Republicans Say They'd Support the "Right" Stimulus Bill, But Stimulus for Them Is Only More Tax Cuts

There was an exchange on Meet the Press yesterday that illustrated why Republicans in Congress opposing the stimulus package are being less than forthright with the American people.

David Gregory: "But you cite Japan. Critics of what Japan did during that decade was that they often, with these stimulus plans, raised taxes at the same time, which sort of leveled out the impact of stimulus. So they're not directly comparable."

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.): "Well, well, David, David, taxes are going up in two years. Unless the Bush tax cuts are, are kept where they are today, taxes are going up. So you're going to see the same kind of effect in the United States."

(You can read the transcript of the show here.)

What's the big deal about this exchange? I'll explain in a minute.

With the exception of three Republican senators, no GOP members of Congress are supporting the economic stimulus package advocated by President Obama and most of the Democrats on Capitol Hill. Had the Republicans been honest and said what they really believe, namely that they are committed to continue supporting the "cut taxes, less regulation" mantra that ruled the Bush administration (and got us into this current mess), it would be hard to be too upset with them. After all, they would just be standing behind their positions, no matter how wrong they may be.

But that is not what the Republicans in Congress are doing. Rather, they are taking the disingenuous approach of claiming that they are willing to support a stimulus package, but not this stimulus package, because it is larded with wasteful spending. Their claims are, to use the technical term, a load of crap.

The Republicans are being dishonest in two direct ways: saying that the bill is wasteful, and saying that they are willing to support the "right" stimulus package.

As for waste, the House proposal contained money for some programs the GOP wasn't happy with (e.g., birth control, restoring the Mall in Washington, D.C.). But those expenditures represented a tiny fraction of the total package, and other supposedly wasteful programs were made up by the Republicans. The Republicans were using these proposals as wedge issues to impugn the rest of the legislation. The bill was aimed toward infrastructure projects, benefits (like food stamps and extension of unemployment benefits) and other programs that directly generate spending and jobs, as well as programs (like Pell grants and green energy) that would have long-term financial benefits (after all, Pell grants are automatically spent on education). Oh, and yes, hundreds of millions of dollars in tax cuts to try and appease Republicans, even though Moody's has written that tax cuts are the least efficient way to boost spending.

Is the House or Senate bill perfect? Of course not. But it is far from an earmark-laden, pork-filled piece of legislation, like the Republicans would have you believe. Considering the magnitude of the crisis facing the country (nearly 600,000 jobs lost last month, with unemployment up to 7.6 percent), and considering that economists across the political spectrum have come out in favor of a stimulus initiative, it is hardly outside of the mainstream to support such legislation. But if you listen to the GOP, it's as if the current bill is filled with bridges to nowhere. Their rhetoric is irresponsible. If they want to oppose the idea of a stimulus package? Fine. Roll the dice with the voters. But they know it would be political suicide to do so, so they've settled on being dishonest about the legislation the Democrats have come up with.

And the Republicans are not being truthful when they claim they would support the right stimulus bill. What makes me say that? Because when you listen to their arguments, their version of a stimulus package is a load of tax cuts, which, again according to Moody's, would not create the consumer spending needed to boost the economy. They don't really support stimulus. They support tax cuts that they call stimulus.

It's clear that Republicans have gotten their talking points. All over the media you hear the same terms over and over again come from their mouths: "tax credits," "small business" and "more government." On This Week, new Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele talked about "tax credits" to help "small business" as being the key to stimulus. He even made a laughable point that the Democrats' stimulus bill doesn't create jobs, but only "work." Steele explained that the government-supported projects would only be temporary (like 18 months), which is not a job. I'm sure unemployed workers will feel great relief that Mr. Steele is trying to save them from 18 months of wages, rather than the zero dollars they are making now.

On Meet the Press, Mike Pence, a Republican House member from Indiana, dutifully talked of the Democrats trying to solve problems with "more government," the need to help "small business," and how the best way to "jolt a free market economy" was through... tax cuts. Pence said:

"With, with all due respect to the president of the United States, the ideas, the worn-out ideas that the American people are tired of is runaway federal spending. I believe the American people rejected that under Republican control, and I believe that's the reason why support for this stimulus bill is collapsing by the hour."

Is Pence delusional? The American people had an opportunity in November to say exactly what they were and were not tired of, and they chose Barack Obama and increased majorities for the Democrats in the House and Senate. In other words, they chose Obama's vision of stimulus spending to jolt the economy over the McCain vision of more tax cuts. With all due respect to Rep. Pence, what the American people are tired of is Republicans pushing the warn-out idea of more tax cuts.

Oh, and by the way, Pence is wrong about support for the package. A new Gallup poll shows that 67 percent of Americans approve of how President Obama has handled the efforts to pass a stimulus package, while only 31 percent approve of how the Republicans in Congress have handled the issue (with a whopping 58 percent of respondents disapproving of the GOP).

Which brings me back to Ensign's comment on letting the Bush tax cuts expire. Again, he said, "Unless the Bush tax cuts are, are kept where they are today, taxes are going up." As President Obama made clear in the campaign, the only group affected by the expiring Bush tax cuts would be those people making more than $250,000 per year. And House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who advocated ending the Bush tax cuts early, also only pointed to those people with annual earnings of more than $250,000. Since the stimulus isn't aimed at the higher earners, the sunsetting Bush tax cuts would have no effect on the stimulus plan, and Ensign's parallel to the Japanese example is, as David Gregory pointed out, not applicable.

But even more than Ensign being wrong on the facts, his statement revealed exactly who the Republicans are looking out for. It's not the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs in the last several months, nor the millions of others hit by the weakened economy. No, Ensign's concern is for those making more than $250,000 a year. When the Republicans say they would support the "right" stimulus plan, they are really saying they would support more tax cuts. But we have all learned from the debacle of the Bush years that simply cutting taxes, mostly for the wealthy, doesn't do the trick. Those tax cuts turned surpluses into deficits and, when combined with the rest of Bush's economic policies, ran the economy into its worst state since World War II.

As President Obama and the Democrats in Congress move forward on passing the stimulus bill in the Senate, reconciling the Senate and House versions, and then passing the final bill, it is important that they not get sucked into the Republicans' deceptive rhetoric on the issue. It's hard to act in a bipartisan way when the other side is pretending to work with you while actually trying to bring down your legislation and insert their own failed policies instead. If you look closely at what the Republicans are saying, this isn't a debate on the merits of this stimulus legislation, but rather another round of policy battles fought during last year's campaign. The Democrats won that battle in 2008. They don't have to win it again now. They have a mandate from the voters to get a stimulus program done. I just hope they realize that.

Comments

[redsongia]

Ensign is a disgrace to Nevada, if he'll stand by and let them bash the high-speed rail project between LA and Las Vegas as "frivolous" spending. The environmental impact of millions of people driving and flying back and forth for the weekend all the time alone makes it worth while.

[PubliusRedux]

Dear Mr. Bard:

Just to let you know there IS a Republican alternative plan to resolve The Great Recession other than "just tax cutting." If you are truly interested, you can find it in "Does America Need Another 'New Deal' Or A Completely New Deal?" at RepublicanPro or OpenSalon.com.

[idest]

Which member of Congress is sponsoring that plan?

[STG 44]

In 1920 the American economy entered a depression as severe as the first year of the "Great Depression" of the 1930's. The government did nothing. The economy recovered within two years to produce the "Roaring Twenties" boom. In 1929 the American economy entered another depression. The government screwed around with the money supply, taxes and spending. The "Great Depression" lasted until World War II. Maybe the government should just keep the H*ll out of the way!

[JustMyWords]

And aside from both being repression­/depressio­n situations, they were very different and with different causes. Comparing apples to oranges is never a very productive exercise.

[Larry Buchite]

The republican definition of bipartisanship is to to just what they say.

[STG 44]

Crashing and burning on a T.V. near you now: the Obama administration!

[Larry Buchite]

The Obama administration could crash and burn trying to clean up after GW Bush.

[Wake-up]

"Oh yeah... well my Dad can beat-up your Dad..."

[Larry Buchite]

There is one thing to think about its not hard to beat up a dead man.

[RRonin]

Bottom line: a 'tax cut" is actually a "spending bill" because eliminating a source of revenue is no different from spending money. Either way, the government has less money to do the job it's mandated to do. My late mother-in law used to say "The more money you SPEND the more money you GET." She would have made a perfect Republican politician.

[Schaef]

You are not eliminating a source of revenue. Tax rates are not a zero-sum game. Tax revenues went up after Kennedy cut them in 61, after Reagan cut them in 81, after Clinton cut them in the late 90s, and after Bush cut them in 2001-2003. Revenues in the second half of the Bush Administation were on the same level as the Clinton dot-com boom.

So no, cutting taxes is not the same as spending money, for two reasons. One, it's OUR money, NOT THEIRS, and two, it's not eliminating a source of revenue.

[idest]

Actually, yes it is. You are pretending that the tax rate is the only thing that affects the tax revenue. Only someone completely naive would believe that.

[alumtrix]

........"The Republicans are being dishonest in two direct ways:".........

Let's compare the previous statement to the following statement.

......."A new Gallup poll shows that 67 percent of Americans approve of how President Obama has handled the efforts to pass a stimulus package,"........

I understand his point that the sculpture project is a thing of the past and not actually in this stimulus package and he's claiming this is being dishonest. But then he follows this up with his own dishonesty. The gallup poll he cites does not in any way say that 67% of the people support the bill. It says that 67% of the people support the way that Obama is handling the situation concerning the stimulus bill.

[JustMyWords]

So, your interpretation is that people support the way Obama is handling the situation but they hate the stimulus bill? I know most people go through life blissfully illogical, but....

[Schaef]

He's saying one question does not translate into what is being said. I could in fact oppose the bill and agree with his handling.

Except, I don't oppose the bill so much as the needless pork, and I don't agree with his sarcastic condescension.

[kteachums]

The Republicans already got their stimulus. They padded their pockets and the pockets of their friends. President Obama needs to forget about them after this since they are vent on distroying anything he wants to accomplish. I will never vote Republican the rest of my life. I don't care how good the person is. They don't care about the poor or whether people have jobs. All they care about is taking care of their fat friends.

[it is me]

I posted my full response to this earlier today. But what really tells you how this country works is that the majority of Americans would like more tax cuts in the stimulus and less spending. Isn't that brilliant?

[newsweek1945]

Most thinking people really know that when the Repubs talk "tax cut", it is the buzz phrase for, "pay our benefactors back". Little bush did all he could for eight years, and the parasites are still not sated. Wow! what gall!! How can a worker appreciate a "tax cut" if he or she is not employed? More lies and spin, America, don't, please, don't be fooled again!

[webnuts4u2]

Yes the Republicans are silly people. Why don't they just do away with Senate protocol and the Dems get together and pass this bill? I've heard that the Senate did the right thing and has put Universal Health care provisions in this bill. Well it's about time. I'm so sick of paying $1500/month for Cobra coverage. When is the government going to start taking some of the money from those rich executives and pay my medical insurance? I can't wait!

[Schaef]

It's the right thing to put health care provisions in a bill that 's not about health care?

[idest]

You think health care has no affect on the economy? Wow, talk about loony-tunes.

[Hempy]

Republican economic philosophy is rooted and grounded in feudalism, and divine rights.

Divine rights is sometimes restated as "free market" or, "He who has the gold, rules."

Sen. McConnell (R-KY) calls the stimulus package the "Europefication" of America. He would have been more correct had he referred to it as the "Hamiltoni­anfication­" of America.

But alas! Republicans don't like Alexander Hamilton's economics as expressed in his 1791 report to Congress on manufactures.

[Nomccain]

Thats all the republicans know how to do, is give tax breaks to the wealthy and continue to borrow for their programs for someone else to pay back. They're boobs when it comes to the economy and they stand in the way of anyone else who's trying to do something about the mess they've created.

[dfranz]

What a bunch of ditto heads these Repubs are. Not a fresh idea amongst the bunch.

[janellrcarter1]

The Repubs have been infected by their own fear mongering. They are so terrorized that something their opponents are proposing will succeed or even just help easy the financial disaster their policies have contributed to that they are Henny-Pennying to anyone who will listen. Their rhetoric is just another version of Baffoon Limbaugh's anti-Americans "I hope he (Obama) fails" garbage. His fellow Nerophytes are desparately hoping Obama and his plans will fail because they are far more interested in regaining power at all costs than in what will create jobs. McCain is worst of all, crying about 'our children and grandchilden' paying off the debt the stimulus package would create. Well, heck, Mr. McCain, you should have thought of that before you started beating your warrior chest and being so willing to shovel all those billions of dollars over to Iraq.

[gevan]

The GOP also enjoyed the TARP funds being handed out willy-nilly to their banker friends by Hank Paulson, though they may deny it now. They just don't want to see the second half handed out to banks with transparency by Tim Geithner. It's not the money, it's the publicity they do not want.

[Schaef]

Based on what we've seen this week, I have to say your notion of transparency is baffling at best.