Stonewalling Obama

Continuing their negative stance against the Recovery and Reinvestment Bill, the house Republicans once again voted NO, just like last time; the only difference being 7 Democrats joined in. The final vote was 246-183. I listened to some of the debate in Congress on C-SPAN and the Republicans to a man (or woman) kept repeating their tedious and remorseless gospel of tax cuts and more tax cuts, while bed-mouthing the Democrats’ philosophy of spend, spend, spend, which they and most economists say is necessary in the midst of the current crisis. They also fear what they call a “moral hazard” confronting the country: encroaching socialism. They are, in short, unable to separate themselves from the discredited ideas and formulas of the Bush and Reagan Administrations, and although they understand that Capitalism is a roller coaster ride, they can’t seem to get a handle on the fact there are times when the government, as the agent of the people, needs to step in and return the nation to its basic equilibrium. You cannot sit back and do nothing.
The Republicans spent a lot of hot air on hyperbole, exaggerating some of the things in the Bill, like for example, that some of the money is going to rats in San Francisco and pooh-poohing a high speed train from L.A. to Las Vegas. Representative David Obey in the House, on hearing this accusation about rats in the Bay Area, said that was malarkey and holding up the Bill said, “You show me where rats are mentioned in this bill? There are none there.” As far as I know no one took up the challenge. What I read in the paper this morning about the high speed train, Las Vegas wasn’t even mentioned; the basic idea was a train up and down the Pacific coast, much like what exist on the Atlantic coastline. Las Vegas would make sense too, as it is the largest city slightly inland from the coast and about 80% of the people who go to Vegas come from Southern California. But a train up and down the coast makes good sense, a good way to travel quickly, and without using up more gasoline or jet fuel.
The vote in the Senate was almost the same as the first time, 60-38, with Ted Kennedy not voting this time, as the Democrats knew they could reach 60 votes without him. The vote did take 5 hours, however, as one Democratic senator, Mr. Brown from Ohio, was home making funeral arrangements for his mother, so he was late getting back to Washington D.C. The signing ceremony will take place next Tuesday in Denver.
One last comment: The three GOP senators that broke rank with their Party, Collins and Snowe of Maine, and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, deserve a medal for voting with the majority. It took considerable courage to do what they did.