Reich is right

This post by Robert Reich is kind of dated now in terms of the stimulus bill, but this point about the danger of so-called bi-partisanship is timeless.

Yet at this very moment, Senate Republicans are seeking to strip the President's stimulus package of many of its spending provisions and substitute tax cuts. Part of this is pure pander: They know tax cuts are more popular with the public than government spending, even though spending is a far more effective way to stimulate the economy (more on this in a moment). Another part is pure partisan politics: Republicans are emboldened by Obama's willingness to court Republicans (taking three Republicans into his cabinet, bringing Republican leaders into the White House for consultations, putting all those business tax cuts into the stimulus bill in order to gain Republican favor) without getting anything at all back from the GOP. House Republicans snubbed the bill entirely. So, Senate Republicans say to themselves, what's to lose?

I'm old enough to remember when some Republicans deserved the label fiscal conservatives and at least nominally showed some concern for the long term impact on the country as a whole, even as they mostly served their own interests. Those days are long over.

On a related note, Frank Rich explains today how the 'centrism' of the Beltway insiders pose a clear and present danger to Obama's stated agenda and indeed, threatens our existence as society.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News.]