Go to my new blog at ThePointNews.com.
He is back. After a few years on the bench (the bench being a relative term in politics, chair of the DNC is a pretty cushy bench), Howard Dean, former Governor of Vermont and 2004 candidate for the Democratic Primary, has made a grand reappearance in the political lime light this week by taking on the Senate’s health care bill — from the left. You may remember Dean from his little scream at a 2004 campaign stop in Iowa, here is the YouTube clip of it.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
Well it’s done. Tomorrow Obama will sign the $789 Billion economic stimulus package . So, let’s take a look at a few of the story’s that unfolded during the passage of this epic bill.
1. Nancy Pelosi- The next Joe Canon?
One of the stories that is still unfolding is the power of the Speaker. Pelosi, who has been speaker of the house for 2 years now, really flexed her muscles in the last few weeks. First, she bypassed the committee structure that a bill normally goes through and forced a vote on the floor with almost no debate. Second, she shut Republicans out of the process (which I think turned out to be a bad call) . Finally, she sent a warning shot at Harry Reid when he went ahead and made a deal on the bill without House democrats instead of letting the conference committee do their work.
According to the latest polls from USA Today/Gallup, NBC/Wall Street Journal and even Fox News, only about 20-25% of Americans think congress is doing a good job. Certainly some of that can be explained by the gridlock and partisanship that has arose recently over Obama’s Economic Stimulus plan but most of the low approval rating can be explained by the fact that most people do not really know what Congress does. More importantly, they do not understand how Congress works or is, in fact, suppose to work.
Curious about who is getting funding from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)? The Pew Charitable Trusts just came out with a new tool that lets you visualize and see specifically where every dollar of the TARP goes. Check it out.
Also, if you curious about what exactly is in the new stimulus package, check out ReadThe Stimulus.org. They have a searchable version of the bill as well as copies of all of the ammendments.
My mom, owner of The Casual Gourmet a catering company on Cape Cod, called me yesterday just to check in. We talked about grades, my new toy (a Canon 40d) and finally the economy. As a small business owner, she is understandably worried about the state of our economy. With 7.2% of the country unemployed and no end of our problems in sight, few are going to be hurt more then the small business owners.
I was pretty excited to see that the House and Senate had made it onto Twitter but I am even more excited to see them on YouTube.
