Thus far it appears the Republicans are getting the better of the stimulus bill debate. The Congressional GOPers are both nit-picking it on details and attacking its basic premises, contending as always that spending is bad and tax cuts are good. Even though a tax cut never built a highway or a bridge, if President Obama is not able to recapture the initiative in this debate the Republicans just may succeed in gumming up the works and stymieing Obama on his biggest initiative right out of the gate. They would like nothing better than to do this, for they would seem powerful and he crippled and ineffective for a long time to come.
For his part, Obama, due to his continuing efforts to woo Republicans and foster bipartisanship, cannot use his strongest argument, the one that was so effective in the campaign. If he wanted to skewer the naysayers all he would need do would be to remind Americans that these same people and their discredited philosophies were what got us into this mess in the first place. We have followed their prescription of cutting taxes and domestic programs while deregulating business and fighting unnecessary wars and have achieved the customary results. Anyone who would turn the economy back over to them after the last eight years must have a short memory indeed.
But he can't really talk like that if he wants to preserve any chance of bipartisanship going forward. They know this, and thus their cooperation will come with a higher price than it would otherwise bring. So they find fault with the specifics they can. Obama said today in an interview with NBC anchor Brian Williams that the total of all the spending components that anyone has objected to so far accounts for less than one percent of the package. But it is the continuing dynamic of them finding fault that is the primary story.
Obama needs to turn that around with an attention-getting part of the bill that will get people excited. Computerizing medical records, as smart and needed as that is, does not cross the excitement threshold. Neither does weatherstripping and insulating federal buildings. People want to see tangible evidence of activity, and that usually means construction, a lot of it. Obama will make a good splash tomorrow by announcing a cap on salaries for companies that have taken federal bailout money. That will play well because people are extremely angry at fat cats who've fed at the public trough and kept on with business as usual. But he should also find a visionary part of the stimulus to stand as his poster child for the public relations war now underway. Franklin Roosevelt did that with the Grand Coulee Dam and Jack Kennedy with the space program in their days, for instance. Obama would be wise to target from among the projects in his bill a 21st century equivalent.
One can hardly fault the Republicans for pushing for what they believe in, nor Obama for trying to change the partisan climate. But at some point something will have to give. Either the Republicans will need to offer meaningful cooperation or Obama will have to order the Democratic majorities in Congress to start steamrolling them and let bipartisanship be damned. If their price for partnership is a continuance of Bushism that should be a price Obama refuses to pay. That is not what a majority of nine million Americans voted for three months ago. If the president crosses the aisle too far that gurgling sound you hear will be the sound of change you can believe in sinking into the swamp of disillusionment. He should never forget one thing; he and his party won the election, and they won it big.
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