Tuesday, President Obama will sign the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law. Then it’s ‘waiting to exhale’ as we see if it will have any significant effect over the next couple of years. In the meanwhile, the sub-text of this bill, ‘the making of’ if you will, deserves close and critical scrutiny. The last several weeks have seen a scary and disgusting display of everything that is wrong with our congressional representatives in general and the Republican caucus in particular.
No one denies the gravity of the crisis facing the global economy. It is compared to the two worst episodes in modern economic history – the Great Depression and Japan’s lost decade. Depending on who is talking, we are either repeating the mistakes of those two catastrophes or we have learned the lessons. The stimulus bill is either way too large or not nearly expansive enough. The spending share is too much, or too little; the tax cuts take in an excessive portion of the total or not nearly enough.
No one knows or can say for sure. We are learning that with a crisis of this severity, economics is far more art than science; an art where the abundance of alternatives is only surpassed by the scarcity of certainty.
Outside the beltway, people are losing their jobs, their homes, their health care at an already alarming yet still accelerating rate. Inside the beltway, our representatives are ostensibly passing an economic revival and rescue package but they are actually pre-occupied with petty, childish and destructive political power games.
The Democrats have been relishing in the satisfaction of their near trifecta election win, finally dishing it out to the Republicans for some sweet payback. And the Republicans for their part have already turned their gaze to the 2010 midterms while closing their eyes to the suffering of their constituents right now. This preview promises a continuation of the bitter divisive and destructive shenanigans that we are sick and tired of and which, quite frankly, pose a serious threat to the nation’s long-term well-being.
And to make matters worst, the attacks the Republicans in particular engaged in and the arguments they brought forward in opposition to the bill were of the worst kind: vapid old ideology when what we need are substantive and creative ideas; misleading and deceptive when we need honesty and intellectual integrity.
Our nation and our world are facing a generational crisis. To overcome this challenge, and the many other challenges facing us, we need a unified and engaged nation. We need leaders in whom we can place both our hopes and our trust. And as we saw on January 20th, we have finally, for the first time in a long time, chosen a President behind whom the nation is ready, willing and anxious to rally.
And within weeks, at the very first test when it really counted, the Republicans in Congress have demonstrated their preference for division over shared purpose. How dare the Republicans work with such commitment and vigor to destroy the one thing we need more than anything else at this moment of crisis and angst– a hopeful, confident and unified nation?
How is it possible to so callously and cynically ignore the gaze of a longing nation looking to Washington as the only source that can help them now? The municipalities can no longer cope, the states can no longer go it alone and the private market is in paralytic decline. The country, and indeed the world, looks to the last place from which leadership and help can come and the Republican caucus only wants to play the same political games as if things were business as usual.
The misleading statements, some out and out lies, that the Republicans have been spewing about many of the specifics in the bill are far too many to mention here. Their protestations that we are committing 'generational theft' are the high point of cynical self-righteousness. This crisis is 28 years in the making, since Ronald Reagan’s time. And remember, the Republicans have held the presidency for 20 of those 28 years with total or split control of the Congress for 18 of those years. How can they display such haughty arrogance when their own party’s record while in power tells us they should be incredibly humbled?
Both parties have disappointed by not showing the maturity, magnanimity and cooperative spirit we need to overcome this crisis (not to mention the other generational challenges we simultaneously face). But the congressional Republicans are en masse actively and consciously undermining good efforts to do what most now believe is the best course of action.
For example, the National Governors Association, the US Conference of Mayors, the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce all support the stimulus plan, with all its possible imperfections, as the best way forward. And these institutions are certainly no rubber stampers for so-called ‘big spend Democrats’. Even the arch conservative Financial Times calling it “a plan that is ugly but necessary” wrote, “Even if it cannot be admired, it deserves a qualified welcome."
Let’s be honest, with so much contradictory honest expert opinion on both sides and with such a wide range of non-partisan support outside of Washington, it is absolutely inconceivable that only 3 out of 219 Republicans – a mere 1.4% - were willing to actively help craft this bill or to even give it the benefit of the doubt.
It is high time that the Republican caucus in Congress grows up and faces up to their responsibility in this time of crisis. The time for games is over. The Republicans’ self-serving and egotistical divisive partisan power games need to stop. (And to be fair, the House majority leader, Nancy Pelosi, also needs to come off her high partisan horse.)
You know the expression, “Lead, follow or get out of the way!”? Republicans, you seem to have made your choice. Now get the hell out of the way if you aren't willing to do any better.
Aye Aye!!
Posted by: Halla | February 16, 2009 at 19:28
Hi Halla!
Aye aye indeed!
Posted by: lennybruce | February 16, 2009 at 19:39