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RedState's Morning Briefing for Monday, February 9, 2009
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Morning Briefing for MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2009
THE COST OF STIMULUS AS THE SENATE VOTES
Cost of bipartisan deal: $780bn
Cost of amendments added on the floor: $47bn
Total cost of Senate bill: $827.0bn
Total estimated cost with interest: $1.2 trillion
Senate bill is $7.5bn higher than the House bill
1. Democrat Congressman: ‘Stimulus’ is More than 80% Waste
The bill is tremendously wasteful, and it will hurt the economy rather than help it. Will Minnick’s fellow Democrats listen?
2. Biden: Spending Vote Gives GOP a Weapon Against Democrats
If you vote for it, you might join Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky in the history books.
3. Obama’s Solicitor General Nominee Hates the Military & Lacks *Any* Experience
If she argues before SCOUT, it’ll be like Robert Gibbs before the press corp, but with more blood.
4. So Far, Democrats’ Vote More Partisan Than GOP
Liberals will probably argue that everyone should support Obama’s agenda, because he got elected on it.
THE COST OF STIMULUS AS THE SENATE VOTES
Cost of bipartisan deal: $780bn
Cost of amendments added on the floor: $47bn
Total cost of Senate bill: $827.0bn
Total estimated cost with interest: $1.2 trillion
Senate bill is $7.5bn higher than the House bill
1. Democrat Congressman: ‘Stimulus’ is More than 80% Waste
The bill is tremendously wasteful, and it will hurt the economy rather than help it. Will Minnick’s fellow Democrats listen?
“The biggest difference is that I’ve cut out everything that doesn’t create jobs in this year and next,” Minnick said Thursday. “It’s only $174 billion, $650 billion less than what the House passed and probably $750 billion less than the trillion dollar bill the Senate is talking about. It focuses on infrastructure spending, there’s $70 billion on bridges, roads and school construction and there’s $100 billion on tax cuts to middle and low income people.
Minnick said his proposal would spend all the money by the end of 2010, while the White House proposal would only spend 30 percent of the larger amount they’re proposing.
2. Biden: Spending Vote Gives GOP a Weapon Against Democrats
If you vote for it, you might join Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky in the history books.
Vice President Joseph Biden, addressing Democrats earlier in the day, offered an assessment more in line with what several who support the package fear: that their votes could become a political liability.
“If it works, as I’m absolutely convinced it will … when we do, I’m sure you’re gonna be nailed in ads, ‘Well they voted on that’ 30-second ads,” he said.
Well, Barack Obama picked him because he tells hard truths: Obama’s youth and inexperience will invite serious challenges from American enemies; Hillary Clinton would have been a better vice presidential pick; and, the Obama-Reid-Pelosi debt spending plan will be a political millstone for the Democrats who support it.
But while Biden may sound like a wet blanket, I have good news for Congressional Democrats. If this vote turns out like Bill Clinton’s 1993 budget package (as plummeting poll numbers suggest), there is one thing Democrats can do to protect themselves against defeat in 2010. They can vote against it. When Bill Clinton’s unpopular budget package passed in August, 1993, 41 House Democrats voted against it. Of those 41, just 6 were defeated in the 1994 election.
3. Obama’s Solicitor General Nominee Hates the Military & Lacks *Any* Experience
If she argues before SCOUT, it’ll be like Robert Gibbs before the press corp, but with more blood.
Obama wants Elena Kagan to be his Solicitor General. She would be responsible for arguing cases on behalf of the United States in front of the US Supreme Court. But, according to the Legal Times, Kagan has never argued a case before a single appellate court. Not the US Supreme Court. Not any state Supreme Court. Not even a Circuit Court. She concedes even that she has never tried a case to verdict or judgment.
But more troubling, Kagan led Harvard’s charge to overturn the Solomon amendment. The legislation prohibits federal funds from going to schools that deny campus access to military recruiters.
Keep in mind that the United States Supreme Court, shortly after Kagan’s rapid decision to throw military recruiters off campus, upheld the Solomon Amendment in an 8-0 decision.
In other words, Kagan is so blinded by her social activism, she couldn’t rationally recognize a clear constitution issue — one so clear that John Paul Stevens and Antonin Scalia were on the same side. (PDF)
Kagan will be expected to argue on behalf of the United States before the Supreme Court though she’s never tried a case to verdict nor argued before a court.
4. So Far, Democrats’ Vote More Partisan Than GOP
Liberals will probably argue that everyone should support Obama’s agenda, because he got elected on it.
Nate Silver points out that so far, Democrats have been marching in lockstep support of the Obama agenda at a significantly higher rate than Republicans have been voting against. And this is despite all the attention to the ‘moderate Democrats’ who are trying to reduce the size of the Obama-Reid-Pelosi spending bill.
Liberals will probably argue that everyone should support Obama’s agenda, because he got elected on it. But the bill before Congress today bears no relation to anything Obama promised in the campaign. In fact, it goes in direct contravention to his promise to reduce federal spending. That’s why it’s tanking in the polls, and why anyone with an open-mind ought to be skeptical. Instead, it is Republicans who are proving to be open to compromise.
Exit question: how many stories do you expect to read in the mainstream media about the refusal of Democrats to compromise, or reach out to the other side?
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