Matters of Church and State

       

 

               THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD

         One of the most interesting, but frustrating, books I have read in a long time is Michael Grunwald’s 2012 book THE NEW NEW DEAL.  It’s a wonkish, dense, but highly readable 400-plus page book about the Recovery Act, or as it is more widely commonly known, the “stimulus.”  As you recall, the stimulus was passed in the early days of the Obama Administration to help keep the U.S. economy from plunging into another great depression.   

           The book’s wonkishness, density, and length are not what make it frustrating.  These are its best features.  Author Michael Grunwald, a senior national correspondent at Time magazine, did an exhaustive research job, working his way through countless documents and interviewing more than 400 sources on both sides of the aisle.

          What’s frustrating is that the “stimulus” – while not perfect -- actually did a lot of what it promised – helping people keep their jobs or get back to work, steadying the economy, placing the country on the path to recovery and attempting to put the economy on solid footing for the future.  But, most glaringly, it didn’t do what the Administration, in a self-inflicted wound, foolishly predicted it would:  keep unemployment under 8 percent.  The Republicans seized that blunder to characterize the bill as a failure and a spending boondoggle.  

Unfortunately, the Administration early on lost control of the message on the stimulus and health care reform, among other initiatives, allowing the GOP to define them.  These GOP distortions have taken deep root among the electorate at large, making it virtually impossible at this point, in the midst of a presidential campaign, to set the record straight.

          It all started with the stimulus.  This early gift from the Democrats put the Republicans on a trajectory that ultimately led the party to victory in the 2010 off-year elections.  Stung by the electoral defeats in the 2006 and 2008 elections, the party leadership decided that its only hope of becoming the Majority Party was to become the “Party of No” on its way to grabbing the leadership reins once again. Translated, that meant whatever the Obama Administration proposed the Republicans in the House and the Senate would oppose – even while showing up at local events claiming credit for projects made possible by the stimulus.

          I am not making this up.  Check the record.  The GOP leadership in both the House and the Senate imposed strict discipline on the members of their caucus.  The members were told:  Be resolute; don’t cooperate.  If you do cooperate, we’ll punish you.  And, by and large, the GOP members slavishly followed their lead.  They also were told to characterize the stimulus as just another Liberal spending bill and that’s the story that has taken root.

          One can only imagine what otherwise might have been if President Obama did not believe that if he got “the policies right, the politics would take care of themselves” and his Administration had done a better job countering these distortions right away.  The one that is most galling, perhaps, is that President Obama did not follow up on his campaign promise to bridge the partisan divide in Washington and get politicians working together to solve the problems facing the country.  This from the “Party of No” that pledged to block anything the President sent to the Hill.  Chutzpah does not even come close to capturing that level of brazen mendacity.

           And now they’re down in Tampa peddling their distortions on Medicare and other issues in prime time. Will they ultimately get away with it?  It’s frightening to think so.  That said, I still believe enough Americans, initially lured by the siren’s call of lower taxes and other appeals to self-interest at the expense of the common good, will come to their senses and see the GOP platform for what it is – a ticket back to what got us in this mess in the first place.

           Gerald E. Lavey