Are Republicans Saboteurs?

In talking to legislators several weeks ago, President Obama noted that the minority party needed to be constructive and not just “blow things up.” A week before, Republicans dragged their feet and pretended to obstruct the economic stimulus bill, interested mainly in preserving their cushy Washington jobs. They can now report to their constituents that they held the party line, and that the bill was passed “over and above their objections.” However, they forced the plan to rely too heavily on tax cuts and not focus enough on the only kind of job-creation that government does at all well—projects that actually create jobs, like infrastructure improvement.

During recessions and depressions, people hold on to their money and use it to reduce debt instead of spending freely, expanding business or investing. This is exactly what is going on now. As a result, tax cuts do not create many jobs in such times. Taxes have fallen over the past eight years, and few are creating jobs now, not because they lack money, but because they lack confidence. More of what did not work will not work.

Now, thanks to the blind followers of a bad theory, whose claim to fame is the ability to parrot the same old trickle-down voodoo economics lines of their predecessors (for whom tax cuts also failed), the stimulus plan may not work as well as it might have. A number of Southern governors who want to refuse federal funding have joined the chorus. These governors complain that accepting federal stimulus funds will force them to help more unemployed people than they help now. They talk as if helping people were some kind of sin. Their unemployed constituents who need the help they want to refuse do not see them as “keeping the faith.” They see them as refusing to help their own citizens when they need it most. Ideology does not pay the bills.

While Republican representatives and governors are aiming to keep their jobs, and maybe return one of their own to the White House, they need to be aware of the dangers of undercutting the president. An overwhelming majority of adult voters thought Barack Obama was the man for the job. Those who disagree with his fitness for office are welcome to try to remove him from office. However, he remains the leader of the United States, and the majority of voting adults agreed with his agenda during the campaign.

If Republicans obstruct him from carrying out his campaign promises then call him a failure, they act in bad faith. More importantly, they risk the ire of voters when the recession deepens into a depression. To put it simply: one does not hobble a horse and then blame it for failing to run.

The president answers claims by conservatives that the budget will cause problems later by citing job creation, programs to help small businesses, and decreased spending on a costly war. Critics either cannot or will not be satisfied, and continue to pout that there are no give-aways for the idle rich class.

The Office of Management and Budget has released a plan that calls for the United States government to take care of the people who support it financially. This is part and parcel of the mandate voters gave Barack Obama in the November election. While Republicans may think that chanting the party line will help them stay in office, they should beware of looking like they are shirking their duty. The president has called on all Americans to end years of self-indulgence and work to recreate the American economic machine. Regardless of Republicans’ disagreement with the president, the country itself is facing problems that their tax-the-poor-and-help-the-rich ideology created. If things get markedly worse, and they will without some solid cooperation in congress, voters are likely to remember them as saboteurs.