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Lieberman: Republicans In The ‘Gang Of Moderates’ Are ‘Heroes,’ Deserve The ‘Congressional Medal Of Honor’

Today in his town hall address in Elkhart, IN, President Obama criticized heavy cuts to education funding in the Senate’s economic recovery package crafted by the so-called “Gang of Moderates.” “I’ll be honest with you, the Senate version cut a lot of these education dollars,” said Obama. “I would like to see some of them restored.”

Nevertheless, proud “centrists” Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) appeared on MSNBC this afternoon to tout their version of the bill. Lieberman, in particular, went overboard in praising the gang’s Republicans — Snowe, Susan Collins (ME), and Arlen Specter (PA) — by calling them “heroes” who deserve an award:

LIEBERMAN: And therefore, I think our three Republican colleagues — Olympia, Susan Collins, and Arlen Specter — are really the heroes in this for making a stimulus possible. […]

Again, I really can’t say enough about Olympia Snowe and the other two Republicans who really deserve the Congressional Medal of Honor on this one. They’ve put national interests ahead of what most members of their party were doing, and as a result, we’re going to get a stimulus bill that’s going to help the American people hold their jobs, create new ones, and get our economy moving again.

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Today in the New York Times, however, Paul Krugman had a different idea about what these centrists have wrought:

What do you call someone who eliminates hundreds of thousands of American jobs, deprives millions of adequate health care and nutrition, undermines schools, but offers a $15,000 bonus to affluent people who flip their houses?

A proud centrist. For that is what the senators who ended up calling the tune on the stimulus bill just accomplished.

Despite Lieberman’s claim that the Senate bill will “help the American people hold their jobs [and] create new ones,” CAP’s Will Straw explains that it actually “provides for 12 to 15 percent fewer jobs created or saved than the House-passed Recovery and Reinvestment Act despite costing slightly more.”

Transcript:

MITCHELL: Well, the President spoke to the education piece of it, and indicated in Elkhart, IN, that he would like to see that money moved back in. Let me ask you both: Would there be a risk of losing votes in the Senate if that gets added back in in conference?

LIEBERMAN: Well, I worry that there would be. It’s self-evident now that if Sen. Kennedy is here for the vote, we’ve only — we’ve got 61 votes, which is a good number, but it’s only one more than necessary to break the filibuster. And therefore, I think our three Republican colleagues — Olympia, Susan Collins, and Arlen Specter — are really the heroes in this for making a stimulus possible. And without it, I fear that our unemployment rate would continue to skyrocket and our economy would continue to go down.

[…]

Again, I really can’t say enough about Olympia Snowe and the other two Republicans who really deserve the Congressional Medal of Honor on this one. They’ve put national interests ahead of what most members of their party were doing, and as a result, we’re going to get a stimulus bill that’s going to help the American people hold their jobs, create new ones, and get our economy moving again.