Bailey's post just below this one reminded me of something I had intended to write about but hadn't gotten around to. This has to do not only with the recovery bill but also relates to political battles that will take place in the future between Democrats and Republicans.
Republicans are incapable of governing responsibly. And let's not kid ourselves, the president knows that too. Yet, he put the tax cuts into the stimulus bill that Republicans would have wanted (not the middle class tax cuts which were his idea, other tax cuts) in the beginning so that he could take credit for them. This was bad political strategy and his first mistake.
The rest after the jump...
He should have left those tax cuts out in the beginning, knowing that Republicans would try to add them in. Then in markup, lo and behold, the Republicans would add them in and claim credit for them. And here's the key: then they would have been satisfied. They would not have gone hunting for more stuff to change; they would have gotten what they wanted AND they would have gotten the credit. But the White House put it in, anticipating that. So now the Republicans can't take credit for anything, and they want to. So what do they do? They haggle over other parts of the bill and weaken it.
And all for what? So that none of them could vote for it? President Obama's initial reluctance to abandon the political dog-and-pony show that is bipartisanship hurt the bill. Democrats have the seats in Congress and they have the White House. He should have told Republicans straight off the bat: "Get on board or get the hell out of my way." And then he should have written the bill he wanted, gotten his allies in Congress to prevent significant markup, and passed it with the zero Republican support it got in the end anyway. It would have been a stronger bill, and the Democrats would have gotten 100% of the credit (which they pretty much got anyway but with a weakened bill).
That was the Democrats' mistake. The party has a history of not being willing to take off the gloves and go for absolute political victories, preferring to settle and not appear too belligerent. I think (hope) they are slowly beginning to recognize that the voters put them in office expecting them to do exactly what they said they would. Polls even show that the public believes President Obama should ignore Republicans and do what he plans to do, with or without them. Enough of the half-measures and appeals across the aisle. Winners want the ball, and the Dems won. The GOP lost. It's time for the grown-ups to take charge.
Don't Be Bush
If Obama doesn't adhere to some kind of bipartisan principle, what makes him any better than Bush? Yes, the Democrats need to push their agenda forcefully, but they can't lock Republicans out of the process. It's wrong and infeasible. The Democrats just need to learn how to play the bipartisan game better. They're not using all of the tools they could be using.
The difference is that under
The difference is that under Bush, Republicans never had this big a majority. In that case, bipartisanship was required to get anything done at all, and they still refused to engage Democrats. Today, the Democrats have such a huge majority that haggling with Republicans is unnecessary; bills can pass without them (with the right political moves).
The other issue I have with token bipartisanship is that many assume that we are morally obligated to cooperate with the other side. There are situations, such as this one, in which there is right and wrong: Democrats have at least proposed the beginnings of a solution, whereas Republicans object simply to be obstructionists and without proposing any solutions of their own. Under these circumstances, cooperating with Republicans only weakens the Democratic agenda.
And even if you understandably don't accept the right/wrong premise, the fact remains that Americans overwhelmingly voted for Democrats in a clear signal that under eight years of Republican rule, Americans wanted Democrats to implement their campaign promises. That's not going to be possible if at every turn, Democrats unnecessarily seek the approval of those whose sole purpose is to get in the way.
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