The American Spectator

Dave Weigel makes some valid points as to why the unified Republican opposition to the stimulus package is different from the political state of play when they stood together in opposing the Clinton deficit reduction bill in 1993. But it’s worth keeping in mind the bottom line — if unemployment is still high in the fall of 2010, which it is widely expected to be, Republicans can argue that Democrats passed an $800 billion-plus stimulus package that did nothing to produce jobs at a time when we were already staring down annual trillion-dollar deficits. And keep your eye on the possibility of stagflation given the combination of massive fiscal and monetary expansion. Yes, a majority of Americans may support the bill now, but 52 percent is not overwhelming support, and Americans are an impatient bunch. I don’t think that 2010 is going to be another 1994, for a variety of reasons. A more realistic model might be something like 1982, when the recession lost the Republicans 26 House seats. That, of course, would lead to the question of whether a 2011 recovery would lead to an Obama landslide in 2012.