Daily Kos: Obama calls Kyl's bluff on stimulus, McCain freaks out

[Pirate Smile]

Obama calls Kyl's bluff on stimulus, McCain freaks out

by Jed Lewison
Wed Jul 15, 2009 at 02:16:04 PM PDT

On Sunday, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) called on the Obama Administration to cancel the rest of the stimulus plan, saying it was a complete failure.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) blew Kyl's arguments out of the water, reminding Kyl that only $56 billion of the $787 billion had yet been spent and that under Kyl's plan, tax cuts for middle-class Americans would be rescinded and jobs from much-needed infrastructure improvements would be lost.

Durbin's response was good, but what happened next was a thing of beauty.

WASHINGTON - Top Obama administration officials asked Gov. Jan Brewer on Monday whether the state wants to forfeit ongoing federal economic stimulus money after Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., suggested that the program should be nixed.

Agency heads ranging from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to housing Secretary Shaun Donovan sent letters to Brewer, pressing her to declare whether she supports the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or sides with Kyl and is willing to give up some of the money.

Brewer, a Republican, made it clear she wanted the stimulus funds -- but seemed to confuse whose idea it was to cancel the program:

"The governor is hopeful that these federal Cabinet officials are not threatening to deny Arizona citizens the portion of federal stimulus funds to which they are entitled," Brewer spokesman Paul Senseman said. "She believes that would be a tremendous mistake by the administration."

Earth to Governor Brewer: the Obama Administration supports the stimulus. They don't want to cut off funds. It's your Republican U.S. Senator Jon Kyl who proposed cutting off your funds.

Although Brewer was confused, at least she made it clear she supported the stimulus.

John McCain, however, launched into a full-fledged freakout, offering a load of pure, unadulterated hypocrisy:

"I strongly support the comments of Senator Kyl and call on the administration to retract its threat against the citizens of Arizona."

So...John McCain supports Senator Kyl's demand that the Obama administration cancel the stimulus...but when the Obama administration asks state officials whether or not they agree with Senator Kyl's demand, McCain calls it a "threat against the citizens of Arizona."

Put another way, John McCain's message is this: "Don't do what I say I want you to do, because if you do what I say I want you to do, then you're doing nothing but threatening me. AND GET OFF MY LAWN! DAMMIT!"

And they wonder why we think they are a bunch of lunatics.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/15/753780/-Obama-calls-Kyls-bluff-on-stimulus,-McCain-freaks-out

[JBoy]

1. Sweet. The Obama administration still has the agility from the campaign.

[liberal N proud]

2. Burnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

[Yukari Yakumo]

23. You can say that again

[HopeOverFear]

3. Good stuff

[FatDave]

4. Trouble is, in the bubble conservatives live in...

...the story will still be "Obama admin threatens to withhold stimulus money from AZ". Doesn't matter that it isn't true, the lie will become the defacto truth on Fox News, and the conservatives will blindly froth in their little self-constructed realm of misinformation.

[Cha]

8. Yes, that's why mccain worded it that way..for his masters at faux..

Just think..that Orwellian nightmare could have been the president if millions of idiots had their way.

[Jackpine Radical]

34. Who gives a fuck what all 9 Fox devotees think?

Not to mention the 17 remaining Dittoheads.

[Cha]

5. mccain is just smart enough to know kyl is a stupid

asshole and thinks by saying Pres Obama is threatening the citizens of Arizona in his Orwell speak that the corpratemediaWHORES won't call him on it.

mccain's daughter, meghan, is smarter than he is..she just called "joe the plumber a dumbass."

[BeyondGeography]

6. LMAO at their stupidity

Are the Pugnicans really this dense? Yeah...sorry I asked.

[Jakes Progress]

7. brewer and mccain are not confused.

They know that the idiots that make up their base are too stupid to get it. They can lie and issue directly conflicting statements with impunity. They are elected by stupid idiots.

We need to stop the "let's all get along" crap. Good on Obama for giving them what for. We can't reason with them. We have to stop saying it is rude to call them stupid. They are stupid. What reasoning person could support macain/palin over Obama/Biden? The fact that they vote republican is proof of mental deficiency.

The only people who can vote republican and be halfway bright are scum bag fat cats who know that republicans will gouge the poor to make them more money. They might be able to think, but they will go to hell when they die.

The only people who can run as republicans and be halfway bright are opportunistic whores who have no moral center. They will lie and hurt other people willingly in order to gain money and power. They too will go to hell when they die.




Gosh, that feels good to get out. Whew!

[JerseygirlCT]

11. That was my read, too.

They're posturing for their stupid masses.

[Cha]

14. Precisely and this asshole could have been president

if millions of other idiots would have had their way.

We won but they will never stop trying to destroy this country.

I just wish their was a karma for john mccain's stupid mouth.

[bjobotts]

25. You are their Karma. If you do nothing, nothing will be done. Hell is a fear fable.No such place

[blondeatlast]

32. Brewer most certainly does. She's getting burned by her own overwhelmingly R leggies too

and is desperately clinging to fading political aspirations.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

33. Exactly. Brewer was not confused and McCain was appealing to the R's victim mentality. (n/t)

[Cronus Protagonist]

37. +1R

If only we could recommend individual posts! (that would be a fine way of handling DUzys, wouldn't it?)

[Peace Patriot]

9. Yup, that is a chuckle, for sure!

But I think we need to look beyond the laughs that Pukes provide us to whose interests McCain and Kyle are serving, and who is paying them for this service and how.

It's hard to figure how anyone benefits from NOT having the stimulus--even our Corporate Rulers, and all kinds of business people getting contracts and loans and what not. Remember Grover Norquist's plan, though, to "drown" our government "in the bathtub"--something we are feeling acutely here in California, as are others--with drastic cuts in education, in health care for the poor, in all services and common good programs. That is the agenda of the far, far rightwing--the fascist billionaires who dictate the narrow band of political debate in this country, and in whose interest it is to destroy our government.

We might also want to look closely at our vote tallying system, run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by far rightwing corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls. How do utter bastards like McCain and Kyle get elected? What use is this easy power over our vote tallies being put to? And who benefits?

'Accepting' the stimulus money shouldn't even be an issue. Why is it? Who makes it an issue? And who is paying them, and who is (s)electing them, and how?

There are all sorts of unreasonable or insane views that get promulgated by tools like McCain and Kyle, with the considerable help of our corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies. We shouldn't just laugh about it. And we shouldn't just argue against these crazy fascist views. We should ask: How and why are those trumpeting these views in power, and how and why are such views given currency?

The REAL questions about the stimulus thus never make it into the national political dialogue, or get poorly covered or drowned out by rightwing loudmouths: How did this Financial 9/11 in September 2008 happen at all? Why are those responsible not under indictment or at least in profound disgrace? Why are some of them getting billions of dollars in bailouts? Why isn't the stimulus twice what it is? Why isn't more of it being given to the people who are hurting the most--the working class and the poor? Why isn't more of it going to small business--the biggest employer in the US? And what about the outsourcing of the US manufacturing capability started under Clinton but greatly accelerated under the Bush Junta? And, in California, what about the Enron and Texas energy corp looting of our entire budget surplus, painstakingly accumulated by Gov. Gray Davis? And what about that strange Recall election--the weirdest election ever, with 125 candidates on the ballot, shortly after the Diebolding of California's election system?

Instead, we are treated to this fascist clown show. Laugh we should. And, truly, sometimes that's all you can do. But then we have to get serious again, and not be distracted, and not let the clowns keep running this show.

[Cali_Democrat]

10. Oh man.....this is a great read.....

I love it!

We need more of this kind of hardball from the Obama Administration.

Expose the rethugs as the hypocrites they are.

[zbdent]

12. proof that traumatic events in a life can really cause dementia ...

the sad part is, McCain isn't really that old ...

[Arkana]

13. Even in office, Team Obama's still got it.

[Milspec]

15. outstanding

:toast:

[Political Heretic]

16. I give that handling a huge thumbs up!

[BrklynLiberal]

17. Are they really that stupid...or do they think the rest of us are idiots??

[Catshrink]

18. Well a lot of the people here in Arizona are in fact idiots.

They elected Kyl and McCain, right? Janet was the only sanity here and when Obama plucked her out of the Governor's Office, we lost what sanity the state government had. I fear we're headed the way of California. There are a few bright lights in the Legislature, but they are few, so few.

[BrklynLiberal]

20. ROTFLMAO..

[sasquatch]

22. It's that fucking climate

It makes white people ultra-stupid, especially boomers and yuppies. You should never live anywhere where there isn't an actual winter.

[sasquatch]

19. Obama to Kyl: I DRANK YOUR MILKSHAKE!!

[Pirate Smile]

21. '"Thinly-Veiled Threats"? White House Suggests Arizona Republicans Put Up or Shut Up'

I like this headline from the other day - it was what Tapper tweeted which grabbed my attention:

"Thinly-Veiled Threats"? White House Suggests Arizona Republicans Put Up or Shut Up

In a coordinated response to comments made by an Arizona Republican senator calling for a the stimulus bill to be halted, the Obama administration this week coordinated a series of letters to the governor of Arizona, with the implicit message: put up or shut up.

Arizona Republicans responded that the White House was bullying their state. waaahhhhhhhhh!!!

On This Week with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said of the $787 billion stimulus package, "the reality is it hasn't helped yet. Only about 6.8 percent of the money has actually been spent. What I proposed is, after you complete the contracts that are already committed, the things that are in the pipeline, stop it."

A day later, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer received letters from Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar all pointing out the billions headed to Arizona.

Kyl "publicly questioned whether the stimulus is working and stated that he wants to cancel projects that aren't presently underway," LaHood wrote to Brewer, a Republican. "I believe the stimulus has been very effective in creating job opportunities throughout the country. However, if you prefer to forfeit the money we are making available to your state, as Senator Kyl suggests, please let me know."

LaHood, a former Republican congressman, said that the $48 million in the stimulus bill for infrastructure includes $520.9 million for Arizona highway projects "creating good-paying jobs and rebuilding America for the future."

Salazar said that Arizona has $320 million in interior funds headed her way.

Donovan said that if the $73 million in HUD funds headed her way were canceled, "the following awards would not be made: $14 million in Community Development Block Grant money; $22 million in Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing; $32 million in the Tax Credit Assistance Program; and over $3 million in Project-Based Rental Assistance. Much of this funding is scheduled to be obligated in the next 10 days."

Vilsack said that the Agriculture Department "announced over $230 million in funding for Recovery Act projects in Arizona….If we cancel projects that are not currently underway, here are a few examples of Arizona projects that would not be funded: $45 million to provide approximately 500 single-family housing loans; $1.4 million to develop systems for converting wood to energy; $17.6 million in Forest Service funding benefiting Apache County; Five years of increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for Arizona."

Kyl said that “It’s unfortunate that President Obama and his administration seem unwilling to debate the merits of the stimulus bill and acknowledge its shortcomings. Instead, they have resorted to coordinated political attacks with the Democratic National Committee and the politicization of departments of government by using cabinet secretaries to issue thinly veiled threats to the governor and the people of Arizona."

Added the governor's spokesman, "the governor is hopeful that these federal Cabinet officials are not threatening to deny Arizona citizens the portion of federal stimulus funds to which they are entitled. She believes that would be a tremendous mistake by the administration. And the governor is grateful for the strong leadership and representation that Arizonans enjoy in the United States Senate."

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/07/thinly-veiled-threats-white-house-suggests-arizona-republicans-put-up-or-shut-up.html

[LynneSin]

24. Obama is like a master chest player

everytime he speaks he already has planned what the next 5 steps will happen, just like a top chess player

[troubledamerican]

26. Whatever happened to McCain's advisor Phil "There Is No Economic Crisis" Gramm?

Probably on the board of Goldman Sachs?

[Pirate Smile]

27. kick

[Homer Wells]

28. The RePugs are fast becoming

gross caricatures of their own ideology.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

29. why do repukes ALWAYS have their little misunderstandings

at the expense of Democratic progress?

Geez, simple confusion should be able to work either way--- their predictability would make you think *gasp!* they were deliberately trying to disinform. Gosh!

[Wetzelbill]

30. that is pretty ruthless

It is legit to ask a state if they want the funds though when their two senators rail against it, especially if one does it the way Kyl did.

[BlooInBloo]

31. ...

[florida08]

35. n/t

<img src="" width="470" height="355">

[HughMoran]

36. McCain has just earned the first daily "Hugh Moran achievement award"

What a moran! :eyes:

[Pirate Smile]

38. kick