Where is the big multiplier?
I just heard Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary to President Clinton, make a case for spending Treasury dollars on infrastructure projects (on MSNBC’s 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue). Reich rightly notes that infrastructure investment, and not necessarily financial institution bailouts, creates jobs – lots of jobs. Infrastructure can be a multiplier for a flagging economy; it can help get the gears moving again.
Government spending has a bad name in DC. But in fact, only investing in our nation’s energy production, transportation and other infrastructure pays back in dividends in jobs, resources and a shot of confidence. Once Americans feel like they can spend again – with the government pumping its case into jobs to give the initial push – then cash and credit can flow again from banks and wallets.
So long as Democrats don’t overreach at this crucial recasting of government players, passing a reasonable sized stimulus package like what I am hearing the Democrats, including their president-elect, calling for is a good thing to do. If President Bush softens his stance, modifies the package some in negotiations and then signs it, such a bill could be a positive last initiative for President Bush, and ironically, a piece of compassionate legislation to make the end of the national conservative agenda for at least 2 years.
Karl Rove, Mike Huckabee, Florida Senator Mel Martinez (a potentially vulnerable Republican in 2010) and other Republicans have be calling for working with the newly-elected President and Democratic congress, and to do so by bringing ideas to the table. Therein – new ideas to the table – lies the rise of the old new Republican Party.
There is no old Virginia, no real America. But there are old Republicans, the careful ones who lost grip of their party in the waning 1990’s. The new Republicans leaned lazily on low taxes and ran up the bill on a Chinese credit card. The party faces a crucial decision on how to get the country out of its mini-depression, as I’ve now heard it called.
Of a public works program style stimulus effort, the party leaders must ask, “where does the money come from,” as Dan Lundgrun (R -CA) wondered to Chris Matthews today. And maybe it won’t work in the immediate term. These are fair concerns. But what else have you got? Where are your solutions. Because that is what elects a candidate (ideally).
In the coming days, the Republican Governors are gathering in Florida, and it will be an opportunity to make sense of what just happened, rebuild the platform and its players, and audition for the next cycle. The Republican party must answer the challenges ahead with real ideas, or else wander the wilderness for eight years to think about what they’ve done.
Inform Your Consent 
Andre Delena said
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Great rundown. I to read the Reich article. Sounds good, tried and true rather. I think one of the genuinely transformative aspects of this campaign has been the chastening of the GOP. They’re falling all over themselves to reach across the aisle. They really must be lost.
Where does the money come from? I dunno, where did the $700billion for the stimulus package come from?
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