The problem for Olympia: How to pack a generous helping of pork for Jock's company into the package without leaving her fingerprints on it.

Ha Ha, good one. Still too much spending. Majority of funds will be going to west coast.

This is pure politics at it's best... or worst! The true trickle-down benefits to the average citizen will be minimal and our children and grand children will be scratching their heads ( and cursing us) as they pay for it. The pols have arrived at an arbitrary number, to borrow (from whom and at what rate?...), or, worse, run the printing presses (can you spell i-n-f-l-a-t-i-o-n ?).

Maine's two senators are "in the crosshairs" of this stimulus debate ,and as Republicrats,have talked personally with the President only because they are # 59 and # 60 of the needed 60 votes . If they were voting party-line, you would hear nothing of them or Maine ,as always. In a headline article Friday, it was said that Maine MAY receive up to 1 billion of the 900 billion proposed monies.

That is a very tiny part, yet Maine voters cling to the idea that we have solid representation in Washington and send these two back every 6 years.

Is it for the novelty of having two women senators ?

_BDN_: there is no justifiable reason why you cannot embed contextually-based legislative links (H.R.1) within articles:

http://tinyurl.com/dxqt79

It is a touch of irony that once the cliche ' As Maine goes so goes the Nation '

* The genesis, of course, was that Maine had such poor transport venues that [they] voted early--and thus

Today - two senators from Maine-- with leanings far more akin to Marx than Jefferson -- displayed their true liberal affiliation and subsequently cast the deciding votes on what will forever change the culture of America.

''Government cannot give you one thing it has not taken from someone else''

>Thomas Jefferson

Very disappointing that our Senators have voted with special interests on a budget that not even the Congressional Budget Office believes will create jobs. One can only shake his head. A special Interest boon-doggle that will have no permanent effect other than high inflation and national discord. Look forward to very long gas lines as the dollar becomes weaker. I like your Jefferson quote Ceeblue.

The following quote has been atributed to Alexander Tytler:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.

John McCain's economic adviser, Mark Zandi, does economic analysis for Moody's. Here is a chart from one of his recent studies that gives data -- not ideology or party line -- on how various types of government spending impacts economic growth.

I can't copy the chart, so here's the data. On the left is the type of spending; on the right is the amount of economic stimulus for each $1 spent.

food stamps ...........................................................$1.73

Extending unemployment insurance....................... 1.64

Infrastructure............................................................1.59

aid to states..............................................................1.36

payroll tax holiday.....................................................1.29

refundable tax rebate...............................................1.26

across the board tax cut..........................................1.03

nonrefundable tax rebate.........................................1.02

extending AMT patch................................................0.48

making dividend & capital gains tax cuts perm.........0.37

corporate tax cut......................................................0.30

making Bush tax cuts permanent.............................0.29

accelerated depreciation..........................................0.27

Zandi said that any return per $1 spent of less than $1.25 had a negative impact.

Please re-examine your thoughts and google Moody's analyses. The website is http://www.economy.com/mark-zandi/default.asp.

This chart was presented in Congressional testimony and doesn't appear in this form on this page.

I am aware of those numbers. They are everywhere. In my Opinion this is foolishness. That means to get out of this recession the best way would be to hand each man woman and child $3,000 dollars in food stamps. Everyone start eating!!. We'll eat our way out of this recession! But the problem with borrowing and printing money to fast is this. High inflation is always the result. Not sometimes in history has high infaltion resulted.... but always. It is as predicatable as snow in Caribou in January. If you cant believe that the what the partisan Democratic run Congressional Budget Office says and dozens of other economists...God help us. Because in this spending boondoggle we are laying the seeds of our own destruction. The only item in the plan...that makes any stimulus sense is the building and construction part...but that is only 6% of the total amount spent ... In Maine thats $316 million dollars. Thats the construction of only 1.75 Hollywood slot projects statewide over the next four years... All that construction is needed.... but it isnt going to be enough when inflation hits a minimum 20% as many say in the next 18-30 months. Remember Paul Volcker. He is an Obama economic advisor. He was the former Fed Chairman that intentionally induced a recession in the 80's years that caused massive unemployment it took a decade to get out of. These people are playing a game of economic chicken with your wallet and folks in Washington are doing what they do the worst at ,spending money. And we the people are allowing it.

-vichet: your points all salient --- and chilling; might be summarized as American apathy.

What will it take to rouse the citizenry ? ?

** May God help us in hour of need.

Barack Hussein Obama, most democrats and Maine Senators Collins and Snowe want a pork-filled "stimulus" package while the GOP wants something that-will-work...I hope Collins and Snowe realize they'll be held accountable when their so-called bipartisan compromise is recognized as nothing but the wasteful payback it is for the special interest groups which got him elected. God help America!

I think we need to send our so called leaders back to First Grade. I does not take more than First Grade math to know that you can't keep spending more than you have. This is a joke Collins and Snowe are only interested in their own political advancement and not the will of the people. If the Government wants to continue to spend our money, they should first prove to us that they can spend the money they already have responsibly. If you are sick of this and want to help change things go to www.PaintMaineRed.ning.com

Yes you have two female senators just like California. Is Maine just like California? Does Maine care about this country? Apparently not or they would not have Senators who vote the Democratic Party line while calling themselves Republicans. A shame that politics overides reason. History show that this approach does not work. If you can't pay your light bill would you go borrow money to buy a new car? Of course not. This bill is like buying that new car you can't make payments on and having your grandchildren on the note as co-signers. If you hate this country and want to see it fail then you will overload the ability of the taxpayers to pay for entitlement programs that we don't need. The programs are pork barrel projects to pay back the special interests that fund the democratic party. Wake up Maine, don't be another California, they are bankrupt.