New Jersey's Tea Parties Will Be Successful. (Morristown, Washington: monthly, town)

[BobKovacs]

Originally Posted by CaptainNJ

Newsmax.com - Stimulus Repaves Roads – For $25 Million Per Mile

how about paying $25 million per mile to repave roads? transparency is worthless when you have the people who do the wasting overseeing the spending. your government stooges protect each other so that they can each waste all the money they possibly can. thats why senator stevens said something to effect of "if you attack my wasteful projects, ill go after yours" when he was being investigated. that isnt just what they do, its what they see as their job. wasting our money.

If you actually read the article that you linked to, you'll find that this isn't necessarily a simple "repaving project". While no one has given the exact scope of work, there's obviously far more involved in the project with a pricetag like that. Given that it's California, there's a good possibility that the project included seismic retrofits to any overpasses within that 3-mile stretch, which would readily explain the price tag.

And let's not make it sound like the entire stimulus package is one big $5,000 NASA toilet seat- just because someone at Newsmax found one project that appears to have a high price tag (and notice that they didn't bother to investigate further) doesn't mean the entire package is bloated.

[CaptainNJ]

Originally Posted by BobKovacs

If you actually read the article that you linked to, you'll find that this isn't necessarily a simple "repaving project". While no one has given the exact scope of work, there's obviously far more involved in the project with a pricetag like that. Given that it's California, there's a good possibility that the project included seismic retrofits to any overpasses within that 3-mile stretch, which would readily explain the price tag.

And let's not make it sound like the entire stimulus package is one big $5,000 NASA toilet seat- just because someone at Newsmax found one project that appears to have a high price tag (and notice that they didn't bother to investigate further) doesn't mean the entire package is bloated.

im sure that they have found lots of unneccessary things to do other than paving roads to make the project cost $25 million per mile.

the entire stimulus project is one big $5,000 toilet seat. its government spending money that private citizens earn on things that we dont need purely to gain politicians wealth and political power. thats why the politicians forced it through without anyone actually looking to see whats needed and whats an appropriate cost. when you involve politicians you are only dealing with things that groups who contribute to their campaign or blocks of voters have requested of them.

its funny, obama throws out these phrases like "building our infrastructure, roads, bridges and tunnels" and people just automatically think thats a good thing. oh yeah, of course we support that. what about the money thats already taken from us for that stuff? whats already being spent and why isnt that enough? does obama have any concept of whats actually needed? the answer is no, he knows that stuff sounds good and that will get him hundreds of billions of dollars he can spready around to enrich his cronies and solidify his political power.

[shorebaby]

Originally Posted by BobKovacs

If you actually read the article that you linked to, you'll find that this isn't necessarily a simple "repaving project". While no one has given the exact scope of work, there's obviously far more involved in the project with a pricetag like that. Given that it's California, there's a good possibility that the project included seismic retrofits to any overpasses within that 3-mile stretch, which would readily explain the price tag.

And let's not make it sound like the entire stimulus package is one big $5,000 NASA toilet seat- just because someone at Newsmax found one project that appears to have a high price tag (and notice that they didn't bother to investigate further) doesn't mean the entire package is bloated.

There are too many $5000 toilet seats everybody should be bothered by this. We are exploding the deficit (yes it was too high under Bush now it is absurd $4 trillion exploded to $14 trillion). Printing 1 Trillion dollars which will lead to hyper inflation and we are dependent on the Chinese to buy our debt. We should be doing everything we can to keep costs down. Yes stimulus is needed but not pork. Everybody regardless of party should be demanding hte money be spent much more wisely than it is now.

Stimulus Shouldn't Be an Excuse for Pork - WSJ.com

[shorebaby]

Here is an interesting site, I don't know how accurate it is but each of us, again forget about parties, should stop trying to defend wasteful spending, shine light on it and redirect it to efficient stimulus. We cannot to afford to waste a single dollar since this will saddle future generations with debt.

Stimulus Waste Blog - Report waste, wasteful, illegal, fraudulent, unethical, improper, silly and stupid uses of the Stimulus Plan money.

[CaptainNJ]

Originally Posted by shorebaby

Here is an interesting site, I don't know how accurate it is but each of us, again forget about parties, should stop trying to defend wasteful spending, shine light on it and redirect it to efficient stimulus. We cannot to afford to waste a single dollar since this will saddle future generations with debt.

Stimulus Waste Blog - Report waste, wasteful, illegal, fraudulent, unethical, improper, silly and stupid uses of the Stimulus Plan money.

the real challenge would be to find something in the stimulus that isnt waste.

[JG183]

Originally Posted by seren77

well you have to bring me some evidence about the inefficiencies that is going on right now. the stimulus is probably the most transparent government spending ever. check out the recovery.gov webpage. Each and every agency has detailed spending numbers for each and every project that is approved.

thanks for that link...

as FDR said, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself". The plethora of opinions (such as the O.P.'s) will become self-fulfilling prophecies, unless the American people stop listening to their negative tone.

The people pulling against recovery are (first and foremost) the shorts, i.e. those who are speculating on the downside (short sellers, CDS holders, etc.)

Every time I read a negative article about a particular company, I must presume the author is, in some direct or indirect way, in a position to benefit financially from its downfall.

Second, the Republicans. Even though they are more culpable than the Dems in causing the problems, they want just the Obama administration to fail for obvious reasons (ain't the 2 party system wonderful!).

Finally, the media. The hyper competition in media enterprises has resulted in the tabloid-ization of the American media. They thrive on negative, sensationalistic stories and when there are none immediately available, they invent them (selectively sprinking in distortions and misinformation for support). I wish there were a way we could stop this kind of garbage, but I guess it's protected by the 1st Amendment. Do you think stories like this could qualify as "yelling fire in a crowed theater?"

I can go along with the notion that the recovery isn't going to be a "recovery", just a halt in the decline in GDP. There's a big difference. I'm sticking with my prediction of October/November 2009 to get to 0% GDP.

if it goes up from that point forward, I wouldn't expect it to be great. Even if I'm wrong by a quarter - the risks at some point start turning against the bears. Basically every day is a day closer to the end. The Great Depression was 43 months, and they didn't have this size stimulus and global coordination to bring it to a close. We're now 17 months in, so you've got to figure we're trending toward the end, not the beginning.

As for alternative investments, my preference would not be gold. I honestly believe gold is in a bubble. There was a report in the WSJ a couple of weeks ago, that India (the largest gold importing country) and Asia in general, have become net sellers. That tells me there's an upper limit on what people are willing to pay for yellow metal.

I think deflation will prevail before we go back to inflation. I see gold more as a REAL crisis hedge... if the s**t really hits the fan. Personally, I hold some physical gold and silver just in case - and hope never to have to barter it for true necessities. I see it more as a wildcard than an investment.

Apart from that - In equity markets I tend more towards a "Japan in the '90s" view, before we potentially/eventually meet a mini-Zimbabwe many years down the line.

[CaptainNJ]

Originally Posted by JG183

Second, the Republicans. Even though they are more culpable than the Dems in causing the problems,

no, they arent.

[shorebaby]

Originally Posted by CaptainNJ

no, they arent.

Yeah that is kind of a weird claim. Both parties had a hand in this.

[CaptainNJ]

Originally Posted by shorebaby

Yeah that is kind of a weird claim. Both parties had a hand in this.

bush was happy to take credit for the increase in home ownership when it was convenient for him but the reality is that the corruption of the GSE's and the pushing of all the bad debt was primarily the push of democrats.

[shorebaby]

Originally Posted by CaptainNJ

bush was happy to take credit for the increase in home ownership when it was convenient for him but the reality is that the corruption of the GSE's and the pushing of all the bad debt was primarily the push of democrats.

Very true, and the NY fed was asleep at the switch as non regulated sources sold sub prime loans bundled and sold them. It is funny how Gaithner is viewed as a savior when he had a hand in this.