Tuesday, February 03, 2009

IT'S NOT ABOUT STIMULUS. IT'S ABOUT HUMILIATION.

In case it wasn't already obvious, when Republicans said the stimulus bill didn't have enough job creation for their taste, they were lying as usual:

Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked Democrats from adding $25 billion for highways, mass transit, and water projects to President Barack Obama's economic recovery program.

Already unhappy over the size of the measure, Republicans insisted additional infrastructure projects be paid for with cuts elsewhere in the bill.

... the Democratic amendment garnered 58 votes, just shy of the supermajority needed under Senate budget rules....

"We can't add to the size of this bill," said Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla. "The amount is just inconceivable to most people."

At issue was a plan by Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to increase the highway funding in the bill to $40 billion, which reflected complaints from lawmakers in both parties that Obama's plan doesn't do enough to relieve a backlog of unfinished projects. The duo also wanted to increase mass transit programs by $5 billion boost and water projects by $7 billion....


It "reflected complaints from lawmakers in both parties," but only one party's lawmakers were voicing those complaints in a sincere effort to improve the bill. The other party was just uprooting the goalposts and moving them. And they will be uprooted and moved repeatedly in order to make success for the White House and congressional Democrats as difficult as possible -- or, ideally, impossible.

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