House Republicans surprised Democrats Thursday by proposing an alternative stimilus plan for the economy, which would cost tax payers considerably less yet create millions of jobs nonetheless. The main reason the Republican plan would stimimulate the economy for a lower price is that they took all the pork and pet projects Democrats added to the other plan.

The plan would cost ‘only’ $478 billion which is nearly half the costs of the Democrats’ plan. It would create 6.4 million jobs, which is roughly twice as many as its more expensive alternative.

The plan proves that Republicans aren’t unwilling to invest in the economy. Democrats, and especially the White House, slammed Republicans in recent days, claimsing that Republicans were once again playing politics as usual, and not acting in the nation’s interest. House Republicans proved this not to be the case. Democrats are playing games, adding pork that won’t stimulate the economy at all; it are simply costly plans Democrats wanted to implement for years already. The stimulus plan simply gave them the opportunity to push these plans through, knowing full well that Republicans couldn’t possibly agree.

The White House declared war on Republicans today and yesterday despite the rather obvious reality that Republicans would commit political suicide if they voted for the Democrats plan. “It’s clear the Republicans who voted against the stimulus represent constituents who will be stunned to learn their member of Congress voted against [saving or] creating 4 million jobs,” a White House aide said Thursday.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the lawmakers will have to answer to their constituents.

“I do believe that there will be people in districts all over the country that will wonder why, when there’s a good bill to get the economy moving again, why we still seem to be playing political gotcha,” Gibbs said.

Republican congressmen aren’t impressed, however. “What Member can’t go back his or her District and explain: Rather than voting for a bloated bill, … I voted for an alternative that would create twice the jobs at half the cost, and faster?” a House Republican leadership aide told Politico. “That’s why we didn’t lose a single Republican and picked up 11 Democrats.”

Republicans should milk this cow for all it’s worth. They remain true to their principles, yet show that they can do more than merely vote ‘no.’ They offered an alternative vision for the economy today; it’s something they neglected to do in the run up to the elections last year.

Meanwhile, we can now safely say that Obama is truly no different than his predecessors; he reached out to Republicans, yes, but he only did so in order to set them up for a public humiliation (or so he hoped). He knew that Republicans couldn’t possibly agree to his over-the-top plan, so he simply negotiated so publicly with them so he could then proceed to portray them as ideological partisan hacks not willing to help Americans at a time of need.

His approach is risky, however. A majority of Americans support him but they think little of the economic stimulus package. Now that Republicans can offer an alternative plan to the public, which is cheaper yet more effective, he’ll have a hard time claiming his opponents are unwilling to help. Republicans, on the other hand, can play offense rather than defense. They can go after Obama and Congressional Democrats, accusing them rightfully of spending too much, on unnecessary even useless projects and calling them out for what they are: hacks willing to gamble with America’s long term economic security.

The White House will not let itself be pushed into defense easily, however. It will make unemployment figures publicly, arguing that if it were up to Republicans, more jobs would have disappeared. Republicans can counter that attack fairly easily by simply pointing out that their plan would have created more jobs.

The debate about the economy will be held in the media. Both sides will go after each other; the question is who plays the media and who make their case best. Republicans have it easier because they are right and because their plan is better. Democrats, on the other hand, have the benefit of having a popular president as their leader, who is supported by ‘journalists’ who are more than willing to clean up his mess for him.