Saturday, February 7, 2009

Warner and Webb On the Hotseat?


As the so called stimulus package makes its way through Capitol Hill one wonders how Virginia's two Democrat Senators will vote. The final price tag is unknown but it will probably fall between 800 billion to 1 trillion dollars - which is money we don't have and will have to borrow or print. In my opinion the bill will increase the deficit, and not improve the economy. The Congressional Budget Office has concluded that the bill would likely be harmful to the economy.

But how will Warner and Webb vote?

There are two parts to the question, there is the policy and the politics. From a policy standpoint they probably realize that this is a bad bill which is costly, and not likely to help the economy. However, the politics involved are more complicated. On one hand most Virginians are skeptical of the 'stimulus' plan. On the other hand Warner and Webb may feel loyalty to the Democratic party and their liberal base. On such an important vote they may feel compelled to support President Obama's plan, afterall do they want to vote against him so early in his term, and on such an important vote? I don't think so.

Senator Warner claims to be a fiscal conservative. But how can he claim to be a fiscal conservative and vote for the bill? My guess is he will find a way.

At the end of the day I think both will fall in line and vote for it. They will stand by Obama now and hope that Virginia voters will forget about the bill come election time.

We shall see what happens.

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