Remember that old saw about the military always wants to re-fight the last war? The Republicans have taken that to the nth level. They have learned nothing from years of ramming their policies through regardless of the costs or the results. They trashed the rule of law, exploded the federal deficit, turned the government into turkey farms - and destroyed the economy. They lost the last election by a margin too big to steal. Have they learned anything? Nope.
Now as the economy enters a death spiral where growing unemployment depresses sales triggering more unemployment, where the banks sit on billions of dollars of bailout money and do nothing with it, as the Federal Government has no more room to lower interest rates, what do they want? To cripple the government and cut taxes even more.
Want a look at the future? Try California. Paul Krugman yesterday: "The American economy is on the edge of catastrophe, and much of the Republican Party is trying to push it over that edge." (more)
Now as the bailout bill starts to emerge from the senate crippled and weakened, the GOP is thrilled as they scent blood in the water. Blue Dog Democrats practice unilateral bipartisanship and do their work for them. Here are the words of Senator John Cornyn (R) in a mass email rallying the forces of darkness:
Thanks to the support of thousands of grassroots Republicans, we're keeping the pressure on liberal Democrats who want to turn the Economic Stimulus Plan into a special interest pork-barrel bonanza.
Republicans are united in insisting that we cut out of the Stimulus Plan the wasteful spending that won't grow the economy or create new jobs.
And we're beginning to persuade some Democrats.
We've brought moderate Democrats to the table in search of a bi-partisan approach that will accomplish the goal of putting our economy back on track without mortgaging our future to a mountain of unnecessary debt.
But the fight is far from over. Many members of Congress in both the House and Senate are addicted to pork-barrel spending and feel entitled to "getting theirs."
I need your voice and your financial support to keep the pressure on the liberals who don't want to say "NO" to spending.
emphasis added
These are the same people who happily threw over a trillion dollars of our money into the Iraq bottomless pit while insisting on tax cuts - and they have the nerve to complain about mortgaging the future? If you're a Haliburton stockholder or one the big oil companies, well you should be happy with that. If not, suck it up and shut up. You're not entitled to expect anything from the government. Cornyn is still partying like it's 2001.
Please take a moment right now and sign our Stop The Waste Petition.
Then, take one more vital step. Please make your most generous financial contribution of $150, $100, $50, $35...or even $10 to help the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC).
The NRSC is the political arm of your Republican U.S. Senators. The financial support your provide to the NRSC is critically important in helping us reach out to more supporters like you and rally the public to fight wasteful spending, big government and liberal social engineering.
Your financial support is also urgently needed to help us begin building our campaign war chest for the next election.
emphasis added
See, this isn't about dealing with a national disaster. It's all about winning the next election and sucking up to the GOP base. Millions of Americans out of work, more living in fear - and the GOP is determined to keep the Federal Government from being used by those damned Liberals to do anything about it.
The liberals who run the Democratic caucus in the Senate are hopping mad that we've derailed their big-spending scheme. And they are now more committed than ever to winning a net gain of one or two seats they will need to have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate.
They know that if they had one or two more Democratic votes, they could ram through any legislation they wanted to, even if Republicans objected. We can't let that happen. And that is why your immediate financial support is so important.
So please, take a moment now to make your voice heard by signing our Stop The Waste Petition and then strengthen your commitment by making a financial contribution to the NRSC today.
I will keep you posted on the debate on the Stimulus Plan and with your help, we just may be able to pass a bill that will set America on the path to prosperity.
Sincerely yours,
Thanks again for your support,
Senator John Cornyn
Chairman,
National Republican Senatorial Committee
These people have no shame, no connection with reality, and no understanding of the damage they have done and continue to do. Instead it's the same old politics of Fear and Smear; use lies and distortion to make people afraid and divided.
P.S. This national economic crisis is no time for a special interest pig-out and we owe the public much more than a Stimulus Plan that's weighed down with wasteful spending. Please help us make sure this proposal is improved by stripping out the waste and lend your voice to our Stop The Waste Petition.
As President Obama said during the campaign, "The Cost Of This Economic Crisis, And The Cost Of The War In Iraq, Means That Washington Will Have To Tighten Its Belt And Put Off Spending On Things We Don't Need." Let's not just hope the Democrats remember that. Let's remind them by standing together. Click here to sign your Stop The Waste Petition. Thank you.
Krugman nailed it yesterday.
Would the Obama economic plan, if enacted, ensure that America won’t have its own lost decade? Not necessarily: a number of economists, myself included, think the plan falls short and should be substantially bigger. But the Obama plan would certainly improve our odds. And that’s why the efforts of Republicans to make the plan smaller and less effective — to turn it into little more than another round of Bush-style tax cuts — are so destructive.
emphasis added
Bob Herbert follows up today.
It’s been clear for years that the G.O.P. is a party without a heart. But its pointless obstructionism, its overall lack of any serious response to what is a clear national economic emergency, seems to indicate it’s also a party without a brain.
Republicans in Washington have behaved like a milling crowd standing in the way of firefighters trying to respond to a devastating blaze. The best that can be said for the party is that a few senators seem to have been able part the crowd enough to let the rescuers begin to inch forward.
And...
“Since the start of the recession,” as Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute, points out, “the U.S. economy has shed more jobs than the total population of Chicago.”
The Republicans still don’t get it. Most act as if they don’t understand that in this radical economic downturn the demand for goods and services has fallen off a cliff, and that government spending is needed — and needed quickly — to replace a large portion of that lost demand.
The goal is twofold: to alleviate some of the enormous suffering (something that is easily understood if you have a heart), and to revive the battered economy (equally easy to understand by anyone with a brain).
emphasis added
It's difficult to believe that people used to say with disgust that there was no real difference between the two parties; the differences are distinct and growing sharper, despite the Village obsession with 'bipartisanship' and Blue Dog Democrat efforts to chase a mythical centrist position. George Bush may be gone - but the insanity he represented is alive and well in Washington and the chattering classes. If the country is headed over a cliff - and it sure looks like it - trying to change direction a little in a meaningless effort to compromise just isn't going to do it.
One of Mr. Obama’s goals for the stimulus is to create three million to four million jobs. That is more or less in line with official job losses thus far in the recession: Employers shed 598,000 jobs in January, bringing the number of jobs axed since the recession began in December 2007 to 3.6 million. But as the Economic Policy Institute pointed out in a research note on Friday, the economy needed to have added about 1.7 million jobs over the past 13 months just to keep up with population growth. As a result, the economy already is coming up short by more than five million jobs.
And...
This is the reality: Jobs are being cut and unemployment is rising in virtually all sectors of the economy and among virtually all demographic groups. At the same time, families’ housing values and retirement savings have been pummeled; fully 13.6 million Americans now owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, and retirement accounts have collectively lost more than $2 trillion in little more than a year. And by all indications, there is worse yet to come.
emphasis added
The Republicans have clearly shown that they are NOT going to be part of the solutiion; they are determined to be part of the problem. (In fact, one could make the case that they ARE the problem - if so many so-called Democrats hadn't aided and abetted their efforts.)
Assuming the redevelopment and recovery plan makes it out of the Senate, the critical moment will come when the House and Senate try to reconcile the two versions of the bill. The GOP is pulling out all the stops to cripple it; we need to keep fighting back.
CALL or WRITE your congress critters. Make it clear you'll support nothing less than a bill that will really help the country, not replay the failed policies of the past. CALL talk radio shows and be prepared to knock down the GOP talking point lies. WRITE LTE's to your local newspapers - if they're still around. The collapse of the economy is killing them, and hidebound conservative editorial boards just might be shaken up enough to allow some truth in. This gratuitous bit at the end of the AP story on California's melt down demonstrates just how banal reporting has become.
Jim Zamora, spokesman for Service Employees International Union, Local 1000, said the administration did not respond to a union proposal that "would have prevented the closure of state offices, created an orderly, flexible and manageable furlough process, prevented chaos and saved the state hundreds of millions of dollars."
But the furloughs may not be all bad for workers: Two ski resorts at Lake Tahoe were offering discounts to state employees on furlough days, including $30 lift tickets or a chance to ski or snowboard every Friday for the rest of the season for $20.
Lucky Duckys! They always make out. (snark)
While you're at it, don't forget to let the White House know you have their back - and you want MORE not LESS partisanship. Because there's nothing wrong with partisanship when it's the choice between disaster and survival - and we're fast reaching that point. And it won't hurt to hold Obama's feet to the fire because these guys currently have his ear. There's still too much Wall Street at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
UPDATE: The bill has cleared the Senate - but not without damage.
Officials put the cost of the bill at $827 billion, including Obama's signature tax cut of up to $1,000 for working couples. Also included is a tax credit of up to $15,000 for homebuyers and smaller breaks for people buying new cars. Much of the new spending would be for victims of the recession, in the form of unemployment compensation, health care and food stamps.
In a key reduction from the bill that reached the Senate floor earlier in the week, $40 billion would be cut from a "fiscal stabilization fund" for state governments, though $14 billion to boost the maximum for college Pell Grants by $400 to $5,250 would be preserved, as would aid to local school districts for the No Child Left Behind law and special education.
A plan to help the unemployed purchase health insurance would be reduced to a 50 percent subsidy instead of two-thirds.
emphasis added
Guess that means California gets to stay in the hole the GOP dug for it.
Meanwhile, RNC chair Michael Steele has weighed in in the weekly GOP address:
Transcript:
"This is Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Democrats have controlled both branches of government for less than a month. And you have to wonder if all that power has gone to their heads.
"For the last two weeks, they've been trying to force a massive spending bill through Congress under the guise of economic relief.
"All of us -- Republicans and Democrats -- agree the government must act to kick-start the American economy. American families are doing their best to balance their own budgets and pay their mortgages.
"The fastest way to help those families is by letting them keep more of the money they earn. Individual empowerment: that's how you stimulate the economy.
"But the Democrats have a different philosophy. Instead of leaving money in the family checkbook, they want to send it to Washington, run it through a slow and inefficient government, and hope that does some good.
"When families keep the money, they spend it, save it, or invest it. And the private sector economy benefits when families and businesses buy consumer goods or invest it for the future. But when Washington spends the money, some of it may flow into the economy, but all too often, much gets wasted.
"Democrats in Congress want a one-trillion dollar spending bill. You've heard about the pork-barrel programs they want to fund... 45 million dollars for ATV trails and removal of fish passage barriers is one that caught my eye. Exactly what is a fish passage barrier and why does it cost 45 million dollars to stimulate the economy with it?
"That's why Republicans in the House voted against uncontrolled spending. This is not a bragging point, but rather a statement that at least Republicans would stand with the American taxpayer.
"But voting 'no' is not enough... and Republicans have offered innovative ideas to help struggling families and small businesses. We've offered plans to spark job creation and investment through lower taxes, to stop the taxation of unemployment benefits, and to help Americans keep their jobs and their homes.
"The comprehensive Republican plan would lower taxes for all working American families. If you're married, the first 16,750 dollars you make this year will be taxed at ten percent. Why don't we cut that rate in half to give instant buying power to every working American family?
"Good ideas... lots of them... all left out of this plan by the Democrats in Congress.
"Republicans stand ready to work with reasonable Democrats to do what is right for America.
"But it will take more than bipartisan words from the President. It will require fair-minded action from Democrats in Congress.
"Thanks for listening."
Compare and Contrast with President Obama. SusanG has it covered here.
And even as he pulled out some trademark bipartisan blah blah blah ("The American people know that our challenges are great. They don't expect Democratic solutions or Republican solutions – they expect American solutions."), he clearly had one particular political party in mind when he let out an uncharacteristic, unObamic blast of blame:
Let's be clear: We can't expect relief from the tired old theories that, in eight short years, doubled the national debt, threw our economy into a tailspin, and led us into this mess in the first place. We can't rely on a losing formula that offers only tax cuts as the answer to all our problems while ignoring our fundamental economic challenges – the crushing cost of health care or the inadequate state of so many schools; our addiction to foreign oil or our crumbling roads, bridges, and levees.
Gee, who doubled the national debt, expounded tired old theories and led us into this mess in eight short years?
Keep on keeping on with the reminding, Mr. President.
UPDATE: dday over Digby's Hullabaloo has a run down on the sausage grinding through the Senate. Read it, then take action. The things removed, the tax cuts slipped in - none of these make this a better bill. If this is bipartisanship in action, no thanks.