#1 Senators restart stimulus debate
Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 3:45 pm
USA
Now it's rare to hear this from me, the devoted Protestant, I think the Catholic Church might be on to something here.
You know the Catholic Church has this thing, when the Cardinals meet to pick a new pope the longer they take the more shit they lose, like cutting power to the room and locking the doors.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said lawmakers have made progress on an economic recovery package and the Senate could vote as early as Friday afternoon.
Reid, D-Nev., said on the Senate floor that "I think we're going to be able to work something out." He said the country and the world will suffer if Congress fails to act on President Barack Obama's plan.
Responding to dire economic warnings from the White House, Senate leaders have vowed to act quickly on the $937 billion stimulus plan despite rising partisan tension.
On Friday Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky criticized the bill as "a trillion-dollar mistake," saying it has "become a Trojan horse for pet projects and expanded government."
Congressional leaders have been negotiating the package for nearly a week.
In a feisty speech to Democrats Thursday that sounded like a campaign rally address, Obama took a sharper tone than he has in recent weeks and aggressively challenged Republicans, who voted as a block against the plan in the House and are demanding massive changes to the measure in the Senate.
"We are not going to get relief by turning back to the very same policies that for the last eight years doubled the national debt and threw our economy into a tailspin," Obama told the group gathered for a retreat in Williamsburg, Va. "We can't embrace the losing formula that says only tax cuts will work for every problem we face."
On Thursday Reid predicted there was already enough support to eke out the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster on the bill and pass it. But the vote never came. If there's no vote Friday Reid suggested work could continue into the weekend.
Obama is pressuring Congress to move quickly on the package of federal spending and tax cuts that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says will create between 1.3 million to 3.9 million jobs by next year. The president has scheduled a prime-time news conference Monday to discuss the economy.
"The time for action is now," Obama said. "We know that if we do not act a bad situation will become dramatically worse."
Compromise may hinge on a group of Senate moderates who hope to trim as much as $100 billion from the measure to capture support from fiscal conservatives. The group is targeting school construction, which some said is not a federal responsibility, as well as money for the National Science Foundation.
"What we're trying to do is get as much bipartisan support as we can possibly get," said Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., a leader of the moderates. "I'm into hopes right now. And I hope that we'll able to do that."
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, another leader of the group, said she is hopeful a deal can be worked out. "We're trying to focus it on spending that truly stimulates the economy," she said.
Senate debate on the package comes a week after the House approved a stimulus without a single Republican vote. Obama had said he hopes the Senate version would receive as many as 80 votes.
On Thursday, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called that goal "a distant memory." He said Democrats efforts to find common ground had been rebuffed by Republicans.
"Has bipartisanship been a failure? Well, so far it's not working," he said.
McConnell and other Republicans have suggested alternative proposals — including an amendment that would have created government-backed, low-interest mortgages — but most have been defeated. Earlier in the week, the Senate approved a Republican proposal to offer $15,000 tax credits for home buyers.
As Democratic leaders tried to win Republican votes, some GOP senators fumed at the take-it-or-leave-it approach Democrats adopted late in the week. "They're in campaign mode, not governing mode," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. "Trying to scare people to vote your way is the old way of doing business."
Now it's rare to hear this from me, the devoted Protestant, I think the Catholic Church might be on to something here.