The stimulus negotiation
>> Thursday, January 29, 2009
i think it went like this,
The usual democrat and republican negotiations proceed like this,
Democrat: We want to work together to pass a bipartisan bill that helps the country.
Republican: Great we would love that too.
Democrat: Here is our bill. it focuses on proven methods of increasing economic productivity and we even through in tax cuts cause we know you love those.
Republican: What? This bill is an insult! I thought you wanted to be bipartisan! How could you include things like funding for "science" and "education"? Plus there are not nearly enough tax breaks for business.
Democrat: Ok well, we will take out that objectionable funding to make you happy and we will increase the tax cuts. So now you are going to support this bill right?
Reoublican: This bill is offensive to conservative principles. I could never in good conscience vote for such a spending bill especially when it lacks a repeal of X tax. Plus some of the money could go to minorities. But i might support it if you took out the spending and replaced it with tax cuts.
Democrat: Oh well then lets increase those tax cuts for you. How bout that?
Republican: We will have to think about it.
Of course the Republican does not vote for the bill and the media accuses the democrat of being insufficiently bipartisan. The end result is compromise that earned the Dems nothing except a greater chance of failure.
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2 comments:
It might also have gone like this:
D: We need to pass a stimulus bill right now!
R: Okay, what did you have in mind?
D: Here is is. $819 billion in new spending on top of the increased budget we're going to pass. About $20 billion in tax cuts. Take it or leave it.
R: We were thinking maybe a little less spending and more tax cutting.
D: You're not being bipartisan! What part of "right now" and "take it or leave it" didn't you understand? Don't you realize that we won?
(Just another perspective.)
i might be more inclined to believe the dems used a take it or leave it strategy if they had actually not sacrificed any of the programs from the bill and not increased the tax cut provisions.
I didnt see any evidence that the republican minority was interested in signing onto the bill. The dems made some concessions and included the business tax breaks and failed to garner a single vote from the gop.
read,
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_01/016665.php and i think it becomes clear that the GOP was negotiating in bad faith.
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