Well, it looks like the stimulus package passed, with all of 3 Republican Senators voting for it, and no Republican House members. Looks like John Boehner & Co. have rounded up the troops and given them their marching orders, eh?
As I've said before on this blog, I think there are good parts and bad parts to this package. There are waaaay too many tax cuts in there, which were put in in order to get the votes of -- guess who -- Republicans! Well, that didn't work so hot... so we may as well have taken them out. Not that I wouldn't like a tax cut as much as the next guy, but let's face it, there isn't a tax cut coming that is going to make enough of a difference that I can go out and buy a new frig. Isn't giving us a tax cut somewhat like what the bankers have been doing by doling out bonuses when the bank is drowning in bad loans and borrowing from the feds to stay afloat? We're getting money from the federal treasury, which is trillions of dollars in debt and borrowing money from China to stay afloat. Ergo our tax cuts are being borrowed from China. I'd just as soon let them keep the extra $13 or whatever it is.
All I hear from John Boehner is that the Republicans had a better plan, that it would create more jobs for less money, yadda yadda yadda... but he never actually says what the plan IS. Gee, if it was that good, you'd think he'd let the rest of us in on it so we could e-mail our Congressman to get him to go for it.
The Republicans have decided to make a political play out of this. They're playing for 2010, banking on the economy to stay in trouble until the next Congressional races. In other words, they want this plan to fail and they're betting their seats on it. That's why Boehner and his compadre in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, put the strong arm on the Republicans in both houses. I also think this is why Judd Gregg pulled out of the Commerce Secretary position. They want to be able to blame the Democrats and the Democrats alone if the economy hasn't pulled out of the mess it's in by 2010.
Personally, I think the economy will perk up, although it probably will take time. We have to be close to a bottom. The Republicans are playing a very dangerous game; we have a popular Democratic President, and if the economy starts to tilt up by mid-2010, their party will become more and more marginalized. Hey, in the meantime, they can just go home and let the Democrats run the whole show. We don't need 'em.
