GOP Gambles With Stimulus

January 29, 2009

Congressional Republicans hoping to rebound from a second straight drubbing at the polls have placed a very large bet against the $825 billion stimulus package that is the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s early agenda.

The 244-188 vote led by Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is fraught with political risk. Boehner has sought to avoid the label of the “party of no” and push alternatives, but his Conference appears unwilling to back anything but another round of tax cuts.

That had Democrats saying Republicans are stuck in the past by opposing the package while the nation is in crisis…

The Republican campaign machine has meanwhile whipped up the attacks on targeted Democrats over minor provisions in the bill that nonetheless have garnered big headlines.

The National Republican Congressional Committee used a now-eliminated contraceptives line item to go after Democrats in socially conservative districts, following up with an attack targeting Members in states where the community organizing group ACORN is under investigation — another knock at a funding measure in the bill. The NRCC finished its round of firings Wednesday by hitting freshmen in the Democratic Caucus for the sexually transmitted disease prevention funds tacked onto the bill.

“Democrats are going to have a hard time explaining to their constituents why they essentially voted to flush hundreds of billions of dollars away on wasteful pet projects that will do nothing to stimulate the economy,” said Ken Spain, NRCC communications director. “Apparently when [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi yanks the leash, the so-called Blue Dogs roll over and play dead.”

More than a few Democrats in conservative districts voted against a motion to consider the stimulus bill, including Reps. Christopher Carney (Pa.), Travis Childers (Miss.), Walt Minnick (Idaho), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Brad Ellsworth (Ind.), Zack Space (Ohio) and Heath Shuler (N.C.) — all of whom have had competitive races recently and could have tough re-election challenges in 2010.

One Democratic consultant who works with Congressional candidates acknowledged that voting for the stimulus could be politically dangerous for some Members in the short term because the bill might not prove effective for some time.

“I can understand why Democratic Members in some parts of the county in more conservative districts would be more reluctant to support [the stimulus bill] based on the short-term effects on the economy, which are unclear,” said the consultant.

But the consultant recalled that Republicans unsuccessfully targeted Democrats on social issues in the South in the previous cycle only to realize that economy was paramount to all other issues.

For his part, Boehner argued the Democratic plan wouldn’t work, but “fast-acting” tax cuts would.

“At the end of the day, the American people need a plan that works,” he said. Republicans argued their tax cuts would create twice as many jobs as the Democratic plan at half the cost, and said Democrats had failed to consider their ideas….

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