Could Stimulus plan be the first campaign issue of 2010?

Stimulus plan is first '10 campaign issue BY Ron Dzwonkowski FREE PRESS ASSOCIATE EDITOR

The seven Republicans who represent Michigan districts in the U.S. House stood fast with their GOP colleagues in opposing the $819-billion economic stimulus package that passed the chamber Wednesday.

They will have another opportunity to vote on the bill, since the final product is going to be a compromise between the House plan and a Senate version that already totals $888 billion. But Wednesday’s vote is likely to be the one Republicans will find themselves explaining or defending at re-election time in 2010.

The GOP House members hung together on principle. They wanted more tax cuts, less spending. And if this stimulus package turns out to be an expensive flop, as many Americans now perceive the Wall Street bailout to be, if the economy is not on the road to recovery next year and if all that federal “bridge loan” money has not kept any one of the Detroit-based automakers from failing, a Republican seeking re-election has a simple campaign slogan: “Told you so.”

But if things are picking up here and elsewhere — and who in Michigan cannot be hoping that they will be? — a Democrat trying to knock off one of the seven has an equally simple platform: “When it came time to help, you said no. You chose NOT to be part of the solution.”

Most of the GOP Seven from Michigan represent solidly Republican districts and will probably be safe seeking re-election in two years. Some, like U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra from Holland, already have said they are stepping down.

But Hoekstra could find his vote Wednesday dogging him if he seeks the Republican nomination for governor in 2010. (Hoekstra said the stimulus plan “amounts to nearly as much as the annual discretionary budget for the entire federal government. We cannot continue to simply throw money at the problem with few conditions and little accountability.” )

Lt. Gov. John Cherry, who wants to be the Democratic nominee for governor next year, already has said he thinks Republicans in general can be tarred with the opposition of GOP U.S. senators to the auto loans. Imagine what the Democrats will try to make of GOP lawmakers fighting the stimulus package in economically crippled Michigan.

U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Livonia, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM53EnxPkBs">complained on the House floor that Obama reached out for Republican support but then rejected all the GOP ideas. McCotter told his House colleagues that in Michigan “we are living your nightmare” of an economy on the brink of depression, but described the Democrats’ stimulus as “a missed opportunity … a wasteful government spending bill.”

Since McCotter won re-election last year with just 51% of the vote against an unknown and underfinanced opponent, state Democrats have to be politically salivating at the prospect of sending him the way of Joe Knollenberg next year.

But remember, this stimulus package first has to show some signs of working. Otherwise, for McCotter and the rest of the GOP, 2010 is all about “don’t say we didn’t warn you.”

MCL comment:

I believe the Republicans are worried that if this plan works out and if it does have the desire effect there will be no need to vote Republican next year, so the more B.S. and obstruction they can put up the slower the recovery will be so therefore they can scream "see Obama isn't getting the job done so give the Rethugican party another chance". But what Obama is doing is very smart politically he's going above and beyond to include the Republicans and they're the ones acting like spoiled little kids having fits about giving millionaires and billionaires tax cuts. Which is going to make them look even worst because they will be the ones viewed as stopping things from getting better and playing politics.