Bi-partisanship is like Trickle-Down-Economics: Neither works

Bipartisanship can't work because loyalty to party and winning at all cost is a priority. The very fact that there are minority and majority leaders and whips proves it.

When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, Republicans started to attack immediately. Newt Gingrich declared a "Contract for America." The Republicans went after Clinton in numerous ways that had nothing to do with governance.

When he lied to them on a sexual matter it only made it easier for them. They would not help him with the Health Care issue. Then they bugged him with the nice sounding idea of giving the public the right to opt out of government Social Security and invest in the stock market. We know how that would have ended. In spite of an uncooperative and unfriendly Congress he managed to leave our economy in excellent shape.

Then came "the Decider". He decided he would lie to Congress, the American people, and the rest of the world. He would get us into an unnecessary war that was costly in lives and finances. Then he and his Republican majority resurrected the failed "trickle down theory," which may work, but only if everyone  plays by the rules. Self aggrandizement cannot enter into the equation.

For example, a grandfather leaves money in his will for his grandchildren's college education. He makes the father the executor. The father buys a new luxury car, a yacht, and a private plane to take him to meetings, and uses up the trickle down money. Then the "Decider" with help from Phil Gramm of Texas and other friends induce Alan Greenspan, the Economic advisor, to push for Deregulation of the Banking industry. The justification is to shore up the stock market with low interest loans. It will also allow Americans to buy into the American Dream, (home ownership). That they could not afford this dream was not considered, so the dream turned into a nightmare. (Incidentally they did it with the help of some Democrats.)

Disaster followed so the public looking for change voted for a Democrat named Obama.

The Republicans who came close to destroying the country suddenly thought they had all the answers. They demanded changes in Obama's stimulus package, but even when they got some of their tax cuts in the bill, refused to help pass it.

Here is why.

1. If it succeeds they take credit for making it successful.

2. If it fails they then blame Obama for not including enough of their proposals in the bill.

Conclusion: When winning is the only thing, bipartisanship gets in the way. If our Congress spent 1/4 of the time governing that they do campaigning, we would have far more sensible laws and much better government.

My priorities for the Stimulus Plan

1. Create Jobs.
2. Take care of Infrastructure, Amtrak
3. Help States and Cities with Unemployment insurance, Schools, libraries, and local transportation
4. Help individual home owners, prioritize those who lost there jobs.
5. No tax rebates.
6. Help solvent banks give loans and credit. Banks were too busy with Big Business, and balooning Real Estate prices they could not sustain at the expense of Small Business.
7. No money for subprime lenders and failed banks.
8. No money for Hedge funds.
9. No money for Sports Arenas.
10. No money for Wall Street and Failed Financial Institutions.

I would go back to regulating banks and Wall Street. Wall Street should never have been artificially shored up with low interest for Real Estate loans. Clients took money out of the banks because of low interest and invested their savings in stocks and we all know what happened. A good business climate is enough to pay dividends on stocks. Credit card companies and banks with low opening charges induced peopple who should have known better to buy on credit they could not afford to pay, because they did not have money in the bank when things got tough.