With our national economy on the ropes and job losses skyrocketing, the House of Representatives this week passed the $819 billion economic stimulus legislation. It is the largest stimulus legislation in U.S. history and passed without one Republican vote.

The one point of political consensus is that we have huge problems in our economy. And there is some agreement that our nation’s deteriorating economic condition means Congress must quickly move to reduce the impact of the deepening recession. But the agreement ends there. The partisan bickering this week has instead centered on what is the best type of stimulus—increased government spending or tax cuts. This controversy stems from principled beliefs on both sides. But too often, politics eclipse principles, and important policy debates become focused on rhetorical points instead of making the best decisions.

Many Republicans expressed concerns with the cost, which is more expensive than the current total cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. They also questioned the amount of actual stimulus in the legislation. Hundreds of billions in the legislation is going to long standing Democratic priorities, which may have little to do with stimulating the economy and fighting the recession.

For instance, there are billions to build new government buildings and infrastructure. This includes $600 million for new National Science Foundation Facilities, $462 million for the Center for Disease Control facilities and $1.5 billion for new National Institute of Health facilities. Proponents argue that these building projects are stimulus because these new building projects will create construction jobs. But they are less targeted and have less of a multiple bang for the buck than other types of stimulus. 

The legislation also includes tens of billions in new loan guarantees, much of which are likely to go to coal and nuclear projects. Even if the program was prepared to spend money (which it is not), these projects take years to develop and are unlikely to create any jobs in the short-term.

The Democrats handily won the last election, and have argued that it is their show now, and they can take the country in a different direction if they like. However, it is misleading to disguise favorite projects as priority economic stimulus programs.

The Republicans followed the Democratic lead by dusting off hundreds of billions in tax cuts, like capital gains tax and corporate tax rate reductions, for their stimulus proposal. The problem is that much of what they propose will also have very little bang for the economic stimulus buck. President Obama’s efforts to work with Republicans showed some interest in working in a collaborative way, but in the end, the legislation fell far short of necessary bipartisanship. So the sausage grinder approach to legislation continues in Washington: Democratic and Republican leaders seem to want to have little to do with each other.

The problem with partisanship is that we lose the psychological impact of a unified political attack on our nation’s economic woes. And with the new President and Democratic Congress pledging a new era of openness and transparency, using the stimulus bill to advance longstanding policy priorities feels disingenuous.

Next week, the $900 billion Senate stimulus legislation will be debated. So far, it looks like we’ll see a repeat of what we saw in the House. But it’s not too late to make some changes that will make a difference to the legislation. The Senate should strip the bill of provisions, like the one year patch to the AMT, which almost all experts agree has little stimulative effect.

The stakes are high. The bills being considered would bring the deficit to levels not seen since World War II. Let’s invest in the best stimulus proposals and delay the other spending, and partisan bickering, to another day. This may be our only shot at getting this right.