Journal Roblimo's Journal: A Defective Stimulus Bill, But No Republican Alternative 2
We're going to have a huge economic stimulus bill, full of wasteful items that may stimulate the economy and may not. Some of the funding baked into it -- for infrastructure, research and education -- will have long-term benefits for all of us. There's a bunch of pander-level tax cuts tossed in, too, presumably as a sop to Republicans who didn't vote for it, anyway, and couldn't be bothered coming up with a detailed counterproposal. I was hoping for some principled Republican opposition, not yammer about yet more tax cuts for the richies and a stupid attempt (that backfired) to make public employees' unions look nasty. But nooooo. Instead of acting sensible, Congressional Republicans decided to paint themselves even further into the right-wing corner than they already were.
I personally prefer not to have the same political party occupying the White House and dominating Congress. When you have opposition between the two, any action that gets taken is likely to have broad public support. When one party dominates both the legislative and executive branches, it can do whatever it wants, even write two decades' worth of dreamed-about social legislation into a financial stimulus bill.
Then again, the Republican Party has drifted so far into "Rush and farther right" territory that I half-expect it to start doctor-shopping so it can get a whole bunch of prescriptions for the institutional version of Oxycontin. We can call this "being true to Republican principles" or we can call it "falling into the hands of nuts." Either way, the Republican Party has drifted so far away from what most Americans want from their government that it might as well disband at the national level and concentrate on state and local politics.
The funny thing is, here in Florida, Obama and the Congressional Democrats are busy saving Republicans. The main purpose of the state Republican Party here is to protect our richest and greediest citizens' wallets, even if that means shutting down all programs that help poor people and ordinary workers, which is extra-nasty when so many workers are getting laid off and the poor are becoming poorer than ever. But Florida Republicans can get away with their despicable behavior because (TA! DA!) those evil Washington Democrats are going to pump billions worth of stimulus funds into the state.
Isn't that wonderful? Because of Obama and his crowd, our Republicans won't need to cut as much as they planned, and won't need to raise taxes on the Palm Beach bunch to keep Medicaid (marginally) solvent.
The only high-profile Florida Republican who isn't angry at Obama for saving Florida Republicans' butts is governor Charlie Crist, who has publically and literally embraced Obama. Crist apparently enjoys being in office, unlike the rest of the them. Who knows? He may even decide to give up the Governor schtick, with its two-term limit, and run for Senate, where you can stay in office for life.
Naturally, many of the wrong-wing... excuse me, I meant to type "right-wing" crowd here are howling mad at Crist, just as they are howling mad at anyone who doesn't agree with them about everything from (un)intelligent design to forbidding abortions for gun-carrying pregnant teenagers.
Nationally, Republican office-holders seem to be only slightly less crazy than the ones we have in Florida. This is too bad. I rather enjoy a two-party system where we have rational debates about different ways of running our government and end up with workable compromises that keep things cranking one way or another.
Maybe one day rational people will recapture the Republican Party. And maybe a new party will come along. I would be happy with either alternative, since I truly believe the U.S. is best served by having competitive politics instead of letting a bunch of one-notes run everything.
Also published at roblimo.com
Blind spot on your part? (Score:1)
Did you try googling "Republican Stimulus Alternative Bill"?
Just on the first page alone:
http://purplepeoplevote.com/2009/02/04/republican-senators-put-together-alternative-stimulus-package/ [purplepeoplevote.com]
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/01/28/house-republicans-push-counter-proposal-stimulus/ [foxnews.com]
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/03/stimulus/index.html [cnn.com]
http://rsc.tomprice.house.gov//UploadedFiles/Econ_Recovery_Act_Highlights_Jan_14_2009.pdf [house.gov]
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0142074920090203 [reuters.com]
http://www [marketwatch.com]