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Republicans and the Stimulus

By W. James Antle, III on 2.17.09 @ 10:32AM

Some conservatives have been critical of the Republicans' handling of the stimulus debate. Sure, Republicans would have been better off uniting around a plausible alternative to the stimulus package. There's a reason the polls showed more people turning against the stimulus as a result of Republican attacks than turning toward the GOP. Republicans will eventually have to have their own solutions to win again.

The much-maligned Jim DeMint plan contained some sound policies, but it was vulnerable to the same criticisms as the Democratic stimulus: it was just a bunch of stuff its supporters already wanted to do anyway traveling under the name "stimulus." (It also would involve its fair share of large-scale borrowing in the absence of spending cuts.) The House Republicans' line about their alternative plan creating twice as many jobs for half the money got caught up in debates about the details. It also never broke through the president's rhetoric insisting that all his critics wanted to do nothing about the recession.

But overall, I can't fault the Republicans' approach to the stimulus too much. Let's get one thing out of the way: they were never going to have much influence over the final product. President Obama may have wanted more Republican votes, but the underlying policy differences were simply too great for him get them. The Democratic congressional leadership didn't even want that many Republican votes -- they were content to do only what little it took to woo enough liberal Republican senators to get to 60 votes for a stimulus package in the Senate. Once they had Collins, Specter, and Snowe, there was no more dealmaking.

Nor did the Republicans stand a chance of prevailing legislatively once their unanimity was broken in the Senate. The Democrats have the raw numbers and political power. All the Republicans had was the filibuster and various other points of order that require 60 votes to waive. Once the Democrats counted to 60, the bill was going to pass no matter what John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor or Rush Limbaugh had to say about it.

No, the marsh mouse wasn't the biggest thing at stake in a bill that moves the country toward government-run health care and away from welfare reform, among other problems. But it seems a better use of pork-barrel spending -- taking an absurd example to illustrate the absurdity of an undesirable piece of legislation -- than the disproportionate crusade against earmarks undertaken by John McCain.

This is the first time the Republicans have taken a political risk in opposing a large, misguided spending item since Bill Clinton was president. (The only arguable exception is the Republican resistance to SCHIP expansion, though Republican votes were crucial to the creation of SCHIP itself). Whatever can be said of their sincerity, their consistency, their timing, or what kind of buffoonery they'd now be engaged in if McCain were president, if commentators who thought the stimulus was bad policy criticize Republicans for voting against it, who is going to praise them?

A coherent Republican plan for governing isn't going to flow out of the anti-stimulus campaign anymore than the Contract with America was the direct product of the Republicans' unanimous opposition to the Clinton tax increase in 1993. But it's a step in a better direction than the party has traveled in recent years.

View all comments (454) | Leave a comment

Dan D| 2.17.09 @ 11:15AM

Absolutely, but it ranks as a serious missed opportunity. The takeaway most people had, thanks to the Obama administration and their cheerleaders in the press, was that the Republicans opposed mainly for the sake of opposition.

A more focused leadership and spokesman class could just have easily made a few, clear points about a positive GOP alternative plan, with faster stimulus and less debt, payroll tax relief, and providing certainty in the financial markets. Then the GOP would have left the impression that they were offering a better fix for what ails the economy and worried Americans.

They need messengers who can keep their eye on the ball.

anı defteri| 4.2.11 @ 4:17PM

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thirteen28| 2.17.09 @ 12:13PM

It just kills me that for the first time in ages the Republicans in DC (save for the Turncoat 3) did something that both stood on principle and really energized the base and these anointed ones (even Jonah Goldberg, for crapweasel's sake!) want to dump all over them. Never mind the fact that they did offer alternatives, never mind the fact that they were completely shut out of negotiations in the house, never mind the fact that this bill was 100% written by Democrats, never mind that Republicans don't have the votes to have much influence anyway. No, instead they want to dump all over Republicans for finally taking a principled stand.

Tell me, why they hell should we listen to Frum, Douthat, and increasingly, Goldberg anymore? If anyone's out of touch on this issue, it sure as hell isn't the House GOP and the majority of the Senate GOP.

Thomas| 2.17.09 @ 12:23PM

Harrumph, harrumph, harrumph. Come on, now. The biggest problem that the Republican's faced with the stimulus package was that they couldn't control their membership. Yes they couldn't stop the House bill, a simple majority was all that was required there. But in the Senate, they could have forced a filibuster. But, they couldn't control their membership. All that was necessary was to stall the bill for a short time, a week or two, to possibly kill it. But, the Republicans were unable to do so.

No, this is a Republican bill , plain and simple. It wouldn't have passed without Republican support.

As to a Republican alternative to the current "stimulus" bill, there isn't one. There can't be an intelligent approach to the current fiscal problem as long as the "Chicken Little" mentality reigns in Congress. Slow down, analyze the problem and then address it in a practical manner.

At this point, Republicans [individually and as a party] have rendered themselves totally irrelevant. And it may be too late to recover before 2010.

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Stimulus » The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Republicans and the Stimulus links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

); Stimulus self.focus(); February 17, 2009 The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Republicans and the Stimulus Filed under: Uncategorized — @ 9:32 am W. James Antle, III wrote an interesting post today on The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : Republicans and the Stimulus Here’s a quick excerpt Some conservatives have been critical of the Republicans’…

Pingback| 2.18.09 @ 7:38AM

Commentary » Blog Archive » Flotsam and Jetsam links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…an awful idea even Jimmy Carter can figure it out. Newsweek is closing bureaus. Newsweek has bureaus? Since they are just an opinion outlet now (well, they admit it now) why do they need to go anywhere? James Antle, I think, gets it exactly right: the House and virtually all of the Senate Republicans did about all they could to oppose the stimulus, advertise its weaknesses and offer alternatives. I realize…

BreakRoomLive| 2.23.09 @ 1:11PM

A Conservative listener calls a Progressive TV show to discuss the Stimulus Bill, hilarity ensues:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H156Rrc0iL4

EscTechSite| 6.15.09 @ 1:13AM

Come on. The Rupublicans are the ones who thought up of this stimulus plan. Remember when Bush was still in office they organised and structured the whole thing. This isn't about the stimulus, this is about politics. It's about being republican and not voting for another party. It's about making it hard for others.

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