Screw bi-partisanship

Robert Samuelson posts an idiotic op-ed in the WaPo today accusing Obama and the Democrats of "squandering" the stimulus money by failing to distribute enough to the states and not giving enough tax breaks for big purchases that only the already well-off can afford. Tim Fernholz shreds his argument, pointing out the glaring omission of the "bi-partisan" concessions the Dems made to the GOPers in order to get their support, which included stripping state funds in order to bring the cost down to some imaginary "perfect" amount of $800bn. But I'm linking to Tim for his closer.

I could go on about how Samuelson doesn't understand the connection between the size of the stimulus and its efficacy, or that infrastructure projects do promote economic activity. But the real point is this: People, even people like Samuelson who are supposed to know what the hell they are talking about, will forget six months from now how major legislation gets made, what compromises were necessary to pass any bill at all, who the obstructing senators were -- and the obstructing senators know this. Whatever comes out of the health care track or the cap and trade track or the financial regulation track will be owned by the Administration. That's why the top priority has to be getting the policy right, not the bipartisan optics.

Exactly. After all the giveaways that watered down the recovery bill's efficacy, the GOPers still didn't vote for the bill. And now they're only too happy to blame the damage they wrought on the Dems. It's the same game they've been playing forever. So when are the Dems going to figure out that placating GOPers is a suicidal strategy? The voters didn't give them the power of the majority so they could cede it to the party they threw out.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]