When pushing for the ideal hurts your own cause.
Thursday, January 24th, 2008Back when I ran for Congress I had a sort of “theme” that I would use to discuss important issues. I said “There are a lot of people that want to push policies that are based on certain “ideals”. I have no problem with reaching for the ideal but I firmly believe that we have to do so with our feet firmly planted in reality.”
Today the House agreed to an economic stimulus packagethat consisted several compromises. One of them that Republicans made was allowing some people who do not pay taxes to get some funds as well. I am sure that many Republicans swallowed what would be a bitter pill to them when agreeing to that. One that the Democrats made was to not include an increase of funding for unemployment compensation and food stamps.
In response, Charlie Rangel said:
“I do not understand, and cannot accept, the resistance of President Bush and Republican leaders to including an extension of unemployment benefits for those who are without work through no fault of their own,”
And I absolutely agree with him. I don’t understand President Bush and Republicans on this and many other issues. However, what concerns me is the plan by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont). He stated that he intends to draft a different economic stimulus package in the Senate. This makes absolutely no sense! If the Senate bill differs from the House bill, then there will need to be a conference committee on the issue. Debate will go on and on about which bill to send out of committee. And then, if the Republican Senators disagree with the compromise, it could be filibustered in the Senate. This would make the bill take far to long to pass and the point of this bill is to help the economy ASAP.
So why on earth would the Senator from Montana want to make his own version of bill that would delay the process? Why not work to get this bill passed as quickly as possible and then, perhaps, he could bring forward another bill that would deal with the increase of funds to those on unemployment and food stamps without risking the funds to everyone else. If THAT bill doesn’t pass with a veto-proof majority, you could then use the issue against the Republicans in the 2008 campaigns.
