Kevin Drum is perplexed by Obama’s apparent good-faith gesture of bipartisanship (including massive tax cuts in his stimulus bill, and then really working to get the support of congressional Republicans). Noam Scheiber sees it as a shrewd trap: give the conservative economic arguments their due, and force the opposition to make unreasonable demands that reveal their true colors. But why couldn’t it be both? If Obama gets strong support for the plan across the aisle, he makes good on his promise to govern as a bipartisan leader. If not, he provides an opening for Senate Democrats to attack the baser motives of their Republican colleagues. Win-win. But then again, maybe Obama’s economic team is just trying to craft good policy.
Tags: Barack Obama, economics
