Feingold Hawks Stimulus Bill

In an interview with Mike Gousha on Upfront this weekend, Russ Feingold spews the party line on the so-called stimulus bill.

MIKE GOUSHA: How confident are you that this is going to do the job, that this is going to jump-start the U.S. economy?

RUSS FEINGOLD: Well, of course, nobody knows for sure. This is a terrible thing to have to even consider legislation where you can't pay for it because the economy is in such terrible shape. The federal reserve has done what it can do, and we have to take this plunge in order to see if we can get the economy at least stabilized and hopefully move in the right direction, so nobody knows for sure.

But I believe our new president is a very capable man who has done what he can to talk to every economist and expert he knows. And it's his judgment that we need to do something like this.

And I feel that the American people gave him a mandate to move forward.

This bill has not been jammed through. We are looking at it in a thoughtful way and there are disagreements, but in the end, this is the judgment of our new president that this is what we have to do. And I lean heavily toward supporting him in his judgment that this is the best thing we can do to prevent further disaster and hopefully get the country moving in the right direction.

What a load!

We have no choice but to "take this plunge."

That's absolute drivel.

Obama has talked to every economist and expert he knows.

If that's true, obviously Obama doesn't know many economists and experts.

Feingold's assertion that this bill hasn't been jammed through is absolutely ridiculous. Ridiculous!

He keeps going back to the "judgment of our new president." He said "judgment" three times in just a few sentences.

In effect, Feingold is telling Wisconsinites to just trust Obama, community organizer, with our economy because in Feingold's view, Obama has good judgment.

Feingold is also using the same scare tactics that the Obama and the Dems have been pushing recently. It's all about fear.

CATASTROPHE! WE MAY NEVER RECOVER! WE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO TAKE THE PLUNGE!

Of course, he makes no promises about getting results.

This is not the same Feingold who voted against the PATRIOT Act.

Gousha asked Feingold if what he's being told privately about the economic outlook is frightening.

FEINGOLD: Well, it is frightening... It's clear that things are very difficult and are still getting worse, so there isn't any sort of big secret message we're getting.

But the direction is so clear and it's so negative that it's obvious we have to do something dramatic, something that goes against my very nature to vote for something like this that involves making the deficit so much bigger.

This is the hardest thing to do, but I think it's the responsible thing to do based on what we're being told privately and based on what we all see publicly as well.

Poor Russ! This goes against his nature, but he has to vote for it. The irresponsible is the only responsible thing to do.

Right.

Gousha brings up the fact that Feingold voted against the $700 billion Wall Street bailout. Feingold tries to justify his positions.

FEINGOLD: Yeah, I couldn't vote for the bailout for Wall Street because unlike this legislation it really wasn't seriously vetted at all. It didn't attempt to address the problem for homeowners in bankruptcy courts. It didn't try to eliminate the abuses of things like leveraging and derivatives. And it gave such enormous unregulated power to the secretary of the treasury that it was a really very troubling piece of legislation. There was no serious effort. It was just pure having a gun to our head. That's why I have not been supportive of it. I don't believe in it and I hope that whatever the president comes in with now has to have the regulations and the rules so that we don't have this happen again. That is my bottom line for any, voting for any further TARP, and I've not yet come to the point where I see a proposal that meets that standard.

I can't believe what this guy is trying to sell to the public.

He says the Wall Street bailout wasn't seriously vetted, yet we're supposed to buy that the trillion dollar so-called stimulus bill has been.

We know that's idiotic. All the pork in it attests to that.

Bottom line: Feingold is just another Dem mouthpiece, towing the party line. Feingold is a sell-out.