I will be the first to tell you I am ambivalent about the Stimulus Package. I think it is necessary as we have debted ourselves into a new depression, and since the government exists to keep society safe, preventing economic crashes is pretty important. However, I think there are things in this bill which do not really contribute to economic bailout. As I am reading all 700 pages of bill, I am wondering how $450,000,000 for space exploration immediately stimulates the economy. I am all for funding space exploration, but why is it in this bill?
So the bill isn't perfect certainly, but necessary, and I believe will do more good than harm. It is after all a compromise. Negotiation between the parties altered the bill to bring both sides of the American political spectrum together to vote on this bill. There's only one problem:
Having negotiated a compromise, the Republicans then backed out. "We won't vote for it until you change this. Ok, that's better. But no, we won't vote for it." Apparently the word compromise is lost on them. But no, they felt strongly, and opposed it vehemently. Indeed, the three Republicans who did vote for it are already getting flak from the party- the party intends to find people to oppose them in the primaries. That's how strongly they feel on this issue. There's only one problem:
All their opposition was for naught. Even with negligible Republican support, the bill has passed, and let's face it- in record time. From the right I am hearing what a defeat for the President this was because he couldn't sway the Republican party, but to me it seems the Republican opposition has only really proved a couple of things; Republican obsolescence and Republican impotence. Their vicious opposition resulted in nothing, and all polls show Americans mostly in support of this bill. We may not all be completely happy with it, but an 80% solution now is better than a 100% solution at some indeterminate time in the future, when its too late to matter. Apparently the Republicans Congress don't agree, leaving the rest of Congress to say, "so what?"
If the Republicans couldn't stop or even really slow something this contentious, they likely won't be more than a low speedbump for ANYTHING Congress or the White House wants in the next two years at least. That is the Bush legacy for the Republican Party- America has to fail for them to have a chance of regaining ground in the Government. With that in mind, how does one drum up support for the party? What does this mean to the party? What does this mean to America?
The President has to succeed, or we all suffer. If he fails, and we are suffering it seems our only recourse is to re-elect the people who got us into this mess in the first place. That's how Revolutions begin.
So, I am hoping this package works, and I am hoping the people who opposed it hope it works too. Either way, Congressional Republicans did prove a point- they are now irrelevant. Not the point I think they were trying to make. They need to come down off their high horse if they plan to stay relevant, and make themselves part of the solution. The party lost and lost badly- regroup and stop trying to earn your own obsolescence.
2 comments:
Dan, I am soooo disappointed to hear you regurgitating the far-left liberal talking points on this issue. I know you are so much smarter and could come up with much better analysis on this bill and the state of the Republican Party if you had not drunk a gallon of that lefty mind-altering Kool Aid moments before writing this piece.
This diatribe you posted doesn't even sound like your own words. In any event, you need more fiber in your political diet... go for a little more balance in your research, my friend. You're leaning so far to the left on this issue, I'm afraid your spine will develop a crick and you will never be able to overcome the injury.
Maybe living in Oregon with all those fruits and nuts is affecting your equilibrium. Perhaps you need some steamed vegetables and a good bloody steak?
I can't wait until I get some time to respond to several of your assertions, but it will be a few days. I'll be back. :-)
Deborah
Sorry- I call it like I see it, and I kind of wish more people were pointing out to the Republicans how hard they are arguing for their own extinction. I don't really argue the veracity of this bill- only the necessity. I honestly don't know if this will work. The point of my article is the Republicans are hurting themselves. I may provide analysis of the bill itself when I am done reading it. Unlike the majority of people (including congress) discussing this bill, I am actually reading it. Again- in what I have read so far I have issues.
I am not sure how the fact that the Republicans were voted out of power, approached by the new President, and act as if they have the right to make any comment about the economy when they held the reigns on this sled as it went over the cliff is pandering to Lefty opinion. Which one of those statements is not an objective fact? Indeed, most of the leftist propaganda I see is bashing the President for backing off on stem cell executive orders, not closing Guantanamo fast enough, and allowing tax cuts into the Stimulus.
I don't research? Au contraire- pardon me however for dismissing "facts" given by economists following the Greenspan model after Greenspan testified before congress that his hands-off economic policies were based on a flawed perception of reality ( http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/business/economy/24panel.html?scp=2&sq=greenspan&st=cse ). When the man who used to hang out with Ayn Rand says of our free market: “This modern risk-management paradigm held sway for decades,” he said. “The whole intellectual edifice, however, collapsed in the summer of last year.” Obviously, we need to try something else. I don't know economics, but I know organizations. No organized system can survive without rules. Nature has rules, math has rules, society has rules- how can we assume a system so complex as the American economy can exist without rules? Where's the logic in that? That's not liberalism, that's pragmatism, particularly since we have seen it doesn't work.
My FEAR is the Republicans will allow America to become a single party system. They need to make concessions to stay relevant on order to KEEP the Democrats from seizing total control. Pounding their little fists over something that really needs to be done when they could have actively participated in making it a better bill is selfish, and a betrayal to anyone who counted on them to keep Liberals from steamrolling the country.
If you can point out for me what the Republicans gained in this fiasco, I would love to see it. Looks to me like the mouse thinking they won because the cat has indigestion.
Post a Comment