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Where Were Our Dogs At On The Stimulus?

By Kleinheider Posted on February 6, 2009 at 10:09 am

Rep. Jim Cooper stood up and represented for the Blue Dogs standing tall against the House stimulus package passed last week.

However, all Tennessee Democrats in Congress (save Steve Cohen) are members of the Blue Dog Coalition yet Cooper was the only nay vote. Where were the others?

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Comments

8 Responses to “Where Were Our Dogs At On The Stimulus?”

  1. DG writes
    February 6th, 2009 10:12 am

    They’re less bluedogmatic.

  2. Sean Braisted writes
    February 6th, 2009 10:20 am

    Where were the others?

    Voting the interests of their constituents.

  3. benintn writes
    February 6th, 2009 10:27 am

    Tanner spoke on the house floor - check congressional record on HR 1. He said that although he’s very concerned about fiscal discipline and is a Blue Dog, he’s also recognizing that the need to create jobs NOW is too great to ignore. He basically said “perfect is the enemy of the good”.

    Davis said that he’s in favor of anything that will create economic opportunity and jobs. Gordon cosponsored b/c he thought the green energy and education provisions were good.

    Davis was on NPR. Gordon’s cosponsorship is on record at Thomas.loc.gov. Tanner’s statement is in the Congressional Record and it’s worth a read.

  4. benintn writes
    February 6th, 2009 10:37 am

    fyi - I think the consensus statements of economists that this is the only way to avoid another Great Depression and worldwide “fall off the cliff” was compelling enough to overcome the short-term concerns about budget. Obviously, what Cooper, Tanner, Gordon, Davis, and other Blue Dogs (and, Obama - http://www.barackobama.com/issues/fiscal) want to do is maintain maximum fiscal discipline while getting maximum “bang for the buck” from stimulus.

    The problem is that every day we wait, the power of the stimulus weakens. I could explain why, but the simple answer is the same as why you should pay off your credit card or any other debt bill ASAP.

  5. Rob writes
    February 6th, 2009 10:53 am

    benintn, correct me if i’m wrong, but i’m pretty sure that the concensus among economists is that this “stimulus” would do nothing to stimulate the economy and may only make things worse. It seems like Congress and bloggers are the only ones that think it will do any good.

  6. BrassAss writes
    February 6th, 2009 11:12 am

    Rob,

    Care to provide a link or two to support your “consensus” theory? Or could you at least spell “consensus” correctly?

  7. morpheus120 writes
    February 6th, 2009 11:13 am

    I’ll do it for ben. You’re wrong Rob. Only conservative economists on the think-tank circuit (and Republican payroll) think the stimulus won’t help.

    The rest of them, including the Nobel prize winners, support some version of Obama’s plan.

  8. M Kennedy writes
    February 6th, 2009 12:01 pm

    I’d say there’s a fairly wide dispersion of thoughts on the stimulus among economists. Even Paul Krugman, the recent Nobel winner and fiscal stimulus enthusiast has voiced considerable concern over the form this stimulus is taking.
    Saying they “support some version of Obama’s plan” is pretty darn general. I support some deficit spending but think much of the House version is bad.

    I wonder if Sean Braisted is implying that Cooper did not support his constituents’ interests. Is voting your constituents’ interests good or bad or does it depend?

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