Politics

George W. Bush, Pragmatist?

By Matt Cooper

Henry Paulson, Lawrence Summers on one side. Steve Moore, Larry Kudlow and the supply siders on the other. Can a stimulus package work and did the rebate checks of 2001 help shorten that recession? I'm watching Steven Moore on CNBC make the same point that Larry Kudlow did, which is that only big permanent tax cuts will revive the economy. In a way this is the inverse of Iraq, where Bush is no longer listening to the ideologues. He's taking his queues from the pragmatists. He'll make his pitch later today and next week he'll meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Republican leadership to try and nail down a package. Democratic candidates for president are already on board for this kind of a package. Republicans are more ambivalent. It'll be interesting to see how they deal with it coming out of tomorrow's South Carolina primary.

Full post as published by Portfolio.com: Capital on January 18, 2008 (boomark / email).