Presidential Address to Congress

So what did you think of it? I'll look around for the test and video when I get a chance, but I wanted to get a thread started for those who watched the speech tonight.

If anyone else finds the video or the text before I do, please fell free to post it. Thanks!

Personally, I thought that the President hit all the right notes tonight.

Text of President Obama's address to Congress on health care

I thought the speech was great. What was telling was watching the Republicans, Eric Cantor texting during the speech and that kook Congressman from So. Carolina shouting "liar". The R's have no intention of cooperating based on what I saw. I'm just glad Obama was alot more forceful.

Check this out....Can you say "Home Run"?

Polls Show Jump in Support for Obama

A CNN Instant Poll of those who watched President Obama's speech found that support for his health care reform plan jumped 14 points, from 53% to 67%.

In addition, 72% said he clearly stated his goals.
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That idiot Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) who screamed "lie" at the top of his lungs in an attempt to interrupt the president's speech is going to be a nice example of the type of scumbags we're dealing with...

Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), one of the upper-chamber Democrats most skeptical of the White House reform efforts, was impressed by Obama’s speech.

Quote :

"I think it was a bit of a game changer," he said.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/26970.html#ixzz0QfprwfMq

Wow.

Remember just a few years ago when it was unpatriotic, damn near treasonous, to merely question the President? "He's the President!! We're at war!!" Remarkable how quickly that changed, huh?

Great speech, though.

Heretic wrote:

Wow.

Remember just a few years ago when it was unpatriotic, damn near treasonous, to merely question the President? "He's the President!! We're at war!!" Remarkable how quickly that changed, huh?

Great speech, though.

...treasonous, to merely question the President??? Are you kidding me? You forget who this guy works for...The American Voters/Taxpayers/Citizens...

LoisLane wrote:

Heretic wrote:

Wow.

Remember just a few years ago when it was unpatriotic, damn near treasonous, to merely question the President? "He's the President!! We're at war!!" Remarkable how quickly that changed, huh?

Great speech, though.

...treasonous, to merely question the President??? Are you kidding me? You forget who this guy works for...The American Voters/Taxpayers/Citizens...

Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer shortly after 9/11..

Quote :

"It's a terrible thing to say, and it's unfortunate... There are reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do, and this is not a time for remarks like that; there never is."

LoisLane wrote:

...treasonous, to merely question the President??? Are you kidding me?

Seriously? You don't remember the rhetoric coming from the conservative media following 9/11 and during the lead up to the Iraq war? Any protests or arguments against the war in Iraq were shouted down as unpatriotic. "We're at war. Don't criticize the President." Blah blah blah... "Undermining our troops." "Emboldening our enemies." None of that rings a bell?? And now we have members of Congress treating a Presidential address like it's one of their town hall meetings. I can only imagine what Limbaugh/O'Reilly/Hannity, or any other conservatives, would have said had such an outburst occurred during Bush's (or his administration's) public speeches whenever he said "Iraq has WMDs", "he's sooper, sooper dangerous. Invade now, with the unprepared army we have, not the one we want!!!", or any of their other demonstrably false statements.

You hated the Bush administration as much as I, so surely you must have ran into such boneheaded responses from conservatives to your valid criticisms of his administration, yes?

Hahaha...

BTW, Fox TV got beat by Obama last night
September 10, 2009 4:04 pm ET by Eric Boehlert

Total viewers for Fox's 8 p.m. So You Think You Can Dance: 6.45 million

Total viewers for Obama's 8 p.m. speech on ABC, CBS, NBC: 21.1 million.

Broken down by network, Fox TV nearly managed to come in last place for the time slot last night. During the Obama speech, ABC grabbed 7.4 million total viewers, CBS attracted 5.6 million, and NBC won the night with 8.2 million. That, according to TV by the Numbers.

Yes, even though ABC, CBS, and NBC were all broadcasting the same thing, two of the three beat Fox's original programming.

Congratulations Rupert Murdoch. By taking the extraordinary step of refusing to carry a presidential address before a joint-session of Congress, you not only walked away from any sort of public interest obligation, but Fox TV also managed to get clocked in the ratings as well.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/200909100039

So just how good IS the government’s track record? Medicare patients must have supplemental private insurance. (These companies will be driven out of business under HB3200.) Under the Cash for Clunkers program, 40% of the cars purchased were foreign – little job help at home. And what projects have you seen under Obama’s stimulus package? This package will cost every US citizen $40,000 in principal. If we add debt through HB3200, almost three-fourths of the US economy will be debt!

LoisLane wrote:

And what projects have you seen under Obama’s stimulus package?

Are you really that dense?..

On May 12, 2009, a major rehabilitation project began after rush hour on the Bishop Ford
Freeway (I-94).

Most of the work will be done during overnight hours and weekends and long-term lane closures will be necessary to complete bridge, patching, and median work at various locations and times.

By June, the work zone will cover 9 miles in both directions from Martin Luther King Drive on the north to 159th Street on the south.

The $27.5 million rehabilitation effort is one of nearly 250 “shovel-ready” construction projects in Illinois funded by the Obama Administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), also known as the Stimulus Plan. The project entails resurfacing all lanes and shoulders, pavement patching, bridge repairs and new guardrail installations, signage, lane and exit/entrance ramp resurfacing, including the Stony Island Feeder Ramp.
http://www.dot.state.il.us/BishopFord/default.html

Heretic wrote:

LoisLane wrote:

...treasonous, to merely question the President??? Are you kidding me?

Seriously? You don't remember the rhetoric coming from the conservative media following 9/11 and during the lead up to the Iraq war? Any protests or arguments against the war in Iraq were shouted down as unpatriotic. "We're at war. Don't criticize the President." Blah blah blah... "Undermining our troops." "Emboldening our enemies." None of that rings a bell??

Just ask the Dixie Chicks how they were treated for criticizing the Bushbaby.

LoisLane wrote:

Under the Cash for Clunkers program, 40% of the cars purchased were foreign – little job help at home.

That's a popular misconception. It's true that most of the top selling cars were foreign, but it appears that most of them were built in this country.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/uptospeed/2009/08/clunkers.html

Quote :

According to data floating around Capitol Hill, the top five cars being purchased under the program are: 1. Ford Focus, 2. Toyota Corolla, 3. Honda Civic, 4. Toyota Prius and 5. Toyota Camry. Some folks are noting sourly that four of the top five models are made by Japanese companies.

The reality is not so simple. True, every Focus sold in America is made at Ford’s Wayne, Mich., assembly plant. Of the Honda Civics sold here, 95% are built in Indiana or Ontario, Canada, and all of the engines are made in the U.S.

All of the Corollas sold in the U.S. are assembled by Toyota in either California or Ontario, while “almost all” of the Camrys sold here are assembled at plants in Kentucky and Indiana, according to Toyota. Only the Prius is built exclusively in Japan.

LoisLane wrote:

And what projects have you seen under Obama’s stimulus package? This package will cost every US citizen $40,000 in principal. If we add debt through HB3200, almost three-fourths of the US economy will be debt!

IIRC, the stimulus package had a $787 billion price tag. There are over 300 million citizens in the US. If you divide 787 billion by 300 million, you get $2,623. That's still a lot of money, to be sure, but it's nowhere near $40,000. Feel free to check my math, but I'm pretty sure it's correct.

As far as "seeing the effects of the stimulus," if you're interested, there's a nice graph from the CBO on this page..

http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-lay-off-obama-2009-7

...that shows that only a quarter of the money will even be spent by the end of this year. So I think it's far too early to judge the effectiveness of the stimulus package.

Scorpion wrote:

LoisLane wrote:

Under the Cash for Clunkers program, 40% of the cars purchased were foreign – little job help at home.

That's a popular misconception. It's true that most of the top selling cars were foreign, but it appears that most of them were built in this country.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/uptospeed/2009/08/clunkers.html

Quote :

According to data floating around Capitol Hill, the top five cars being purchased under the program are: 1. Ford Focus, 2. Toyota Corolla, 3. Honda Civic, 4. Toyota Prius and 5. Toyota Camry. Some folks are noting sourly that four of the top five models are made by Japanese companies.

The reality is not so simple. True, every Focus sold in America is made at Ford’s Wayne, Mich., assembly plant. Of the Honda Civics sold here, 95% are built in Indiana or Ontario, Canada, and all of the engines are made in the U.S.

All of the Corollas sold in the U.S. are assembled by Toyota in either California or Ontario, while “almost all” of the Camrys sold here are assembled at plants in Kentucky and Indiana, according to Toyota. Only the Prius is built exclusively in Japan.

LoisLane wrote:

And what projects have you seen under Obama’s stimulus package? This package will cost every US citizen $40,000 in principal. If we add debt through HB3200, almost three-fourths of the US economy will be debt!

IIRC, the stimulus package had a $787 billion price tag. There are over 300 million citizens in the US. If you divide 787 billion by 300 million, you get $2,623. That's still a lot of money, to be sure, but it's nowhere near $40,000. Feel free to check my math, but I'm pretty sure it's correct.

As far as "seeing the effects of the stimulus," if you're interested, there's a nice graph from the CBO on this page..

http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-lay-off-obama-2009-7

...that shows that only a quarter of the money will even be spent by the end of this year. So I think it's far too early to judge the effectiveness of the stimulus package.

The stimulus was supposed to stimulate the economy NOW...most stimulus projects, if they actually come to fruition, won't even start for two more years...

LoisLane wrote:

The stimulus was supposed to stimulate the economy NOW...most stimulus projects, if they actually come to fruition, won't even start for two more years...

Do you remember when Obama took office the economy was nosediving and there were fears we were headed into a depression? Now,only 7 months after Obama signed the stimulus bill ,we're talking about coming out of the recession. The bleeding has stopped and the economic trajectory has changed for the better.

With lots and lots of stimulus projects in the future the economy can only get better.

LoisLane wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

LoisLane wrote:

Under the Cash for Clunkers program, 40% of the cars purchased were foreign – little job help at home.

That's a popular misconception. It's true that most of the top selling cars were foreign, but it appears that most of them were built in this country.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/uptospeed/2009/08/clunkers.html

Quote :

According to data floating around Capitol Hill, the top five cars being purchased under the program are: 1. Ford Focus, 2. Toyota Corolla, 3. Honda Civic, 4. Toyota Prius and 5. Toyota Camry. Some folks are noting sourly that four of the top five models are made by Japanese companies.

The reality is not so simple. True, every Focus sold in America is made at Ford’s Wayne, Mich., assembly plant. Of the Honda Civics sold here, 95% are built in Indiana or Ontario, Canada, and all of the engines are made in the U.S.

All of the Corollas sold in the U.S. are assembled by Toyota in either California or Ontario, while “almost all” of the Camrys sold here are assembled at plants in Kentucky and Indiana, according to Toyota. Only the Prius is built exclusively in Japan.

LoisLane wrote:

And what projects have you seen under Obama’s stimulus package? This package will cost every US citizen $40,000 in principal. If we add debt through HB3200, almost three-fourths of the US economy will be debt!

IIRC, the stimulus package had a $787 billion price tag. There are over 300 million citizens in the US. If you divide 787 billion by 300 million, you get $2,623. That's still a lot of money, to be sure, but it's nowhere near $40,000. Feel free to check my math, but I'm pretty sure it's correct.

As far as "seeing the effects of the stimulus," if you're interested, there's a nice graph from the CBO on this page..

http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-lay-off-obama-2009-7

...that shows that only a quarter of the money will even be spent by the end of this year. So I think it's far too early to judge the effectiveness of the stimulus package.

The stimulus was supposed to stimulate the economy NOW...most stimulus projects, if they actually come to fruition, won't even start for two more years...

If you look at the graph from the CBO at the link that I put up, you'll see that the Recovery Act is proceeding almost exactly as scheduled. From the beginning, it was acknowledged that the lion's share of the money would be spent in 2010 and 2011... and as artie pointed out, the expenditures this year appear to have already yielded some significant results.

I think that we'd all like to see things return to normal more quickly, but given where we were last fall, you have to admit that things are looking much better. Without the stimulus package, our economic situation today would be likely be far worse. Of course, we're still in a recession. It's simply unrealistic to think that a major recession can be completely reversed in a matter of months. To borrow an often used analogy, our economy is like an ocean liner, not a speedboat. It has begun to turn around, but it takes awhile to completely change direction.