WASHINGTON (AP) – After eight years of denouncing President Barack Obama as a big-government activist, congressional Republicans suddenly appear eager to welcome a big-government activist to the White House.
This time, of course, he’s one of their own.
Many Republicans applauded when President-elect Donald Trump intervened to help keep appliance manufacturer Carrier’s jobs in Indiana, a deal that cost state taxpayers about $7 million in tax breaks and grants. When the Obama administration got involved on behalf of the auto industry and individual companies, Republicans were quick to brand it “crony capitalism” and the government “picking winners and losers.”
Republicans are sounding receptive to Trump’s plan for a massive $1 trillion infrastructure bill, after years criticizing Obama’s smaller $787 billion stimulus package that the administration pushed through Congress with little GOP support in 2009 to try to pull the country out of a financial catastrophe.
Even Trump’s recent threat to levy 35 percent tariffs to discourage companies from relocating overseas has met with mostly muted opposition on Capitol Hill, though the idea flies in the face of the GOP’s traditional support for free trade.