Bipartisanship DOA

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright February 14, 2009
All Rights Reserved.                    

       Reaching out to Republicans, President Barack Obama got a rude awakening to the ways of Washington, something he promised to change on the campaign trail.  Hoping for a bipartisan economic recovery bill, Barack got only three reluctant GOP votes in the U.S. Senate, where the vast majority of Republican senators rejected his prescription for recovery.  Were it not for Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Olympia Snow (R-Maine) Obama would have failed to get his 60 vote filibuster-proof majority.  With the economy in shambles, the GOP offered no solutions other than tax cuts, something, as Barack points out, that failed to deliver economic prosperity during President George W. Bush’s eight-year reign.  When voters spoke on Nov. 4, they repudiated GOP rule, handing the presidency to Barack and Congress bigger Democratic majorities.

            When it came to fashioning a recovery plan, you’d think the GOP would heed voters and go quietly along with Obama’s economic program.  Instead of support, the GOP condemned the sweeping $787 billion spending and tax cut plan as a budget-busting disaster.  Instead of giving the president the benefit of the doubt, Republican lawmakers condemned the plan as long on spending and short on stimulus.  “We’re taking an enormous risk, an enormous risk with other peoples’ money,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ken.).  “The president was right to call for a stimulus, but this misses the mark.  It’s full of waste, we have no assurance it will create jobs or revive the economy.  The only thing we know for sure is that it increase our debt,” mirroring the bitter opposition inside the Republican Party.  Barack’s recovery plan is the biggest in U.S. history.

            McConnell can’t point to GOP successes under Bush or suggest an alternative plan that has a good chance of getting through Congress.  Leading the charge against Barack’s plan is Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Barack’s vanquished opponent.  Since losing the election Nov. 4, McCain has shown only sour grapes, opposing practically everything promoted by Barack.  Voters were very clear Nov. 4 not only about the presidency but about Congress, rejecting the Bush-Cheney legacy.  McCain and his GOP colleagues voiced no opposition spending nearly $1 trillion on the Iraq War.  Now that Obama proposes spending at home, he’s suddenly labeled socialist.  McCain had no problems giving Bush a blank check on Iraq but rails against what he sees as lavish domestic spending.  Getting so little support from Republicans shows voters that they’re invested in Obama’s failure.

            Placing hopes on Obama’s failure slaps voters in the face, demonstrating more interest in saving the GOP than the economy.  Most economists agree that, while costly, Obama’s plan should filter into nearly all aspects of the economy, both short and long term.  “Millions and millions and millions of people will be helped, as they have lost their jobs and can’t put food on the table of their families,” said House Majority Leader Stenny Hoyer (D-Md.).  With the economy shedding 3.6 million jobs in the last year, Obama’s economists thought that tax cuts, though important, wouldn’t do enough to reverse the unemployment tsunami.  Shifting from Supply Side to Keynesian economics required the government to spend money on job creation.  McConnell and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) only see tax cuts as the real stimulus, rejecting Barack’s multi-pronged approach.

             Barack’s economic plan won almost no GOP support, not because it won’t work but precisely because they hope it fails.  Failure represents the shortest distance back to power in 2010.  “The bill that was about jobs, jobs, jobs has turned into a bill that’s about spending, spending, spending,” said Boehner, sticking to the bitter end to Supply Side Economics.  Boehner and others in his Party knows that tax cuts didn’t produce the booming economy or balanced budgets under Bush and certainly won’t provide enough stimulus to resuscitate a sick economy.  When the votes were tallied, only three Republicans out of 41 supported Barack’s recovery plan.  All 57 Democrats and two independents voted for the plan, not for partisan reasons but because they felt it offered the best hope economic recovery.  Almost unanimous GOP opposition revealed Washington’s bitter partisan divide.

          Years of Supply Side Economics failed to deliver balanced budgets or a booming economy.  Six years of runaway Iraq War spending and years of ungoverned activity on Wall Street sent financial markets and the U.S. economy into a nosedive.  Republicans’ favorite mantra of blaming government for economic woes has been replaced by Obama’s renewed faith in government’s power to make the right decisions and do good.  His neo-Keynesian approach—calling on government intervention—acknowledges that tax cuts alone can’t fix the once-in-a-century economic collapse.  Republicans' opposition to Barack’s new approach demonstrates tone-deafness to voters and desire to see the White House fail before the next election.  If it weren’t for three courageous, independently-minded, and patriotic Republicans, the country could be staring at more years of unending economic misery. 

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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