Political cost-benefit analysis of the stimulus

E.D. Kain writes the best paragraph summary I've seen:

Everything is a gamble at this point, in any case. The stimulus package, and those who voted for and against it, are all merely assessing the incumbent risks and voting accordingly. It’s a fancy cost-benefit analysis. The Democrats are pushing full throttle ahead because they see this current panic as an opportunity to push legislation they’ve been hoping to push for years, and now is the most golden of opportunities to spend because it can all be done under the umbrella of stimulus. Republicans, on the other hand, have 2010 in their sights. Quite likely any stimulus passed now won’t actually stimulate anything in the near future, and most smart people agree that this is likely to all get worse before it gets better. If Republicans simply refuse to go along with the Democrats on stimulus, then they can point the finger and lay the blame at the Democrat’s feet. This is a risk the Democrats see all too well, which is the only reason they’ve attempted to get bipartisan support in the first place. Freddie wonders why the Dems don’t just steamroll over their colleagues across the aisle, and it basically comes down to a desire to spread any potential political liability as far and as thin as possible. Likewise, the Republicans have dug in their heels not so much out of political principle, something they had very little of these last eight years, but out of political pragmatism.

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