Ready, Fire, Aim
Hey! Come on... lighten up. It's only a $1 trillion
Before we go spend a $1 trillion wouldn't it be nice to know that it would create at least one job. Great to see Thomas Bartholt from the Joint Committee on Taxation has such a good grasp of the impact of the proposed stimulus. Let's get serious media training for this guy.
Okay. So the youtube video was a little bit clipped off on Bartolt's audio. Did he actually say "In short, I can't" in response to Representative Camp? It sort of sounded like he said "In short, I can". So I went into instant replay mode and listened the audio a dozen times and still could not make the call. In the undaunted pursuit of truth I wanted to know what he actually said.
So I went to the orginal video footage thanks to c-span 3 to check it out. Was there a republican or media distortion/manipulation/ scandal in the offing? Were his quotes taken out of context? Not that any one of you want to watch the entire 2 hours and 40 minutes of the testimony but embedded below from c-span 3 is the full testimorny and just about 1 hour and 4 minutes into it ( like anyone else is really going to watch this) you can witness the actually exchange and more clearly see for yourself. Bartolt did in fact said: "In short, I can't".
Yikes!!! Congressman Rangle did respond that it is not Bartolt's job to make guesstimates but that intuitively the stimulus would have a big impact. I love Charlie. He's my guy. But Batholt? it would be nice to have people giving congressional testimony seem less like they're trying out for Curly in the new Three Stooges movie. I've never seen such a facial expression before! I am practicing in front of the mirror to master Bartolt's shrug. It's priceless.
Just wanted you I am actually watching out for all of you. Gotta keep these guys honest!
For further info see:
http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/news.asp?formmode=release&id=846