House Passes $819 Billion Economic Stimulus Bill, 244-188; No GOP Support
Clerk of the House Roll Call for HR 1.
FreeRepublic.com info:
Economic Stimulus Bill passes House by vote of 244-188 . The GOP caucus was unanimous in their opposition.
[11] Democrats voted against the Stimulus.
Similarly, Clinton’s first budget passed with no GOP support either.
From RedState.com:
Update: Final vote: 244-188. It was 242-190 moments before they gaveled it — with every last Republican voting no — but two no votes switched at the last minute and they didn’t say who they were. I assume they’re Blue Dogs, but I’ll check. Either way, for good or ill, this is entirely the Democrats’ baby now.
The following Democrats voted against the stimulus bill:
Boyd, Bright, Cooper, Ellsworth, Griffith, Kanjorski, Kratovil, Minnick, Peterson, Shuler, Taylor
Makes one wonder if the Democrats will similarly face a major wipe-out in 2010 after this fiasco. (Excellent cartoon by Michael Ramirez)
Update: Here’s an interesting break-down of the background of each Democrat that opposed HR 1 (from a concerned citizen); perhaps now it’s time to contact each of the below thanking them for their principled stances?:
Boyd
Represents rural northern Florida. Blue Dog who considers himself a leader in congress on fiscal responsibility. He criticized the bill for “not address[ing] the issues that we know are at least partly responsible for the economic downturn, and that is years of irresponsible fiscal policies rooted in out-of-control spending and borrowing.”
Bright
Rookie from 2nd district of Alabama, which is relatively poor— more than 17% of people in the district are below the poverty level. Probably thinks of himself as Blue Dog. Former mayor of Montgomery.
Griffith
Bright’s buddy from Alabama, representing the 5th district. Likewise, serving in his first term. From the rural, northern part of the state.
Peterson
Represents massive 7th district of Minnesota, which is largely rural, and was historically held by Republicans. Peterson has held the seat since 1991, and is viewed by both parties as a moderate who truly straddles the fence.
Kajorski
Kajorski has been in Congress since 1984. He represents the 11th district of Pennsylvania, which is largely rural, but contains cities like Scranton and Hazelton. Kajorski actually has some reasonable, principled, objections to the bill and the process through which it was drafted. He has released a statement that is available on his website here. One of his biggest objections is that only $90 billion of the bill is allotted for infrastructure, and that much of the money in the bill will go to urban areas, instead of rural ones (like his district). Being from Pennsylvania myself, I like this guy, think he is a true blue democrat, and will vote for the final bill if more of the money goes to infrastructure. He’s being honest here, not just politicking.
Shuler
11th district of North Carolina. Very competitive district and not very well established congressman. Quoted in the press characterizing the bill as filled with pork. Rumor has it that he’s angling for the other senate seat from North Carolina.
Cooper
Well-known politician from Tennessee’s fairly liberal 5th district. Seat is incredibly safe. Cooper basically characterized the bill as being full of pork and signaling business as usual in Washington. Calls himself a deficit hawk. See here.
Ellsworth
From the conservative 8th district of Indiana, which includes Terre Haute. Was just re-elected to a second term in 2008.
Minnick
1st term congressman from Idaho’s 1st district. Only Idaho democrat in congress. As a point of reference, George Bush received 69% of the vote in that district in 2004. He has expressed concern about the size and scope of the bill (i.e. that it includes much more than provisions that would create jobs).
Kratovil
1st term congressman from Maryland’s conservative 1st district. In all fairness, Kratovil is on incredibly shaky footing. He won the seat by less than 1% of the votes cast in the district, and was probably helped by the fact that the republican incumbent was unseated in the primary, which allowed Kratovil to square off against a lesser known opponent. About 2 weeks ago, the freshman Congressman was busy offering trite platitudes about the stimulus plan, but never said anything substantive indicating why he would oppose it.
Taylor
4th district of Mississippi. Votes with republicans more than 50% of the time. A handful of Mississippi newspapers tried to reach him after the vote, but he was unavailable.
Among the members who characterized the bill as being full of pork, none provided a detailed accounting of those items in the bill that they believed were wasteful.
Update: Here’s why Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA 1st) voted against the bill.
Update: Per “Reality Check’s” commentary, below, perhaps this will be a little more enlightening as to why the GOP did what they did:
Republicans had no investment in this bill, and the blame for that falls squarely on Speaker Nancy Pelosi. While Obama met three times with Republican leadership, she refused to meet with her counterparts at all to negotiate on the stimulus. Her high-handed approach lost Obama any potential Republican support he might have gained as she attempted to stuff a Democrats-only bill down Republican throats. That’s an odd position to take on something supposedly so important that it required everyone’s support. It also reveals the real partisan in House leadership.
-Phil
It’s obvious that Reality Check has no children. He / she doesn’t care about giving away more money to ACORN and their corrupt counterparts. He / she doesn’t care anything about amassing an unlimited deficit for our children and their children to have to payoff. But then, when this country has been given away to marxism and is no longer ours it won’t matter right? Wrong. It will still matter to our children.
Reality Check,
Based on how all of the politicking went, apparently the entire GOP Caucus will be comfortable in dealing with the after-effects of having not voted, en masse, for the bill.
My dear commenter, if you know anything about DC, know that one does not become the leader of a major political party without knowing exactly what’s going on with any given piece of legislation, much less instructing oneself and every rank-and-file member to vote against it. Elections always have consequences and I think the GOP understands this.
Nevertheless, based on your comment, we’ll certainly see what happens.
-Phil
Pro 29:2 When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.
Pro 29:12 If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked.
Pro 29:26 Many seek the ruler’s favour; but every man’s judgment cometh from the LORD.
I don’t think coffee is going down. It’ll go up. McDonald’s is profiting from all us lazy Americans that love beef, fat, grease, and Coca Cola. Remember, McDonald’s makes the homo burger. I know the boycott is over, but they’re picture is still on the Homo-Transvestite Chamber of Commerce website. So is Burger King and UPS. I’m telling you, all this talk of revolution is futile without righteousness. Just remember, before the colonies declared their independence, there was a 20-30 year movement of revival known as the Great Awakening. This molded and shaped the minds and hearts for the Revolution.
I believe we’re about bankrupt in the spirituality department. The hypocricy is not just in the white house. It’s in the church house. That lawgiving bible mentality does not exist in the minds of Americans like it did before. Even us patriots, we’re not as spiritual as we think we are. We’ve come along way.
Even Obama knows the true problem in this country. “we are no longer a Christian nation; we are now a Nation of Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, . . . ” The way to save America is to get Americans saved. They need to be transformed from the inside out. God will write his laws in their heart. Somebody said that the Constitution was for a moral people. Outside of that, it’s useless. I agree.
The LORD says that it’s righteousness that exhalteth a nation. Until we get some of that, we’re in big trouble. Where do we get righteousness?
Php 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Php 1:11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
Eph 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
1Co 15:34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
1Co 1:30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
This country is in the hands of the church. Righteousness exhalteth a nation. During the Revolution, Christianity was synonomis with Liberty. Religious freedom from the state and keeping the check on government was engrained in these people back then. It was part of their Christianity. Nowdays, forget it. Most preachers won’t mention a thing about politics in fear of getting taxed. The pulpit has got the lockjaw.
Good morning.
Of course, when the stimulus package works the Repubes will get 0 credit. They deserve none. They are a bunch of spineless, ditto-heads from safe (R)districts with mostly ditto-head, morons who still believe that more tax cuts are the answer because that’s what Rush and Hannity tell them. Supply side economics has been completely discredited twice. They talked bipartisanship during the campaign but in fact it was all talk because they are gutless liars.
Thank you for this. I printed it out and will be calling tomorrow to voice my outrage that 2 of the Representatives from Nevada voted for this piece of garbage even after I called several times and asked that they not support it!!!!
Lawyer—You are exactly right!!! We have so many ignorant voters in this country. America will be taken to its knees under this Democratic dictatorship…which is what it is now with them running the entire country. Our citizens have NO voice now and once we are completely bankrupt the Conservatives will have nothing left to do except take the handouts!!! If you think things are BAD now you haven’t seen nothing YET!!!
To edit. The market started tanking after Obama was nominated in June 2008. Look at the chart.
Take a look at a chart for the S&P 500 Index on Yahoo or any site with charts.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=%5EGSPC&t=1y&l=on&z=l&q=c&c=
Jun 2008 – after Hillary was mugged the caucuses and lost. The S&P 500 Index is around 1350.
October 2008 – Obama’s poll numbers are pumped by the MSM and it looks like McCain will lose. S&P 500 tanks to around 940.
Nov 4th 2008 – We get a little rally as the pollster show McCain closing but mainly the pollster had to reflect reality. S&P 500 now at 1005.
Nov 2008 – Obama wins markets tanks and goes to 752 on Nov 20th.
Jan 20, 2009 – S&P 500 at 820.
The bottom line is the market tanked due to Obama. The events above reflect the psychology of the market and investors. They have zero confidence in Obama. The GOP shoul post a chart and crow about this. It was not Bush. The country had more confidence in Bush. Obama is the reason why the market tanked. Ask any small business owner – they have no confidence in him.
Ya know who Glen Beck says has made out like bandits in all this? McDonald’s. Profits up 80% over last year. Weren’t some people complaining about the oil companies making profits? Why aren’t those same people trying to put a wind-fall profits tax on McDonald’s, as Beck says. As Margie from “Fargo” would say: “I just don’t understand it.” Isn’t their food terribly expensive? And now Starbucks will be closing stores and making layoffs. Why don’t they just reduce the cost of a cup of coffee from $5 to $4? But ah…..it’s about the stockholders.
Maybe we should form ‘community based’ programs, get the money and pay it towards the debt of this nation.
Please see my comment on Phil’s site from earlier today, which I am again posting here. This is the letter going to my Congressmen re: ACORN. Please feel free to cut, copy, paste, edit whatever if you wish:
Dear _______________
I am writing to address a matter of urgent importance, that of the integrity of our voter system in this country.
Concerns have arisen the last few years, and especially in 2008, regarding ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, and groups similar. Allegations of fraudulent registrations have run rampant, with reportedly little quality control. In states with no photo identification law, fraudulent votes are nearly impossible to detect. Once a fraudulent voter leaves the polling place or casts an absentee ballot, that vote is almost always thrown in immediately with other secret ballots, with no way to trace.
With the recent announcement that the proposed trillion dollar spending bill could open billions of taxpayer dollars to groups such as ACORN, it is even more imperative that activities of these groups be placed under a strict magnifying glass. One of the states most in the news in Election 2008 regarding issues with ACORN was Ohio. Their activities reported by the media were most troubling and worrisome. I personally witnessed the following on national television:
1. An interview of a gentlemen, on camera in person, reporting in exchange for cigarettes, ACORN had given him 76 voter registration forms.
2. An ACORN employee stating on camera in person, that she worked on commission and was paid according to the number of electors she registered.
3. An ACORN employee stating on camera in person, that she had directed her registrants to vote, in a partisan manner, for Mr. Obama.
The mantra for these groups, and all electors, should be “one person, one vote.” Jimmy Carter, in his book “Turning Point”, recognized two civil rights issues here: the civil right to vote, and the civil right to be protected from voter fraud.
_____________as one of your constituents, I am therefore asking you to do the following:
Call on President Obama to immediately take action to investigate the possible criminal activity and unlawful use of taxpayer funds by ACORN and groups similar.
Call on the Attorney General to investigate voter registration programs such as ACORN and their possible fraudulent activities.
Direct the Secretary of Housing & Urban Development to conduct an audit of tax money acquired by ACORN and groups similar.
______________, whether you agree or not with the decision of Bush v. Gore; it is an undisputed fact the 2000 presidential election was determined by little over 500 votes. It is therefore even more imperative given this fact to ensure the “one person, one vote” ideology.
Sincerely,
MIDDLE CLASS GUY,
I do believe it’s included in that part having to do with community-based organizations
Thanks for the comment,
-Phil
What about the 5.1 billion for the ACORN crooks?
More people will be affected:
Post Office Employees who work and have budgeted the extra day of work in their current salaries to pay bills.
Also, businesses who need to mail things on Saturday for delivery.
But, the bigger problem is the GROWING DEBT that is not stopping anytime soon. When people file for bankruptcy, they have to learn to live within a budget as they try to get a fresh start.
Current Obama UIC and Congress think that they have freedom to spend and not understand what current situation they are in. Even President Clinton worked on fiscal responsibility when he took over after a large deficit after the 41st President Herbert Walker Bush.
The situation you are in doesn’t change, but HOW YOU ADAPT TO IT shows your true character and leadership. Right now Democrats look like Hypocrites and that is wearing thin on the American people. Too much secrecy and not enough investigation in what really is causing this Black Hole. The blame of Bush for everything is wearing thin. They need to lead by example.
Roll Call on the Voting
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll046.xml
I wonder how much money the US Post Office donated to President Obama’s Campaign??
$815 Billion Dollar “Slush Fund” for Congress!
Most “Public Opinion Poll’s” were AGAINST the stimulus (bailout) bill.
This proves that Democrat’s simply will IGNORE the Will of the People. I wonder how much ACORN is really going to get!
Glen Beck mentioned that the interest rate alone will be twice the
amount we have spent on the Iraq & Afghanastan War.<
The Companies that were in a crisis should have “filed” and re-organized under Chapter 11, or simply Close Down. The “People” responsible for their failure should be held “accountable” and proscecuted if they committed any crime, not Rewarded with a “Handout” at the Taxpayer’s expense.
The Democrat’s own this one.
If TAXPAYER’S do not pay their taxes until the end of the year, it
might send a message……………..
I don’t really have a problem with mail service being cut one day a week. We usually don’t get any mail on Monday, anyhow. It’s not over yet, Senate still has to vote. At least they took out the birth control stuff. I reserve my right to comment again later tonight. I am suffering from that syndrome Mr. Alphonse Gore says I shouldn’t have: “Lack of Global Warming Syndrome.”
Carol in Ohio, where we have 24″ of snow & 0 degree temps.
Thank God, the GOP stood together for once.
Now they Dems have no one to blame but themselves.
Invest in metals people… A Depression is coming.
My civil rights are violated by them going against my religion and having tax payers pay for abortions.
I need a civil rights lawyer.
This is what the Dems want – they and their campaign supporters extremely wealthy and everyone else dirt poor..
When are the poor of this nation who mostly votes Democrat, going to wake up to the fact that they are being played as useful idiots by the Dems and they will always be poor under a socialist system????
There is absolutely a BLACK HOLE of spending going on in the Federal Government, California government, etc… Even the post office is cutting back on a day delivery because the debt is too high.
Postmaster General: Mail days may need to be cut
Jan 28 03:40 PM US/Eastern
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press Writer
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D960C7KG0&show_article=1