I Hope Not

Josh Marshall pretty much mentions my worst fear about Obama's stimulus bill. I'll post much of what he says below but keep it under a fold since it is rather lengthy. It does, however, deserve a read since it sums up one of my biggest concerns about this bill.

"Late Update: Nate Silver has an interesting and at least partly persuasive political interpretation (thanks to TPM Reader EW for flagging it for me) of what's going on here: namely, that Obama is trying to start low and let the bidding run higher, leaving it mainly to the Senate Dems to do the heavy lifting of bidding the thing up. Remember, Obama himself did seem to hint at such a strategy earlier last week.

If we assume for the sake of the conversation that this or something like it is Obama's strategy, my reaction is two-fold.

First, the legislative process is always messy. But this is a case where you want it to be as little messy as possible. We're spending a staggering amount of money here -- and for both political and policy reasons, you want it to be focused, efficient (in terms of delivering stimulus) and focused on spending projects that will not only employee people in the medium term but spur efficiencies, economic growth and other good things for the long term. If you get deep into a lot of bidding and horse-trading you get more parochial interests in the mix which cuts against those goals. I don't say that makes it a bad idea necessarily. But it's a real concern.

Second, when I write stuff critical of Obama, either on the policy or political fronts, there's always a rush of emails saying, 'Give him a chance!' 'Leave Obama alone!' 'He's probably got a plan you don't know about!' and so on. He may. I hope he does. But all of these debates are dynamic. You never assume anything. If Nate's right about what Obama's plan is, having people pushing for something better from the outside is part of it. So under either scenario, holding your tongue makes no sense, in addition to being unethical."

Leaving it to the Senate, to me, is the worst thing that could happen. There's no reason to do that. There's also no reason to include the GOP on this, or to hope for majority Republican support. It really doesn't matter what Republicans think. They lost. It's Obama's turn to do what he thinks is right and not what the Senate thinks is right. I hope mine and Josh's assumptions are wrong. I hope Obama takes ownership of this.