Wal Minnick For Congress campaign button.

Minnick, an Idaho freshman, was one of only 11 Dems to vote against the stimulus bill.

He wooed them; he flattered them; he listened to them. But when all was said and done, no Republican in the House voted for the $819 billion economic stimulus bill pushed hard by President Obama. Nonetheless, it passed yesterday by a 244-to-188 tally.

I suspect that some House Republicans liked the attention they got from the new president; there's nothing worse when you're in the minority party in the House and your party doesn't control the White House. You're just not relevant. It's akin to being a Maytag repairman. But there was never any indication that despite the tax-cut sweeteners, a sizable number were going to be persuaded. As it was, the sizable number was zero.

And that was fine with Pat Toomey, the former Pennsylvania congressman and head of the fiscal conservative Club for Growth, who warned:

No congressman can vote for the stimulus bill and claim to be a defender of economic freedom. In fact, the Democrats' package is the antithesis of economic freedom. The bill is a paragon of government run amuck, a ballooning deficit, fiscal irresponsibility, and political greed.

And I suspect that some House Democrats resented the compromises made by Obama to get GOP votes, sensing that they didn't need to dilute the bill to pass it. Bob Herbert, in his New York Times column on Tuesday, wrote that it would be foolhardy to listen to the GOP when assembling this bill:

When the G.O.P. talks, nobody should listen. Republicans have argued, with the collaboration of much of the media, that they could radically cut taxes while simultaneously balancing the federal budget, when, in fact, big income-tax cuts inevitably lead to big budget deficits. We listened to the G.O.P. and what do we have now? A trillion-dollar-plus deficit and an economy in shambles.

In the end, I also suspect that what Obama was doing was less trying to win over Republicans than to make a point that he would consult with the GOP in trying to push his agenda -- unlike, say, his predecessor, who often eschewed the need to talk to congressional Democrats. And while it turned out that Obama didn't need any GOP votes yesterday, he might need them in the future. And thus the attempt at dialogue.

For the record, while no Republican voted for the stimulus bill, 11 Democrats voted against it. They are:

Bobby Bright (AL), Parker Griffith (AL), Allen Boyd (FL), Walt Minnick (ID), Brad Ellsworth (IN), Frank Kratovil (MD), Collin Peterson (MN), Gene Taylor (MS), Heath Shuler (NC), Paul Kanjorski (PA), and Jim Cooper (TN). Bright, Griffith, Minnick and Kratovil are all freshmen.

The Senate takes up a similar, more expensive, version of the bill next week.

categories: Official Business

9:42 - January 29, 2009

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