First, Harry Reid said they would vote on the porkulus bill this past Monday. Then he said they would vote on it Friday evening. He rescheduled the vote for Sunday afternoon and now we are told to expect a vote this coming Tuesday. It probably goes without saying, but I am going to say for the sheer satisfaction of saying it: Sen. Reid DOES NOT HAVE THE VOTES TO PASS THIS STINKER!!!
I am not predicting the bill won’t pass, but in my opinion, all of you who have emailed and called your Senators have given them the necessary political support to cut at least $100 billion of pork from this bill.
Hopefully the Pubbies will now be emboldened to insist on front loaded tax cuts to keep this country’s purchasing power where it belongs. In your checkbook!
By: Brian Faler
Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) – The U.S. Senate is slated to vote early next week on an economic stimulus package totaling at least $780 billion that President Barack Obama said is needed to prevent the economy from sinking into a deeper recession.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, scheduled a key procedural vote for 5:30 p.m. Washington time on Feb. 9 after a dispute over the measure’s size was resolved yesterday. If the procedural hurdle is cleared, Reid said a vote on the bill would take place on Feb. 10.
If it passes, lawmakers will attempt to reconcile the Senate bill with an $819 billion stimulus bill the House approved last month. Democratic congressional leaders are pushing to deliver a final bill to Obama by the end of next week.
The agreement reached on the Senate bill’s size by Democrats and three Republicans prompted Reid to express confidence the Senate would approve its bill. “We are passing a bold and responsible plan that will help our economy get back on its feet, put people to work and put more money in their pockets,” he said.
Throughout this week, a bipartisan group of more than a dozen lawmakers has been demanding cuts to the bill as its size grew to more than $900 billion. Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat who led the push to reduce that total, said after yesterday’s accord was reached that he and other lawmakers worked “line by line, dollar by dollar” to cut more than $100 billion.
‘Jobs, Jobs, Jobs’
The plan they produced is “about jobs, jobs, jobs,” he said.
The $780 billion compromise plan that Nelson and the other lawmakers announced didn’t include the cost of other changes that had been made to the bill earlier this week. Those amendments included tax cuts aimed at boosting the housing and auto industries.
Republicans estimated the bill’s cost would total about $827 billion. And the Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said most of his colleagues continue to oppose the bill because, in their view, it emphasizes government spending over tax cuts.
“The president said originally he had hoped to get 80 votes” in the Senate, said McConnell. “It appears that the way this has developed, there will be some bipartisan support but not a lot.”
Earlier yesterday, the Labor Department reported an increase in unemployment in the U.S. and Obama stepped up his call for Congress to complete work on a stimulus plan. The jobless rate rose to 7.6 percent last month from 7.2 percent in December, the Labor Department reported, adding urgency to the congressional talks. Payrolls fell by 598,000, the biggest monthly decline since December 1974.
Delay ‘Inexcusable’
Obama said it would be “inexcusable” for Congress to get “bogged down in distraction, delay or politics as usual” over the stimulus legislation “while millions of Americans are being put out of work.”
Also before the Senate agreement was announced, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said she was “very much opposed to the cuts that are being proposed in the Senate.” These included reductions in spending for education.
The Senate agreement pared from the bill $20 billion for school construction, $2 billion to expand broadband access in rural areas, $3.5 billion to make federal buildings more energy efficient and $200 million for NASA. It also reduced a proposed subsidy that would allow the jobless to buy health insurance through their former employers.
Tax Cuts Dropped
Tax cuts worth $18 billion were dropped from the measure. The accord also reduced the income cap for workers who would benefit from Obama’s $1,000 payroll tax credit, to $140,000 for married couples and $70,000 for singles from $150,000 and $75,000, respectively.
“This compromise greatly improves the bill,” said Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican. Republican Senators Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania announced they also would support the package.
Democrats, who control the Senate with 58 votes, need support from at least two Republicans to gain the 60 votes needed in Monday’s procedural vote and bring the bill up for approval.
During debate on the bill yesterday, lawmakers approved on a voice vote an amendment to fix the troubled HOPE for Homeowners program. That initiative was created last year to let homeowners struggling with subprime loans refinance into fixed-rate loans backed by the government.
Terms Too Tough
The program, designed to help 400,000 borrowers, has refinanced just two dozen mortgages since October because, lawmakers said, the terms to enroll were made too tough. The amendment would cut fees for borrowers and provide additional incentives for loan providers. It would also require the Treasury Department to devote at least $50 billion in the Troubled Asset Relief Program to stem housing foreclosures.
Another amendment adopted on a voice vote would require financial institutions that take money from the TARP program to repay the cash portion of bonuses topping $100,000 that were paid to employees for work last year. “This amendment makes it clear that it’s not enough to say that the excessive bonuses are wrong — it requires that companies pay those bonuses back to our taxpayers,” said Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat.
Lawmakers also approved an amendment imposing tougher restrictions than the House imposed on how money in the stimulus bill could be spent. The House measure bars stimulus funding from going to casinos, aquariums, zoos, golf courses and swimming pools. The Senate amendment also would bar the money from going to museums, arts centers, theaters, highway beautification projects, stadiums and parks.
