Word: bipartisanism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...legitimate point. It really does matter how the money is spent. But actually, we had that debate in November, and as the President himself reportedly said at a bipartisan White House meeting last week, Obama...
...then, is not whether Obama should push to use the stimulus to promote his long-term priorities, but whether he will. He has said repeatedly that he wants to invest our children's money wisely, but he's also anxious to blast money into the economy quickly while attracting bipartisan support and letting Congress work its will, so it's not clear how hard he'll push to fund his long-term agenda. But Obama should ignore the partisan gripes about the stimulus becoming a "Christmas tree." Congress is about to toss almost $1 trillion into the economy, which means...
...Maybe that should be the model now. Within a nearly trillion-dollar stimulus bill there is probably enough that lawmakers agree on to get the kind of bipartisan vote Obama once aimed for: shoring up collapsing infrastructure, extending unemployment benefits, targeted tax cuts and relief - with strings attached - to state and local governments and embattled homeowners. Then take a deep breath, and let's have the debate he promised, the rigorous test of "Do we need this?" and "Can we afford it?", for all the other programs currently marinating in the bill, whether the honeybee subsidy or the Pell grants...
...direction in Washington. With just days to go before a likely final vote on the package, it remains unclear if the President or congressional leaders have the willingness or political motivation to make the compromises that would change what is now a Democratic stimulus effort into a legitimately bipartisan one. (See who's who in Obama's White House...
Republicans are hopeful that they can get some of these projects expunged before final passage. "We fully expect that Obama will work with us on some of this stuff; it's in his interest to," said a GOP Senate leadership aide. "He gets to seem presidential and bipartisan at relatively little cost." The more items that get taken out, the better chance Obama has to gain Republican support for the bill. In this scenario, Republicans would get to claim victory as well, telling their constituents that they fought the good fight in the name of fiscal conservatism. "We were going...