What scares the Republicans most: What if it works?

[Zynx]

The Republicans are scared out of their mind that Obama's stimulus might work. What do they do if the economy has clearly bottomed by 2010? What if GDP is growing 5% or greater by 2012?

Their credibility goes down the toilet. The will lose the 2012 elections by a huge margin. The party credited with economic recovery always and everywhere makes huge gains.

This also goes beyond the next election cycle. People had trusted Republican oriented economic policies since the 1980s because they blamed a Democratic president (Carter) for the economic situation of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Reagan's policies correlated with, though did not cause, an economic recovery in the 1980s so people came to believe those were effective. If Obama's package works, with its emphasis on state and local aid along with lower income tax relief and infrastructure, people will trust the Democrats on economics for the entire next generation.

That is what is at stake here.

[Clio the Leo]

1. To steal a phrase .... "You bet'cha!" (wink) NT

[Zynx]

3. Incidentally, imagine Palin running against a recovering economy and

an experienced, popular Obama.

[spanone]

2. yep

[Sarah Ibarruri]

4. What a good point! That scares the hell out of them! nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. The new deal kept them in the wilderness for 40 years

they know that...

And the revolution is happening all around them

[sandyd921]

6. So their only defense is to do mischief

to either keep it from passing or if they fail at that, to significantly water it down! All I have to say about them is once again they are showing themselves for who they are: political miscreants!

[Zynx]

7. They would rather see the economy crash and burn.

[alsame]

8. If it works, they have nothing left. Their economic policy is a

failure, their foreign policy is a failure and their domestic policies appeal only to a fringe group.

[Zynx]

9. They'll have to try to sell how they will be better Democrats, essentially.

[alsame]

14. And then they'll lose their base. Works for me. eom

[Parker CA]

15. They will still have Cheney and his evil plotting in their back pocket. Never underestimate evil.

[Juche]

10. I'm glad someone put it into words

If Government spending heads off a depression the entire GOP philosophy is bankrupt. The philosophy of "deregulation is always better than regulation; government always gets in the way and never does anything right; tax cuts are always the answer" is proven false. Asking republicans to support this stimulus bill is like asking Catholic bishops to fund a mission to spread Hinduism.

If the government funded stimulus works then the entire GOP philosophy of 'government is the problem, not the solution' is bankrupt for the entire nation to see.

[applegrove]

11. Republicans want government not to work. Plain and simple. That is all they

want outta life. All they want for the American people. They don't want government to work when they are in power. They don't want it to work when they are out of power. It is like the bloc quebecois in the Canadian Parliament. They are there but what do they add to the discussion that is America. Nothing. They are worse than useless.

[4dsc]

12. Never fucking happen...

Sorry but the train wreck, a republican one at that, is going to take a deadly toll on our economy and nothing is going to change that.. The more I read the more the US is going to end up looking like Japan in the early 1990's because Americans' just don't fucking et it.. We cannot keep up the charade called borrowing and expect nothing negative to occur.. Well its going to occur over the next couple of years and its not going to be pretty..

[Zynx]

13. We have acted a great deal more pro-actively than Japan did.

Japan just sat there and refused how to admit how screwed up their banking system was. We waited a year too long, but we have started acting now.

Also, I firmly believe you cannot be a Democrat if you don't believe that government intervention can do anything to prevent a vicious business cycle from doing damage. The fact of the matter is that fiscal and monetary stimulus do have effects. We have proven this over many decades.

[Yavin4]

16. Then The Republicans Have To Find Another Monica Lewinsky

Like they say on Battlestar Galactica, "everything that has happened before will happen again".

Clinton's 1993 economic plan created millions and millions of jobs with no inflation, and NO Republican voted for it.

[Enrique]

18. yep

and while opposing that 1993 budget, they predicted it would lead to another Great Depression.

Problem is, that budget actually cost the dems the House in 1994, since it contained tax cuts and since the benefits weren't yet obvious.

[Usrename]

22. There ya go. It was the economy, stupid. Back then.

It's like deja vu all over again.

[Zynx]

23. This economy is much much much worse.

[BrklynLiberal]

17. K&R

[givemebackmycountry]

19. Kick - front page stuff

We will all be on the stake if we let these bastards get in the way.

[anonymous171]

20. Yep. They may end up losing the white working class.

That would be the end of them.

[glitch]

21. Their crediblity is already down the toilet. What success means is they don't get to crawl back up

like some rat from the sewer.

[starroute]

24. It's not just the economy -- people *loved* FDR

And by "people" I really mean my mother -- but she was typical of her generation.

People were in despair and Roosevelt gave them hope. People had lost faith in the government and Roosevelt showed that government could work for them. People felt they had no future and Roosevelt pointed the way to the World of Tomorrow.

Everything that people like my mother valued and dreamed of, they associated with Roosevelt -- everything they feared and hated, with his opponents.

I don't know yet whether Obama has it in him to be another FDR -- though Michelle has certainly jumped with both feet into the job of being another Eleanor -- but that's what the GOP really fears. Not just that he might succeed, but that he might be loved.

The really funny part is that in those days there were still some honorable Republicans, like Fiorello La Guardia, so the Republican Party as a whole was not tarred with the stigma of rejecting the New Deal. But today's GOP seems to be working with both hands to make sure they will have no share in Obama's successes but will bear the blame if he fails. What a strange lesson to have learned from the 1930's!

[rvablue]

25. Despite their BS, this is the ONLY reason they are opposing it...

it's their only way of resurrection....to eff it up and obstruct it...

[Blue_In_AK]

26. I'm sure you're correct.

[Historic NY]

27. Ding ding ding...your right. If the Dems win & the economy improves

all that trickle down, conservative, tax cut, free market, big business bullshit they been spouting is proven wrong.

[BadgerKid]

28. Many have woken up to voting their economic interests

among other things and are less persuaded by single, divisive issues.