WASHINGTON — Colorado suddenly has become the biggest trouble spot for the White House plan to spend $50 billion to build up the country’s aging infrastructure and create jobs as the economy flags.
Reps. Betsy Markey and John Salazar, both Democrats, came out against the idea Thursday, the day after Sen. Michael Bennet became the first — and thus far only — Democratic senator to oppose the plan.
Others among a handful of congressional defectors included Reps. Mark Critz, D-Pa., and Gary Peters D-Mich., but Colorado appeared to present by far the largest obstacle to the plan, which President Barack Obama is likely to highlight in a series of barnstorming events this fall.
“I don’t support a second stimulus bill,” Markey, of Fort Collins, said Thursday. “Investments in infrastructure are critical to our long-term economic recovery but should be paid for with unspent funds from the Economic Recovery Act without adding to the federal deficit.”
Eric Wortman, a spokesman for Salazar, said his boss also didn’t think there was a need for additional stimulus spending at this point.
As a Democrat from a traditionally Republican district, Markey faces one of the most difficult re-election campaigns of anyone in Congress this year. And Republicans are becoming increasingly optimistic about their chances to unseat Salazar, of Manassa.
Bennet’s defection has sent ripples through the national political scene, largely because Democrats likely need every one of their caucus votes in the Senate if an additional stimulus package has any chance of passage this fall.
In a statement released shortly after Obama’s announcement Wednesday, Bennet said: “I will not support additional spending in a second stimulus package.” He suggested the projects could be paid for, in part, with unused Recovery Act funds.
Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., in an interview with , signaled some skepticism to a second stimulus.
“It’s tough to make a case right now for more government spending because the public view of government effectiveness is at an all-time low,” he said.
But a long list of vulnerable Senate Democrats — including Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. — on Thursday either came out in favor the proposal or said they were willing to vote for it if the package were fully paid for.
Analysts said Bennet’s position represented a significant setback for the White House roll-out of the economic plan and efforts to highlight it as a major difference between Democrats’ and Republicans’ approach to rejuvenating the sagging economic recovery.
White House officials declined to comment Thursday.
Without all the Senate Democrats on board, it’s difficult for Obama to make a case that the plan is even viable, much less the heart of a significant Democratic strategy to refocus the party’s attention on the economy, experts said.
“I can’t imagine the White House is happy about this,” Julian Zelizer, a political scientist at Princeton University, said of Bennet’s defection.
“Bennet saying ‘I don’t like this’ definitely gives an opening to Republicans to say Obama is throwing money at a problem and that not even all the Democrats think it’s a good idea,” Zelizer said.
Bennet spokesman Adam Bozzi emphasized that the appointed senator was less concerned with the White House plans than with his judgment of what was important to voters in his home state.
