Newt Obstructionism

The Republicans in the House were happy President Obama met with them in order craft a bipartisan approach to saving the US economy, happy to have their picture taken with him and happy to seek a personal autograph, but they had no intention working on a bipartisan approach.

These Republican congressmen grew up and were elected to congress in the spirit of Newt Gingrich who introduced the Republicans to an era of angry, nasty  non-cooperation. He declared an end to gentlemanly disagreement. He shut down the government rather than cooperate with the President in an effort to do what was best for the country. With the new gospel according to Newt, it was not what is beneficial for the country or the common good, it is what is good for the Republican Party. It is no surprise, therefore,  that these Newt Republicans are not cooperating with President Obama even though the country sent a message in CAPTAL letters that they wanted a change. The Republicam fear is that,  after eight years of Republican tax breaks for the very rich, deregulation of and the consequent collapse of Wall Street, and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the new Democratic President  might be actually have a workable plan to turn the country around. God forbid that they cooperate with Democrats for the sake of the future of the country.

Although economists across the spectrum endorse the stimulus package (McClatchy Newspapers,1/27/09), the House Republicans are  choosing to follow the lead of Rush Limbaugh who in reference to President Obama and his stimulus package said, "I hope he fails." And so, Rush and the Republicans would rather see the country fall further into the abyss than work with the new President. If that is not self-serving obstructionism, I don't know what is.