February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The reason for the opposition would appear to be in part over the question of whether the stimulus, particularly the House version, really is President Obama’s handiwork.
Not a few people, and by no means all of them Republicans, will share the view that the House package, rather more than the Senate’s, was in part a stimulus and in part a Democratic wish list that has been around since the flood.
It’s early days in the Obama presidency and only the churlish would fault the president for his level of activity and obvious concern for the nation’s economic well being.
But it may the case that he hasn’t quite fully stamped his mark and authority, bolstered by his still enormous stock of post-election political capital, on a stimulus package that, no matter what shape it ends up taking, will be identified down the road as his initiative.
However, in exercising such authority, it would seem to be the case that the president has his work cut out as much with his own party as with the GOP.
Either way, there is no arguing that the economy needs a lifebelt. It won’t be perfect in everyone’s eyes but most Americans, we feel, are willing to trust the president’s judgment. But will Congress?