If President Obama’s economic stimulus plan was all that, he probably wouldn’t want Republican support. If it worked, he could say it was a Democrat idea and the country was better off for it. But Obama made the rounds, trying to get GOP to get onboard because should it fail, he would make sure the blame was shared.
President Barack Obama got the $825 (or $1.2 trillion over a decade) stimulus package through the House of Representatives but the 244 to 188 vote is a hollow victory indeed. Without a single Republican voting for the bill, his high-profile visit to Capitol Hill on Tuesday came to exactly naught – at least on the House side.
The Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill badly miscalculated by treating the bill as a victor’s charter. Not that it seemed to bother Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, who grinned from ear to ear as she announced the result of the vote.
Obama said yesterday he did not feel he had ownership of the bill. Be that as it may, if it goes through the Senate in similar fashion and is signed into law then – the efforts of Pelosio and Senator Harry Reid notwithstanding – it will be his and his alone.
I’m sure how long before this new-found Republican backbone begins to dissolve, but the longer it stays intact, the better for the base and the nation.
And for those bitching that Republicans aren’t rallying around the president, all I can ask them is “How does it feel?”
That “thing” is so laden with pork and junk that the GOP will soon fall in line. It’s the Washington addiction.
I wrote my 2 Republican representatives and thanked them for voting no. A little encouragement when they do the right thing can go a long way.
Nice to see them actually fight for something. How long until they crumble though?
Ah, if only they could have had this kind of solidarity when they were in power.
I miss Newt.