Are you ready students? Your kind teacher has decided to lecture you on how stupid you are. It's clear you've been listening to those nasty bloggers who make things up, so Teacher McCaskill is going to give you a pop quiz.
1. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is commonly referred to by which of the following nicknames?
a) Bailout
b) Appropriations
c) Stimulus
d) Budget
Great question! The correct answer is c), as defined by Washington (Of course, the answer is actually given down at the bottom at question 10). $800 billion in spending is a STIMULUS, because politicians don't want to admit they are "bailing out" the economy. If this truly is stimulus, how come so much of it is spent in 2010, 2011, and 2012, and seems to reward Democrats who gave money to elect other Democrats?
Also, has the Teacher or her staff bothered to read the bill yet? How does McCaskill know what's in it?
2. True or False: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
contained an earmark for a project that would build a light rail system
from Disneyland to Las Vegas.
a) True
b) False
McCaskill says this is false. It's a game. See, the funds weren't specifically marked for the light rail system. The were added to a discretionary budget. Who put that $8 billion in? Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, who wants a light rail system from LA to LV. Don't my word for it.
During final stimulus talks, as Obama worked with congressional negotiators to pare popular provisions, including a middle-class tax cut, one notable measure was added: $8 billion to fund high-speed rail. The culprit was Reid, who will face reelection in 2010 and has championed a bullet train between Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
Of course, Rahm Emmanuel is taking the heat for this one. The Democrats have learned that it's painful to have a Majority Leader lose their seat (Daschle), and are putting all stops behind it not happening again. Here's the truth. $8 billion made its way into the STIMULUS from a meeting of Senate Democrats, led by Harry Reid, who champions the light rail as a good investment.
3. What is the percentage of American families who will receive a tax cut under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act?
a) 15%
b) 25%
c) 72%
d) 95%
Claire says d). Keep this in mind when Democrats talk about tax cuts. One - Over 40% of the country pays no income tax (the tax the federal government plays with). Right from the beginning, 40% can't have tax cuts because they pay no taxes. Those are tax credits, otherwise known as cash, which are no different than welfare payments. Second, throwing in a bunch of "tax cuts" when you can't pay for them leads to things like Inflation increases and long-term debt. The massive spending pushed in the last sixty days is a tax on all of us, but when someone gives you a $1, but you have to pay $10 more, they get to say they gave you a tax cut.
4. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides which of the following tax cuts or benefits?
a) $8,000 tax credit for first time homebuyers
b) $250 to Social Security recipients and disabled veterans
c) $2,500 in tax relief for the American Opportunity Tax Credit for higher education to 74,000 families
d) $400 in tax refunds for individuals and $800 for married couples through The Making Work Pay Tax Credit
e) All of the above
e) All of the above
5. True or False: The Fiscal Year 2010 Budget included over 8,000 earmarks.
a) True
b) False
True. There were over 8,500 earmarks. It's interesting to see McCaskill champion no earmarks, but vote for earmarks by another name. We see the answer in the next question. The 2010 budget was Obama's. The 2009 Omnibus was under Bush's watch. You can be sure that if McCaskill was the deciding vote, earmarks would not be an issue.
6. Of the 5 spending and budget bills passed in the Senate in the last 6 months, which did Senator McCaskill not support due to the increase in spending and high number of earmarks?
a) Troubled Asset Relief Program
b) Omnibus Appropriations Bill
c) The Budget for Fiscal Year 2010
d) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
In another one of her "principled" moderate stands, Senator McCaskill voted against the $400 billion Omnibus bill. Of course, it was convenient that six Republican Senators, including retiring REpublican Senator Kit Bond, voted for the bill, which made McCaskill's vote a throw-away. That would mean thta Sentaor McCaskill vote for almost $5 Trillion in spending, but cast a meaningless protest vote against $400 billion that was held over from last year to send to a compliant president.
7. The Troubled Asset Relief Program is commonly referred to by which of the following nicknames?
a) Budget
b) Appropriations
c) Bailout
d) Stimulus
Bailout. Like the Auto companies, AIG, Bear Stearns, and now Insurance companies.
8.The investment made to stabilize the financial markets
through the Troubled Asset Relief Program would require financial
institutions who took advantage of the program, like AIG, Morgan
Stanley, and Bank of America, to do what?
a) The financial institutions would all have to pay back the investment with interest.
b) The banks would have to invest the money in the stock market.
c) The bank executives would have to start doing community service.
d) The CEOs would have to testify before a congressional hearing.
The answer is "a." Of course, now that some banks are trying to repay the money with interest, the Obama administration is preventing them for doing so. That would have been an interesting question. When will banks be allowed to pay back TARP money? Answer: When Obama is finished with them.
"Fast forward to today, and that same bank is begging to give the money back. The chairman offers to write a check, now, with interest. He's been sitting on the cash for months and has felt the dead hand of government threatening to run his business and dictate pay scales. He sees the writing on the wall and he wants out. But the Obama team says no, since unlike the smaller banks that gave their TARP money back, this bank is far more prominent. The bank has also been threatened with "adverse" consequences if its chairman persists. That's politics talking, not economics."
McCaskill is pretending the bailouts are about money that we'll see again. If that is the case, why is it that banks that want to pay us back now, can't? Any comment, Senator?
9. True or False: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act contained an earmark to protect a wetlands mouse in San Francisco.
a) True
b) False
This is yet another play on words. There were no "earmarks" in the stimulus, but there was money sent in block grants and to departments who spend the money at their own discretion. That includes $50,000,000 for a wetlands project that is cited by the EPA as harmful to the habitat of the wetlands mouse.
It's like giving money to a teenager for fast food, and then claiming you didn't authorize them to spend the money at Hardee's. They could have spent it at McDonald's or Burger King.
10. True or False: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,
also known as the Stimulus, contained billions of dollars in earmarks.
a) True
b) False
It's too bad this question gives away the answer to the first question. Also, there's that problem of being another one of those bold-faced lies. There were no "earmarks" in the bill. That's because the way Reid and Pelosi defined the stimulus, congresspeople didn't get to add earmarks. The bill was written in secret, and published 14 hours before it was voted on. Over $800 billion dollars spent without anyone reading it, but no earmarks? The money was just "earmarked" for states to spend as they wish. So this question is technically true. It wasn't billions of dollars in earmarks. It was hundreds of billions of dollars in funds that will be used in the exact same manner as earmarks.
Why is Claire posting this quiz? It's because she's getting hammered at her Kitchen Table Talks. People are angry, and speaking up, and so Claire posts this load of bupkus up as a way of trying to calm us down. Ultimately it shows us just little she thinks of the public.
Don't expect to see a breakdown like this in the local papers. This kind of analysis can only be seen the the blogs.
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