Granted the American people, small businesses, and corporations need to rally at this trying economic time. My suggestion to the problem and which seems to be what President Obama would be pushing as a bi-partisan effort: Get the Stimulus Bill passed with those items targeted to pump money into the system within the short-term (next 1 – 12 months). Any spending scheduled over the long-term must be put under more review, additional planning to ensure it is focused in the right area and we have the correct amount of money being spent.
I am appalled that President Obama, his staff, The House, and Senate aren’t holding each other and themselves accountable to the promise President Obama made to the American people he would take a scalpel to every line in the budget and eliminate those programs that are not working, over budgeted, and allocate that money to programs that will help the American people. Wouldn’t this sound more prudent and fiscally responsible then to ramrod a long-term spending spree which has no rhyme or reason to the amount being spent? How does this stimulate the economy?
I am urging and requesting the Senate and House split / remove those items not targeted to get the economy going right away. I believe Senator Kerry said now is the time to be priming the pumps…..ok let’s prime the pumps and jolted the economy NOW, not by putting long-term spending that won’t even hit the American people for over 18 – 24 months.
Every Senator and House Representative owes it to the American people to ensure due diligence is done and completed before putting this additional debt on American.

President Obama should sack the"Stimulus Plan Revisions",and let the Congress rewrite it,Period! These Republicans are watering it down so much, it's not worth passing. "Message toPresident Obama",this is probably the last time in your political (legacy) carreer with so much political capital,and if you don't stand-up for your original convictions ,and tell these Republican's, to go where the "Sun Don't Shine",your once in a lifetime chance will be sqaundered. Listen to Nancy!

Although the plan has a "grant" for homeowners, what about us renters and other little people? It hardly seems fair.

Keep triming the pork boys-–keep triming--sad–triming pork that doesn't exist--but then again--we have the power to create and make trim pork-–by the push of the treasury button on the printing machine.

I encourage all of you to email/fax your Legislatures and tell them the American people have had enough of their "pork"...they need to trim the fat and give us a REAL stimulus package. I fax/email my Senators every day to let them know we are TIRED of their politics as usual!!!

When the TARP was started it was put on the internet so it could be reveiwed. Are there any plans to put the new stimulus plan onto the web so that every can veiw it? Transparency?

question ,the stimulus package 800 billion think about this ,1 million to every houshold around 300 million not even close to a billion ..what a savings for our children and america ..gets people back to the banks paying off mortages .keeping their homes .buying again ..the big banks can have a seperate bailout ..stock market would come back ,monitor the bucks for roads bridges and created jobs ..save the american people first this time ..most live paycheck to paycheck .and survive ..give them a chunk of the change ..thats all it is compared to 800billion ..they all want to help so they say ! well watch with average joe could do if he had a buck to do something with ! and what happened to what the banks called PMI private mortage insurance that people had to when taking out mtg's no money down ,thought this was to protect the banks..do they have both hands out now ..you have a large stimulus package do the right thing ..it would be never forgotten that this country the people the veterans that fought ..deserve and could rebuild this country again

Watching the hearings today, one of the congressmen suggested that all the bank CEO’s be replaced. I found it funny because I was thinking along the same lines. One deference replace “Paul Begala Delay Deny Do nothing” politicians.

They can make it a lot lower than that if they will just take out all the Democratic pet projects and kickbacks to their contributors and supporters. Remember, people, the Dems want this bill pushed...it is their wish list...nothing in it is for the republicans or else they would be signing it quickly....think about it!

If the world really want a fast economic recovery result, here is an idea. Instead of blowing it away to the banks, the government should give only $1 million dollars to each individual. There are around 300 million people living in the U.S. and the government has billions,trillions of dollars stored. An average nice home will run to $100,000 and up, an average car $20-$35,000 , we can pay our debts off, pay for college tuitions, remodel homes, comunity, business, create new business ,and of course shop for items we need. Also keep all interest rates, sales, gas prices the way they are. Not one penny should be taken out from the government if you recieve this check or penalized. All this will ultimately determine how people spend there money wise of foolishly.This is suppose to be the land of opportunity and dreams to become reality. WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?

Hey Earle in Florida,

I think the sun has dryed up your brain juice. The Republican's haven't supported it and only 3 in the Senate voted for it and they are really Dumocrats.

This thing is so full of pork that it will not stimulate a fart. But it will smell as bad. Trimming the fat is good for the bill. As for Nancy, why listen to a communist.

My father and I didn't fight for our country to have it turned over to the likes of Nancy, Obama, and the rest of the Socialist-Democrats. Obama better get something done before the next election because I have the feeling that he is going to loose the house or senate come the next election cycle.

He only won by 3 points. With his approval rating dropping and only about 40% of the people in the US approving of this pork package the Socialist-Democrats will be hurting come November 2009.

Go back to your golf course and heat up your brain some more. Maybe you will then realize what is really happening in America.

What the Hell is an $800 tax break going to do for me?! And now we're told that trillions more are going to be needed to fix the credit market and housing problems? Does anyone really think that this will fix things, or are we all just being conditioned to the chants of "Emergency! Pass this now or we're doomed!"

This sounds good and all, but how is this package going to create real and long lasting jobs? Sure it will give more work to the construction side of things and business that support construction. What about manufacturing jobs? Why don't they spend some of this 800+ BILLION dollars and give it to the top 20 companies that have sent MUCH of their products to Mexico and other overseas plants? I feel we are suffering now, because SO MANY jobs have left the country. Why not offer GM Money annually over the next 10 years to bring back jobs they sent out? Or ALL the Appliance companies that have sent jobs to Mexico? Give those companies some incentive to bring jobs back to the USA where they should be !

Stop trimming boys--stop trimming--and start printing.

Why doesn't the government implement a " StimUCard ". instead of checks offer it as a debit card . Which can only be used to purchase . This card would be activated with a pin and last four digits of SSN . The people have no other choice but to buy , therefore stimulating the ecomony . And they would feel that that are directly involved .

here's my question- why are you bailing out the crooks who got us here in the first place?

why not give me $100K and let me pay down my mortgage, pay credit cards, etc. Let me spend it the way I need to. Then the companies get their much needed money and I get my stimulus. Is that too simple?

Trickle down economics doesn't work- especially when the money goes to crooks in the first place.

So they cut back on the tax breaks even though they are spending our money? Who qualifies for these tax cuts, last go round I didn't get a stimulus check, even though I am a broke tax paying college student.

I'm sorry but I think we deserve more details than this. This stimulus bill seems to be for show. It sure doesn't seem like the change Obama promised to bring to Washington.

360 I really hope yall keep them honest on this. $800 billion dollars is to much money to add to our trillion deficit for nothing. Can yall follow the dollars please? This viewer would appreciate it.

Rep- are stupid they are listening to Rush Limbaugh tell them what to do. They don't think for themselves. Michael Steel is not the head of the RNC its Rush Limbaugh. Rep want to take out education so they can stay in office. The next President is going to half to be smarter than Pres Obama. We can't afford to have a dumb Pres. going into the 21st century.

I was hoping we get more than just 400 per individual. For a 800 stimulus one-time check, it is not enough to pay our home mortgage. The government treated us like kids that they can give us "a" cookie and not our daily food that sustain us each day.
I am hoping that somebody will have the goodness to fight for what is right for private citizens which barely are blindsided with this decision. Democrats or Republicans? Which one really cares for us? The government treated us with a $400 one-time check, but, on the other hand "silently as a wild wolf in sheep's clothing" we are indebted for a Trillion. Forget about the $400 dollars. I will just donate it to Obama's 2012 re-election hoping, maybe that time he'll be the messiah that everyone hoped for.

In yesterday's televised town hall meeting in Ft. Meyers, FL, the one lady (Henrietta?) indicated that she is living in her car and what help is being planned for her. Obama's response – something along the lines of "we're going to TRY to help you". Therein lies the answer - there is nothing that's going to help people like her immediately. While I'm not living in my car – yet – there is nothing in this package that is going to help any of us immediately. It's all about getting the credit to flow. We've already been down that road - and that's gotten us to where we are now. It can be made really easy for me to get a home loan or car loan - but if I'm not working, or working at a lesser paying job, how are these loans going to get paid?

I'll state again, mandate a temporary drop in interest rates across the board and even mandate an extension of the interest only payment house loans that will help keep people in their homes and less homes on the foreclosure market. This will free up money to repay these loans (a lot easier to make a $200 credit card payment than a $400 payment), giving money to the banks (rather than people filing BK) which will enable them to loan out money, as well as put money immediately back into our pockets to spend thus stimulating the economy which in turn would create jobs.

And I further agree with windsorco – implement this package in stages with benchmarks to ensure each stage is successful before moving on to the next. Nothing scares me more than a politician telling me something is not perfect but we have to do it – now – regardless. Unless the Treasury has a money tree hidden somewhere, funds are limited and we have to stop passing these costs on to future generations. We are indeed dooming them as well.

Kenny Roger's song entitled "The Gambler" seems to be appropriate background music for working on this current economic drama.

I want to know how Bush spent trillions of dollars on war, no questions asked – not have to wait for Senate to pass it, not for Wallstreet to lose money over it – I guess war/weapons is the key word here – that's right – let's keep on killing to make money. Forget that the trillions of dollars could of saved the United States health care system, the Education System, Social Services, create more jobs. Do they honestly think that we are stupid??? I guess so!!! Let's support Mr. Obama all the way – let him change things around for all the spoiled-greedy-selfish-men that only care about more money into their pockets and enjoy seeing United States starve. We will never change, we have not evolved into intelligent human beings. How sad.

Where is my bailout? The solution is: take 1 billion dollars of this stimulus and divide it among all taxpayers in US since economy is stimulated from the working class...when they have money?!?!?!

Show us the bill online in real-time and let the people determine what belongs and what doesn't belong.

Especially for this bill, President Obama needs line item veto so he can get the things out of the bill that he doesn't think belong there. Until that happens we will continue to have pork in just about every bill Congress passes.

I have a question. Does the one year fix of the Alternative Minimum Tax for the mddle class affect the taxes due in April? Or does it refer to the present tax year.

Well, I though it was financial issue related to credit crunch. This administration is not looking at the cause of this issue. The basic question is: how does this fix the credit issue?
The valuation of MBS/ABS/CDOs and the companies, people and other entities which were backing these instruments with ratings and financial analysis are still there. Some how these instruments have to be removed from the market. Declare all banks who bought these as bad banks or buy them, do some thing to wash this BS away and then do rest of it.

shame! shame! shame! Shame on these republicans. In one of our greatest moments of peril the republicans have shown their true colors. It seems that it"s politics as usual unless thousands die (9-11) not realising that the pain and suffering that the millons of americans are going thru is far worse than dying.Shame!Shame!Shame.

All of this spending that will mortgage away our children's future. Stimulate housing and businesses and you will in turn stimulate the economy...yet that is scaled back in this new bill. Where's the common sense approach?

This subject just gets to my nerve. I have been saying for the last 4 months that the money should be split with the tax payers and let them pay off their debts. Make them become debt free and be able to spend what money they make if any on things the government wants us to spend it on. Tax breaks "oh yea" Where? I'm glad I was one of those people that saved the stimulus check we got last year. Because guess what? Got my taxes done last week and I have to send it back to the government. How's that for a stimulus? And they wondered why the middle class saved it. The young tax payers spent it but that is because they live pay check to pay check and they know when tax time comes they are going to get more money back than what they paid in. I think that is a real problem. Obama said he was going to stand for the middle class but I haven't seen it yet, I think he is slipping away from us, he promised us things to get our votes because the middle class decides the election and he knew that. Don't think he didn't do his homework before running for president. I could go on and on about this subject because this really makes me mad. I guess because I'm one of those middle class people that has always saved money and payed my bills on time and worked everyday. Now I have been layed off for 6 months and every week just trying not to touch the savings, but it is creeping up and when it does I feel that it will be all over and I know the end will be near.
Mr. Obama hear our cries. It's been proven that the government cannot run this country so why not listen to the average people for once and try our ideas.

I keep hearing people talking about giving more to the people. I like the idea but really more than half the stuff in the United States is made in another country and much of the banks are starting to be owned by over seas companies. So we have got $800,000,000,000.00 if you think that any of that money is going to help us your in a dream world. Most the products plastics, metal, oil, solar panel material, and even some food are not made or grown in the United States. So what we have done is got a loan from China for 800 billion then through the spending of the people we are going to give it back to them. Then from our taxes we are going to have to pay the government for the 800 billion they got from china. I know some of it will go to construction of roads and building but that is short time work that will then take tax payers money to keep up to date. I guess this is good for China but not for America. Let the market take care of itself. Leave it alone. It seems the more the government tries to do the worse it is going.