At least that's what one gets from a New York Times piece Saturday applauding a Senate compromise on President Barack Obama's stimulus package.
Here are the paragraphs where patriotism was prominently mentioned (emphasis added):
The deal, announced on the Senate floor, was a result of two days of tense negotiations and political theater. Mr. Obama dispatched his chief of staff to Capitol Hill to help conclude the talks and reassure senators in his own party, and he called three key Republicans to applaud them for their patriotism. [...]
Mr. Obama called Ms. Collins and Mr. Specter, as well as Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, another Republican expected to support the deal, to acknowledge they were acting against pressure from their party and, one official said, to thank them for their patriotism in helping advance the bill at a critical time.
Do we know that's what Obama said to Collins, Specter, and Snowe? Isn't that actually what an unnamed official said the President told them?
If the President really did say this, couldn't the Times have gotten anyone to go on the record?
Regardless, if this report is true, and patriotism now includes our leaders spending money we don't have, our Founding Fathers must be rolling over in their graves.
After all, if the current financial crisis was caused by corporations and individuals borrowing money they could never afford to pay back, how can the solution be for our government to do the same thing?
On the other hand, if liberals are right on this issue, then why don't we encourage near-bankrupt corporations and individuals to reciprocate? Let's advise all ailing financial institutions and cash-strapped citizens to borrow MORE money and spend THEIR way out of THEIR fiscal crises.
Wouldn't that also be patriotic?
Despite the obvious contradiction -- obvious only to conservatives apparently! -- another question was ominously answered during these Senate proceedings: would moderate Republicans such as Collins, Snowe, and Specter vote with their Party this Congress, or with Democrats?
Isn't it fitting that we got our answer in their first key vote?
Frankly, if this is the way things are going to go the next two years, Obama has his filibuster-proof majority.
Maybe Collins, Snowe, and Specter should just change Parties now and make it official. It'll be much less painful watching them vote like liberals without the "R" after their names, don't you agree?
