It's interesting that the Republican strategy on the stimulus bill is literally to try and compete with the Democrats to align themselves more closely with Barack Obama. The thinking seems to be that tax relief is popular and public works spending is unpopular, or at least can be made unpopular. According to Jon Henke, Republicans think they can hug close to tax cuts, use isolated examples (like the mobster museum) to whip up public outrage at the discretionary spending elements, and that Obama will then abandon the public works side of the bill even as congressional Democrats continue to defend it. It's an odd strategy, but evidence of how Obama's 70 percent approval ratings are changing everyone's political calculations. It's also impressively cynical given the economic demands of the moment. If it proved effective, the upside would be a stimulus bill that doesn't work and thus an economic tailspin. But also, better poll numbers for Republicans! Maybe! Even Jon Henke is moved to conclude that it's "a risky play, more likely to damage Democrats than to improve policy. In the absence of a strategy to improve policy though, we have to settle for tactics."
