What Obama should have done in 2009

[muon2]

One gets the impression that most of the posters in this thread didn't actually read/consider the article, but are merely regurgitating talking points... sigh.

As to the article I'm largely in agreement, and felt the same way in 2009. It was a massive selfnuking by the administration to not pass their tax cuts separately and first.

I think this was a more insightful part of Trende's piece, not the part on the potential second stimulus. The stimulus as passed was perceived by the public as a jobs bill for "shovel-ready" projects. That was only a small part of the actual bill so it isn't surprising that many of the public were underwhelmed by the jobs created given the magnitude of the spending. Here's the breakdown chart from wikipedia.



The bill was not going to garner much GOP support, and the tax cut and infrastructure pieces weren't going to have as much opposition as the health and education spending components. A split could have been very helpful in framing the debate with tax cuts and infrastructure right out of the box. Education support and job training as well as housing support could have happened after Franken was seated. The healthcare and Medicaid components could have been made part of the later healthcare bill. If the state Medicaid relief was also part of that healthcare bill it would have put many of the GOP opposition states in a box on the overall healthcare bill.

[muon2]

Anything Obama did would have been "controversial." The GOP made sure of that. Obama's mistake was wasting time trying to work with them. Any fool could see they weren't interested.

That wasn't true for the first 6 months. Most of the GOP officials were taken aback at the magnitude of Obama's victory and his win in states like IN and NC. There was substantial fear that total obstruction would be met with more electoral losses. It was only in the August 09 recess at local town hall meetings that the Tea Party showed it's strength pushing back against those members who sought to compromise with the WH. The August recess also marked the decline in productivity of the bipartisan six Senators working on a compromise on health care reform.

Given that timeline, I still think that Trende's insight that a split stimulus might have been played better is worth consideration.

[muon2]

Anything Obama did would have been "controversial." The GOP made sure of that. Obama's mistake was wasting time trying to work with them. Any fool could see they weren't interested.

That wasn't true for the first 6 months. Most of the GOP officials were taken aback at the magnitude of Obama's victory and his win in states like IN and NC. There was substantial fear that total obstruction would be met with more electoral losses. It was only in the August 09 recess at local town hall meetings that the Tea Party showed it's strength pushing back against those members who sought to compromise with the WH. The August recess also marked the decline in productivity of the bipartisan six Senators working on a compromise on health care reform.

Given that timeline, I still think that Trende's insight that a split stimulus might have been played better is worth consideration.

Not a single House Republican voted for the recovery act. That was in February 2009. The GOP had no intention of playing ball.

I recognized that in my initial post in this thread. It would have been a challenge for GOP members to vote against the tax cut or infrastructure pieces. It also would have cemented the tax cut in the public mind so when Obama remarked on it later the issue would resonate. As it was he could say it, but get little credit since it was buried in the larger stimulus.

The bill was not going to garner much GOP support, and the tax cut and infrastructure pieces weren't going to have as much opposition as the health and education spending components. A split could have been very helpful in framing the debate with tax cuts and infrastructure right out of the box. Education support and job training as well as housing support could have happened after Franken was seated. The healthcare and Medicaid components could have been made part of the later healthcare bill. If the state Medicaid relief was also part of that healthcare bill it would have put many of the GOP opposition states in a box on the overall healthcare bill.