I was going to leave this as a comment, but I thought I'd let it stand as a post on its own. A Republican complaint about the Obama stimulus plan is that there is the very good possibility that if it succeeds, it offers the threat of Democratic Party electoral dominance for the foreseeable future. Also, there are many projects already in the bill before Congress weighted toward Democratic districts and states.
Duh.
This is a familiar complaint. Republicans whined the same way about many of FDR's proposals, LBJ's proposals, all sorts of political spending proposals. I really don't understand the thinking behind it. The American people seem to understand that it would be obvious a Democratic politicians would favor his or her own party; Republicans do it all the time. If Democrats do it, however, they are being hypocritical, or small, or just mean. Of course, part of the problem is that the bill is offered as a solution to a national problem, but there is at least the appearance of hypocrisy since there is much that benefits just one party. Apparently Republican politicians are unable to grasp the concept that two things can be accomplished at once, or at least believe the American people are too dumb to understand this.
In other words, don't whine about something that should be obvious. Sure, it benefits Democrats. This is surprising? Grow up. It also benefits the whole country. This is the difference between Republicans and Democrats, on a policy level. The Republicans help their special interest constituencies - corporate America, banks, big oil - but hurt most of the rest of the country. The Democrats help their constituencies - labor, working class families - and benefit the whole country.
Deal with it.
Virtual Tin Cup
