The Democrats' proposed $819 billion stimulus package was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday. Despite last-minute lobbying by President Barack Obama, not a single Republican voted for the package. The bill includes tax breaks, aid to states, and funding for infrastructure improvements, education, Medicaid, and alternative energy projects.Given all the transference and projection that has characterized BDS, it was almost inevitable that one of Obama's first big, signature policy achievements would violate our treaty obligations. Now, we wait for the left to concede that at least Bush was explicit in his repudiation of treaties while Obama is simply brazenly violating "international law."
A controversial "buy-American" provision in the bill would mostly bar foreign steel and iron from the infrastructure projects funded by the stimulus. Critics charge that this provision constitutes protectionism and could violate existing WTO agreements.
Meanwhile, the Senate's version of the bill is nearing $900 billion.
29 January 2009
It's Not What Bush Did, It's Who He Did It To
From todays Foreign Policy Morning Brief:
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4 comments:
I'm thinking that ODS (Obama Derangement Syndrome) is exhibited by those who continuously point out that Obama does all the same things as Bush but doesn't get blamed for it by the Media and the Left. :-)
Bret,
Conceded, but what would you call the syndrome then since "what's good for the goose should be good for the gander" is too long and ungainly ;-).
It's not geese, it's donkeys and elephants. Journalists are almost exclusively donkeys so expecting the donkeys to hold one of their own to the same standards as elephants, in the face of overwhelming evidence that that's not going to happen, would qualify as derangement in my book.
This touches on a subject I have been meaning to write about, which is the view of law by the conservatives and the left / tranzis.
The tranzis won't hold Obama to account because he is treating law in the same way — a structure to be used to restrict others but ignored when inconvenient. After all, isn't this exactly how the EUlite treat their treaty obligation? Pious rhetoric with flagrant cheating? Bush's failure is that he had enough respect for law to be honest about it and the tranzis cannot forgive him for that.
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