Thread: Numbersusa Stimulus Update

Senate Version of Economic Stimulus Passes

Updated Tuesday, February 10, 2009, 12:43 PM

The Senate past their version of the Economic Stimulus package at 12:40 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon. The bill will now go to a conference committee between the Senate and House to come up with a unified version, then go back to both the Senate and House for one more final vote before being sent to President Obama.

You can still scold your Senators for voting in favor of illegal aliens.
http://www.numbersusa.com/content/

Thanks, I did...... Some representation.

Was Snowe, Specter, and Collins the only Republicans to vote for the bill?

Senate Approves Stimulus Bill

The Senate approved a $838 billion economic stimulus bill. Just three Republicans helped pass the plan on a 61-37 vote. The next step will be for House and Senate negotiators to work out a compromise.

By William Branigin and Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, February 10, 2009; 1:40 PM

The Senate today passed an economic stimulus bill that President Obama and congressional Democrats called crucial to pull the U.S. economy out of its downward spiral but that drew scant support from Republicans.
This Story

Senators voted 61 to 37 to approve the massive bill, which the Congressional Budget Office now says would cost $838 billion over 10 years. Only three Republicans voted in favor of it. In the House, an $819 billion version of the package passed on Jan. 28 with no Republican support.

A procedural vote in the Senate yesterday cleared the way for final passage today. In that 61-36 vote, the same three moderate Republicans senators -- Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania -- broke with their party leaders and supported the legislation.

The three joined all 56 Democrats and two independents in voting for the bill today. One Republican senator, Judd Gregg (N.H.), who has been nominated by Obama to be the new commerce secretary, did not vote.

The package now heads to a House-Senate conference to resolve differences between the two versions. Obama, who hopes to sign the resulting bill into law before Presidents' Day on Monday, has publicly encouraged negotiators in recent days to restore some education provisions that were stripped from the Senate version to reduce its overall cost.

Obama continued lobbying for the bill today on a visit to Fort Myers, Fla., which had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation last year.
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As he was speaking at a town hall meeting, he was handed a note from press secretary Robert Gibbs informing him of the Senate vote, and he announced the news to the crowd, sparking loud applause.

"That's good news," Obama said. "It's a good start."

The president was introduced in Fort Myers by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, one of the few Republicans who are backing the stimulus plan. Crist, bucking complaints from conservatives who say the plan costs too much and does not include enough tax cuts, praised Obama yesterday for continuing to "work hard to reignite the U.S. economy."

In a speech before taking questions at the Fort Myers meeting, Obama said Crist and other governors and mayors across the country share his conviction that creating jobs and rescuing the economy transcend party affiliation.

"When the town is burning, we don't check party labels," Obama said. "Everyone needs to grab a hose!"

Obama, speaking a day after a similar appearance in Elkhart, Ind., said the stimulus plan "will save or create up to 4 million jobs over the next two years, ignite spending by business and consumers alike and make the investments necessary for lasting economic growth and prosperity."

He said the package "includes $1,000 of badly needed tax relief for middle class workers and families," as well as "a partially refundable $2,500-per-student tax credit" to help families send their children to college.

"Most importantly," Obama said, "this plan will put people to work right now by making direct investments in areas like health care, energy, education and infrastructure -- investments that save jobs, create new jobs and new businesses and help our economy grow again."

In debate before today's Senate vote, Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) sought to distance the legislation from Obama, who is riding a wave of post-inauguration popularity. He said Republicans had expected Obama to be the author of the stimulus plan. Instead, "it ended up being written by some of the longest-serving Democrats in the House of Representatives, and it showed," McConnell said.

He charged that "Senate Democrats produced a bill that fell so far short" that an eventual compromise "wasn't much better than the original House or Senate bills." Even more worrisome to Republicans than the bill's spending provisions, he said, was "the permanent expansion of government programs" it entails.

"The president was right to call for a stimulus, but this bill misses the mark," McConnell said. "It's full of waste. We have no assurance it will create jobs or revive the economy. The only thing we know for sure is that it increases our debt and locks in bigger and bigger interest payments every single year. In short, we're taking an enormous risk -- an enormous risk -- with other people's money. On behalf of taxpayers, I won't take that risk."

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), speaking on behalf of the bill, said that although the nation is edging into a "recessionary spiral downward" that could become a depression, "the other side is still adamantly sticking to policies that don't work."

He said Democrats "bent over backward" to accommodate GOP views but that they were "drawing the line at continuing the very policies" that led to the current crisis. He also pointed out that the two largest amendments to the bill were added by Republicans: a $36 billion homebuyers' tax credit promoted by Sen. Johnny Isakson (Ga.) and a $70 billion patch to the alternative minimum tax authored by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa). Yet, neither senator voted for the overall bill, Schumer said.

In addition, he said, "lots of the little porky things" that Republicans objected to in the bill have been removed. These items, such as funding to spruce up the Mall, were "excuses," since their removal still did not attract GOP votes, he said.

"The sad fact . . . is that unless the bill is all tax cuts, mostly for the wealthy, and has almost no spending, the other side will never vote for it," Schumer said. He vowed, "We will not be diverted. . . . We will not sacrifice the focus of this bill -- jobs, tax cuts for the middle class and infrastructure -- for anything."

Shear reported from Fort Myers, Fla.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01397.html