Ice on the Windshield

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There was ice on my windshield this morning. I didn’t have a scraper, so I set both the front and rear defrosters going and waited for them to do their magic. It seemed to be taking longer than expected, however, so I looked again. That’s when I discovered that I had pushed the button to turn on the air conditioning instead of the rear windshield defroster. I fixed that, and soon I could see well enough to drive.

It seems to me that Obama is in a similar situation with the economic recovery plan, a.k.a. the stimulus package. Instead of writing a bill that would do what he thinks needs doing, and only what he thinks needs doing, he tried to write one that would invite the Republicans to be bipartisan or post-partisan or whatever -- to get with the program. Instead, the Republicans are playing their old partisan games and complaining that the bill doesn’t do enough of what they want and does too much of what the Democrats want. In the meantime, the Democrats are complaining that it does too little of what they want.

Now, I know and you know that Obama is trying to find a proposal that will garner broad support in the Congress. But the Republicans clearly aren’t going to give him that. Faced with a bill that includes $300 billion in tax cuts, they are whining that it doesn’t have enough tax breaks for businesses. Never mind that the tax cuts for individuals will give them the money to buy the goods and services the businesses produce. If Obama sweetened the bill, I’ll bet the Republicans would complain that it doesn’t cut the capital gains tax.

It’s time to admit it. They’re not going to support the bill no matter how it’s written. They still haven’t got the message voters sent them in 2006 and again last fall that we’re tired of this constant bickering at the expense of getting the people’s business done – and that we don’t believe their economic theories are the right ones for today’s problems.

So I think Obama should withdraw this one and send a different package to the Hill. The new package should include even more spending on infrastructure, should have fewer tax cuts, and should increase the amount that is going directly into the pockets of unemployed, elderly, and TANF citizens so that it will be spent immediately on necessities. That would be a real stimulus.

And I think Obama should say right out that he gave the Republicans a chance and they didn’t take it. He tried to give them something of what they want in order to get their support for something that would be good for the whole country, but they wouldn't buy it. So now we’re going to do it the Democrats’ way.

In other words, I think he should turn on every defroster full blast and see if that doesn’t melt some of the ice.
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