President Obama has made economic recovery his top presidential priority, and the political maneuvering surrounding the stimulus legislation has become intense, only one week into his tenure.

The White House-backed legislation includes roughly $550 billion in spending as well as $275 billion in tax cuts.

‘Stimulus’ Standoff — Compromising Position

Most of the spending is on items such as health care, jobless benefits, food stamps and other programs that benefit victims of the recession.

House Republicans have drafted an alternative. Except for an extension of unemployment benefits, it consists exclusively of tax cuts.

Yeah, Tax Cuts, …for the Rich?

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In a piece for CNN, Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, says:

“The election of 2008 revealed that the Republican Party lacks the kind of big ideas that Ronald Reagan used in 1980 to bring the conservative movement into power. The various factions of the conservative movement came together around the themes of anti-communism, deregulation and tax cuts.

Reagan didn’t just sell tax cuts for the wealthy as good in themselves, but connected them to supply-side economics, which claimed that cuts would stimulate investment, generate economic growth and ultimately bring more revenue into the coffers of Treasury.

When the economy collapsed in fall 2008, Republicans’ arguments about the wisdom of tax cuts and deregulation were made suspect. Americans might not always like government, but they dislike being broke even more.

If the Republicans don’t agree with Obama’s approach, given the severity of the crisis, they need to offer an alternative rather than just sitting still.

To be sure, there is the possibility that if the economy continues to deteriorate after a bill has passed and the public loses faith in Obama, the House GOP could reap the benefit from their opposition. They could say “we told you so.” But even that would be a high-risk maneuver, particularly given the state of public opinion about the Republican Party.

Even if a bill passes and the economy continues to struggle, voters would be looking at a Republican Party that didn’t have anything better to offer. The public likes hard-working politicians.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal ideas didn’t always work — some like the National Recovery Act were downright failures — but voters valued a president who tried to offer arguments about how to end the crisis and who rolled up his sleeves to make the nation better.

If they repeat what happened in the 1930s, when Republicans sounded a lot like Groucho Marx and just said no as FDR rebuilt the nation, they are likely to remain on the outskirts of power for decades to come. [ READ MORE ]

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Reference: The Same Old Song — Republican policies have brought the country to a deplorable state. But the party is still at it, attacking President Obama’s stimulus plan and calling for ever more tax cuts. — Bob Herbert
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Obama tells GOP no compromise on tax rebates:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Obama told Republican House leaders Tuesday he plans to stand firm on the part of his $825 billion economic recovery plan that calls for tax rebates for nearly all working Americans — including those who make too little to owe income taxes.

According to two Republican aides familiar with Obama’s Capitol Hill meeting, Rep. Dave Camp, R-Michigan, the ranking member on the Ways and Means committee, asked Obama if there was room for negotiation on the structure of the biggest tax cut in the bill.

“Feel free to whack me over the head because I probably will not compromise on that part,” the president replied, according to one of the aides, who requested anonymity because the member of Congress relaying information to the aide from inside the meeting wished to remain anonymous.

Obama supports the tax rebates for those who don’t pay income taxes because they do pay payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare.

“The president said again that people that pay payroll tax are taxpayers,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said later. ” … And he just mentioned that the notion that refundability of tax credits for those that don’t make a lot of money was a principle that not only he holds, but one that Ronald Reagan held with the Earned Income Tax Credit in the ’80s.” — [ READ MORE ]

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