Obama Goes Straight to the People on Stimulus Package

In his weekly video address, President Barack Obama brought the reasons why the stimulus package is so important straight to the public, foregoing reporters.

Today President Obama also wrote an op ed for the Washington Post on the same subject.

I have to say that I'm impressed that he isn't talking down to us, but truly trying to inform as he explains.

But, and this is a big skeptical "but," when we hear about how much corruption there has been under the TARP, the Bush- Paulsen one that bailed out the banks so that they could refuse to loan money to ordinary people, choosing instead to buy up other banks and then reward their top executives with bonuses they didn't deserve, I'm wondering: does anyone know what they are doing?

The answer is no. No one knows anything. So, if we are going to spend to jumpstart the economy, let's really spend and not just create more corruption.

Today I heard disheartening news. I was told that the same brokers who sold those sub prime mortgages are now the same people who are selling their services to negotiate new terms on those same lousy mortgages to the same customers they cheated in the first place.

And The New York Times published the list of Madoff clients, not all of whom lost money, but who were at least at one point or another considered investors. The list is searchable by name with addresses, so you can see if any of your former friends and foes are bleeding.

Bring in the Clowns

With Joe the Plumber advising the Republican members of Congress, no, I'm not kidding, and Sarah Palin arriving at the Alfalfa Club this weekend to hobnob with serious politicians (Robin Williams aptly called Palin "a contestant in Project Candidate."), one must muse about the state of the Republican Party.

I have my doubts about the efficacy of the stimulus package, because of its lack of discipline and failure to keep the pork to a minimum.

I have my doubts about anything, because, frankly, no one has ever seen anything like this before, and no one knows what they are doing.

But to merely say NO isn't political policy, it's political suicide.

To me, we need to revamp the bankruptcy laws which when amended in 2005, made it very difficult to rid oneself of credit card debt. And the next crisis staring down at us comes in the form of massive defaults, failure to even pay the monthly minimum on credit card debt. So, forget about tax relief for middle class people who will just try to save that money and not spend it, although where can anyone save anything now? With CD rates hovering within the 1.5% to 3.5% rate today, where does one put her money?

It's all too hard for any of us, so why does anyone think Joe the Plumber or Sarah Palin has the smarts to make this all go away?