The Republicans’ Trillion Dollar Problem

President Obama wants to stop the jobs hemorrhage and create millions of new jobs, including in new industries such as in green economics. Yet the Republicans prefer to play the little petty games that they have become expert at, led by the anti-America Rush Limbaugh who preaches hate and division on his radio show.

[Black Star News Editorial]

The Republicans have been on the offensive, with several political talking heads appearing on news shows over the past several days disparaging the amount that President Obama has asked for in his economic stimulus plan—nearly one trillion dollars.

First of all, the president’s proposed stimulus is over $900 billion, which is a very long way from “a trillion dollars” which has become the mantra of every Republican politician over the past few days. It’s a key distinction; nearly 100 billion dollars, the difference, is not a small amount.

But what’s more important is the fact that the Republicans –the party that destroyed the economy over the past eight years; the party that has cost us nearly three million jobs; the party of eight years of incompetence, corruption and greed– are not even dealing with the merits or lack thereof of President Obama’s economic stimulus plan says much about the Republicans. They have become a party of no ideas and are veering towards national irrelevance. It also explains why the Republicans were overwhelmingly defeated in the last election.

These are the grim facts: The nation stands to likely lose tens of thousands of more jobs. More workers will lose their homes. Unemployment and soup kitchen lines will extend around several street blocks throughout the country. Crime will increase in several major cities around the country as people lose their paychecks and city employees, including police officers, lose their jobs.

President Obama wants to stop the jobs hemorrhage and create millions of new jobs, including in new industries such as in green economics. Yet the Republicans prefer to play the little petty games that they have become expert at, led by the anti-America Rush Limbaugh who preaches hate and division on his radio show.

Remarkably, these petty games strategy are also being played by major media. This morning, for example, on CNN three morning news anchors spent several minutes discussing the meaning of a “trillion” dollars.

It was a very irresponsible segment, with each of the anchors chuckling or making remarks to indicate incredulity over the humongous size of the proposed economic package.

They made remarks such as “what’s a trillion dollars!?” “it’s a thousand billion dollars!” “when one trillion on dollar bills are stacked on over the other it would extend 68,000 miles into space” which would be a long way towards the moon.

Later on, one of the anchors, in a different segment, discussed a book deal by David Plouffe, President Obama’s former campaign manager–he reportedly got a $1.5 million book deal. The anchor said the book deal was “66,000 times smaller than a trillion dollars.” A later CNN segment even questioned whether billions of dollars designated for the police departments across the country would stimulate the economy: A Republican, Lamar Smith, was included in the segment saying the spending for the police would not create the kind of jobs the economy needs right now.

Unbelievable!

Media must refrain from playing into the hands of Republican obstructionists. There is a reason why Americans rejected the Republicans at the polls

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