Word: congressed
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...providing tax relief and health security to ordinary Americans, restoring our economic competitiveness and reducing our dependence on environmentally disastrous fossil fuels, which increases the power of our enemies. It's hard to imagine when he'll have a better opportunity. Nothing in the historical record suggests that when Congress has more time to deliberate--and more time to confer with special-interest lobbyists and local-interest political advisers--it enacts fair tax policies, sustainable energy policies, wise infrastructure policies, responsible fiscal policies or any other policies tainted by long-term thinking or national-interest considerations. If Obama wants...
Obama has called for an earmark-free stimulus package, so the legislation shouldn't have too many silly waterslides or Mafia museums or cranberry subsidies in its text. Instead, Congress will dole out hundreds of billions of dollars to states and agencies. But that's where the real waste is going to be. There's $30 billion for highways, funneled through state transportation departments, which love to build unsustainable sprawl roads to nowhere. There's $4.5 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers, which is addicted to projects that destroy wetlands and induce development in vulnerable floodplains. There...
...Well, Congress can say. For example, Commerce Committee chairman Henry Waxman inserted language into the House version that limited energy grants to states that give their utilities incentives to promote energy efficiency. And Congress could make sure the money is spent productively by attaching a few general strings to the stimulus dollars. For instance, there should be "fix it first" provisions to prioritize repairs to highways, levees and other infrastructure over new construction, which would create more jobs while reducing future federal obligations. We do need to rescue states to prevent them from raising taxes and firing workers, but just...
...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 eager to blast money into the economy quickly, attract bipartisan support and let Congress work its will. So it's not clear how hard he'll push to fund his long-term agenda. But he should ignore the partisan gripes that the stimulus is becoming a "Christmas tree." Congress is about to toss almost $1 trillion into the economy, which means that any stimulus...
Still, even though Obama has an approval rating roughly three times the size of Congress's, Pelosi has shown herself unwilling to quietly execute Obama's agenda the way former Speaker Dennis Hastert did President George W. Bush's. Back then, House Republicans didn't openly revolt against President Bush until the sixth year of his Administration, bitterly but quietly swallowing early bipartisan programs like the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan and No Child Left Behind. By contrast, even before Obama took office, he and Pelosi diverged on bailing out the failing auto companies. Looking to secure as much support...