As the U.S. Senate voted 74-26 today to approve the debt ceiling bill to avoid a government default, U.S. Sen Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, was among those who voted against the Budget Control Act.
Here's what she said after the vote:
“I strongly believe America must reduce its debt and rein in federal spending. Earlier this week, I supported over $2 trillion in spending cuts without additional revenues, and last December I voted to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that are blowing a hole in the deficit. However, I do not believe this proposal is a fair, well thought out, or balanced deal for our fragile economy or the millions of middle class families struggling to make ends meet.
“The fact is, there is nothing in this deal that will address the significant jobs crisis we are facing. This deal, cut behind closed doors with zero transparency, is an unbalanced approach that cuts deeply into discretionary spending while being overwhelmingly stacked in favor of large corporations who exploit loopholes and the wealthiest among us. It is simply not in the best interests of the middle class and the larger economic recovery.
“I have not been in Washington long, but long enough to know it is broken. As I travel across New York, the people I meet are focused entirely on jobs and economic security for their families. Congress should take this charge as its own. I will continue to look for bipartisan ways to reduce the debt in a responsible way and create jobs in this struggling economy. The truth is, today we could have gone further in reducing America’s debt with a sensible compromise that both cut discretionary spending and raised revenues. It is unfortunate Congress missed that opportunity.”
In a statement this afternoon, President Obama applauded today's Senate vote. He has approved the deal.
"This compromise guarantees more than $2 trillion in deficit reduction. It’s an important first step to ensuring that as a nation we live within our means," Obama said. "Yet it also allows us to keep making key investments in things like education and research that lead to new jobs, and assures that we’re not cutting too abruptly while the economy is still fragile."
U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-NY, said he fought to prevent cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits. "...the bill contains none of those," Schumer said.
“Of greatest importance is that Democrats and Republicans came together to avoid default," Schumer said. "Had we defaulted on our debt we could have risked another recession and thousands more would have lost jobs. Unfortunately, our effort to close tax loopholes for corporate jets and yachts and companies that ship jobs overseas did not succeed but we'll continue to make the case."
For example, one person said, "The question to ask is WHERE DID THE STIMULUS MONEY GO? Almost 1 trillion, just disappeared." I suppose he read that somewhere, but in fact all of it is documented on the web. To make it easy for him, I posted two links that do just that. No response. If I found out that I was wrong about something, I'd acknowledge it. I have, in fact. None of the right-wing posters have ever done that. They either ignore it or change the subject. The obvious conclusion is that they're only interested in spouting ill-informed opinions and have no interest in anything that might contradict their world view.
I wonder if the many small businesses who received loans from the Small Business Administration would agree that it was wasted. Perhaps you believe that small business should sink or swim on their own, and so the $20 billion that went to small businesses was wasted.
Much of the money wasn't supposed to be used by the states to fill their budget gaps, but the states by and large found loopholes that let them do that. As to where it went in Westchester, you can read the list as well as I can. I've given you the link before, but once again, here's the link to the top 200 expenditures in Westchester: http://projects.propublica.org/recovery/locale/new-york/westchester
• Briarcliff Manor received $11 million dollars to help finance the construction of drinking water facilities and other related activities. • Scarsdale received $9 million dollars for highway infrastructure. • Bedford got $1.2 million in an energy efficiency block grant. • New Rochelle got $684 thousand for the same thing. • Westchester County received $24 million dollars for the construction of wastewater treatment plants. • The National Guard received $7.5 million. • The College of New Rochelle received $5 million for Pell grants. • Valley Oil got $1.6 million in a loan from the SBA, since they couldn't get a loan from the bank. • American Christmas, Inc., got $1.3 million for the same reason. How about looking at the facts instead of just repeating what you've heard? I've given you the link. Here it is again: http://projects.propublica.org/recovery/locale/new-york/westchester All you have to do is read.
Of course, any project that was, in fact, necessary would have been paid for out of your local taxes instead of the stimulus money. But, hey, the stimulus was socialism, so it's a lot better that it come out of your pocket, right? As to the rest, I've already answered it. Look above.
It still requires you to read the article, of course.
First, whether it was sitmulus money or local tax money it came from the same pocket.....mine!!! Where do you think it comes from? Second, I read the article you provided. Thank you. I have copied the key sentence in the article "Around the year 2000 when Briarcliff’s current Village Manager, Philip Zegarelli, was the Mayor of Sleepy Hollow, Keith Austin (then Mayor of Briarcliff) came to Zegarelli with a problem. “Briarcliff Manor was on the New Croton Aqueduct (NCA) and New York City told the Village that it needed to change its water supply because NCA did not meet New York State nor Federal standards of purity. This issue had been kicking around for a long time and Briarcliff ended up being the last community to continue receiving its water from the NCA.....” More over excessive regulation and government interveniton at tge cost of the tax payer!
with the fourth largest economy in the world
I wasn't aware that all of the stimulus money came from your pocket. You must be very wealthy.
Where do you thinhk the stimulus money came from. It came from our collective tax money where else could it have come from.
This thread is a perfect example of whats wrong with our system. A small ignorant group of people can band together and highjack the conversation. Sadly, in politics this results in incredibly naive and dumb laws that cause tremendous damage. Not that I'm pointing fingers at the Tea Party in particular. It's no different than Pat Buchanan's angry white men or Ross Perot's united we stand or countless other protest movements. And it will have the same impact as it's predecessors. I just hope it doesn't do too much more damage before it fizzles Enjoy your ranting...