Senate leaders: A lot is at stake for Republican Mitch McConnell (above) and Democrat Harry Reid (below) as Congress and the White House sort out their relationship. The future of both political parties is in the balance as well, and the first big test could be the economic stimulus bill, the largest spending measure in United States history. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
Obama sets himself a high political bar
The economic stimulus bill is his first big test in replacing ‘old habits’ with less partisanship in Washington.
By Linda Feldmann | Staff writer/ January 29, 2009 edition
Reporter Linda Feldmann talks with CSMonitor.com's Pat Murphy about President Obama's effort to get bipartisan support for his economic stimulus package and future legislation.
Reporter Linda Feldmann
Ron Edmonds/AP
Washington
President Obama did not win a single Republican vote in the House of Representatives for his giant economic stimulus bill this week. So does that mean he wasted his time reaching out, to an unusual degree, to Republicans?
Not yet, anyway. By making very public overtures – traveling to Capitol Hill, inviting Republican members to the White House more than once, including to a cocktail party after Wednesday’s vote – he has already distinguished his administration sharply from those in recent memory, analysts say. And he’s begun work on the difficult task of remaking the highly partisan culture of Washington, as promised in his campaign.
Mr. Obama himself has stated that “old habits die hard,” and he seemed unperturbed, at least in public, that he failed to gain any Republican votes.
But his administration also knows that the House vote is just the opening act in a multi-act drama that will play out well into next month in this high-stakes effort to address a sinking economy.
“There’s definitely a longer-term strategy here,” with all this outreach by Obama, says Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “And it’s going to be interesting to see in the end if the Republicans get nervous enough that the final vote is a different one.”
There are risks for all concerned.
Obama will ultimately sign some sort of stimulus legislation, given the Democrats’ strength in Congress. But if it fails to get the economy back on solid footing,
Obama will lose his luster with the public. Congressional Democrats, not all that popular as a group, will miss an opportunity to boost their image.
If most Republicans continue to vote “no,” they risk looking like naysayers at a time when their party is trying to regain its image as a party of ideas.
House Republicans did put forth their own stimulus plan, but with the knowledge that the Democratic plan was where the action is. House Republican leaders also telegraphed a disinterest in Obama’s overtures by instructing their members to vote no even before the president went to Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
The Democratic plan contains tax cuts - $275 billion worth, or about a third of the package – which Republicans like, in principle, though they object to the fact that some low-income workers who don’t pay income tax would get money back anyway.
They would also like the tax cuts to be bigger. And Republicans complain that the spending portion of the bill contains money for special projects that they believe will do little for the economy in the short term and will have questionable long-term economic benefit.
In a statement issued after the House vote, Obama betrayed no disappointment over the lack of Republican support, and signaled an openness to accommodating more GOP wishes.
“The plan now moves to the Senate, and I hope that we can continue to strengthen this plan before it gets to my desk,” Obama said. “But what we can’t do is drag our feet or allow the same partisan differences to get in our way.”
Obama began by emphasizing the economic challenge ahead, noting the loss of 2.6 million jobs last year, and Monday’s announcement that some major employers were eliminating another 55,000 jobs. “This is a wake-up call to Washington that the American people need us to act and act immediately,” he said, an echo of President Roosevelt’s first inaugural, in which he called for “action and action now.”
On Capitol Hill, the total “no” vote by Republicans was seen more as a slap at Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi rather than Obama.
The president won praise for seeking more input on the content of the bill than the speaker did. Now that the Republicans have made their point, they may find that playing ball with Obama is more fruitful than continued stonewalling – another reason for Obama to continue his push to woo Republicans.
“Obama is likely to give a little bit at the edges,” says Bruce Buchanan, a presidential scholar at the University of Texas, Austin.
“He’s not going to give on the core stuff,” he says. “But they might have much more input than they could otherwise expect with the steamroller approach, which has been politics as usual.”
Another reason to surmise that Obama will keep wooing Republicans rather than get mad and give up is his cool demeanor.
“He has this steady temperament; he doesn’t seem to lose it very much,” notes Mr. Buchanan. “He might be able to sustain that style of operation, even when there is lots of disagreement. We’ll see.”
If Obama does manage to peel off some Republican support for a stimulus plan, that could bode well for his ability to woo Republicans on trickier legislation down the road – such as healthcare reform.
But not everyone in Washington sees a good reason for Republican members to play along with Obama.
Bruce Bartlett, a former Reagan administration Treasury official, offers his political analysis: “If this policy works, and the economy revives, no one’s going to remember that the Republicans voted against it. Nobody’s going to care.”
“If it fails,” he continues, “they can say I told you so. Even if it works moderately well, which is probably the best we can hope for, there’s bound to be some mistakes made, so the Republicans can again point their finger and say, Aha, we told you so.”
On Thursday, Obama got a break from the rigors of trying to woo Republicans in Congress when he signed his first piece of legislation as president, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act.
The law lengthens the period in which workers may sue for discrimination based on gender, race, national origin, or religion.
On that bill, five Republicans in the Senate and three in the House voted yes.
Comments
2. B Patterson | 01.29.09
The premise of this article is false. “distinguished his administration sharply from those in recent memory”. Who’s this talking about? G W Bush infuriated his conservative supporters by “reaching out” to the Democrats throughout his 8 years. His deal with Sen. Kennedy brought him nothing but grief but he still made good on his side.
3. Jeff | 01.29.09
“If this policy works, and the economy revives, no one’s going to remember that the Republicans voted against it. Nobody’s going to care.”
Dangerous assumption dude…
4. Justin | 01.29.09
Obama continues to veil himself and attempts to hide his true colors. The economic bail out is rife with kickbacks to political supporters. No change here, just more political bribery with tax payer dollars
5. Jeff | 01.29.09
“If this policy works, and the economy revives, no one’s going to remember that the Republicans voted against it. Nobody’s going to care.”
Dangerous assumption dude…
6. Scott S. | 01.29.09
If Obama wanted to reach out to Republicans he should have let them have a hand in writing the bill, not invite them over for lunch. How is expecting people to sign on to a $800,000,000,000.00 spending spree with no input reaching out?
7. mike lindeman | 01.29.09
The President is going to succed in nearly every endeavor he wishes. The Bush adminitration structured the nearly total collapse of this nation’s idiology and it’s people. Bush’s buddies pushed for a “bail out” of 700 billion for the financial system. It failed, not only that, no one knows where the money is, ha ha. Is there any gold in Fort Knox? Or does the former vice president know? Nothing even resembling money has been transferred, stolen, or manipulated to convert to former Bush administration officials.
Bush, cheny, rumsfeld, and lil’ scooter should be tried for war crimes.
By the time the Obama administration is through restructuring, the republican party will cease to exist and no best wishes from the people of the U.S of A.
8. Bruwho | 01.29.09
I am an independent from Indiana who supported Obama for President and our Republican Governor for Indiana. I am trying to be nonbiased, however it is amazing that the Republicans all but desroyed the United States on a federal level in the last eight years. Now none of them want to step up to the plate and try and fix the mess they left. Shameful!In eight years we went from a balanced budget to trillion dollar deficits, we lost three million manufacturing jobs, we have lost respect throughout the world, Credit Default Swaps (an unregulated method for banks to operate without real capital) have increased 40 fold or twice the value of the entire stock market. It may take 100 years to fix the mess Bush and the Republicans left behind.
9. Pete | 01.29.09
“Reaching out” can not be about White House visits and cocktail parties, it has to be about taking also the Republican’s view on issues into consideration and placing it into the laws to a degree that both parties can agree with. This bill largely ignored any points that the Republicans tried to bring into it - let’s face it, it’s a purely Democratic bill. How is that “reaching out”?
Bipartisanship must be about the legislative issues, not about photo ops and cocktails. I think it’s called “put your money where your mouth is”. I wish Obama good luck and wisdom!
10. Roger E. | 01.29.09
I love how Republicans caving on their beliefs and voting for a liberal bill is considered “bipartisanship”, but Democrats not voting for Republican legislation is “standing up for themselves”.
What a joke.
11. dr tug | 01.29.09
where was the bipartisanship of the “great uniter” dubya….. i guess the u.s. has “misunderestimated” its own memory of the last 8 years
12. Britton | 01.29.09
To Pete
“This Bill largely ignored any points that the Republicans tried to bring into it”
The bill includes huge tax cuts, which is all the Republicans are calling for. What more do the rebublicans want, they are the ones who do not want to reach out and try to fix the mess they helped create.
13. Steve | 01.29.09
This bill will do nothing meaningful for our economy in the long term. It is nothing more than a political slight of hand trick. The republicans know this and were wise to step away. **** the supporters of this bill don’t even really know what’s in this bill’
The socialist democrats say that it will go to fixing our nations infrastructure, but what they don’t tell you that non union labor need not apply ,cause you know damn well who will be getting those lucrative contracts.
But who cares by the time the demozombies wake up and realize the emperor has no cloths it will be all over for America..
14. W.Thomas | 01.29.09
How can you possible subtitle this article as “replacing ‘old habits’ with less partisanship?” This bill is nothing but partisan politics at its worst. Not one Republican was allowed input. Telling Republicans it’s my way or the highway because “I won” as the messiah told Senator John Kyl is not “reaching out”.
How can you possibly call this gigantic liberal spending bill “econonmic stimulus,” when according to the Congressional Budget Office only 12 cents of every dollar is for economic stimulus? 88 cents of every dollar is for the expansion of government, liberal pet programs they have been trying to shove down our throats for years, and earmarks. If fact, 30 cents of every dollar is an earmark. Remember when the messiah said he would eliminate earmarks? LIAR!
Worse year, according to the CBO, only 3 cents of the 12 cents of economic stimulus will have an impact in by the end of 2009.
The 30% that is earmarks reads like a laundry list of Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Frank and Clinton campaign contributors. Obama is don’t the EXACT same thing that Blagovich is being impeached for - quid pro quo. If it is illegal to sell a senate seat, isn’t illegal for Obama to repay ACORN billions of dollars for instigating the largest voter fraud in American history?
The dumb liberals want to recklessly spend money we don’t have on programs we don’t need. Our children and their children will pay for this and in the short term we will all suffer as we slip into a depression caused by the democrats.
Not one Republican in the House voted for this disaster. In the Senate, two Republicans may be stupid enough to cross over due to pork barrel spending that would benefit their states. In either case, the failure of this so-called stimulus package will rest squarely with the dems.
15. Elaine | 01.29.09
The Obama’s economic plan is the usual pork spending of the democrats. Yes, spending creates more jobs. However, spending millions on the arts, contraception, and the National Mall do not create enough jobs to make the bill a valid green light for this supposed bail out. We need to be contacting our Senators and Congress people and let them know just what we think about this bail out.
Support a democratic republic not a socialist communistic America.
16. Forrest | 01.29.09
“slight” of hand? an emperor with no “cloths”?
I may not agree with you that it’s over for America, Steve, but clearly our educational system could use some work.
17. George Hanshaw, USA | 01.29.09
Rushing blindly pell-mell to “do something” is not a plan.
Going to the other side and asking for their support, while allowing your own side to lard up what was supposed to be a “stimulus” package with a liberal wish-list of things that have nothing to do with stimulus is not bipartisan, nor is telling Repub congressional reps you don’t have to compromise because, “I won.”
Moreover, it was stupid. Every single representative stood for election and won too, and was sent to DC with just as much of a mandate by their constituents as Obama was by his.
Obama is squandering political capital like crazy. Moreover, he is squandering taxpayer money like crazy.
This is going to be Jimmy Carter all over again.
18. Jun Lee | 01.29.09
I am the lucky minority who will benefit from the infrastructure build up; no white construction worker need to apply. This is type of **** we get from our elected officials. I have operated heavy equipement for 25 years in the construction industry and we,as a hard working american will be excluded from this opportunity. Only the dreeds from the unemployement and social program need to apply.
19. Mary Richards | 01.29.09
“Bruce Bartlett, a former Reagan administration Treasury official, offers his political analysis: “If this policy works, and the economy revives, no one’s going to remember that the Republicans voted against it. Nobody’s going to care.”
Right…when my 84 year old,always voted staight Republican aunt, voted Democrat this last election I can gaurantee lots of people will remember. I think the Republicans are woefully out of touch with the mood and will of all the middle of the road voters out here in the real world.
20. Miss Prism | 01.29.09
How do you goose an economy when $62 trillion in fraudulent financial instruments like credit default swaps just evaporated as chimeric?
21. anonymous | 01.29.09
@Steve
1. What is a “demozombie”?
2. “it will be all over for America”? What, a few contracts will supposedly go to unionized labor, and America will be ended?
Clearly, the socialist democrats should just leave the free market be. After all, that worked out spectacularly well under Bush.
And, since when do you make better judgements on the effects of the stimulus and the economy, and whether or not people know what’s in it? Paul Krugman (who is infinitely smarter, more qualified, and better at grammar than you are):
“a surge in public spending would employ Americans who would otherwise be unemployed and money that would otherwise be sitting idle” “deflation is setting in, while businesses and consumers start to base their spending plans on the expectation of a permanently depressed economy — well, you can see where this is going. So this is our moment of truth. Will we in fact do what’s necessary to prevent Great Depression II?”
Maybe if you stopped your partisan propogandizing about the new Red Spread you’d actually realize that Bush was bad, libertarianism is extremely stupid and you have no idea what you’re talking about.
22. EddieG3 | 01.29.09
Bruce Bartlett is wrong. If this policy/package works, the Republicans will look like cowards, wimps. If the package does not work, the Republicans will look like cowards, wimps. At least, President Obama is trying, even asking for their input. Mr. Gibbs says that President Obama has a 3-prong attack to get the economy back on track. The stimulus is just the first shot. The Republicans are paralized by their own fears. The world knows that they want President Obama to fail so that they may look better in our country’s eyes. We will not forget that President Obama is trying to fix what their Republican president broke into a thousand pieces. Who would want the party back who caused and/or let this mess happen in the first place?
23. Lewis Field | 01.29.09
YES! The weenie Republicans FINALLY found their intestinal fortitude. Who cares if they stay in the minority? Why be in the majority only to become worthless money-grubbing, taxing, slobs… like Democrat Party crud? I so hope they continue to throw ‘NO” votes out like buckets of water. May God in his Grace steer us toward blistering those soulless, abortionist, Obamaistic Dem’s. They are of the enemy, and the enemy cherishes his evil seed. They must be confronted, and one day defeated.
24. tijus | 01.29.09
Republicans have lost the credibility.. We can’t trust them any more.
I can’t believe ppl still support bush and republicans. we have suffered enuf due to their choices. there is no logic just hatred. Bush’s 700 billion stimulus was written as “no question asked”..
25. Bill | 01.30.09
I have to say as a Democrat, I’ve not been too fond of what I have read regarding the contents of this “stimulus.” And after watching Pelosi in the interview just made me see her in a completely different light. With this stimulus package Obama is offering and the “I won” attitude, I can fully understand why the Republicans are standing where they are. McCain pulled just over 46% of the vote. There are a lot of people not behind this president that see through the pork in this package. I for one can see it.
26. Richard Brodie | 01.30.09
Whenever I ask someone to tell me where the 800 billion dollars is going to come from, I invariably get the correct one-word answer: NOWHERE! It will be brought into existence out of NOTHING by the Federal Reserve banks. They won’t even have to go to the trouble of running the Treasury’s printing presses. They’ll just type in a few digits on a computer, and PRESTO! the “money” will magically materialize. Then they will “loan” this money, which a few seconds earlier they did not have, to the U.S. Treasury. AND, they will expect to receive INTEREST on that “loan.”
Ye gods! How much longer are we going to continue to allow this scam to go on? The $800 billion will be called “deficit spending” thus being considered a debt that the Federal government OWES to the Fed bankers. There is of course no expectation that the “principle” will EVER be “repaid”. But it will continue to rack up interest for these international bankers from here to eternity, the COLLECTION AGENCY for that interest being the IRS, which will take care of extracting said interest out of the hides of the American people, for money that was created at the flick of a switch out of thin air! All this on top of the HIDDEN TAX of inflation which the dumping of this astronomical amount of bogus dollars into the economy will engender.
I’m sure glad that Obama appointed the tax dodger, Geithner, to run the IRS, for this sets a very important survival precedent. I mean, if his deliberate failure to pay his income taxes for two years can be sloughed off and forgiven as just a “harmless and innocent oversight”, then by what conceivable moral authority can the Federal government refuse to treat the rest of us citizens with the same generous kid-gloves, if we similarly evade paying our own taxes!?
27. Erik Anderson | 01.30.09
I agree Richard, the Fed has got to go. All this republican/democrat talk is getting nowhere. Why can’t we all agree simply not print money out of thin air? Or, bring back the gold standard as a leash to reckless spending? It’s just common sense. Even little kids with allowances understand that money is something you save so you can buy stuff later. I’ve never heard of a parent that teaches them they can counterfeit money instead of having to save. Why can’t grown adults grasp this?
I really think its going to take a serious economic collapse before people realize government does not create wealth. Of course, you’ll probably get some Dr. So And So claiming that printing money out of thin air is a great thing for the economy. He would say “Look at the boom it creates! What’s that you say? What about the bust? That stuff just happens now and then, you know, a typical business cycle.”
28. Steve in Ohio | 02.01.09
Although I agree with Richard about the creating money from nowhere, isn’t this the same place where Bush created the money for his “Financial Bail-out”? Why is it then, that when Obama does this - it is sooo much worse than when Bush did it? And Bush did it over and over and over again for many other things. Personally, I think the biggest reason that the Reps are so bent out of shape on this is that most of the tax cuts are NOT going to include the rich, which DOES include the congress as a whole. That’s what he promised - that is what he did.
I see that SarahPAC is setting up to try to grab a bunch of money from this - even though she was ALSO against this idea when she was trying to lie her way into the white house. Funny how the liars keep lying and the GOP keeps trying to blame only the dems for lying. There are liars on both sides of the aisle - stop pointing fingers at one group. They are ALL doing whatever they want and both sides lie as much as the other side. Who do you trust? At least give the person in office a chance to prove himself or to fall on his face. One or two weeks isn’t really enough time. And honestly, with the mess he has had to inherit from the opposite side, he should be given a little latitude to do something his way first. Then complain it isn’t working. We don’t know yet what the outcome of this is - it hasn’t even been made law yet!!!!!!!
Steve
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1. Remy | 01.29.09
I think they should cuz obamas smart