The Republicans have wisely raised holy hell over both the bailout of the Big 3 and the stimulus package. In both cases, the Democrats were bloodied more than the Republicans. In part that's because the GOP couldn't go much lower with the public and their base anyway, but we've got to take our victories where we can find them.
Now, here's the thing: at the core of Obama's agenda are more truly massive wasteful spending projects. We've got more TARP coming up, jobs programs, global warming waste, a huge Big 3 bailout, more bailouts, billions for the post office, on and on and on.
There are two key things to remember about the American people.
#1) They despise pork, earmarks, and the sort of special interest favors that are inevitably crammed into these bills.
#2) The American people are almost genetically predisposed to be distrustful of big changes -- and that's exactly what Obama is trying to do. He's essentially trying to turn the United States into the "Soviet Union lite" economically in a short period of time and it's going to scare the hell out of people -- with good reason.
As long as the Republican Party keeps raising hell, the American people will keep their eye on what's going on, and they will become more and more negative about each new spending project -- and, this is important -- they will become more angry about the spending projects that have already been passed.
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If the GOP keeps this up, it will help rebuild the Republican brand and fire up the base. Furthermore, this has the potential to become one of the biggest domestic issues, particularly if the economy doesn't pick-up -- which is possible.
PS: As far as I'm concerned, given how much we're spending and the big promises the Dems are making, if we don't have a 5% growth rate in the 2nd quarter of 2009, all this spending has been a huge failure.
PS #2: We're not going to have a 5% growth rate in the 2nd quarter of 2009.
John Hawkins is a professional blogger who runs Conservative Grapevine, Right Wing News, and Right Wing Video.
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