The stimulus package is now ready to be signed into law by the President. On the one hand, this is a pretty major legislative achievement for Obama within the first month of his administration. On the other, Obama has taken a few knocks in the process and has lost a decent chunk of his reputation for being able to bring the two parties together and for transparency.
In the House, in both votes not a single Republican voted for it. In the Senate, only three Republicans crossed party lines; the post-conference version of the bill only passed the Senate with the minimum 60 votes. In the meantime, Obama saw his Republican nominee for Commerce Secretary withdraw under political pressure. For good or ill, Obama and the Democrats own the stimulus.
Obama’s reputation for transparency was hurt by the whole sausage-making process of getting the bill passed. As Mike Allen notes in his Playbook, ABC’s Jonathan Karl has reported: “hasty changes were HAND-WRITTEN on it before voting.
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