Piece Of Crap Stimulus Package Coming Down The Pike

In the wake of the fact that GDP growth flatlined in Q4, and the homeownership rate has fallen down to 2001 rates, you would think that the Senate would be able to bring forward a more robust stimulus package that would actually, you know, help the people who need help, and get money into the hands of those who would actually spend it quickly. That's where you'd be wrong:

Backed solidly by the Bush administration, Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a $157 billion economic stimulus package championed by Senate Democrats, who said they would have no choice but to quickly adopt a cheaper, more streamlined plan approved earlier this week by the House.

In waving a surrender flag, Democratic Senate leaders said they still hoped to secure changes to the House plan when they vote on it next week and that they remained on track to get the portfolio of tax rebates and business tax breaks, aimed at jolting the economy, to President Bush for his signature by Feb. 15.

The Democrats also said that the efforts over the last two days to shape the stimulus package to reflect their economic priorities had allowed them to lay out an agenda that they would pursue in the months ahead, and use to bolster the case for electing a Democrat as president and widening their majorities in Congress.

The Democratic Party: from "Why We Fight" to "Why Fight" in just 60 years.

Also, note the emphasis on how they'll look to use their own failures as proof that they need bigger majorities in the next Congress. It'd be a lot easier to make that case if you actually bothered to lead now. There are a host of issues out there, from the FISA debate and holding the line on retroactive immunity to this stimulus package, and making it more of a targeted injection of cash into the economy through extending unemployment and food stamps rather than just giving cash away.

But I think you can read a lot about how the average Washington Democrat thinks in this upcoming expose by Lincoln Chafee.

The book, titled Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President, is due in bookstores April 1. It is being published by St. Martin’s Press. The Journal obtained a copy last week, and Chafee agreed to talk about it in his office at Brown University’s Watson Institute, where the former senator is a visiting scholar.

The book excoriates Mr. Bush and his GOP allies who repeatedly fanned such wedge issues as changing the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage, abortion and flag-burning. But he saves some of his harshest words for Democrats who paved the way for Mr. Bush to use the U.S. military to invade Iraq. That includes New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, whom Chafee says put her presidential ambitions above standing up to Mr. Bush and the rush to war in Iraq.

“I find it surprising now, in 2008, how many Democrats are running for president after shirking their constitutional duty to check and balance this president,” writes Chafee. “Being wrong about sending Americans to kill and be killed, maim and be maimed, is not like making a punctuation mistake in a highway bill.

“They argue that the president duped them into war, but getting duped does not exactly recommend their leadership. Helping a rogue president start an unnecessary war should be a career-ending lapse of judgment.”

Chafee was the only Republican senator to vote against prosecuting the war. “The top Democrats were at their weakest when trying to show how tough they were,” writes Chafee. “They were afraid that Republicans would label them soft in the post-September 11 world, and when they acted in political self-interest, they helped the president send thousands of Americans and uncounted innocent Iraqis to their doom.

“Instead of talking tough or meekly raising one’s hand to support the tough talk, it is far more muscular, I think, to find out what is really happening in the world and have a debate about what we really need to accomplish,” writes Chafee. “That is the hard work of governing, but it was swept aside once the fear, the war rhetoric and the political conniving took over.”

Chafee writes of his surprise at “how quickly key Democrats crumbled.” Democratic senators, Chafee writes, “went down to the meetings at the White House and the Pentagon and came back to the chamber ready to salute. With wrinkled brows they gravely intoned that Saddam Hussein must be stopped. Stopped from what? They had no conviction or evidence of their own. They were just parroting the administration’s nonsense. They knew it could go terribly wrong; they also knew it could go terribly right. Which did they fear more?”

Unlike members of his own party, Democratic senators were not getting the influence, home-state goodies, White House invites and Congressional pork that goes with being in the majority. The Democrats had learned not to trust Mr. Bush before the Twin Towers and the Pentagon burst into flame on Sept. 11.

A bewildered Chafee, seeking an explanation, turned to an unnamed Democratic senator who opposed the war but was well-respected by his party’s leaders. This senator tells Chafee “in confidence” what concerned the Democrats. “They are afraid the war will be over as fast as Gulf One. Few will die, the oil will flow and gasoline will cost 90 cents a gallon.”

They weren't worried about the costs of war, but the "costs of success." It's truly unbelievable to watch how these guys think.

UPDATE: There's talk that Harry Reid is holding up the stimulus bill for a week or so, until after Super Tuesday. A brief glimmer of hope. Max Baucus appears to be talking tough on this, particularly in reference to allowing seniors to gather the benefits of these rebates. Looks like a political strategy more than anything, however. But at least it's playing tough and forcing votes.