Opinion: Inside the partisan House vote on a stimulus bill

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So much for bipartisanship for now.

Today’s House vote on the $819-billion economic stimulus package was a stark one -- 244 to 188.

244 Democrats on one side.

177 Republicans and 11 dissenting Democrats on the other.

Despite President Obama’s very public bid for Republican support, he got none. Nada. Zippo. A slap in the face for the Great Change Agent in return for a good faith reaching out?

Or a clever move by his savvy staff, lead by ex-House member and Democratic political infighter Rahm Emanuel to dramatically portray the GOP in isolation, showing Republicans as opposed to the ‘economic stimulus’ to help the nation’s troubled economy and families? Not every Democrat went along with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s proclamation.

On the Republican side of the aisle, the vote showed that despite their shellacking at the polls in the last two congressional elections, Republicans are one thing for sure -- united. House Minority Leader John Boehner and his enforcers were perfect disciplinarians, and they drilled home the message that their party suffered there not because it opposed expanded government spending but because it insufficiently opposed such spending.

Boehner ignored some Democratic compromise gestures and called the measure ‘a lot of wasteful spending that won’t create jobs.’ Provocatively, he also called it a ‘bipartisan rejection of a partisan bill.’

‘Republicans have had their chance,’ Pelosi replied to Maggie Rodriguez of the ‘Early Show.’ ‘They decided to oppose. That’s their choice.’ For the text of Obama’s complete reaction, scroll down to the jump or click on the ‘Read more’ line below.

Not one GOP member strayed from the argument that the billions were short on stimulus and long on lard. Only $5 billion to the Army Corps of Engineers for two years? But $2 billion more to the Park Service? Republicans ask where all those shovel-ready road construction projects went and claim it’s really a catchall package of long-favored Democratic programs thrown together and called stimulus.

We’ll hear those arguments and predictable responses ad nauseum in coming days, maybe even more attacks on former President Bush, who’s just a regular consumer back in Texas at last report, leading up to next week’s Senate vote. There, some Republicans may cross over, especially if they are at least four years away from any reelection campaign.

Fact is, these tiresome tirades are moot, even on cable TV. The Democrats have the votes to pass whatever the president wants. And he says he wants to sign the bill by President’s Day. Put that on your calendar -- in ink.

More importantly, the vote shows that despite the long-professed desire to break the Capitol’s partisan gridlock, a traditional pursuit of incoming presidents including Obama, the compelling factor there actually remains the perceived feelings back home.

On Nov. 4, Obama earned about 54% of the popular presidential vote. Today, his party’s House members captured 56% of the vote. Pretty close.

In that sense, Obama and a long string of chief executives and media pundits, who live there too, may be addressing partisanship in the wrong place -- Washington. Perhaps, just perhaps, the partisan camps in that icy city accurately reflect the easily overlooked similar splits back home. After all, House members are called representatives for a reason.

It’s so much easier from afar to watch these D.C. folks strut their talking points and shake our heads about Washington, rather than their mirrored behaviors back home.

Which, after all, is where these House members must confront their constituents in campaigns that start in less than a year, sooner for fundraising to scare off pesky competitors.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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President Obama’s Statement on House passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Jan. 28, 2009

Last year, America lost 2.6 million jobs. On Monday alone, we learned that some of our biggest employers plan to cut another 55,000. This is a wakeup call to Washington that the American people need us to act and act immediately.

That is why I am grateful to the House of Representatives for moving the American Recovery and Reinvestment plan forward today. There are many numbers in this plan. It will double our capacity to generate renewable energy. It will lower the cost of health care by billions and improve its quality. It will modernize thousands of classrooms and send more kids to college. And it will put billions of dollars in immediate tax relief into the pockets of working families.

But out of all these numbers, there is one that matters most to me: this recovery plan will save or create more than three million new jobs over the next few years.

I can also promise that my administration will administer this recovery plan with a level of transparency and accountability never before seen in Washington. Once it is passed, every American will be able to go the website recovery.gov and see how and where their money is being spent.

The plan now moves to the Senate, and I hope that we can continue to strengthen this plan before it gets to my desk. But what we can’t do is drag our feet or allow the same partisan differences to get in our way. We must move swiftly and boldly to put Americans back to work, and that is exactly what this plan begins to do.” ###