So much for the honeymoon.

The partisan divide over the nearly $900 billion stimulus bill pushed by President Obama and congressional delegates is deep and getting deeper.

Obama has been working his Hawai'i-style consensus mojo diligently, but thus far with little effect. Republicans simply aren't buying the Keynesian concept embedded in the bill: Government spending will pull the nation out of its maddening recession.

Instead, the GOP wants to see a strong dose of tax cuts in any stimulus package. It is a classic political/economic argument, one that has been fought over and over again over the years. And at the very center of this timeless debate is Hawai'i's Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, newly installed as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

For better or worse, Inouye has thrown his lot in with Obama and others who believe it is time to take a fresh look at the principles of British economist John Maynard Keynes. At the risk of over-simplification, Keynes believed that state intervention, through manipulation of interest rates and — particularly — direct government spending in infrastructure is the way to keep the economy on an even keel.

That theory fell out of favor in recent years as government leaders and others tilted toward the idea that the market itself can keep the economy humming, if allowed to operate freely and competitively. In other words, deregulation.

Well, the collapse of so many high-flying Wall Street icons has given folks courage to question that anti-Keynes philosophy.

In announcing the Senate's version of the $888 billion stimulus bill, Inouye made it abundantly clear that — as far as he is concerned — the market has had its chance and now it is time for government to act.

"We will create 4 million jobs in the near term, and invest in America's future by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure for the long term," he said.

Nearly a third of the money would go to local and state governments as they struggle to meet basic obligations against plummeting tax collections.

Undoubtedly there will be compromises and adjustments before the stimulus bill finally passes. Republicans have enough vote strength to force a fair measure of old-fashioned tax relief into the final bill.

But fundamentally, this bill is a groundbreaking test of the ideas and theories that Keynes advanced more than 70 years ago. And Inouye is right at the center of the experiment.

Jerry Burris' column appears Wednesdays in this space. See his blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com/akamaipolitics. Reach him at jrryburris@yahoo.com.