$800 billion is a lot of money, so you'd think that it would see more reporting than the stupid Blago story, which reveals more about the insipid priorities of the traditional media than anything about the Obama administration. Alas, we have the media that soap companies pay for, not one that we pay for. There is however some reporting on the package - this Washington Post piece on the stimulus by Paul Kane and Michael D. Shear sticks out for three reasons. One, they actually try to explain some of the substance of the package and delve into the internal debates within the Democratic caucus and the Obama team. It's basically a fight between people who want to build environmentally sustainable public works projects and those who want more roads and highways in exurban dying areas. The advantage of building roads and highways is that you can put shovels in the ground today, the advantage of smart growth projects is that they are, well, better.
Of course, it's the Blue Dogs who want roads and highways, and progressives and labor people who want sustainable infrastructure.
But the green-collar proposals have also come under fire. Hill, the incoming Blue Dog co-chairman, said he opposes including these proposals and the medical technology project in the stimulus plan, suggesting that "somewhere down the road" they be considered under the normal legislative process.
As Nate Silver shows, the story is framed badly. It pits environmentalists against normal people, even though clean energy is actually not just an 'environmental' concern but also has important economic and national security elements. I would add one other criticism, which is that Republicans just aren't in the story at all, and neither are business interests. In the story, the opposition to green projects is coming from Baron Hill, who leads the '51 Blue Dogs' that don't want green projects.
While the story is framed as exploring the first 'internal struggle of the Obama administration', in fact it goes far beyond that and delves into the Democratic caucus and liberal interest groups. Since Democrats do care about what Republicans think, and certainly see business interests as important, these perspectives should be brought into the story. There's another more significant reason why Republican caucus politics matter to the Democratic caucus and to the ultimate policy outcomes.
As much as this stimulus splits Democrats, it also splits Republicans, and that is an important and appealing political prospect for the Obama team. John Boehner doesn't believe the stimulus is necessary, conservatives hate it, but lots of Republicans are going to want a piece of the money and will vote for it. Though I do like to see Republicans reduced to irrelevance, I don't think they actually are irrelevant when it comes to these debates, even the internal ones. And it's not just because the incoming Transportation Secretary is a Republican.
It is interesting that it is the Blue Dogs who are pushing for roads and highways and against green initiatives. This article is the first time I've seen the membership number of the new Blue Dog caucus in the next Congressional session. The Blue Dogs don't update their website, and their admission process isn't public, so I've actually found this number surprisingly hard to find. Last session, there were 49 Blue Dogs, and during the election season the caucus continually bragged about how they would add a substantial number of new members in 2009. Still, their PAC didn't give to very many Democratic candidates, two Blue Dogs lost reelection, and a bunch of their candidate prospects lost. If it's true that the Blue Dogs have only increased their number by 2, and I'm not sure it is, then they really are far weaker in the House than they were from 2006-2008. There are 257 Democrats in the next Congress and 178 Republicans. While the Blue Dogs are still a swing bloc, they only have 11 votes to give. That's not very many, considering that this number assumes all Republicans always vote with the Blue Dogs. If Republicans split off from their caucus on certain votes, even small numbers of Republicans, then Blue Dog priorities are far less likely to matter overall.
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