House Passes Stimulus Bill- Without Republican Support

 The house passed President Obama’s welfare stimulus bill and it passed without a single Republican vote. This is music to my ears, forgetting for a moment that this shows how ineffective the Republican minority will be, every Republican stood firm and denied President Obama a bipartisan victory on his first piece of major legislation. They didn’t cave in to Obama for fear of appearing to look divisive. This shows us that they may be willing to stand firm to their beliefs.

 President Obama promised to be bipartisan, Republicans asked for a meeting to voice their opinions, suggestions, and apprehensions on the stimulus bill and President Obama obliged them. However he was unwilling to work with them, listening and working are to very different things. President Obama said “I won” to Republican when they tried to compromise with him. He claimed that that victory trumped their compromise attempts and today the Republicans had the opportunity to voice their displeasure with their vote and they did just that.

 President Obama wanted Republicans on board with this bill so that he could appear bipartisan and also to provide cover in case his stimulus package didn’t work. If Republicans voted for this bill and the stimulus doesn’t work both parties would have been to blame. Now the glory or blame will fall on the Democrats alone. If the stimulus works the Republicans will now be out of power for a long time as they will be perceived to have opposed the plan that turned around the economy. And the perception will be reality. However if the stimulus fails to stimulate and the economy stagnates or gets worse the Republicans will have the upper hand.

 This is the gamble that the Republicans took, and I don’t think it was a gamble at all. This welfare bill that is being touted as a stimulus package has no chance of working. Increasing spending when the economy is slowing is suicide.

 Today Republicans took a possible PR hit for opposing this bill but they held true to the ideals of smaller, limited government and reduced spending. I would rather take the PR hit and stick to what I believe is right than to do what I thought was popular.

 It is not a mystery that I oppose this bill and think the results of passage will be devastating, so today I stand up and cheer the hose Republicans for taking a stand. The press will not be supportive of this move but in the long run I think that this will pay dividends.

 Now if we can just get the senate to follow suit.