News Release

Borosage Denounces Cold-Blooded Obstruction Around Economic Recovery

Right is putting partisanship over patriotism

President Obama’s American Economic Recovery & Reinvestment Plan won cloture in the Senate today, but with the support of only three of 41 Republican senators. Clearly, this is a case of naked partisanship. The right spurned the president’s call to come together in the face of the economic crisis. Campaign for America’s Future co-director Robert Borosage denounced right wing Republicans who have made no secret of their unwillingness to compromise on economic stimulus.

STATEMENT OF ROBERT BOROSAGE

Faced with the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, all but a handful of Republicans want to block or weaken the only solution that can address the problem. They crow that by opposing the recovery plan, they’ve got their voice back. They are more worried about political posturing than about jobs and the national economic downturn. Worse, they’ve learned nothing – they call for the same Bush economics that got us into this mess. More tax cuts for the wealthy, less spending on the people.

The overwhelming majority of conservatives chose partisanship over patriotism and obstruction over action. GOP leaders were thrilled that not a single Republican voted for the President’s economic recovery plan in the House, and they’re delighted that only three Republicans supported it in the Senate.

Aside from three Senators, not one Republican has said, suggested, or even hinted that he or she would be willing to vote for the President’s package if amendments were accepted. In fact, they have taken the uncompromising position that they would only support the pitiful Republican substitute. All House Republicans but 10 and every Senate Republican except four voted for this extreme right-wing substitute, which is principally composed of tax cuts for the rich and is far too small to get the economy moving. In the face of America’s urgent need for real solutions, conservatives offer only shameful obstruction and symbolic posturing.

CTS SUPPORTING THE STATEMENT OF ROBERT BOROSAGE

Recent stories about the Republicans’ partisan strategy:

Washington Post: GOP Sees Positives In Negative Stand
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/08/AR200902...

Congressional Quarterly: GOP Moderates See Political Benefits in Opposing Obama’s Economic Agenda
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003026985

The Atlantic: The “Bipartisan” Backlash
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/02/the-biparti...

“The worst thing we can do is just say no.”
—U.S. Senator Susan Collins, R-ME on the Obama economic recovery proposal
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/03/republican-senators-meet...

The Republican alternative stimulus which they have not been willing to compromise:
The Senate GOP substitute, sponsored by John Thune (R-SD), was voted down 37-60 last Thursday. This substitute would cost $385 billion over two years (somewhat less than Senate Republicans claim) and contains only four meaningful provisions.
http://senatus.wordpress.com/2009/02/05/senate-defeats-thune-stimulus-al...

(1) The biggest provision by far is a lowering of the bottom two tax brackets for individuals, costing $291 billion, two-thirds of the overall cost of the Republican plan. As the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities pointed out, “Higher-income households would get a much bigger tax cut than less-affluent ones. A married couple with two children with income of $100,000 or more would get a tax cut of $3,395. This is 17 times the $200 tax cut that the couple would receive if its income were $30,000.” And “Roughly 23 million lower-income tax filers would receive no tax cut at all.”
http://www.cbpp.org/1-26-09tax2.htm

(2) The second biggest part would give a flat 20 percent tax deduction totaling $48 billion to “businesses with less than 500 employees”—which, with a straight face, the GOP calls “small businesses.”

(3) The third part would extend the $7,500 homebuyer tax credit from first-time home buyers to all qualifying home buyers. This would cost $21 billion and benefit only the more-affluent.

(4) The fourth would extend unemployment benefits and make those benefits tax-free at a cost of $33 billion. This is a diminution of benefits compared to the Democratic plan which extends unemployment insurance and also increases the benefits by $25 a week.

The House Republican version, the Camp Amendment, is identical although it includes a few more tax breaks for the rich. According to the Tax Policy Center, this Amendment was grossly tilted to favor the rich. A person earning $1 million would get a tax break of $35,000; a person making $10-20,000 would get $85.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d111:2:./temp/~bdk7Qm::|/bss/111search.html|
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/numbers/displayatab.cfm?Docid=2100&DocTyp...

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