REPUBLICANS IN the US House of Representatives have defended their decision to vote against a massive economic stimulus plan, despite a White House warning that they will pay a political price for opposing President Barack Obama’s top legislative priority.
The $820 billion package of spending measures and tax cuts – worth more than the combined cost so far of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – was approved by the House on Wednesday night.
However, not one Republican voted in favour of the Bill, and 11 conservative Democrats broke ranks to vote against it.
The unanimous Republican opposition to the Bill came despite Mr Obama’s energetic courtship of the opposition party in recent days and represents a rebuke to his call for a new spirit of bipartisanship in Washington. “I do believe that there will be people in districts all over the country that will wonder why, when there’s a good Bill to get the economy moving again, why we still seem to be playing political gotcha,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said after the vote.
In a message to Republican congressmen yesterday, however, House minority leader John Boehner praised their vote as a stand against wasteful spending of taxpayers’ money.
“By standing united, we offered hope to struggling families and small businesses across America looking to Washington for real solutions to the challenges they face,” he said. “The vote last night sent a clear, powerful and bipartisan message to congressional Democratic leaders about the current version of the economic stimulus package – the American people deserve better.
“The current product isn’t good enough.”
Next week, the Senate will vote on a modified version of the stimulus plan, which the White House hopes will win the support of enough Republicans to ensure passage. If the Senate approves a version of the plan, it will come together with the House of Representatives to work out a common Bill to be put before both houses of Congress.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that Democrats had echoed Mr Obama’s call for immediate action on the economy, adding that it was unfortunate Republicans did not support the measure. “Well, we are definitely stepping up to the plate to say we’ll be accountable,” she said. “Republicans have had their chance. They decided to oppose – that’s their choice.”
Mr Obama yesterday signed his first Bill into law as president, approving a measure that makes it easier for workers to sue for discrimination if employers pay women and men different rates for the same job. Signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the president said that ending pay disparities between men and woman was an issue for all workers.
“Making our economy work means making sure it works for everyone,” Mr Obama said, “that there are no second-class citizens in our workplaces and that it’s not just unfair and illegal, but bad for business, to pay someone less because of their gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion or disability.”
Mr Obama was joined at the signing by Ms Ledbetter, who was near the end of a 19-year career at a Goodyear Tyre plant in Alabama when she discovered that she had been paid less than her male colleagues for the same work.
When she sued the company, the supreme court ruled that she had waited too long to correct the discrepancy, but the new legislation extends the period during which a worker can sue for pay discrimination.