* Democrats should pass the stimulus bill they believe in and dare the obstructionist Senate Republicans to filibuster

Paul Krugman writes in the NYT (2-9-09) …

• Even if the original Obama plan — around $800 billion in stimulus, with a substantial fraction of that total given over to ineffective tax cuts — had been enacted, it wouldn’t have been enough to fill the looming hole in the U.S. economy, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will amount to $2.9 trillion over the next three years.
• One of the best features of the original plan was aid to cash-strapped state governments, which would have provided a quick boost to the economy while preserving essential services. But the centrists insisted on a $40 billion cut in that spending.
• The original plan also included badly needed spending on school construction; $16 billion of that spending was cut. It included aid to the unemployed, especially help in maintaining health care — cut. Food stamps — cut.
• All in all, more than $80 billion was cut from the plan, with the great bulk of those cuts falling on precisely the measures that would do the most to reduce the depth and pain of this slump.
• But how did this happen? I blame President Obama’s belief that he can transcend the partisan divide — a belief that warped his economic strategy.
• Mr. Obama’s postpartisan yearnings may also explain why he didn’t do something crucially important: speak forcefully about how government spending can help support the economy.
• And Mr. Obama got nothing in return for his bipartisan outreach. Not one Republican voted for the House version of the stimulus plan.
• Mr. Obama may be able to come back for a second round. But this was his best chance to get decisive action, and it fell short.

LMW COMMENT …

President Obama’s first attempt to engage Republicans in a bipartisan approach to the stimulus package has failed. Republicans refused to support the bill or offer constructive alternatives other than their tired mantra of cutting taxes which they view as a way to reduce government, but which instead led to the trillion dollar deficits and the de-regulation disasters of the Bush years.

Will this failure get reversed in the joint committee? I doubt it. The Republicans smell blood and are more than willing to tromp on the national interest in the pursuit of damage to Obama and hope for their election success in 2010 and 2012.

The country very much wants an end to partisan bickering, but no such end is in sight. Maybe the country will reject the re-election bids of those obstructionist Republican who are so focused on political infighting. Based on the past week or so, I think that’s more likely than Obama winning them over to a more responsible approach. Perhaps I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Meanwhile the Democrats in Congress should pass the stimulus bill they (and the President) believe in, and just dare the Senate Republicans to filibuster.

Read the entire column at … http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/opinion/09krugman.html?ref=opinion