GOP stabs Obama in the back
By Bill Press Read Spanish Version
Barack
Obama has only been president since Jan. 20, but he’s already learned a
powerful lesson: Bipartisanship is a myth. At least, it’s a myth at this time
in
with this gang of negative, out-of-touch, calcified Republicans led by the
clueless John Boehner.
God
knows he tried. Even before being sworn in as president, Obama traveled to
Capitol Hill to meet with House and Senate Republicans. In his first week in
office, he invited Republican leaders to the White House. But he didn’t stop
there. In a gesture seldom seem in partisan-bound
go to Congress to meet with Democrats? — Obama drove up to Capitol Hill to
have lunch with Republican members.
Both
in his speeches and actions, Obama’s extended the hand of bipartisanship to
Republicans. And how did they respond? By stabbing him in the back. When his
$819 billion stimulus package came up on the House floor, not one Republican
voted for it. Not one. So much for bipartisanship.
Obama’s
wasting his time seeking bipartisanship. Not that it’s not a worthy goal. In
fact, that’s just what the American people want: for leaders of both parties to
put aside their differences, sit down together, and get to work solving problems.
And, clearly, working in a bipartisan manner is what Obama wants. But not
Republicans. They chose, instead, to reject the will of the American people,
ignore the grave economic crisis facing the nation, and slap, not shake, the
hand of friendship Barack Obama extended across the aisle.
Why?
Because Republicans care more about their party than their country. They can’t
stand the idea that Obama might actually fix our ailing economy and get credit
for it. They don’t want him to succeed. As right-wing blowhard Rush Limbaugh,
the real leader of the Republican Party, recently declared: "I want him to
fail."
Think
about that. If Obama fails, the economy fails even more. If Obama fails,
millions more Americans lose their homes and jobs. If Obama fails,
But Republicans don’t care. They care only about how best to win back political
power — which they believe, misled by Limbaugh, will happen only if they
oppose everything Obama stands for. They want him to fail.
What
a big mistake. Didn’t Republicans learn anything under Bill Clinton? In 1993,
facing a much milder economic downturn, President Clinton crafted his own
economic recovery plan and also reached out for bipartisan support. But
Republicans refused to cooperate. Newt Gingrich warned that
So
too, had to settle for enacting an economic plan with not one Republican vote.
The result? Eight years of the most sustained non-wartime economic growth in
our history.
There
is, however, one difference. Knowing how popular Obama is, today’s Republicans
don’t blame the president himself for their problems with the stimulus. They
don’t dare. Instead, they blame Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and that’s absurd. The
stimulus plan was written by the Obama transition team. It was sent to Congress
by the Obama White House. It’s Obama’s plan. In fact, attempting to appease
Republicans, Obama dropped the only part of the package Pelosi personally
championed: expanding family planning under Medicaid. He wasted his time. It
didn’t win one Republican vote. Again, so much for bipartisanship.
Every
explanation given by Republicans for opposing the Obama stimulus package falls
flat. They say it doesn’t offer enough tax cuts. Wrong. It includes $275
billion in tax cuts for Americans making less than $250,000 a year, instead of
the wealthiest Americans who benefited from Bush’s tax cuts.
Republicans
also complain about spending so much money. Wrong again. Yes, the price tag is
high. But only because the Bush-created economic hole we have to climb out of
is so deep. And notice that these same Republicans who now complain about
dollars to help
had no problem spending $700 billion to bail out Wall Street or over even more
to "liberate"
Indeed,
it’s hard to understand what Republicans are up to. They buck the most popular
president since Reagan. They do nothing to fix the economy. They fiddle while
That’s not political courage. That’s political suicide.
For
his part, Obama took the high road. "What we can’t do is drag our feet or
allow the same partisan differences to get in our way," he said after the
vote. If only one Republican were listening.
Bill
Press is host of a nationally syndicated radio show and author of a new book, "Train Wreck: The End of the Conservative Revolution
(and Not a Moment Too Soon)." You
can hear "The Bill Press Show" at his Web site: billpressshow.com.
His email address is: bill@billpress.com.
(c) 2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc
