Chamber of Commerce Touting Stimulus
I'm not sure I agree with my boss's assessment of Washington.
You could argue that the entrenched interests stopped the Reagan and Bush administrations from doing what they would have liked, too.
I tend to think the town is more wired for inertia than anything, an entropy that stymies the ambitious goals of every president from Reagan to Obama. But I'm less despairing about it changing, too because crisis provokes change.
One sign of the crack is the Chamber of Commerce. They supported the stimulus plan and the morning after Obama's address to Congress next week, they'll be holding a panel discussion on how the money will be dispensed. Of course, the Chamber will fight Obama on the Employee Free Choice Act and any number of other issues but it's telling that they're not battling him on this.
On another matter I hear the Hilda Solis vote in the Senate could come as soon as Tuesday or at least an effort to invoke cloture and get it moving. It'd be nice to get the cabinet done by March.
| TOPICS: Barack Obama, Business Lobby, Capitol Culture, EFCA, Stimulus
Josh
Matt
Eric
I don't think it was a surprising "crack" for the US Chamber of Commerce to support the stimulus bill, so I don't understand why this surprises Washington insiders like you.
February 19, 2009 5:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I can imagine it could be harder to perceive how Washington is wired when you've long been part of the wiring.
You could, but to do that you'd have to present some actual evidence. Just saying it isn't even the beginning of an argument.
Perhaps you could try prefixing posts like this with ZIC: (for "zero information content".) That way those of us who consider this an actual news analysis site can skip to the next real entry without bothering you.
February 19, 2009 6:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Josh is primarily talking about the press, and perhaps opinion makers in a more general way. But you keep parsing Josh's comments to the point of absurdity (yes, Democrats have won elections recently; even so, much of Washington seems determined to give Republicans as much influence on debate as they held when they were wrecking the country), but you seem totally obtuse to this argument that's transparently obvious to most readers here.
Or, in other words, what Redshift said.
February 19, 2009 7:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
There has been a paragovernment since Washington was a swamp. It has just become more obvious, more powerful, more pernicious over the past three decades (coinciding curiously enough with the advent of the Reagan Revolution against Big Guvmit)
Robert Kaiser's set to explain this all to Billy Moyers in an interview about this new book
http://www.truthout.org/021909U
Versailles-on-the-Potomac...the courtiers are temporarily confused about who to kowtow to. The past two years have been inconveniently chaotic
February 19, 2009 7:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think there's been a quid pro of sort with the USCOC. You will recall the frontal attack launched against the Auto Bailout last December. It had almost nothing to do with the issue at hand but everything to do with preparing the ground for a battle with the unions over Employee Free Choice. COC type interests were lining up a post inaug attack on unions with a follow up thrust against health care
Then along came the stimulus and common ground for now...we support you and you keep card check off the calendar for a few months
February 19, 2009 7:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I tend to think the town is more wired for inertia than anything...
Yeah, kinda.
February 19, 2009 9:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cooper,
Please read Josh's explanation more carefully. Give it some deeper thought. What Josh says, as someone noted above, is blindingly obvious. That you don't see it indicates that you have been a part of that culture for too many years. It seems normal to you. But it isn't normal. Inertia doesn't preclude being wired for the center right Republican entrenched interests.
You can't possibly equate the so-called "stymied" goals of Bush and Reagan with the pack-driven feeding frenzy visited upon the Clinton Administration. I'd like to hear your thoughts on that.
February 20, 2009 2:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have yet to hear how the Employee Free Choice Act makes sense, especially since Democrats are getting KILLED in the propaganda war about it. Talk about shooting ourselves in the foot! Standing against secret ballots? Yeah, that's a smart move...
I've got to say that this is pretty typical for the Democratic Party, though. They don't seem to WANT to be the majority party.
February 20, 2009 9:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
It seems that you're actually supporting Josh's argument. If the media is wired for the status quo and the mood of the country is undergoing a dramatic shift to the left, then there's your disconnect.
http://www.pufferfishblog.com/
February 20, 2009 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink