Obama Decides to Try to Kowtow to Republicans

Well, it now appears that Barack Obama is looking at about $300 billion of the stimulus package being taxcuts.

Why? Because he wants to get more than 80 votes in the Senate.

This is delusional, and it is wrong. The Republicans don't care about making government work for the people, and if it doesn't work, he will get the blame anyway.

Anything worth passing will not get Republican votes. Obama need only remember that Social Security passed without a single Republican vote....Not one.


I agree with Josh Marshall when he says, "Can someone help me come up with an argument for why the Obama stimulus plan isn't turning out to be a painful joke?"

The Shrill One, Paul Krugman, makes the best point on his blog:

Look, Republicans are not going to come on board. Make 40% of the package tax cuts, they’ll demand 100%. Then they’ll start the thing about how you can’t cut taxes on people who don’t pay taxes (with only income taxes counting, of course) and demand that the plan focus on the affluent. Then they’ll demand cuts in corporate taxes. And Mitch McConnell is already saying that state and local governments should get loans, not aid — which would undermine that part of the plan, too.

He follows up with another good point in his column, that Republicans are already, "setting up roadblocks to stimulus legislation while posing as the champions of careful Congressional deliberation," and then he follows up with the point that action needs to be taken quickly, and Republicans have no interest in taking action at all.

They believe that action in and of itself is evil.

Hilzoy notes, tax cuts give among the smallest GDP bang for the buck: