Political Student

Written by Dave Chase

You might have heard about the “tea parties” that are occurring across the country today. They are, according to their website, “to expose the bankrupt liberal agenda of the White House Administration and Congress. Specifically, the flawed “Stimulus Bill” and pork filled budget.”

I felt the need to comment on these so called “patriotic acts” since the original act (The Boston Tea Party) not only occurred in my home state (MA representin’) but was organized by a group of college students from the then hardly known Harvard College.

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Written by Dave Chase

There is a joke making the rounds in the business and economic worlds that goes like this: If the US government can fire CEO’s of companies who took bailout money then China should be able to fire President Obama.

The punch line comes of course from the fact that China has loaned a huge amount of money to the United States over the past 10 years. In fact, they apparently have so much of our debt that people have begun to talk about how China should have a say in how the US is run.

So, with all of this concern over our debt, I felt like it was time to do a little post dispelling a few common assumptions about our debt. The first is who is the main holder of US debt.

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Written by Dave Chase

Tonight, President Obama held a town hall to answer some of the question that people submitted through the White House website over the past few days. Now, as I shared yesterday, there certainly were some rather silly and dumb questions but the President only answered the top rated ones.

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Written by Dave Chase

Rep Waters, D-Calif., Rep King, R-N.Y., Sen Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen Graham, R-S.C. debate the stimulus on

While watching the Sunday morning shows this morning, I honestly could not believe what I was seeing when when Republican Senator Lindsay Graham and Republican Representative Peter Kin said that Geinther should not take the option of nationalizing the entire banking system off the table. More from the Huffington Post.

What’s more is Senator Chuck Schumer (D) said that was a terrible idea and that the government cannot handle a task like that.

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Written by Dave Chase

The Senate passed a modified version of the stimulus package that the House passed more than a week ago. The House bill passed with no Republican support and the Senate bill passed with just 3 Republicans voting in favor.

Republicans have been fighting this bill from it’s inception. They claim that only tax cuts not spending can help our economy. They are calling the democrats “reckless” and “irresponsible.” So, here is my question:

What words would you use to describe the Republicans over the past 8 years?

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Written by Dave Chase

Photo from Current.com

It looks like Obama will select Judd Gregg as his commerce secretary. Gregg is a republican senator from New Hampshire. Gregg said that he would only accept the position if the Governor of New Hampshire (Democrat, John Lynch) appoints a Republican to finish out his term in the Senate.

This comes just after a rather humiliating vote on the House floor for Obama’s stimulus package. Who knew winning could hurt so much! Obama’s package passed 244 to 188 but the kicker is that not a single Republican voted for the bill. Not a single one. So much for a bipartisan bill.

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Written by Dave Chase

Senator McCaskill of Missouri

CNN called it putting a “cap in their assets” as they discussed Senator McCaskill’s proposed bill that would limit CEO pay for those companies who have received money from the Troubled Asset and Relief Program.

Not unexpectedly, Republicans are not thrilled. Former Mayor of New York and Presidential Candidate, Rudy Giuliani, said that, “putting a limit on CEO pay would take money out of the economy.”

It’s a theory that has been repeated over and over in the past as Republicans defend the theory of trickle down economics.

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Written by Dave Chase

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.

Written by Dave Chase

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.

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Written by Dave Chase

Brad Friedman over at www.bradblog.com wrote a great post contrasting Bush in September of 2001 and today. Take a look:

Before

After

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