This hit me tonight, and maybe everyone else has already seen it and I'm just slow...
I think that while the Democrats have not been perfect nor pure of heart, by and large they have tried to craft a bill aimed 99% at turning the economy around. Yes there are different approaches to what is best, but there are some very smart people who disagree on the best response. And spreading our bets makes sense.
And yes a small amount of non-stimulus stuff is in there. Or at least non-stimulus in the opinion of 95% of those reading it. But we're talking an amazingly small amount compared to normal legislation.
So all around a comendable effort. No one will love it but something that should be considered reasonable by most. Including Republicans. Yes they would prefer more tax cuts and less spending - but legislation is compromise and it does have tax cuts.
But what we see is a concerted Republican effort to have no Republican votes and to stop the legislation from passing. The pressure on the 3 Republicans in the Senate who are looking for a way to vote for it is at an amazing level. This is not lets visibly disagree and move on, this is try every way they can to stop the votes.
I think the Republicans are viewing this as political warfare to determine who sets the agenda for the next 2 years. And they are willing to do anything, including further destroying our economy, to win this contest.
And since they have this one weapon they are basically holding a gun to our collective head and threatening to blow all of our brains out if we don't let them have control.
What's key about this is to realize what we're facing. If everyone is trying to find a reasonable compromise where all have the same goal (rescuing the economy) but differing opinions on how best to do it, that can be worked out.
But if one party has their main goal being to win the argument, then compromise becomes impossible because the one party will keep moving what is acceptable until the other party capitulates.
If this is the case we truly have two options. 1) Turn the economy over to the Republicans (gee, that's sure worked out well to date), or 2) Find a way to ram it through the Senate either by getting 2 Republicans onboard or changing the rules.
