Dancing the Stimulus Shuffle

The GOP's response to the stimulus bill has been something to behold. It's gone roughly something like this:

1) Oppose the bill en masse.
2) Deny that government spending can ever, ever create a job. Only rugged capitalists can do such a thing.
3) Claim that the stimulus has made the economy worse.
4) Continue this stance in public even when it is obviously true, and even acknowledged among right of center economists, that the bill has staved off a depression and saved lots of jobs.
5) Do everything in your power to get ahold of as many stimulus funds as possible for your constituency because, you know, that stuff creates jobs.
6) Take credit for 5 at local level.
7) Continue to engage in steps 2-4 at national level.
8) Repeat as necessary

Fiscal Conservatism for Thee

This article about "fiscally conservative" Republicans all butthurt because their own pet projects are being singled out for cuts is just too much. My personal fave is our very own Mitch McConnell whining about cuts to coal subsidies, with his spokesman claiming that "an end to subsidies is the equivalent of tax increases on the coal industry." Smell the free market freedomness!

QOTD

Jonathan Zasloff via Paul Krugman, on the Obama Administration's proposed spending freeze:

What next? The rotting corpse of Andrew Mellon as Treasury Secretary? Or do we already have that?

Health Care Reform Opposition From the Left

Since the passage of the Senate health care bill, there has been quite a bit of unrest on the left over its very modest, gradualist provisions, with some even preferring to completely scuttle the bill. I tend to disagree with this line of thinking, and thought it was mainly confined to a few ardent leftwingers.

A new poll from CBS (via pollingreport), though, suggests that quite a bit of the opposition to health care reform may now be coming from the left. Here are the specific results which lead me toward this conclusion:

1) Support for the Republican approach to HCR is even lower than that of the Democrats.

2) 35% of respondents say that the reform "doesn't go far enough" in terms of expanding access to coverage to only 32% who say it "goes too far" and 22% who say it's "about right" (you could put me in the 35%).

3) A full 43% say that the cost containment measures "don't go far enough," with only 27% saying that they "go too far" and 18% saying that they are "about right." There's nothing inherently leftwing about health care cost containment, but within the context of this particular debate, the GOP/rightwing position has generally been against "bending the curve" and pro-fearmongering about death panels and other deterioration in the quality of care coming in the wake of reform.

QOTD

From here:

About six million Americans receiving food stamps report they have no other income, according to an analysis of state data collected by The New York Times. In declarations that states verify and the federal government audits, they described themselves as unemployed and receiving no cash aid — no welfare, no unemployment insurance, and no pensions, child support or disability pay.