I really don’t get the thought process in Michael’s recent post. There seems to be an almost glee that the Republicans aren’t backing the stimulus bill because then that opens up the opportunity to make it more “progressive.” This goes back to the problem I have with DC “compromise,” “bipartisanship,” etc.
Elsewhere in life, compromise usually refers to a synthesis of a new position that is agreeable to both sides; a way to come to hopefully come to a better solution than the one originally proposed by each individual party. However, in DC it often means the equivalent of, “I’ll give you this thing I don’t believe in if you give me this thing you don’t believe in.” How’s that help? In that case there is just a scattershot of bad ideas.
This is definitely how the political common wisdom is playing: Obama would like to have an ideologically (and probably greater scientifically supported) pure package, but has to throw some scraps to the Republicans out of a sense of bipartisanship. That’s not compromise, that’s a bribe. I am not sure what extent the CW is true, but I seriously hope that the tax cuts are in there because they believe that they will work. After all, the tax cuts do target different groups (and operate on a different time scale) than increased government programs, and they are targeted in a way where the money has a greater chance of being spent quickly. So even while I am pessimistic about the plan, I can appreciate that maybe the Republican input may have some positive advantage.
But regardless of the debate on whether the ideas are good, the idea that it can be changed dramatically because the Republicans won’t vote for it at all is disturbing. If you seriously don’t believe the ideas have any merit, then don’t support them or even try to worry about “bipartisanship;” if they do seem to be good, then support their inclusion regardless of whether it tips votes over in your favor. It’s a simple concept. Maybe people are having a hard time because the Republicans have been pulling the country so far right that even Reagan would be a conservative Democrat these days. After all, the Democrats kept falling over themselves to be “bipartisan” because they were scared and felt they had to rather than because they believed it. The justification was that at least they could get a few policies in place and that’s better than nothing…now they want payback the other way.
Obama is actively saying that he is willing to cooperate with the GOP because they may have some good ideas — if they dump the Limbaugh/Fox News mindset. If they don’t, then he can leave them in the cold and just wait them out. I might sound like I’m insane, but it’s possible that he is actually interested in their ideas and this isn’t all just a political ploy! If hell hasn’t frozen over and this is all maneuvering, then instead of progressives feeling a sense of relief, they should criticize Obama for trying to bribe the Republicans with something that he didn’t really want in the first place.