The Fate of the Stimulus Package

Democrats do not have enough votes to pass the economic stimulus package as it currently is written, report Shailagh Murray and Paul Kane in the Washington Post.

My parents raised me to try to see both sides of an issue and to be tolerant of the other guy's opinion, even when it differs from my own.

But the economic package is about more than opinions and mathematical formulas. It's about people.

I understand that the cost of the stimulus has roughly tripled since the election. We've also been adding more than half a million people to the ranks of the unemployed each month.

Currently, the estimate is that the economy is losing 20,000 jobs a day. If that is the case — and I have no reason to think it is not — that's an average of 400 jobs lost per state per day. Given the population differences between states, some states are losing more, some states are losing fewer.

I imagine that means the average daily job loss in California is probably around 2,000, maybe more.

I also understand that three-fifths of the senators must support the package in order for it to pass, and Democrats do not have 60 votes — even if the apparent victor in Minnesota, Al Franken, were to be allowed to take his seat before the vote.

So Democrats are trying to trim up to $200 billion from the package to make it more palatable to Republican members.

Under ordinary circumstances, I would encourage the Senate's Democrats to make whatever compromises are necessary to bring some of the Republican members over to their side. Bipartisan support would be preferable — and, in order to pass the package, at least a few Republican votes will be necessary.

Under ordinary circumstances, I would encourage the Senate to take as much time as it needs to make sure a package is passed that is pleasing to at least 60 members of the Senate.

But these aren't ordinary circumstances. And it isn't possible to produce an economic stimulus package that is satisfactory to everyone.

Yet it seems the Republican members haven't learned their lesson. Many seem prepared to hold the package hostage. Six years of marching in lockstep behind a "my way or the highway" Republican administration led this country to the situation it now faces. That administration has gone now, and it has been replaced by a Democratic administration. Democrats took control of both houses of Congress two years ago.

Taking an obstructionist position — and forcing an extended debate now — will do the Republicans' constituents no good. Regardless of their individual beliefs, both Republicans and Democrats are unemployed today. And both Republicans and Democrats are losing their homes.

The stimulus package is not perfect. But it's what we have. If you're going to delay its passage — or you're dead set against its passage at all — you'd better have a constructive alternative to suggest. And you'd better be able to prove that it's preferable to what has been proposed.

What's more, you'd better make your case quickly. There is literally no time to waste.

Want to save money? OK. Why don't we trim a significant chunk of the billions that are being thrown away in Iraq and go ahead and bring a large portion of our troops home? Many of them have already more than done their share. And it was the absence of so many National Guardsmen nearly four years ago that (to a great extent) prevented an effective federal response to Hurricane Katrina. Let's bring those Guardsmen home so they can be here, ready to spring into action, if another Katrina strikes.

I have advocated a gradual withdrawal, to allow the Iraqis enough time to take control of their own affairs, but we've been there for nearly six years. Enough is enough. Iraq was the last administration's mistake. No sense in making it this administration's mistake as well.

If we're going to have real change we can believe in, let's start with Iraq.

The times demand immediate action. This crisis is too severe to allow for the luxury of standing on political dogma. People are dying, and more people will die unless the government does everything it can now. We cannot be penny wise and pound foolish.

The Talmud says, "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire." There are millions of lives that need saving today.

There's a high price to be paid for doing nothing. The people who have been hurt by the economy are running out of patience — with big corporations that accept billions in bailout money and then buy private corporate jets instead of finding ways to use that money to preserve jobs and with lawmakers who give that money to the fatcats while nitpicking over elements of the stimulus package that will help ordinary citizens.

And the voters will have long memories when it comes time to vote on whether to return you to the Senate. Of that, you may be sure.