Of course the Republicans are resisting the stimulus package. That's what they do. Bipartisanship only works if both sides play. And, we're seeing that the GOP is playing the same old games. Lest anyone forget, it was a Republican president abetted by a Republican Congress that got us into this crisis. So, why would anyone want the GOP to determine the stimulus package? They'd just give us more of the same:
Just days after taking office vowing to end the political era of "petty grievances," President Obama ran into mounting GOP opposition yesterday to an economic stimulus plan that he had hoped would receive broad bipartisan support.Thank you, Nancy Pelosi. Our side won because the American people wanted change. Elections are supposed to have consequences. And, one consequence of this election has to be an improved economy. Soon. Very soon. The GOPers on Capitol Hill are willing to sacrifice the U.S. economy (when we're on the verge of a depression) for their own self-interest. That's sick, but that's their choice. You know a lot of Republicans agree with the words of Rush Limbaugh when he said, "I hope Obama fails."
Republicans accused Democrats of abandoning the new president's pledge, ignoring his call for bipartisan comity and shutting them out of the process by writing the $850 billion legislation. The first drafts of the plan would result in more spending on favored Democratic agenda items, such as federal funding of the arts, they said, but would do little to stimulate the ailing economy.
The GOP's shrunken numbers, particularly in the Senate, will make it difficult for Republicans to stop the stimulus bill, but the growing GOP doubts mean that Obama's first major initiative could be passed on a largely party-line vote -- little different from the past 16 years of partisan sniping in the Clinton and Bush eras.
"Yes, we wrote the bill. Yes, we won the election," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters yesterday, saying Republicans were not being realistic in their expectations.
