Some in GOP hint they will back final stimulus measure

A day before the vote on the economic stimulus bill, a member of the House Republican whip team asked Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) where he stood.

“Sue, I’m a no,” Jones told his North Carolina colleague, Rep. Sue Myrick (R).

{mosads}Jones has been a thorn in GOP leaders’ side for years, breaking with them on budget, healthcare and Iraq measures. But on the stimulus, House Republican leaders didn’t have to worry about Jones.

“It was a vote of conscience,” Jones told The Hill, saying he was unaware of any arm-twisting from House Republican leaders.

Yet, the House GOP’s unanimous rejection of the stimulus bill last week didn’t just happen without a bit of prodding. After all, three House Republicans last month broke with party leaders on a wage discrimination bill, 18 voted for Rep. Barney Frank’s (D-Mass.) Troubled Assets Relief Program reform legislation, and 40 supported the Democrats’ State Children’s Health Insurance Program reauthorization measure.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) helped convince about a dozen of his colleagues to reject the Democrats’ bill after appeasing the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC) and giving some centrists political cover on infrastructure spending, according to Republican lawmakers who requested anonymity.

To win over the RSC, House Republican leaders opted to offer a substitute measure that focused exclusively on tax relief.

But centrist GOP legislators, along with other Republicans representing districts especially hard hit by the economic downturn, said they needed to be on record backing increased funding for infrastructure programs.

Republican leaders responded, embracing a motion-to-recommit measure investing an additional $36 billion in highways and an additional $24 billion in the Army Corps of Engineers construction, while reducing the overall costs of the bill by nearly $104 billion.

Most Republican members, such as Reps. John Mica (Fla.), Steven LaTourette (Ohio), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) and Thaddeus McCotter (Mich.), voted for the motion to recommit, which failed 159-270.

This strategy, coupled with GOP frustration with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on how she moved the bill through the House, led to all Republicans uniting on the highest-profile vote of the new Congress.

It remains to be seen whether the Republicans’ rejection of the House stimulus bill will prove to be politically shrewd. But the GOP, which is still trying to shake off two straight Democratic roundhouses in the last two elections, is stressing unity.

Following their 2004 election losses, Democrats banded together and soundly defeated President Bush’s Social Security reform bill. The 2009 House GOP strategy has similarities but is strikingly different in two key aspects: Republicans know they can’t stop this bill and they are not going after President Obama. In fact, they are praising Obama’s bipartisan tone and blaming congressional Democrats for the measure that could cost close to a $1 trillion when it reaches Obama’s desk.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said he wasn’t surprised with the GOP opposition: “They know that Obama is popular and they want it to appear as if they are with him, but against the Democrats in Congress….I think the American people can see through this.”

Some rank-and-file Republicans were stunned that their conference voted in unison on Wednesday.

During the Jan. 28 vote, Republican members crowded around the two electronic tally stations and as the final roll call results came in, GOP members applauded the outcome, which included 11 Democrats rejecting the bill.

The GOP giddiness spilled over into the House Republican retreat late last week in Hot Springs, Va., where both former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and former Massachusetts Gov Mitt Romney (R) predicted that Republicans will grab back control of the lower chamber after the 2010 elections. In order for the potential 2012 White House hopefuls to be correct, Republicans would need to ride a larger electoral wave than the Democrats’ 2006 landslide.

As Obama and congressional Democratic leaders stress that a stimulus must be passed to help boost the economy, Republicans have resurrected similar claims about last fall’s $700 billion financial rescue package. The controversial bailout, marked by money spent on corporate bonuses and other expenses that generated ridicule, triggered a backlash among many voters.

Jones, for example, said calls to his office were 100-to-1 against the stimulus package.

“How much debt can this country continue to accumulate before it collapses?” Jones asked.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) said that Congress was recently embarrassed by the 2008 bailout bill, adding, “This spending bill is just more of the same.”

Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), a perennial Democratic target, also invoked last year’s bailout to explain his “no” vote and added the legislation was “rushed to the floor.”

Democrats countered with polls showing most Americans are in favor of Congress passing a  stimulus.

Other Republicans, meanwhile, attempted to make the case the measure was Pelosi’s, not Obama’s.

Capito called out the Speaker for not accepting more infrastructure funding and other GOP lawmakers put out releases that extolled Obama. Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), a centrist, said, “Obama has done an excellent job setting a proper bipartisan tone by reaching out to Republicans.” Dent said he could not approve the measure because it was not timely, targeted and temporary – buzzwords that helped pass the stimulus bill that was signed into law early last year.

The Senate hopes to approve a different, and more expensive version of the stimulus. That bill is expected to attract limited GOP support, though securing just a handful of Republican senators would give Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) leverage as he negotiates a final bill with Pelosi.

But even before the Senate has cleared its bill, some House Republicans are hinting they will vote for the merged House-Senate legislation.

“I hope to be able to vote for an improved stimulus bill before Presidents Day,” Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) told Newsday in a statement. King is eyeing a Senate bid in 2010. New York Democrats have hailed the House stimulus bill, noting it would significantly bolster New York’s Medicaid funds.

King’s New York colleague, Rep. John McHugh (R), said there was much in the stimulus bill that he supported and characterized his vote last week as “a difficult decision.” He also said he looked forward to “voting in the days ahead in favor of agreed upon, truly bipartisan legislation.”

Rep. Joseph Cao (R-La.), representing a district that backed Obama last fall and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004 by a 3-to-1 margin, told the Times-Picayune that he plans to vote for the final measure if it contains less unnecessary federal spending.

Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.) explained his opposition by asserting the bill would only grow the nation’s credit card bill. But Gerlach pointed out in his statement that another vote “could happen in February.”