President Obama listened to Republican gripes about his stimulus package during a meeting with congressional leaders Friday morning - but he also left no doubt about who's in charge of these negotiations. "I won," Obama noted matter-of-factly, according to sources familiar with the conversation.
The exchange arose as top House and Senate Republicans expressed concern to the president about the amount of spending in the package. They also raised red flags about a refundable tax credit that returns money to those who don't pay income taxes, the sources said.
Good. This is the sort of language that disarms Republicans, and there won't ever be a better time to adopt it. I would perfer if he talked like this in the open, but President Obama still deserves credit for this. Here's to hoping that this signals the end of watering down the stimulus in order to appease Republicans for aesthetic purposes, and the start to a new era where we just don't give a damn what Republican leaders think.
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