[clue-talk] The stimulus bill

[David Rudder]

The President doesn't have the power to pay for anything, but he wields
incredible persuasive power.  The priorities of the budgets are usually
set by the President and then carried out by Congress.  If Congress is
controlled by the other party, the actual budget may not reflect what
the President asked for, but there's usually at least some
acknowledgment of his priorities.

It's an over-simplification to say the President has no right to define
budgets.  It's also an over-simplification that the President can spend
any money.  I feel that the first is the more accurate
representation...that the big ticket items are "the president's
spending", even if that's not strictly true.

As an example, who is responsible for the cost of the Iraq war?  Sure,
Congress voted for it, but it was a clear priority of the executive
branch.  For W to say "who, me?" would have been disingenuous.  To his
credit, I don't remember him ever pulling the old "but Congress paid for
it!"

As another example, the Congress will pass the new stimulus bill, but
it's obviously Obama's spending.

-Dave

Nate Duehr wrote:
> 
> 
> The  main fallacy in the article is that any President has the authority
> to spend on ANYTHING.
> 
>  
> 
> The Congress creates and votes for the spending bills.  The President
> only signs on the dotted line, or vetos outright.
> 
>  
> 
> The Democrats had full control over Congress the latter half of Bush
> II’s administration, and then get to write crap like this saying he
> “spent more money than Regan”, as if that’s how our Federal Government’s
> budgetary system works.
> 
>  
> 
> It’s not a company, the President isn’t the CEO with the checkbook,
> writing checks in our society, but that myth seems to hang on, and the
> press doesn’t correct it.  (Gee, I wonder why?)
> 
>  
> 
> People don’t pay attention to how our government even works when reading
> this stuff, so it flies as “truth” because it sounds similar to what
> they know from their own personal budgets and companies.  One guy makes
> the final decision.  In the case of government, a gaggle of porkalicious
> politicians who always vote themselves a pay raise every year, create
> the budget, and hold out political favors to the President’s party as a
> carrot to sign the thing, if the other Party has control of the House
> and/or Senate. 
> 
>  
> 
> Anytime you hear someone talking about how much money a PRESIDENT spent,
> you already know they’re not playing with a full deck, or they’re lying
> to you.  It doesn’t work that way.
> 
>  
> 
> Nate
> 
>  
> 
> *From:* clue-talk-bounces at cluedenver.org
> [mailto:clue-talk-bounces at cluedenver.org] *On Behalf Of *Angelo Bertolli
> *Sent:* Sunday, February 01, 2009 6:14 PM
> *To:* CLUE talk
> *Subject:* Re: [clue-talk] The stimulus bill
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> On Sun, Feb 1, 2009 at 8:12 PM, Angelo Bertolli
> <angelo.bertolli at gmail.com <mailto:angelo.bertolli at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>  
> 
> On Sun, Feb 1, 2009 at 4:39 PM, Sean LeBlanc <seanleblanc at comcast.net
> <mailto:seanleblanc at comcast.net>> wrote:
> 
> 
> I guess entertainment is more important than the truth in this country.
> 
> 
> 
> Well duh.  It's been that way for a long time now.  This IS the new
> Rome, after all.
> 
>  
> 
> 
> Speaking of entertainment, this was written recently.
> 
> http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0
> 
> I'm not informed enough to know which parts might be stretched or
> untrue, but I definitely found it interesting.  And the reason I bring
> it up is because it has a part in it about "deregulated media" which
> your email reminded me of.  I'm not sure what was deregulated though.
> 
> Angelo
> 
> 
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