“Gov. Jindal should know better than anyone that funding for studying and monitoring natural disasters is vital to public safety, ” Louisiana Democratic Party spokesman Scott Jordan said.

Others noted that only a fraction of the $140 million Jindal mentioned was actually being spent on volcano monitoring. The rest was going to other projects, including upgrades to the U.S. Geological Survey stream gauges in Louisiana and other states that will provide emergency planners with better real-time information about storm surge heights as hurricanes hit the coast.

Hasquet said only $7.5 million of the $140 million going to the Geological Survey will be spent on upgrading the equipment used to monitor Mount Redoubt and 32 other active volcanoes in Alaska.

So, yeah, a good chunk of that money is going to help Louisiana monitor water levels in the event of flooding and storm surges from hurricanes.

But wait, it gets better.  Jinda’s spokeman, Kyle Plotkin, tried to defend the governor’s comments in an email.

“Governor Jindal referenced the money spent on volcano monitoring to highlight the fact that a bill that was supposed to be about creating jobs ended up being a package that seemed to spend just for the sake of spending, ” Plotkin said in an e-mail response to questions.

Except that that’s not what he said in his address last month:

“While some of the projects in the bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes … $140 million for something called “volcano monitoring.” Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.”

The governor and his people seem to forget that we can look up exactly what he said and when he said it.   Keep on truckin’, Bobby!  Someday you might actually say something that makes sense!

The plan:

1. Makes a $634 billion down payment on fixing health care that will go a long way toward paying for a more efficient, more affordable health care system that covers every single American.³
2. Reduces taxes for 95% of working Americans. And if your family makes less than $250,000, your taxes won’t go up one dime.⁴
3. Invests more than $100 billion in clean energy technology, creating millions of green jobs that can never be outsourced.⁵
4. Brings our troops home from Iraq on a firm timetable, finally bringing the war to a close—and freeing up almost ten billion dollars a month for domestic priorities.⁶
5. Reverses growing income inequality. The plan lets the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire and focuses on strengthening the middle class.⁷
6. Closes multi-billion-dollar tax loopholes for big oil companies. ⁸
7. Increases grants to help families pay for college—the largest increase ever.⁹
8. Halves the deficit by 2013. President Obama inherited a legacy of huge deficits and an economy in shambles, but his plan brings the deficit under control as soon as the economy begins to recover.¹⁰
9. Dramatically increases funding for the SEC and the CFTC—the agencies that police Wall Street.¹¹
10. Tells it straight. For years, budgets have used accounting tricks to hide the real costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush tax cuts, and too many other programs. Obama’s budget gets rid of the smokescreens and lays out what America’s priorities are, what they cost, and how we’re going to pay for them.¹²

This is the change we voted for. President Obama has done his part, now we need to do ours.

Can you pass this on to your personal network and then click here to let us know how many people you told, so we can track our impact together:

http://pol.moveon.org/budget10/?id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=1

Thanks for all you do.

–Daniel, Tanya, Peter, Justin and the rest of the team

P.S. Turns out there are way more than 10 amazing things in Obama’s budget and we couldn’t resist sharing just a few more.

1. Stops unnecessary government subsidies to big banks, health insurance companies and big agribusinesses.^13,14,15
2. Expands access to early childhood education and improves schools by investing in programs that make sure every child has a qualified, strong teacher.¹⁶
3. Negotiates for better prescription drug prices using Medicaid’s tremendous bargaining power.¹⁷
4. Expands access to family planning for low-income women.¹⁸
5. Caps the pollution that causes global warming, and makes polluters pay to support clean energy innovation.¹⁹

Sources:

1. “Climate of Change,” The New York Times, February 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/opinion/27krugman.html?em

2. “Obama Calls His Budget Sweeping, Needed Change,” The New York Times, February 28, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51201&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=2

3. “Obama Offers Broad Plan to Revamp Health Care,” The New York Times, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51202&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=3

4. “Obama Expects Fight Over $3.55 Trillion Budget Plan,” Bloomberg News, February 28, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51203&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=4

5. “Energy Budget Is Sunlight After Eight Years of Darkness,” Center for American Progress, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51204&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=5

6. “The Economic Cost of War in Iraq and Afghanistan,” The New York Times, March 1, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/weekinreview/01glanz.html

7. “Tax Cuts,” The New York Times, February 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/washington/27web-tax.html

8. “Energy Budget Is Sunlight After Eight Years of Darkness,” Center for American Progress, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51204&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=6

9. “Student Loans,” The New York Times, February 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/washington/27web-edu.html

10. “Obama unveils budget blueprint,” CNN, February 26, 2009
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/26/budget/

11. “Obama budget would boost SEC, CFTC, FBI,” Reuters, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51205&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=7

12. “Obama’s budget,” Los Angeles Times, February 27, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51206&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=8

13. “Student Loans,” The New York Times, February 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/washington/27web-edu.html

14. “Health Insurance Stocks Dive on Medicare Advantage Cuts,” The Wall Street Journal, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51207&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=9

15. “Agriculture,” The New York Times, February 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/washington/27web-agri.html

16. “Investing Wisely in Our Children,” Center for American Progress, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51208&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=10

17. “Obama Offers Broad Plan to Revamp Health Care,” The New York Times, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51202&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=11

18. “Obama Offers Broad Plan to Revamp Health Care,” The New York Times, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51202&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=12

19. “Setting ‘Green’ Goals,” The New York Times, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51209&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=13

Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc shares plummeted for a sixth straight day on Friday, hammered by fears that the U.S. government could nationalize the banks, wiping out shareholders.

Bank of America shares were down 19 percent to $3.20 in early trading, their lowest level since 1984, while Citigroup shares fell 20 percent to $2, their lowest price since the early 1990s.

Both stocks have lost more than 90 percent of their value in the last year.

“It’s a clear sign that the markets are expecting a high probability of them being nationalized,” said Mike Holland, founder of Holland & Co. “The clear expectation is that shareholders would effectively be wiped out.”

The KBW Financial index was down 6.8 percent to 20.42, with Wells Fargo Co shares down 11.6 percent to $10.60, and J.P.Morgan Chase & Co shares down 6 percent to $19.39.

I’m not really sure what I think about this. On the one hand, temporarily nationalizing the banks might not be such a bad idea, but on the other hand, are there really any companies that are “too big to fail?”  Not suggesting that these particular companies are about to fail, of course, but this article did bring that question to mind.

Not that I don’t think that race or other defining characteristic isn’t important,  but rather that Dr. King’s dream will have finally been acheived, and the content of the character will trump the color of the skin.  And yes, I do think to a certain degree that happened here with President Obama.  But the second African-American President shouldn’t be a big deal, y’know?

What else?

Hmm… President Obama is already off to a very good start with the executive orders he has already signed to close the prison at Guantanamo and elsewhere, to prohibit the use of torture, to re-fund reproductive planning that includes a comprehensive group of tools including abstinence and abortion, ethics rules, presidential records.

But the economic recovery plan has way too many tax cuts, and not enough in infrastructure building.  If President Obama did tell Republicans “I Won,” at that meeting on Thursday, then what the hell is he doing with all these ridiculous tax cuts?  As we know, tax cuts don’t work, especially during a serious recession.  People are not guaranteed to spend the tax money, and people in the lowest tax brackets don’t pay taxes anyway, so a tax cut to people who don’t already pay taxes is kind of useless.  Not only that, but we are burdening future generations with debt to pay back for these tax cuts.

Infrastructure, on the other hand, is investment in our future.  Roads, bridges, public transit, schools, colleges, and other public works are real things that benefit real people.  If we have to take on more debt, then let us take on more debt that actually helps improve the economy and the efficiency and safety of our current infrastructure.  We don’t need tax cuts right now – we need jobs and building stuff.

Take Action

Contact your representative and senators and tell them you want more infrastructure investment and fewer tax cuts in this recovery stimulus package.

TAKE ACTION: Call your Representative and Senators.  For you San Franicsco peeps, Nancy Pelosi’s phone number is 202-225-4965, and Senators Barbara Boxer 202-224-3553 and Dianne Feinstein 202-224-3841

Current Mood:  angry

“I was angry,” Wurzelbacher told conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Tuesday. “In fact, I wanted to get off the bus after I talked to him.”

Wurzelbacher said some of McCain’s answers stunned him, but he didn’t say exactly what set him off, hinting that would be in his book, which is due this month.

Now really, Sam, you’re angry because your man John supported a bailout?  Poor you, so much suffering.

Of course, the bailout is one of the worst ideas to hit Congress in a long time, as it’s just the Bush Administration stealing more of the country’s treasury and giving it to his and Paulson’s friends in the banking industry.  And Pelosi just went right along with it.  And Obama, for that matter.

Just because we got the president we wanted this go-round, doesn’t mean we can relax our vigilance.  It’s when we stop paying attention that the politicians steal us blind.  We have to keep watching – they are our servants, and we have to let them know it.