The New New Deal (72 page)

195
The conservative
Washington Times
even trumpeted:
Stephen Dinan and S. A. Miller, “EXCLUSIVE: Stimulus Has Plum for Lawmaker’s Son,”
Washington Times
, February 29, 2009.

196
GOP leaders cherry-picked a preliminary Congressional Budget Office analysis:
“Estimated Cost of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 as Provided on the Appropriation Committee Website on January 15, 2009,”
http://www.tampabay.com/universal/politifact/files/recoveryactsummary.pdf
; “REPORT: TV Media Cited Disputed CBO ‘Report’ at Least 81 Times in Past Six Days,” Think-Progress, January 26, 2009,
http://thinkprogress.org/media/2009/01/26/35288/report-cbo-tv/
.

197
the CBO confirmed that in an actual report:
CBO cost estimate for ARRA conference report, February 13, 2009,
http://www.cbo.gov/publication/41762
.

198
The Associated Press ran an “analysis”:
“Analysis: Stimulus Bill That’s Not All Stimulating,” Associated Press, January 31, 2009.

199
cable networks interviewed Republican lawmakers:
“REPORT: GOP Lawmakers Outnumber Democratic Lawmakers 2 to 1 in Stimulus Debate on Cable News,” Think-Progress, January 28, 2009,
http://thinkprogress.org/media/2009/01/28/35450/cable-news-stimulus/
. Despite the report being done by liberal blog ThinkProgress, Senate Republican staffers touted the results in a February 5, 2009, email to reporters with the headline: “GOP Message Resonates with America.”

200
environmentalists attacked a provision:
“Stop Senate’s $50 Billion Bailout to the Nuclear Industry,” Friends of the Earth press release,
http://action.foe.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26528
. I often bang my spoon on my high chair about the impossible economics of new nuclear power. Michael Grunwald, “Nuclear’s Comeback: Still No Energy Panacea,”
Time
, December 31, 2008; Michael Grunwald, “The Real Cost of U.S. Nuclear Power,”
Time
, March 25, 2011.

201
White House officials had encouraged him to add to the drumbeat:
“Cooper: Obama Staff Encouraged Defiance of Pelosi,”
Politico
, February 3, 2009,
http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0209/Cooper_Obama_staff_encouraged_defiance_of_Pelosi.html
.

202
a poll he had commissioned:
McLaughlin & Associates, “National Survey Presented to Congressman Eric Cantor, Republican House Whip Team,” January 21, 2009, copy provided to the author. The results were reported by ABC News: Jonathan Karl and Rick Klein, “GOP Strategy: Oppose Pelosi, Not Obama,” ABC News, January 29, 2009,
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2009/01/gop-strategy-op/
.

203
“It’s my way or the highway”:
Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, and Kevin McCarthy,
Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders
(New York: Threshold, 2010), p. 52.

204
One Republican congressman who said Limbaugh should “back off”:
That was Phil Gingrey of Georgia.

205
The Energy and Commerce Committee did approve six minor GOP amendments:
Amendment list available here:
http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090122/markupaction.pdf
. The three Republican amendments that weren’t included in the final House bill were offered by Cliff Stearns (to exclude millionaires from receiving COBRA health care subsidies), Tim Murphy (to require that health IT grant recipients purchase American-made equipment), and Roy Blunt (to allow pharmacists the same level of access as doctors to electronic health records).

206
“We’re looking forward to the the President’s visit”:
John Boehner’s talking points for the House GOP Conference meeting on January 27 were provided to the author.

207
the $815 billion stimulus bill:
CBO cost estimate of the House bill, January 26, 2009,
http://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9968/hrl.pdf
.

208
Shortly before 11
A.M
.,
the AP reported:
David Espo, “House Republicans Urged to Oppose Stimulus Bill,” Associated Press, January 27, 2009.

209
the must-read book in Republican circles:
Amity Shlaes,
The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression
(New York: Harper, 2007). Jonathan Chait eviscerated Shlaes in a review, “Wasting Away in Hooverville,”
The New Republic
, January 28, 2009,
http://www.tnr.com/article/books/wasting-away-hooverville
.

210
mostly they supplied information, sending out memos:
Cantor’s whip team listed the money for artists and STDs in memos tailored to each Republican House member
under the headline, “What Competing Stimulus Plans Mean for Your District,” designed to produce talking points that Republicans could use to attack the Democratic bill at home.

211
The official $478 billion Republican alternative:
“US House Republican Alternative Stimulus Proposal,” Reuters, January 28, 2008,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/01/28/usa-stimulus-republicans-idUSN285350202009012_8
.

212
the GOP also crafted a second $715 billion substitute:
A summary of the substitute is here:
http://rsc.jordan.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=109730
.

213
claiming it would create twice as many jobs at half the cost:
This claim was utterly bogus. Republicans also had the audacity to say they derived it using Romer’s model, which was absurd; Romer’s model gave spending a higher multiplier than tax cuts. Factcheck.org politely noted that the Republican claims were “not backed up by independent economists”:
www.factcheck.org/2009/02/stimulus-bill-bravado/
.

214
the House rejected the $478 billion alternative:
The roll call is here:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll044.xml
. The vote on the $715 billion alternative is here:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll045.xml
. The vote on the Democratic bill is here:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll046.xml
.

215
“Washington insiders and media pundits”:
Ryan, Cantor, and McCarthy,
Young Guns
, p. 53.

216
“The Republican Problem”:
Memo from Pelosi communications director Brendan Daly, January 28, 2009.

217
Gingrich addressed a House Republican retreat:
Patrick O’Connor, “Members Cheer at GOP Retreat,” January 30, 2009,
Politico
,
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/18204.html
.

218
“I know all of you are pumped”:
Patrick O’Connor, “At Retreat, Upbeat GOP Looks to 2010,”
Politico
, January 31, 2009,
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/18238.html
.

219
In a later roundtable discussion:
Ryan, Cantor, and McCarthy,
Young Guns
, p. 8.

220
“Republicans—short on new ideas”:
E. J. Dionne, “Obama Losing Stimulus Fight to Defeated GOP,”
Washington Post
, February 5, 2009,
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/02/obama_losing_stimulus_fight_to.html
; Jeanne Cummings, “Obama Losing the Stimulus Message War,”
Politico
, February 5, 2009,
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18444.html
.

221
support for the stimulus sank from 52 percent to 38 percent:
CBS News poll, February 5, 2009,
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/poll_020509.pdf
.

10. From Zero to Sixty

222
the Senate approved the new S-CHIP:
The final vote was 66–32, with nine Republicans joining all the Democrats in voting for the bill.

223
He tracked Collins down over the holidays:
Manuel Roig-Franzia and Paul Kane, “Two Moderate GOP Senators Give Big Voice to Little Maine,”
Washington Post
, February 16, 2009.

224
There was a long history of senators “pairing votes”:
Reid’s staff pointed out that two Republicans, John Warner of Virginia and Pete Domenici of New Mexico, paired votes with Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd, both ill, on a June 2008 vote on a Democratic budget plan. Warner and Domenici retired later that year.
Congressional Record
, June 4, 2008. In 2001, Biden offered to pair his vote with ninety-eight-year-old
Senator Strom Thurmond on George W. Bush’s tax cut bill so that Thurmond could go home and rest. Thurmond declined the offer. “Attempt Nixed to Let Senator Miss Late-Night Votes,” Associated Press, May 22, 2001.

225
The only Republican to defeat an incumbent senator that year:
In 1984, eleven Democrats ran for reelection. They all won except for Walter Huddleston of Kentucky. More Republican senators (two) lost that year than Democrats, despite President Reagan’s forty-nine-state victory.

226
a procedural trick called a “clay pigeon”:
A senator uses the clay pigeon by calling up an amendment and later splitting it into dozens of pieces, each of which must be voted on. The technique gets its name from the skeet shooting target that explodes into bits.

227
In fact, he was the senator most responsible:
The use of the filibuster roughly doubled when McConnell took over as minority leader in the Senate in 2007. Cloture motions—the procedure necessary to overcome a filibuster—averaged sixty-nine a year from 2007 to 2010. In the previous decade, the average number of cloture motions per year was just thirty-four. Records are available here:
http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/reference/cloture_motions/clotureCounts.htm
.

228
Kan read everything:
The CBO cost estimate of the Senate bill said that 78 percent of the stimulus money would be spent in 2009 and 2010. CBO cost estimate, February 10, 2009,
http://www.cbo.gov/publication/20471
, staff summary of Senate Democratic bill for Senate GOP leadership staff, February 7, 2009, document provided to the author. Senate Appropriations Committee report, January 27, 2009,
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRPT-111srpt3/pdf/CRPT-111srpt3.pdf
. Senate GOP spreadsheet on cost-per-job of Recovery Act spending programs, January 30, 2009, document provided to the author.

229
a perfect image of bipartisan cooperation:
The White House photo of President Obama and Governor Douglas moving the couch, February 2, 2009, can be viewed at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/4291167739/
.

230
“an extraordinarily bold and aggressive, effective and comprehensive plan”:
Obama announcement of Gregg as commerce secretary nominee, February 3, 2009,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=85721
.

231
“make it harder for his fellow Republicans to demonize Obama”:
David Rogers, “Reid, Emanuel Pushed for Gregg,”
Politico
, February 9, 2009,
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18385.html
.

232
he temporarily shed his Mr. Nice Guy persona:
Obama speech at House Democratic retreat, February 5, 2009,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=85739
.

233
He marveled at the gall of Republicans:
The national debt was at $5.7 trillion and falling when George W. Bush entered office in January 2001. When Bush left office eight years later, the national debt was at $10.6 trillion and soaring, an increase of $4.9 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office two weeks before Obama became president had already projected that the debt would grow by $1.2 trillion in 2009 without factoring in Obama’s policies. Official debt figures are posted by the Treasury Department at
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/pd.htm
. The CBO’s early January 2009 projection of that year’s deficit is available at
http://www.cbo.gov/publication/41753
.

234
“The American Option”:
A summary of Senator DeMint’s stimulus plan is here:
http://www.demint.senate.gov//files/10/25/81/f102581/public/_files/2009-02-02_DeMint_Jobs_Plan_Summary.pdf
.

235
at least a dozen Democrats and half a dozen Republicans:
Jay Newton-Small, “Can
Ben Nelson Get a Bipartisan Stimulus Win?,” Time.com, February 6, 2009,
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1877535,00.html
.

236
The Washington press corps showered the gang members:
Dana Milbank, “A Horse and Pony Show,”
Washington Post
, February 6, 2009; David Brooks, “The Gang System,”
New York Times
, February 6, 2009.

237
unless somebody could figure out how to get Al Franken seated:
Emanuel made the same complaint in an early profile by Ryan Lizza, when he unloaded on Paul Krugman’s criticism of the White House legislative strategy. “Write a fucking column on how to seat the son of a bitch,” Emanuel said. Lizza, “The Gatekeeper,”
The New Yorker
, March 2, 2009,
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/02/090302fa_fact_lizza#ixzzlrTVWPrzL
.

238
The Senate passed the slimmed-down bill:
The roll call is here:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00061
.