Republicans don't disagree with it, that's just your smokescreen right there. Who was spending the day touting the stimulus plan today? Why Republican Governor Christ, that's who. Not the first or only Republican Governor either. And you can be damned sure that plenty of Republicans will be enjoying the public works in their districts/states. If they can get money coming into their district without voting for it? Whoohoo! If only we attached a rider saying that money from the stimulus plan only went to districts that voted in favor of it. But then it would be called bribery.
I already explained why Republicans are voting against it and the answer is simple: they have nothing to gain by supporting it. As you rightly pointed out before, this bill is Obama's good or bad. First big thing out of the chute, its got his name on it in the mind of the public regardless of whether what Congress passes has anything to do with what he submitted to them. So if the stimulus plan does what the Democrats hope then they get the credit and the Republicans are screwed amongst the general public but Republicans can still tout their conservative credentials by telling their base that they stood up for fiscal responsibility (a brilliant lie that) and how the cost of socialism was just too high and the country will be poorer for it in the long run. If the stimulus has not kicked in by 2010 (when the Democrats have more seats to defend than they did in 2008) then Republicans get to try and play the change card and say that Democrats can't be trusted on the economy and that they need to be in power to balance out Obama. Republicans know that the stimulus bill will pass in some form or another. They've done their best to weaken it and shift it to things that please their base more (like tax cuts) in hopes that it will limp along, not trash the country but also not succeed. This isn't about what's good for the country, they have no interest in letting Obama try and lead through a crisis. The imperative is political and it is all about knee capping the other guy and hope that the bottom doesn't fall out too horridly until you try and regain power. Pretty fucking craven in my book but it just may work. Judah On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 8:55 PM, Robert Munn <[email protected]> wrote: > > Roads and bridges, that's what these guys said all along. We have a decaying > infrastructure that we need to fix. Turns out that was a smokescreen for a > huge spending bonanza on everything under the sun. > > This bill is pork barrel spending by another name, that's it. > > And as for not understanding it, I get it, I just disagree with it. And so > do all but three Republicans in Congress, which really tells you what this > bill is - a pork-fest to reward every special interest and local > constituency of the Democrats in Congress. > > On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 8:48 PM, Judah wrote: > >> >> That would be awesome if parks were really part of regular spending. >> Alas, they usually aren't. >> >> You really really don't understand infrastructure stimulus. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:288026 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
