It probably won't surprise you that I disagree. Whether the economy is worse off than it was in the Depression or the early 80s, I don't know, but it's plenty bad. Seemingly every day there is new news about corporate losses, layoffs, foreclosures, bankruptcies, and dismal projections for this year. I am definitely feeling it. The FoxPro market is all but dead (at least around here) and I am retraining in .NET. It's a heck of a time to be trying to make a career change when the market is awash in unemployed developers who already have experience.

Why don't you give Obama a bit of a chance? He's been in office two weeks and this is his first big proposal. He has to do something. I don't think a modest bill will pull the economy out of the doldrums. I think a better bill is possible, and that the Senate will modify it. A lot of the pork will be gone.

BTW, I read about an earlier occasion where he said "I won so I can do what I want," or words to that effect. According to everyone there he was clearly joking. He knows even a president can't do whatever he wants.

>Mike, buddy, it's getting close to the "I told you so" moment. The stimulus bill is pork in a new and improved packaging and now twice when questioned by GOP officials his response was in effect, "I won so I do what I want". Can you imagine what you Dems would have done if Bush had been that nakedly imperial?
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>As of today he's trying scare tactics - "the economy is worse than the Great Depression". No, it's not. Look at the 1980 unemplyment rates and economy.
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>And many of his appointees seem to have a problem interpreting tax laws. Yeah, there's change we can believe in.
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>This guy is going to make all previous levels of deficit spending look like pennies in a jar. He is going to hamstring our economy with horrific losses on debt interest since we are now farming out a lot of our debt to other nations who will hold us hostage to the interest on the debt.
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>Bush had his flaws but Obama is looking more and more like an epic fail and one that will change this country for the worse for a long time to go.
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>Way to go, guys! Hope you like "America Lite"
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>>http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/01/stimulus.next/index.html
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>>Despite what some of you may think, I am not an intense partisan. I don't think the first version of President Obama's first major proposal is perfect. It is larded with riders and agendas. He can do better than this and I believe he ran with the intention of doing better than this. If he lets himself be steamrolled by special interest groups we are no better off than we were before.
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>>The Senate is putting out strong signals that the bill will not be approved in its proposed form; Republicans voted against it 200 whatever to nothing in the house. And they're right. This is not a good bill. Our economy and our country are in a tailspin and we deserve better than this.
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>>I have not given up on Barack Obama. I believe he will grow into his role, as Roosevelt did, as Lincoln did. I believe without reservation he is a transformational president. I just want a better bill than this. The Senate is sending signals it will play the role our founders intended. They are not supposed to be swayed by money or celebrity.