I Wonder, Wonder, Wonder, What's in this Wonder Bill?

As you've undoubtedly heard, the stimulus bill has passed both houses of Congress, passing in the House with no Republican support, and in the Senate with the support of only three blue-state Republicans. This means that Boehner's gamble has paid off in the House, but the stimulus bill will have to be percieved as a failure for it to pay off completely. Seven blue-dog Democrats defected, and hopefully they'll be primaried out in 2010. In analysis on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, syndicated columnist Mark Shields thinks that it was a major success for Obama and the American people, while New York Times correspondent David Brooks thinks that too many people are not satisfied with this bill. The Los Angeles Times, and the author of this blog, tend to side with Shields on this one, pointing out that the stimulus even the Republicans concede that the bill will create or preserve at least 3.46 million jobs. The author would like to add that one important function of this bill is creating jobs in every industry, yes, including the arts industry. View NPR Coverage.

Here's a visual that shows what's in this "Wonder Bill". As you can see, $85.7 billion (or about $300 for each person in America) is allocated towards infrastructure. Of this, $46B is allocated towards fixing our highway network, and get almost $10B apiece.

Now that the stimulus bill has been passed, the direction of this blog will change slightly, to how infrastructure spending is being used to help the economy, or how lack of infrastructure spending is hurting the economy.

This blog post is brought to you by Nestle.

A New Tactic, and Political Capital

The new Republican tactic—not calling the stimulus package a stimulus package, but a spending bill. Defeated presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) used this tactic in interviews Wednesday, and it was adopted by fellow spending hawk Tom Coburn (R-OK) on the floor yesterday morning—he claimed that Obama’s stimulus package would not create a single job. I would like Obama to find that person who gets that job and invite him to the White House, just to prove that Coburn was wrong and Mark Shields was right about the death of conservatism. Anyway, the GOP’s tactic seems to be working—though three-quarters of the population support a stimulus package (down from before Obama took office), half of its supporters think it needs “major changes”. McCain yesterday proposed an amendment to cut the stimulus monies in half—in the Republicans’ view, the half cut would mostly be “fat”, and the infrastructure spending that is the root of this blog. The half cut is not to be, but earlier tonight it was announced that the Senate has agreed to cut at least $85B in “fat”—in other words, funding for education and the arts, and aid to the embattled states mentioned in the previous blog.

A word about political capital at this point—I know the concept is mostly associated with President Bush, but it could also be associated with Obama. Obama has been forced by the Republicans to buckle down and burn a lot of his political capital on this stimulus bill (not to mention from the tax questions of his Cabinet), appearing on every major network and now stump-speaking in the battlegrounds of Florida and Indiana. The Republicans are going to lose the infrastructure fight (a foregone conclusion), but, unfortunately for us liberals, they have made it easier to win the next one. For coverage of the next one, keep watching this blog

Also, take a look at this NewsHour interview with David Axelrod

The Infastructure Issue: One Week in

OK, everybody knows about this:

And you probably know that he's proposed a massive stimulus package that is now hovering at the number $900 billion, and will include everything from middle-class tax cuts to millions for the National Endownment for the Arts. My policy blog focuses on the over $350 billion appropriated for "shovel-ready" infrastructure projects, as well as other legislation relating to transit and infrastructure on primarily the national level. According to one op-ed article by center-right pollster Frank Luntz, infrastructure is a unifying issue in America, in such a way as few other issues are. According to Luntz, 94% of Americans, including vast majorities from almost every grouping there is, express concern about the nation's infrastructure. 84% support more funding for it, and 81% of Americans, including 3 out of 4 Republicans, support a 1% tax increase for infrastructure spending (this in a country where substantial majorities support lower taxes). So it is clear that there is a consensus for Obama to do something about our crumbling infrastructure.

The stimulus package, including the billions for infrastructure, is snaking its way through the house and the senate, despite concerns from Senator John McCain and House Minority Leader John Boehner, who criticize Obama's plan for not coalescing to them enough (they forget that two and half months ago, a mandate was handed down AGAINST them and their party). Boehner and McCain's criticism targets the large amounts of spending in the Democrats' bill, but not specifically the infrastructure money. (Their focus is more on fringe issues, like funding for contraceptives and the NEA). Here are a few links to media coverage of the debate in Congress over the stimulus package since the 23rd:

• From the Times, 1/23
• From Politico, 1/25
• From the Times, 1/25
• From National Public Radio, 1/25
• From the Times, 1/26

By the way, should you want to fact-check any of my information or browse the web for additional information, my main news source is the Los Angeles Times, but others I read regularly include National Public Radio, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer (which I will almost always watch over the Hannity Show that's scheduled opposite it), The Atlantic and TIME. Occasionally, I might reference the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Politico or Bill Moyers' Journal.