Are Dems Listening To My Tweets?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Democrats, Economy, RepublicansOr are they just getting a lot smarter about taking away easy talking points from the Republicans by trying to find common ground?
To explain the title of the post…this is what I wrote on Twitter last night about the spending in current stimulus for family planning…
Boy, the Republicans are really hitting that $200M for family planning hard. If Obama pairs this down, I think it’ll help him.
WASHINGTON – House Democrats are likely to jettison family planning funds for the low-income from an $825 billion economic stimulus bill, officials said late Monday, following a personal appeal from President Barack Obama at a time the administration is courting Republican critics of the legislation.Several officials said a final decision was expected on Tuesday, coinciding with Obama’s scheduled visit to the Capitol for separate meetings with House and Senate Republicans.
The provision has emerged as a point of contention among Republicans, who criticize it as an example of wasteful spending that would neither create jobs nor otherwise improve the economy. [...]
Obama’s request to House Democrats underscores the administration’s desire to signal a spirit of bipartisanship, a recurring theme for the president in his first week in office.
Coincidence?
Umm, yes. Entirely. :-)
Regardless of the political strategy, this is still a concession by the Dems to the Repubs and I’ll be curious to see what the response will be if this is indeed pulled from the stimulus package. Will Repubs applaud it or will they simply ask for more?
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 and is filed under Democrats, Economy, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 27th, 2009 at 11:43 am
From what I have read so far, they have applauded it and are asking for more. This is a good thing. It proves that this bill is laden with pork that needs to be expunged through rounds of opposition and discourse. Lets encourage the Republicans to ask for more and lets encourage Obama to make the right decision and keep trimming fat off of this bill.
January 27th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
I am not opposed to family planning, or for funding it, in the abstract. But what I AM against is any “stimulus” spending for which there is not a good argument that the given spending is likely to have a stimulus-multiplier effect.
Funding programs like this just doesn’t seem to fit. I’m happy to see all such funding cut from the bill. All congressfolk need to keep their eyes on the ball, not practice “money for my pet programs” business as usual.
We are taking on massive additional debt in a hail mary attempt to get the economy running again. The scope of the overspending/borrowing is just gigantic, in both absolute in comparative terms. So we will get this ONE SHOT, and maybe one more, if the t-bill market is kind. That’s about it. What does that mean?
It means you take CAREFUL FU&^*#KING AIM.
$200 million to hand out rubbers and pamphlets to unemployed blue collar workers is not a bad idea. It just doesn’t count as taking careful aim to get the economy running.