It's worth remembering what happened to Bill Clinton in 1994. Trying, along with his wife, to pass a comprehensive healthcare plan, he ignored suggestions from Democratic members of Congress and alienated them in the process. The resulting discord killed the plan, in spite of the large Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
Fast forward to today and we find that some Democrats in the House are frustrated by the neglect that Obama has shown them. In his quest for fabled bi-partisanship, the President has ignored his true constituents. This is often a charge leveled at Democrats, who frequently go out of there way to talk to the other side while ignoring their base. [This is not the case with Republicans.] African-Americans have found this to be a real problem since the 1970s. Tonight, on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show, Pete DeFazio expressed his frustration with the disportionate time that Obama and his aides have spent talking to Republicans. He spoke like someone who has not been allowed sufficient input and who is fed up with tax cut orthodoxy.
And what has been the result? The stimulus plan is dragged down by excessive tax cuts, including many that will have no stimulative effect on the economy. Meanwhile, public transit has gone mostly ignored and (as I've mentioned before) infrastructure spending on the whole is at least 1/3 less than it needs to be. Obama, his team, and the leadership in Congress have padded the bill with bipartisan posturing when real solutions are needed, solutions that may raise eyebrows among the commentariat. Perception only goes so far, though. If the economy fails to recover or our infrastructure collapses, appearances will no longer matter.
Not a single Republican voted for today's House stimulus bill. Some may come around when the bill is finalized, but the true lesson is that Republican support doesn't matter. No matter what Obama does, no matter how much he wines and dines them or fawns at their supposed influence, the Right no longer matters. They don't have the voters and most of their common faiths have recently been proved to be bankrupt. It may be a good tactical move to reach out to them, but that need only go so far.
Republicans are not going to vote for universal health care either. The biggest losers from such a bill are some of the Republicans' biggest supporters. They will fight it to the end. Nevertheless, even though the Republicans don't have the votes to stop it, health care could again be lost if Obama doesn't get his own house in order. It's time for him to start listening to suggestions from outside the Washington consensus. Including only the bare minimum of tax cuts may not be savvy, but it's right. Nationalizing the banks may sound un-American, but it's likely essential to economic stabilization. In his Inaugural speech, Obama asked the nation to take responsibility and put away childish things. I can think of nothing more childish than wasting money on illusory bipartisanship.
