Commentary: Joan McCarter

The Economic Sausage Factory

By Joan McCarter, 2-16-09

The last three weeks have likely proven the old, “be careful what you wish for” adage for President Obama. The White House is his, as is the wrecked economy. But there’s a modicum of hope seen on that front, as his administration and the Congress lurch toward the finish line with the stimulus bill. There’s some lessons for the new president in that, too.

The job for Vice President Biden is a far sight easier, and this week included a visit to Boise to celebrate the Special Olympics with the city, and to spread and receive some local good cheer and good will. He endeared himself to long-time Idaho Democrats with this, from the e-mailed pool report:

Biden said he was grateful to the late-Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, and his widow, Bethine, who was on hand Thursday to see Biden at Boise State University.

Biden told the story of his being elected at age 29, only to have his wife and daughter killed in an auto accident. Church took an interest in Biden
because he had been elected at age 32. A top Church aide, Cleve Corlett, later worked for Biden.

“Frank was a gigantic help to me,² Biden said. After the accident, Biden said, “I didn’t want to come--my brother contacted the governor to get a replacement for me.”

But he said the Churches were among a handful of people in Washington “that literally took me by the hand and said, ‘Look, just stay six months, just
hang in.’ And look what happened, 36 years later I’m still hanging around. I owe them a lot.”

But then the reporters got down to the business of the week.

Asked whether Idaho might get a smaller share of the stimulus package because the entire congressional delegation and Gov. Butch Otter oppose the president’s plan, Biden said:

“No. And I think you’ll find they’ll love it when they start turning spades and building roads and making sure the infrastructure gets built. Let me put
it this way: I’ll be surprised if those who say they (don’t) like it don¹t use it. I’ll be surprised.”

That’s the heart of the issue right there for Obama and team--providing largesse to the states, their hands being bitten all the while. Idaho’s people have a lot to gain in the legislation that will likely be passed today, regardless of the political obstructionist games played by the state’s entire delegation, including its one nominally Democratic House member, Walt Minnick. There are benefits for Idaho to the tune of 18,000 jobs. Idaho is hurting as much as any state in the region, excepting Nevada. It had the third-greatest year-to-year percentage increase in unemployment among the 50 states, seeing its unemployment rate more than double in 2008, rising from 2.8 percent in January to 6.4 percent in December. Nearly 50,000 people in Idaho were looking for jobs. Chances are, Idaho’s politicians are going to happily accept this help from the feds, then turn around and complain that they got just 18,000 jobs when they need 50,000.

Which should provide an important lesson for our new president, who apparently started out in this process actually believing that if he said we were living in a new, post-partisan political world enough, he could make it so. Hopefully the Republicans and their all-too willing accomplices among the Blue Dog Democrats have now thoroughly convinced Mr. Obama that the opposition is neither particularly loyal, nor willing to cooperate, even when the stakes are as high as they are right now.

This was made particularly clear in the Senate, which--in the name of bipartisanship--gutted the original House bill of some of the most critical spending--particularly stabilization funds to help out economically teetering states--for things like a $15,000 tax credit to make house flipping easier for rich people. Worshipping at the alter of bipartisanship, and with the full encouragement of the White House, somehow Nebraska “Democrat” Ben Nelson decided that the only way to get Republicans on board was to give them their precious tax cuts. That in the face of ample evidence, three decades worth of failed experimentation, that an economic policy of nothing but tax cuts for wealthy people isn’t any way to run an effective government. Hence the crisis we’re in now. Of course, the blame can’t be laid entirely on the failure of the philosophy of tax cutting our way to unheard of wealth for the few. It also has a lot to do with the soon-to-be $2 trillion war of choice the Republicans and conservative Democrats were so happy to get us into back in 2003.

So there’s an important lesson for our new president as the realization sinks in that this bill doesn’t have the economic punch required, and more is going to have to be done. This package could create as many as 2.5 million jobs, mostly in the private sector, by the end of 2010. We need 4 million to close the gap and get the economy running at healthy levels again.

But a healthy economy under a Democratic president is the last thing the retrenched Republicans need going into the next election cycle, and they’re going to continue to do everything in their power to sabotage Obama, even if it means fiddling while the country burns. It’s good that this was the first lesson Obama got out of the gate. He’s a smart man, and unlikely to make the mistake of thinking Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats negotiate with good faith again.

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