Dear Liz, I guess my main question centers on the thing Americans are being told - over and over - that it must be the government spending borrowed money to solve our economic problems, as opposed to simply giving us a payroll/income tax holiday. I'm not disputing it must be the government spending the money, I'm simply asking for someone to tell me why. Despite my rural Nebraska public education, I'm pretty sure I can understand such an explanation were one ever offered. For example, I could imagine a politician saying spending on infrastructure, or education, or "green" energy projects could not happen were the money in question simply kept by the taxpayers. Unfortunately, such an answer still misses the mark. What desperately needed economic medicine is provided by doing that sort of spending compared to letting the tax-payers keep / spend their own money? If you follow such logic, then why isn't the blame for the economic crisis being put on some sinister combination of the high school drop-out rate, and the number of pot-holes on the interstate? I'm pretty sure such an overly simplistic characterization of our economic crisis will prompt someone to say I truly have reached the limits of my rural Nebraska public education, and perhaps I really do need all of this explained to me by someone more qualified that I am. In response, I would have to tell a person like that: I'm waiting.

Liz, I totally agree with you. It's frightening that this bill will be pushed through without our "representatives" fully understanding what they're passing. Congress and the President hold the futures of our children and grandchildren in their hands. May God help us all.

Liz this result shows that politicans don't know jack about the right investments or economics. Just this morning in Davos the President of the US Chamber commerce criticized Speaker Pelosi for not going nonpartisian on the issue.

Dear Liz: I think you are right one the money, with you critique on the bill. More money needs to be spent on inferstructure, and other stumuli, that multiply the return on investment.