A message from the Transporation Secretary to Senator John Kyl (R-Arizona)

The White House fights back via the Transporation Secretary, as Senator Kyl expresses his point-of-view with respect to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Kyl "publicly questioned whether the stimulus is working and stated that he wants to cancel projects that aren't presently under way," LaHood wrote Brewer. "If you prefer to forfeit the money we are making available to your state, as Senator Kyl suggests, please let me know." source: AP News - My Way

[snip]

On the Net:

Kyl column on stimulus: http://kyl.senate.gov/record.cfm?id315337

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov

Video: Sen. Kyl on how to tell folks they need the same kind of health care system they already have without them knowing it

From Think Progress:

KYL: We of course believe the free market can provide the incentives for everyone to be covered with good insurance but to talk about it in terms of the free market is not to be persuasive with the people we have to convince. We have to describe this in terms that people really do understand and care about and that is patient-centered. They don’t want to get between themselves and their doctor. They don’t want to have long waiting lines, possibly even denying care that they feel is important. They don’t want to lose insurance they like already. Those are all things we need to address in our alternatives and I think that’s the best way for us to talk about it rather than talking about the free market.

Watch it:

Of course, Kyl is pretending that for-profit insurance companies don’t already stand in between patients and doctors.

Indiana's own Democratic Senator Evan Bayh faces off with Republican John Kyl of Arizona on CNN

Going to war in Iraq, the poor getting poorer, wages for working families stagnating, while the rich got richer. Who is to blame? Not President Bush according to Senator John Kyl of Arizona.

KYL: George Bush doesn’t run the economy. He didn’t create this problem. His tax rates being lower actually helped for six years create the second largest economic growth that we’ve had in the history of the country in recent years. … The President doesn’t run the economy.

Watch it:

The current financial crisis is a direct result of Bush running the economy. Bush’s massive tax cuts for the wealthy have contributed to record inequality and historic deficits and debt. The administration gutted several “specific regulations” of the financial system, helping plunge Wall Street into the mess it is facing today.

Embracing a common conservative talking point, Kyl tried to lay all the blame for the crisis on the lack of regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As Alan Greenspan, SEC Chairman Chris Cox, and former Treasury Secretary John Snow — along with the Wonk Room — have stated, this is false.

CAP’s Scott Lilly noted that for the past eight years “we have papered over the fact that American consumers do not have the purchasing power to sustain economic expansion.” Why? Bush’s policies have done nothing for the majority of Americans.

I will say that President Bush, based upon his economic ideology which supports the 'trickle-down' theory, and further being Chairman of the Board of the party that touts itself as being the Champion of big business, could not possibly have affected the economy in a way that was good for the American worker in terms of higher wages and better benefits.

The President put into play another exercise (the first one was under Reagan) the grand experiment of the 'trickle-down' theory. That makes him responsible, as well as culpable for the state of the economy today.