Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Minority Leader of "The Party of No"

Republican Senators are attempting to block the passage of the massive $800 Billion+ stimulus package proposed by the new Obama administration.  So far 34 of the 41 Republican Senators have expressed grave reservations about the stimulus legislation in its current form, with only 2 GOP Senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both from Maine, saying they will support the measure.  Should the current Republican opposition in hold the line, the bill will require unanimous approval from all 56 Democrats currently seated in the Senate as well as the support of Independents Joe Lieberman and Bernie Sanders, plus the Maine Republicans in order to reach the 60 votes needed for it to be brought for consideration before the whole Senate, due to the arcane Senate rules that require a supermajority to move anything forward.

It stands to reason that on a bill this big legislators would have concerns.  However, in these horrific times for both the domestic and world economy drastic action is needed and needed now. The GOP refrain thus far about what that action should be has been the party’s mantra for decades on end: more tax cuts.  Democrats in both Congress and the White House have met with the GOP leadership in both the House and Senate and agreed to large tax cuts to be included in the legislation.  But so far those compromises have garnered not one single Republican vote in the House.  The Senate GOP, sans Collins and Snowe, looks to be taking a similar approach, prescribed by their chief media bloviator, Rush Limbaugh, who recently made headlines by saying he hoped the plan and Obama (which would ultimately mean the country as well) would fail.

While I can see that the White House and Congressional Democrats would want to try and compromise to make the legislation easier to pass, a simple question needs to be raised about the GOP “approach”:  What good is a tax cut if you’re unemployed? The main people who benefit from tax cuts are (surprise) the rich, who aren’t spending any money right now, tax cut or no tax cut. I was just up in my old neighborhood, NYC’s East Village, a playground of wealthy shoppers, diners and bar & clubgoers from around the world, and let me tell you something you probably already know too well, times are tough.  I’ve never seen so many vacant storefronts in the area.  Rents are going down in NYC, a phenomenon not seen in nearly 20 years.  In my friend’s building two apartments have been vacant for months on end, something I had never heard of in the 15 years I lived in the city.  Add to this the news coming in almost every day it seems about one major retailer or another going out of business or bank folding or corporation laying off 10,000+ workers and it is clear we are going to need much more than played out Reaganomics to dig ourselves out of this meltdown.You can takepart by contacting your United States Senator, be they Republican, Democrat or Independent, and demanding a responsible stimulus package be passed swiftly.

LINKS:

AP: GOP leaders doubt stimulus bill will pass Senate

WaPo: Bipartisanship at what price?

Financial Times: Opponents of bipartisanship flex their muscles