Largest Middle Class Tax Cut Passed

That's the way the Administration should sell tonight's proceedings. With additional support for unemployment and jobs creation, the Obama Administration can carve out a large demographic with the new stimulus package. And they should use this for the maximum advantage. Large majorities of the public believe the banks and hedge funds are responsible for our current crisis and they are the institutions the Republicans tried to save with the original TARP funds. Only three Republicans combined from both the Senate and the House voted for the bill. It's about time the Obama Administration turned the tables on them.

The Senate Republicans were the most hypocritical crying about "generational theft" and the glimmers in young peoples' eyes "will dim" when they realize their freedom is gone. Orrin Hatch raised the specter of the "Europeanization" of America, a constant theme. At least it's not the godless Communists. John McCain again whined about the lack of bipartisanship, saying he hoped the Administration learned their lesson. It should be recalled a larger spending bill--the $800 billion 2004 appropriations bill was supported by McCain, who then said,"the Americans don't care what's in the bill. They just want it bipartisan." No shouts were heard then about the young.

Republicans believe they have the best of both worlds--they can't take the blame for the bill if it fails and they are hustling like crazy to get the funds for their states. Arlen Specter told reporters the majority in the Republican caucus actually support the stimulus bill but were too frightened of the party base to vote for it. Senator Murkowski and Rep. Young from Alaska voted against the package but made sure the Anchorage papers knew they were on call to get as much funding for Alaska as they can. One of the problems reported to me was that the bill had no earmarks so the Republicans couldn't rationalize their vote by pointing to the funding for a pet project. Republicans have never supported the John McCain campaign against earmarks.

What's amazing is that the media has been reporting Republican criticism of the bill as if these were good faith arguments and needed serious attention. Democratic Senators pointed out that the Republicans objected to assistance to middle class and lower class Americans but wanted to eliminate the Estate Tax, which would be a greater transfer of wealth than the entire stimulus bill itself. The elimination of the Estate Tax would have cost the US Government $1 trillion in tax dollars.

If you wanted a sign of a lack of bipartisanship, think about the lack of courtesy showed to Sen. Brown, who had to fly home for his mother's wake and funeral. Instead of forcing his return to vote, A Republican could have voted for the package, thereby ending the issue, with a proviso his vote would become a no, when Brown showed up and voted. But this didn't happen, showing how unaccommodating the minority has become after years of enjoying carte blanche.

Now Specter, Snowe and Collins are referred to as Judas'. Christianity seems to be the theme of the day. Asked why he would not sit down with President Obama, Rush Limbaugh said,"Well, it would be like Jesus sitting down with Satan." By the way, he did.

As I said Obama should make sure the American people know that the Republicans voted against the largest tax cuts in American history. Then let the echo machine spin out trying to explain this.