Not Understanding Politics

There's no doubt Mark Thoma is profoundly more intelligent than me.  And it's not that I disagree with his premise that a much larger stimulus package in early 2009 would have helped all of us much sooner and kicked the recession to the curb much more effectively than what we were given.  I agree whole heartily with that.

But...but...the political reality was not there.  Even with a huge majority in the House and 59 seats in the Senate, the political reality was a $787 billion stimulus.  That's nothing to scoff at. Sure it was 1/3 tax cuts, but it was a huge spending bill, second only to TARP to be exact. So why keep hammering the administration for making a mistake for pushing through a smaller stimulus?

The best idea in the world does nothing for a democracy.  It's only as good as what you can get people to agree to.  Would a $1 trillion stimulus made that much more of a difference? Probably not.  Would doubling the size of it?  Yes, I think so.  The point being politics isn't a stage for ideas that work.  It's a stage for everyone getting as much as they can.  And sometimes what someone else wants is the exact opposite of what you want.  If the president could have pushed through a $1.8 trillion stimulus, he would done it.  He knew he couldn't.  He knew the limit of what the public would allow, never mind the benefits.  Never mind how many seats he had.  The politics of it all he was fully aware.

Put it this way.  If Einstein had to put his theory of relativity through Congress, his concept, as genius as it was, would have come out looking much different.  Luckily science is not a democracy.  Luckily, government is.

Say what you will about the math of the stimulus bill.  The politics behind it were pure genius. And that's why Thoma is not a politician.  Those who can, do.  Those who can't, teach.