Dems: GOP will pay political price for stimulus vote

Breaking story just in from The Hill -

Democrats are blasting House Republican leaders for pressing their conference to vote against the stimulus bill and warn the party that it will face political consequences.

In a memo on the “Republican Problem” to “interested parties” that was e-mailed to reporters on Thursday morning, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) charged Republicans with acting in a “partisan and irresponsible manner.”

By voting against the $819 billion stimulus package, spokesman Brendan Daly said Republicans were rejecting tax cuts, jobs in their communities and critical services such as health care. He also rejected arguments that a Republican alternative bill focused on additional tax cuts would have created more jobs.
Republicans say their bill would have created 6 million jobs, while Democrats count 3 million jobs created from the package approved by the House.

Daly all but explicitly said Republicans were playing politics on the bill against a Democratic Congress and president, noting that in 1993, the last time a Republican minority faced a Democratic majority and president, they voted against a budget bill en masse.

“There’s a pattern here of Republican economic mismanagement and Democrats stepping up to do what’s needed for the good of the country while Republicans acted in a partisan and irresponsible manner,” Daly wrote.

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Obama gets his stimulus but not bipartisan support

The Hill - House Democrats on Wednesday delivered on their promise to President Obama to pass an $819 billion economic stimulus bill, but they had to do so without a single Republican vote.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) herself rose to the chair to call the final vote, which was 244-188. Eleven Democrats joined every Republican in opposing the bill.

Although Democrats erupted in cheers after final passage, it was somewhat of a bittersweet victory for the majority, which has been championing what it claimed to be the bipartisan nature of the economic recovery bill.

The massive bill – which has been the top priority of both President Obama and congressional Democrats – will have to be reconciled with a companion bill working its way through the Senate that is now nearly $900 billion with the inclusion of a one-year patch for the alternative minimum tax intended to prevent its application to middle-class taxpayers. Democratic leaders are preparing for a bicameral conference to iron out what could be significant differences between the two bills.

The House bill was a mixture of tax cuts and spending proposals that deviated in detail from the president’s initial proposal, and that divided the chamber along party lines.

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