Posted on 02/04/2009 10:28:40 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate Democrats on Wednesday sought to revise their $900 billion economic stimulus plan to drum up enough Republican support so they can send it to President Barack Obama next week to sign into law.
The Democratic-led Senate entered a third day of debate on the package, which Obama wants on his desk by February 16, in a bid to reverse the downward spiral of the U.S. economy, which has been in recession since December 2007.
Democrats need at least two Republican votes to clear possible procedural hurdles and Obama wants healthy bipartisan support for the package after the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed its own stimulus plan last week with no Republican support.
"We hope that as the debate continues, people will only offer those amendments they think will really help the bill," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said late on Tuesday.
"With a little bit of luck we might be able to finish this bill" this week, the Nevada Democrat said.
That may not be so easy as Republicans are pushing to trim the spending portion and boost tax cuts and incentives, floating several alternatives.
The bill started in the Senate at about $885 billion but senators on Tuesday added $11 billion to it by making interest payments on new car purchases tax deductible, an attempt to spur sales amid record auto losses.
They also added an additional $6.5 billion for medical research, but cut $246 million in tax credits for the movie industry.
Republicans have complained that the legislation does not address the housing crisis sufficiently and spends money on programs that would not boost the economy. They have floated some alternatives but have yet to offer amendments on the Senate floor.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
McCain will save their bacon.
Surely none of those credits were going to anyone making over $250,000/year---right? UN-Freaking-BELIEVABLE the stones on these people!
This is nothing short of payback for those Hollywood elitists who kissed BO throughout the whole election. And what were the tax cuts for 'ordinary people' going to be? $10/WEEK?????
Nope! My son and I moved back to New Hampshire.
I heard that the testosterone level of the state dropped significantly!
LOL We moved from VA a few years ago. I would be asking about our own senators (Kyl and McCai) except they won’t vote for this nonsense.
RINO’s always seem to parrot the line that they are “socially liberal but fiscally conservative.” There is NO way this bill can possibly be considered fiscally conservative. If she votes for it she should just move over to the Dems and make it official.
“Schools to get 1 billion from stimulus pkg”.
Alabama schools are facing pro-ration now and the cuts amount to somewhere around 250 million. The superintendent of schools has been wringing his hands, you know, these cuts will be the death of the school system and such. This bailout can save education in Alabama, etc. Said it would save 3,000 teacher jobs here in the state.
He called my Senator, Richard Shelby, and urged him, probably threatened him, to do anything to pass this bill to “save the schools”. Now, I know Joe Morton (school superintendent) personally. He was the superintendent of my city schools and my mom served on the school board with him for probably 10 years. He is a fine man, did a great job in our schools and is doing as good a job as possible in our state. He is a man of integrity and I respect him.
Having said that, I will be watching closely to what Shelby votes on this pkg. One mans “Pork” is another mans salvation “for the children”. That is why we need to elect men, or women, who have core beliefs and stick to them. If Shelby sticks to his guns then great! I suspect he will cave. And if he does he will hear from me and never get my vote again.
Sooner or later conservatives are gonna have to stand up and demand that politicians do the right thing instead of giving in to special interests. I hope that time is now.
Time to bake more oatmeal raisin cookies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/us/politics/04web-zeleny.html?hp
How about limiting professor and college adminstrator salaries as well? I mean they take government money hand over fist and have been for years. Maybe limiting speaker fees for those hateful liberals who get 50k to talk gibberish at commencements?
“For the kids” is the same slogan that the schools use here whenever they want voter passage of a proposal during an election. It’s obscene because you and I know that the kids never see a dime of the money. There was a special election on Tuesday with one item to be voted on. Up came the signs, letters to editors, the school mascots on the streets near the school waving at people. I get so sick of this crap. It reminds me of Planned Parenthood organization getting teenagers to accompany them to members of legislature to obtain more funding. Using kids to obtain their purposes is outrageous. January 2008 Planned Parenthood visited a conservative House PUB member who was a devout Catholic and not for abortion. He ask some questions of the children specifically “how many children were aborted for 2007?” Planned Parenthood leadership became enraged and for the rest of 2007 set out to defeat this man who was a quality sitting member. And you know what? The money Planned Parenthood & their supporters put into this state campaign to defeat this man was about $150,000 which is a lot of money for this area and to defeat one man. So when obozo & his “change” mantra swept in so did a lot of newbie RATS got swept in.
I just become enraged when I see school districts using the kids as a crux.
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