Flashback 2001: 12 Democratic Senators voted for the Bush tax cuts.

[Beet]

12. That bill exacerbated the federal deficit for years and is a big reason why the government didn't go into the 2008-09 financial crisis in a healthy position. The bill was $1.35 trillion, almost $600 billion bigger than Obama's stimulus plan. The 12 Democrats' support gave the bill a 58-33 majority in the Senate.

Not one Republican voted for Obama's stimulus plan. Not one will vote for his health care bill, which unlike the Bush tax cuts of 2001, and unlike his Medicare Part D of 2003, contains cuts in some areas and tax hikes in others-- hard choices for the sake of sparing the deficit. They're all going to filibuster it. This is just peachy.

[Lunar]

Not one Republican voted for Obama's stimulus plan.

I think somewhere around 2.5 Republicans did, actually

[Beet]

Not one Republican voted for Obama's stimulus plan.

I think somewhere around 2.5 Republicans did, actually

Not one in the House. 28 Democrats voted for the Bush tax cuts in the House.

Here is what Max Baucus said after the vote:

"Every day it looks like a better and better decision. In many respects, I think politically I helped the party. We Democrats would have been in trouble in 2002 just saying no to every one of the president's proposals.''

[Lunar]

While I agree with you that there's a large amount of hypocrisy here, especially because Reid's bill is hardly an expansive program [<10% of the population will even be eligible, projected to save money, etc], one thing to keep in mind is that the Democrats in purple and red states don't wnat to repeat the Republican's mistakes.  Norm Coleman, Gordon Smith, and tons of others lost elections because they were seen as rubber stamps for a presidency that was unpopular in their state.  Right now there's only two Republican Senators you could even call moderate, compare that to Democrats.

Also, in general, the Democrats rely on a more shaky coalition than the Republicans.

Lieberman is just a horrible person, of course.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

What did the 2001 tax cuts, cut? That was primarily aimed at the middle Class if I am correct. Now the 2003 tax cuts were the ones that were primarily aimed at the rich. 2001 was justifiable in that we were in a recession and Tax cuts are a legimate way to stimulate an economy especially if the recession is relatively mild and short.

[A18]

I don't understand your point. Does the fact that a number of Democrats supported key items of the Bush agenda somehow make the Republican filibuster unjustified?

[Jacobtm]

Just shows that Democrats don't know how to play hardball like the Republicans.