President Obama is signaling that he will work with the Senate to cut some of the excess spending the House passed as part of the economic stimulus package.
Mr. Obama has one chance here. One chance. If the package fails and the recession deepens, many will get hurt further, including him.
Now the architect of the House bill was Congressman David Obey, a liberal Democrat from Wisconsin, who loaded up more than $800 billion in government spending, concentrating on union workers and the environment.
Obey worked closely with Speaker Nancy Pelosi to steer federal dollars into mass transit, health care and union jobs, including hundreds of thousands for the Service Employees International Union, a radical left outfit which donates heavily to the Democratic Party.
In short, it is clear that House Democrats used the economic stimulus bill to finance entitlements and social engineering projects, thereby angering free marketeers who want most of the tax dollars to flow directly into the private economy.
Of course, it is almost impossible for you, the American voter, to know what Obey and Pelosi were doing since the bill ran more than 600 pages. It has taken "The Factor" about a week to sort it all out.
But now it's on the table, and President Obama understands the House bill is far too risky and ideological to be passed. So we expect a compromise to be reached.
And we have this to say to Speaker Pelosi: Nice try, Madam.
And that's "The Memo."
Pinheads & Patriots
Here now, my favorite Super Bowl ad and the incredible back story.
Click here to watch the ads in "Pinheads & Patriots"!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, man. What's that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's my crystal ball.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like a snow globe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it's real. Here, watch. Free Doritos at the office today? I think that's a yes. Free Doritos!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will I finally get that big promotion?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Promotion? Not in your future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Now that ad was created by the Herbert brothers, two regular guys from Indiana who won $1 million for their creativity. They are patriots for making us laugh.
On the pinhead front, the worst, and I mean, the worst. I can only take 15 seconds of this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (SINGING): MacGruber! Making life-saving adventures out of household materials. MacGruber! There's only one cola he will pour into his mouth hole. MacGruber! Pepsi is the cola. MacGruber!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
For making us nauseous, the Pepsi people are pinheads. Ah, alliteration.
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