1 Boring Old Man

Stimulus Done – Same with Conservatives
by Deacon Blues

After the mainstream media and Beltway intelligentsia spent the last several days convincing us (me included) that Congress faced a difficult and rancorous battle to reconcile the two stimulus bills in conference committee in the days ahead, House and Senate Democratic leaders did what some of us suggested and ignored the conservatives.

They reached agreement in several hours today, even before going to the formal committee. Congressional Democratic leaders worked directly with the Senate moderates and got the package worked out already. It even appears that they managed to restore some of the education and infrastructure reductions contained in the Senate bill by reducing the amount of tax cuts.

And the conservatives? They are whining. Tough shit, Chuck.

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, complained that despite Mr. Obama’s call for bipartisan cooperation, Republicans had largely been shut out. “We didn’t have a chance to negotiate,” Mr. Grassley said.

Welcome to Iceberg City you bastards. Get used to it. You wanna keep saying no? Then go in the corner and play with yourselves the next two years. A popular president pushing a popular agenda doesn’t really need you.

The package isn’t great, it’s too weak on infrastructure and didn’t need to have the AMT fix in it. But the Dems were certain that the Reeps would hold the AMT fix hostage to "pay-go" baloney later on, so they took care of it now. There will be opportunities to provide more assistance for education and infrastructure later on, but for now, the conservatives managed to make themselves irrelevant within the first 30 days of this term.

And that’s a good thing. F*ck ’em all.