It was the biggest bill of the year, a giant expansion of government spending.
Top members of Congress were incensed that they were cut out of final negotiations between the House and Senate. They complained that the legislation was the product of just one party with only a few select members of the opposition invited to play a role.
But the Medicare drug plan passed anyway in 2003 when Republicans controlled the White House and Congress. So it was hardly novel this week when Republicans protested vigorously that their legislative rights had been violated as the Democratic-led Congress pushed through the $787 billion economic stimulus bill with just three Republican votes in the Senate. Only the party labels had changed.
In truth, regular order ”” as following the Congressional rule book is known on Capitol Hill ”” has not been occurring very regularly in the House and Senate for years. And both parties are to blame.
If the Republicans had kept their promises in the “Contract with America” and had kept open government, term limits and not given in to the corruption of Tom Delay’s K Street Project, they wouldn’t be in exile now.
But the Republicans won’t pay any penalties for not supporting the stimulus. It will also benefit their constituencies.
The difference this time is that President Obama PROMISED an increase of bi-partisanship, but couldn’t fulfill that promise, either for himself or for the leadership of the House, who actively re-worked House rules to eliminate minority involvement in the legislative process.
Even when the Republicans were in charge, we saw a lot more reaching across the aisle than is credited them. One of the criticisms of John McCain was that he was TOO actively involved with Democrats in crafting legislation! Plus President Bush invited Democrats, like Ted Kennedy, to take part in writing bills such as the Education Bill that became “No Child Left Behind”.
3, and that’s the point. If Obama had said, “We are the majority and we are going to ram this down your throats like it or not!”, then that is fair. The Democrats have the muscle to do it. But he lied. Not unusual for a politician.
The “stimulus” boondoggle will benefit Democrat constituencies–labor unions, urban groups, etc. far more than Republicans in the suburbs and rural areas. And if, as seems more likely than not, it fails and simply burdens the nation with more debt, middle class Republicans will suffer the consequences more than Democrat working class voters who have little to lose.