Unstimulating

Reading Matt Yglesias' blog (which temporarily also features Ryan Avent and Brian Beutler) for stimulus news, I'm perceiving two consistent themes:

1. Obama is making a ton of concessions to Republicans, especially by including more tax cuts (see here, here, here, and here).

2. The stimulus bill won't contain very much support for mass transit, even though this is an important, underprovided public good, mainly because Republicans irrationally hate it (see here, here, and here).

These are bad developments. True bipartisanship will require that Republicans understand that their base no longer commands a natural, consistent majority of the American electorate. Republicans are still in the denial stage, and if Obama caters to this irrationality, American competitiveness, efficiency, and economic health will suffer.

Update: Paul Krugman is pissed at Obama too.

Update 2: The blogger consensus is that Obama should get tough on Republicans and explain the stimulus directly to the American people. I completely agree.