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Stimulus plan not working politically either
By: Chris Stirewalt
Political Editor
07/05/09 2:54 PM EDT
When President Obama signed his stimulus into law in February, Democrats issued grave warnings of the price Republicans would pay for their opposition to the bill.
“Americans will hold House Republicans accountable for ‘just saying no’ to the largest tax cut in American history and saving and creating three to four million jobs,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who also serves as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
There are still about 140 million jobs still left in the country, so taken in the broadest possible sense, Democrats have exceeded their promise on the “save” end of the equation. It’s hard in the face of recent unemployment numbers, though, to suggest that the "create" part is doing so well.
Every Republican and six Democrats in the House ignored President Obama’s dire warnings about how the failure to pass the largest spending bill in American history could result in unemployment of almost 9 percent.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told the Washington Post that there would be voters “in districts all over the country that will wonder why, when there’s a good bill to get the economy moving again, while we still seem to be playing political gotcha.”
As it turns out, helping spendthrift states balance their budgets and giving the elderly and disabled onetime payments of $250 hasn’t had the impact that Van Hollen and his team thought it would.
I thought it far-fetched that voters would care much about the stimulus by the fall of 2010 when Van Hollen et al were threatening to rain hell down on the GOP. Maybe for the few remaining Republicans in strong Obama districts, but that's maybe six seats.
It seems much more likely now that the major political consequence will be for Democrats from red states who voted for the bill as huge deficits, bailouts and government overreach scare off onetime fans of hope and change. Republicans could gain 15 or more in the House using that technique
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