Obama seems a little too convinced of his own personal qualities and his being the embodiment of change that he has let his erstwhile fellow travelers in the Congressional Democratic Party make a hash of his first major legislative initiative. His message hasn’t seemed sharp enough, his tone (since the very good inaugural) a little too detached. He has repeatedly talked up the bill but without a fire and a passion and not particularly effectively to the American people. The webcasts ain’t gonna cut it.
That Pelosi, Obey and Co. felt the need to throw in a host of unnecessary and unstimulating pet projects is to be expected. The stimulus bill is a big lumbering train and legislators – whether they be in the Russian Duma or U.S. House – cannot resist an opportunity to claim a piece of the itinerary for their favorite routes. Hard to blame them except that this is exactly the type of shit people get pissed about and Obama campaigned to change.
Obama seemed content to let this happen around the margins as he tried to sway a few GOPers on to his side. He was generally focused on the big picture not the small print. And in a way there is not much he can do about some of this as it is Congress that holds the purse strings. He doesn’t have a line-item veto as a back stop. A president that tries to step too much into Congressional turf risks picking fights he can’t win. But, Obama and his staff seemed to miss the symbolic dynamic of the debate – i.e. that in allowing erroneous spending to build up in the bill they gave the GOP a lot of low hanging fruit to criticize and it has seemingly contradicted Obama’s claims to change the way Washington works. Looks a little too much like that old politics Obama ran against and this time its his own party at fault for it.
Not only does the bill have a lot of little bits of junk in it – that don’t have anything to do with economic stimulus – it sadly is also likely too small. It needs to be better targeted, bigger and cleaner in general. The Republicans are clearly nuts in thinking that it needs shrinking. But, all the junk the Dems piled into it, even if little of the whole, has given them a set of talking points that tarnish the overall package and ultimately make it harder for Obama to pass the bill in a form he’d like.
Ultimately, something will get passed. The GOP still look on the side of the dogs in opposing this. Obama retains his huge popularity and will have a nice fat bill to sign soon enough. But, Obama’s folks will have to become more savvy in dealing with a Congress congenitally tone deaf to wider public opinion. The stimulus is the easy part. A new banking bill will be fraught given all the money thrown at banks without proper checks already. And looking ahead to health care, possibly more stimulus, a cap and trade bill and others it will only get harder. It is true that the stimulus has been rushed from the start and that always poses risks, but it only get’s tougher from here so the game will have to be raised.
I’ve been with Obama from early on and still marvel in his achievement. The thing that bugged me most about his campaign was the anti-Washington rhetoric, in part because it played to the cheap seats and in part because it simplified the tough business of politics which inevitably makes it ugly – as if he would simply role into Washington and cleanse it of its long entrenched habits. The story worked as narrative but was always a promise too far – as democracy will always be messy. But people believed it so it set a high bar. They want a Government that, in considering an economic stimulus bill, resists the temptation to spend a lot of money on what may be good causes but have little to do with the economy.
A president will always struggle in keeping a lid on Congress’ worst impulses. But Obama needs to try harder to do just that. Washington was never the caricature of malfunction he painted it during the campaign, but it can be improved a great deal and he must not forget it. Maybe its all those big resume/big ego insiders around him dulling his outside the beltway radar. In any event, to live up to his promise he must push Congress harder to get better. Otherwise, his agenda will start to swallow more than just GOP hot air.
