As predicted, 100% of the Republican caucus in the House voted against the compromise laden stimulus bill.
Good thing we put in tax cuts, took out spending on birth control, and didn’t push aggressive for health care, employee free choice, or infrastructure construction in order to win Republican support.
Hold Fast 
The Republicans want to punch a puppy 100 times, America doesn’t want to punch a puppy at all, so Obama demands we punch a puppy 50 times. For Broder and the bipartisan cred.
So we write a bill that offers 30 puppy-punches, and all the Repubs bitch and whine. We up it to 40. It goes to a vote. The ENTIRE GOP votes against the bill anyway, it passes with only Dem Yeas, and then the Repubs whine to the Politico that it wasn’t “bipartisan” enough.
Then Democrats get blamed for punching a puppy 40 times. Like, who the hell voted for that?! A week of bad press convinces Obama that next time, he’ll offer 75 puppy punches, sure that a more ‘bipartisan’ approach will fix everything.
Judd Gregg, for what it’s worth, is in the puppy-punching caucus.
Obama is either a coward or an idiot.
LikeLike
Puppy punching is a very interesting analogy. I don’t know that it really fits with stimulus/cutting taxes, but it does draw out the problem of negotiating with Republicans who will only vote for a Republican bill.
Bipartisanship is the fig leaf that hides the Republican noose. They only ask that Democrats use it on themselves, pass bad policies with our name on them instead of theirs, while the GOP waits to reap electoral success.
LikeLike