One of the problems with our democratic system of government lies in the fact that it encourages an endless cycle of legislative retribution. First, one party exercises eight years of Congressional power bolstered by presidential veto. Then the other party wins and the first thing they do is try to overturn everything their predecessors did and enact all the measures on which they could not succeed when the system was against them.
Against that backdrop, we have a new President Obama who says, to the delight of a very healthy majority of the electorate, that he wants to do away with that old partisan approach and cooperate with the opposition Republicans in a critical bipartisan attempt to stimulate our flagging economy.
So, the first time the chance for such cooperation arises, the House Democrats, whether ignored, supported or goaded on by the White House, come up with an economic stimulus bill that essentially pokes its thumb in the Republicans’ eye. So much for the bipartisan approach!
What seems clear about the current Washington wrestling match over the economic stimulus package, is that no one really can pinpoint a solution to our problems. Neither party has faced this kind of issue before, so all we see offered are theoretical solutions.
Let’s grant that there are legitimate philosophical differences between the Republicans and Democrats on the economic stimulus issue. Everyone knows that. Yet, when it comes time to act out on this presidential promise of bipartisanship, the Democrats submit a bill that contains a large number of programs that they have not been able to get past a Republican Congress and the Bush veto.
At the same time, in 100% doctrinaire fashion, the Republicans see tax cuts as the only answer to our economic woes.
This is not to say that either tax cuts or those pet Democratic projects are bad. Clearly, new infrastructure is badly needed in this country and tax refunds, particularly if directed toward the middle class, would be helpful stimuli.
However, the issue is one of timing. Was it absolutely necessary for the Democrats to include these pet unpassed projects on an economic stimulus bill, particularly if doing so would predictably be offensive to the Republicans?
Isn’t the purpose of the exercise, quite apart from stimulating the economy, to change the country over to a less partisan approach? Apparently that is not so in the eyes of those congressional Democrats who have been chafing under Republican dominance for years.
It’s funny how crises provide the loopholes through which politicians shove their pet projects. President Bush quite unashamedly shoved the Iraq invasion and a major diminution of our constitutional rights through a supine congress (Democrats included) only when basking in the ugly results of 9/11.
And so it is true today that our financial/economic crisis has given the long-suffering Democrats an opportunity for retribution. They have taken it by turning what could have been a bipartisan economic stimulus bill into a mean spirited move to redress years of having their favorite programs slighted. Strike while the crisis is hot!
All of this adds up to precisely the situation that President Obama says he wants to avoid. We are mired in the old politics of partisanship first and problem solving last. President Obama inherited a Democratic majority Congress that had favorability ratings even lower than those of President Bush. It is clear from the bill that has come out of the House that Speaker Pelosi is at best disinterested in the program of political cooperation on which President Obama won the election. President Obama can hardly be pleased and there lurks at the package’s second stage the equally partisan Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid. Only time will tell what mischief he can work.
The sad part of all of this is that the House Democrats could easily have limited this bill to what it was designed to be – and economic stimulus package. If they had done that, it is highly likely that the Republicans would have signed on and that might well have changed the tone in Washington for the better.
At that point, with majorities in the Congress and a Democrat in the White House, they could have moved on to their pet projects without starting Obama’s presidency with an old-time, partisan battle. One wonders if this “new tone” in Washington is all a charade, or if the new president plans to have some frank conversations with his so-called allies on Capitol Hill.
We shall see, but it’s hardly an auspicious start.
Haviland Smith worked in and out of Washington for 25 years.
