House Passes $819 Billion Stimulus Bill
The vote was 244 to 188, with no Republicans supporting the bill.
Repeat: Zero Republicans voted for the bill.
That, of course, means that all the efforts of President Barack Obama to reach out to Republicans — the trips to the Capitol, the invitations to the White House, the lunches with GOP leaders, the dinners with GOP pundits, the decision to cut out controversial bankruptcy and reproductive-health provisions and particularly the much-more-than-symbolic gesture of including $275 billion in tax rebates — were for naught.
For a president who campaigned on a platform of business-as-unusual bipartisan cooperation, it must be a hard blow.
A noble goal? Sure.
Still, who ever thought that it was a goal that Republicans shared?
(Right — no one.)
After today, the White House won’t either.
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