Where Have You Gone, Paddy Chaevsky?

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I don't know about anyone else, but I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!

I applaud President Obama's attempts to move beyond partisanship in Washington. However, if no one else will play, that goal is unreachable, period. And the GOP, like a spoiled 5-year-old, has threatened to go home and take its ball with it if the Democrats don't cave on the Economic Recovery Act. So far, the Dems are caving. That's what makes me mad.

Have Democrats been out of power for so long that they've forgotten how to wield it? Obama is not blameless in this, either. He should have been making the speech he made today from Day One and using his bully pulpit to pressure the GOP into doing what's best for the country, not what's best for its members.

You cannot reason with fundamentally unreasonable people. I think the Democrats, who won big in November, should not just remind the GOP that the country wants a new direction--they should ACT on it. If the GOP won't vote for the Economic Recovery Act until it's so watered down that it cannot succeed, fine. Take out ALL the GOP's insisted-on tax cuts, restore the true stimulus provisions that the GOP wanted out, and pass it over their heads.

If the bill passes in its presently watered-down fashion, and it doesn't work, it just gives the GOP more ammo for its political agenda. This bill is too important to not just the country, but to the whole world. It must pass, and it must be big enough to be successful in kick-starting the economy. Pass it as you originally proposed it. Pass it despite the GOP. If it fails anyway, then the ammo they get is justified, at least. But if it works, the GOP's influence will be even more marginalized than it is now.

I shouldn't be so upset. I make the same mistake all the time, of expecting to be able to reason with unreasonable people. But I just can't stand this. I keep looking at US history, and I keep wondering how anyone can say with a straight face that (1) the New Deal was a failure; and (2) "spending" is NOT "stimulus." Did no one in GOP even pay attention in Economics 101? Did no one in the GOP even take Economics 101?

I sure hope the House-Senate conference committee charged with reconciling the differing versions of the Economic Recovery Act will restore it or make it even bigger. It really is time to stop playing politics, people.

Then again, if the ancient Mayan calendar is right, and the world is going to end on December 21, 2012, maybe we shouldn't even care.