Daniel Henninger thinks that liberalism may be on the verge of a schism. Wishful thinking, I'd say.
In the distant future, some U.S. historian in kindergarten today will write about Congressman David Obey's contribution to the splitting apart of American liberalism's assumptions about the purpose of government. Mr. Obey of Wisconsin is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, the spenders. People have said for years that government robs Peter to pay Paul. Now brother is ripping off brother. Mr. Obey plans to send $10 billion to school districts to avoid teacher layoffs and will pay for it in part by taking money from several school reform programs, such as Race to the Top.
President Obama has threatened a veto. Keep an eye on it. If this Democratic president stops that Democratic congressman from knee-capping school reform to protect unionized teachers from the world the rest of us live in, you can mark down August 2010 as a first step back from the crack-up. That would be the kind of change Mr. Obama's admirers thought they were getting.
To explain Mr. Obey's teacher bailout, it is necessary to descend into the lower depths of cynicism. Put it this way: Race to the Top doesn't make campaign contributions.
Exactly. Race to the Top doesn't make campaign contributions, and if there is one thing this administration is about, it's sending federal dollars where they are almost guaranteed to flow into Democratic party campaign coffers. This is the administration that set aside bankruptcy and contract law in order to give the United Auto Workers are larger share of Chrysler and GM than the bondholders who otherwise had priority. This is the administration that spent two months refusing foreign offers help to clean up the Gulf oil spill because accepting it would mean non-union workers on the clean up.
According to tabulations by the Center for Responsive Politics, from 1989 to 2010 the two big teachers unions made some $58 million in campaign contributions. The National Education Association gave 92% of theirs to Democrats, and for the American Federation of Teachers it was 98%.
I can't imagine an Obama veto. Democratic congressmen will find $10 billion for their union handout somewhere else, or Obama will bluster and sign it anyway. But the union and the Democrats are going to get their money. Henninger ends on this note:
This downward spiral won't stop when the economy returns. The unions will get theirs; the vulnerable categories will get the shaft. For this to change, the modern Democratic Party would have to change. It's got to decide if it wants to do more for real people and less for gerrymandered politicians and union protectorates. Lifetime pol Joe Biden says the stimulus "is working." It is, for the boys in the clubhouse. Honest liberals and progressives distraught over the harsh math of 2010 have more in common with the tea partiers than they imagine.
I'm willing to concede the possibility, even a likelihood, that there really is such a thing as an honest progressive, though I can't imagine that you'll find one in Washington. Washington is epitomized by the Journolisters, whose only worry when smearing someone as a racist is whether or not it will work. Washington is all about the Democratic government leadership that takes advantage of every crisis in order to extract maximum political gain at the expense of jobs, the economy, taxpayers, and even the environment. There is no slaking their thirst.
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