Are Republicans, in fact, sincere in their belief that the way to restore economic growth and lower unemployment is to cut spending and regulation? Or are they—as Democrats generally assume—pursuing a cynical strategy of trying to keep the economy as weak as possible into 2012 in hopes of defeating Obama?
In reality, the economic views of most Republicans are not driven purely by ideology or politics, but by the herd imperative—to stay in line and obey their leaders. Of those who were in Congress in 2008, 85 percent voted in favor of the Bush stimulus bill, which was smaller but no different in principle. To assume that these people have a view about whether Obama's jobs plan would work gives them far too much credit. The only jobs they think about are their own.
