$825 billion is not the sort of thing you want to rush through Congress; any appeal to speed is ridiculous, even if it's to something as nice-sounding as "non-partisanship". Something that huge needs a lot of scrutiny and safeguard, and our adversarial two-party system is a great way to make sure there is sufficient scrutiny. But Pelosi is determined to ram it through the House over the reasonable objections of Republicans. Which she can do, of course, because the Democrats have a sizable majority--just don't expect an outpouring of love, okay?
Republican opposition is not just about the money for ACORN, mind you. There's a larger consideration that makes the whole project into a Trojan horse for future spending. Today's Wall Street Journal editorial puts it this way:
The larger fiscal issue here is whether this spending bonanza will become part of the annual "budget baseline" that Congress uses as the new floor when calculating how much to increase spending the following year, and into the future. Democrats insist that it will not. But it's hard -- no, impossible -- to believe that Congress will cut spending next year on any of these programs from their new, higher levels. The likelihood is that this allegedly emergency spending will become a permanent addition to federal outlays -- increasing pressure for tax increases in the bargain.
Republicans should recognize this bill for the liberal spending orgy that it is and refuse to touch it. An idea this bad deserves single-party responsibility, even if it takes a generation to undo.
UPDATE:
There is a case to be made for 'doing nothing' (as opposed to passing a stimulus bill, that is), and the reason is quite simple: if spending and borrowing habits are what created an economic crisis, borrowing and spending on a grand scale will not fix it. To read more along that line, go here.
And while we're on the subject of bad borrowing and spending habits, Jim Manzi makes some pretty salient points involving a 4-year payment plan for a...camcorder. Who would do that? Manzi's answer is, "A child." I tend to agree. We don't need a stimulus so much as we need a good dose of growing up.
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