Note To Dems: Pull Back, Regroup, Counter-Attack
Feb 11th, 2009 | 4 responses
It’s a basic military strategy. When you can’t hold a given line you withdraw, regroup, strengthen your own forces while your enemy over-extends himself, then counter-attack and win the field. That’s what has to be done now with the stimulus bill.
The measure now in a conference between the House and Senate isn’t big enough to really pull our fast-falling economy out of its swoon. But the public doesn’t yet fully buy into that fact, and is temporarily gulled by Republican talk about “waste” and “pork.” This is most unfortunate. Most counter-productive given the present economic maelstrom. But that’s the way it is.
So the majority Democrats have to withdraw a bit from their present line and pass a trimmed down version of the bill that totals less than $800 billion. They then have to do a legislative regrouping that puts a huge additional chunk of spending into a Stimulus II package that will be ready by the end of March.
Why the end of March? Because by then another Democrat from Minnesota will likely be in the Senate, meaning that a single Republican vote in that body could break a Republican filibuster. And almost certainly by the end of March, alas, so many more Americans will be unemployed, so many more local governments will be in such dire fiscal need, that even a few hard-edged Republicans in the Senate will feel an acute need for more government spending on things like school building and aid to states.
So here’s my note to Dems. Pull back on the size of the present stimulus package and get it passed. Claim a bipartisan victory. Then regroup, wait for your oppnents to feel a weakening of public support, and counter-attack in a month or two with a hefty new spending measure.
There’s a long economic battle ahead. Victory here will take many months. Even in the face of mind-numbing foolishness be prepared to be patient
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4 Responses to “Note To Dems: Pull Back, Regroup, Counter-Attack”
With all due respect, that would be a terrible idea. If the Democrats pulled back now it would branded – rightly – a major failure and the Dems may have trouble passing anything from here on out.
Instead, with the padded margin post-Franken (and presumably Bonnie Newman will be a solid RINO), the Democrats have the votes to pass ANOTHER bill if need be.
Nothing spells failure like failure. This bill is not perfect but it is not failure.
..but it continues to be picked apart in the media & print. (and in Congress, as more & more needed stuff is removed to make Republicans happy)
So soon it will be useless in helping with anything, and here we sit.
The Bill needs to be reduced of pork. And you know how I love to agree with the GOP (NOT). But they're right. It's just that I have this feeling they're objecting to the wrong items as “pork”. Specifically I know they are fighting the funding of alternative energy earmarks like wild wolves caught in snare. Their buddies, and don't forget their base core, BigOil is going to bring this nation to its knees even moreso than they already have via Bushco. They will destroy the United States of America before they allow a dime of funding for the altnerative energy that needs to happen to keep our very country alive.
And they say the terrorists wear turbines…well…some of them do, but some of them wear bolo ties and ten-gallon hats…
It is interesting that you look at this from what I consider to be the Daily Kos point of view, “winning is everything”. That is to say, that the most important test facing the congress and the president is passing the bill in its current form. While I agree, from a political perspective, that it is politically important to pass this bill, the overarching goal should be to develop and implement the best strategy for dealing with the current economic situation. I would prefer that the current bill was broken into as many parts as possible to ensure that they will live up to their expectations. just because it can be passed, does not mean that it should.