Republicans go from Water boarding to Watered Down. Defanged Stimulus Will Not Produce Recovery.

Besides wanting add to and continue the Bush tax cuts, Republicans were able to make a Democratic Party stimulus ineffective, by watering it down enough for it to fail. Failure means a chance to win some lost seats in the next election. And isn’t that what being an elected official is all about, playing the game to win at all costs?

Paul Krugman:

What do you call someone who eliminates hundreds of thousands of American jobs, deprives millions of adequate health care and nutrition, undermines schools, but offers a $15,000 bonus to affluent people who flip their houses?
A proud centrist.

One of the best features of the original plan was aid to cash-strapped state governments, which would have provided a quick boost to the economy while preserving essential services. But the centrists insisted on a $40 billion cut in that spending.The original plan also included badly needed spending on school construction; $16 billion of that spending was cut. It included aid to the unemployed, especially help in maintaining health care — cut. Food stamps — cut. All in all, more than $80 billion was cut from the plan, with the great bulk of those cuts falling on precisely the measures that would do the most to reduce the depth and pain of this slump.

When Democrats realize they have the higher ground and stand up for their convictions, like the bumbling Republicans, we might see the country move forward in a way that will finally make a difference.

But of course, that won’t happen anytime soon, will it?