Senators work to scrub $819B Stimulus Bill

[Warph]

Senators work to scrub $819B Stimulus Bill
CNN - February 1, 2009: 2:30 PM ET

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, want to slash 'wasteful spending' from the rescue package.

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Two senators spending the weekend trying to hammer out a stimulus bill free of unnecessary spending said Sunday they are hopeful they can develop legislation that's both bipartisan and effective.

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, oppose the proposal in its current form and want to slash what they call wasteful spending from the bill, so moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats will be more likely to vote for it.

The House passed its version of the bill Wednesday without a single Republican vote. Eleven Democrats voted against it as well.

Senate Democrats admit it's going to be a tough fight to get Obama's economic stimulus plan passed with bipartisan support, but they are optimistic it can be done.

"There's no doubt that the American people don't want to see partisan politics in this debate. We're facing a serious crisis, and it's important that we send a signal to the country that we can work together," Collins said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

Nelson said he believes several programs in the bill are unnecessary and won't create jobs. "I like parts of it," he said, pointing to funding based on infrastructure, "but there's an awful lot of spending in it that I think is questionable -- marginally supportive and stimulative for jobs."

Nelson said it's important to fund some of the projects, such as programs to stop smoking, "but they ought to be part of something else, not part of a jobs stimulus bill."

Collins said the bill has become "a Christmas tree where members are hanging their favorite program on it."

"A lot of these programs are worthwhile. But we have to focus on what the impact is on the economy and whether or not the spending creates or saves jobs. That's the question. That's the test that needs to be passed," she said.

Asked if the bill represents Obama's goal of achieving bipartisan consensus, Nelson noted that Obama "didn't put the bill together." "Was that a mistake?" asked CNN's John King. "Well, I don't know. It's pretty hard... He has to deal with Congress. So Congress writes the legislation," Nelson responded. "I think what he needs to do, and has been doing, is reach out to everybody to get their ideas. Then he has to decide whether he can support those ideas."

As the House was working on its version of the bill, Obama personally made phone calls to some House Democratic leaders to urge them to remove a family planning provision, in hopes of winning bipartisan support.

Democrats removed the provision, but it did not help to earn any Republican votes. Asked if it would be better for the president to offer up two separate bills -- one for job creation and another for programs Democrats think were neglected during the Bush years -- Nelson said that "might be a better way to bifurcate the issues."

"But, at times, you put things together because of the efficiency of getting something done," he said. "And there's no pork in this. Let me say that right away. But there may be some sacred cows."

'A long hard slog.' After a weekend of scouring the bill, Collins said one proposal that she and Nelson both support is increasing infrastructure spending. "We know that there is a backlog of projects ready to go across this country that will help put people back to work in an industry that's really suffering, and it will leave communities with lasting assets that they really need," she said.

The $819 billion version passed in the House is two-thirds spending and one-third tax cuts. The $550 billion in spending includes $142 billion for education, $111 billion for health care, $90 billion for infrastructure, $72 billion for aid and benefits, $54 billion for energy, $16 billion for science and technology, and $13 billion for housing.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, argues that the current economic plan is "temporary" and "wasteful." "This plan is a spending plan. It's not a stimulus plan," he said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." Speaking on the same program, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, said an effective plan requires both spending and tax cuts.

"I think we need to fix some highways and bridges. I never saw a tax cut fix a bridge. I never saw a tax cut give us more public transportation. The fact is, we need a mix," he said.

On Thursday night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said it is going to be a "long, hard slog" with "late nights" after the $900 billion bill comes to the Senate floor.

"It is up to us how long this takes," Reid added. "We hope we can work things out."

The full Senate plans to vote on its version of the bill Wednesday. Should the Senate and House pass different versions, the two bills would have to be conferenced together. Then both chambers would have to vote on the conference version.

The president hopes to have the plan passed by Congress and on his desk for signing by mid-February. 

[Teresa]

I really try NOT to post or publicly ( in Elk County) voice my opinion politically in here anymore... .. but this is going to directly affect each and every one of us and our kids and our grandkids and the generations after that!
I have been reading and actually taking the time to delve into what the power-hungry's are doing in regards to this $$$$ "stimulus", since they have the almighty "Anointed King" behind them now.
I think we all need to know what the money is going for..
I hope I have put it into the words so it can be read without boredom.  even though it is scary and maddening...and most of all so darn frustrating that we have these people running the show. 
Okay.. now really read this and let it sink in.............................

President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are on the verge of putting into law a $819 billion "stimulus" program .
This program is nothing less than a rip-off of taxpayers. ( That'd be you and me, folks  )
The U.S. Senate will be voting soon on this spending boondoggle.. which happens to be one of the most disgusting pork-barrel bills ever presented to Congress.

And hold on to your hat Ladies and Germs... The Senate version backed by that idiot  Harry Reid is even worse~~  it calls for an additional $71 billion in spending .. Totaling $890 billion.

Just how outrageous is this shameful $819 billion stimulus? Let me be the one to reiterate and tell you.

For starters ..and this will shock you .. ( well. probably not  ) but both the House and the Senate programs have a loophole that even gives illegal aliens cash payouts.

Here's how The Associated Press explained it: "Undocumented immigrants who are not eligible for a Social Security number can file tax returns with an alternative number. A House-passed version of the economic recovery bill, and one making its way through the Senate, would allow anyone with such a number, called an individual taxpayer identification number (TIN), to qualify for the tax credits."

In case you didn't know it, any illegal can get a TIN number from Social Security, no questions asked.

This means illegals who broke the law to get here will be eligible immediately for federal cash — up to $1,000! 

It gets worse... ( Aren't I just a barrel full of good news today?  )
Let me detail for you some actual facts from the "stimulus":

** More than $4 billion is earmarked for "neighborhood stabilization activities"... money that will go to groups like ACORN, which worked closely with the Obama campaign, the same group accused of massive voter fraud.
Almost half of the proposed spending will directly benefit the Service Employees International Union, federal, state, and municipal employee unions, or other Democratic-controlled unions, according to writer Ben Stein.

**  $600 million goes for news cars for top government bureaucrats.
Obama promised major infrastructure projects — yet only 5 percent of all the money goes for this.

** $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts. (whoo-hoo) 

**  $75 million to fund anti-smoking programs. ( sighhh)

**  $650 million for the switch from analog television to digital. ( Now THAT will help the economy)

**  $335 million to help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. ( I am not even going to start with this one)

**  $600 million for "climate change" research programs. ( Another biggy that will keep our heads above water   )

This is just a small part of the long laundry list of trivial, weird, and simply outrageous programs being funded in the Obama stimulus bill, which goes on for 680 pages — so long no one in the House was believed to have read it before voting for it!

Just to show you the tremendous waste, there is so much money appropriated in this bill you could give every unemployed person in the nation a check for $75,000 for the amount being spent.

Frankly that would be a better way to dispense the funds than what Obama wants to do.

Lets call a spade a spade.... It's Just a Big  Payoff for the Election.
He and his Democratic allies are simply wasting hundreds of billions of our money in a clear "payoff" to Democratic Party interest groups and unions that backed him and the Democrats in Congress during the last election.

The truth is that Obama and Congress could have created economic stimulus by across-the-board tax cuts for all Americans, and tax incentives for businesses to hire new workers and use their capital for new purchases.... instead hundreds of billions of dollars are going to bolster federal and state welfare programs.

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay put it best when he said Obama's program is "just complete, out-and-out writing of checks to people that don't pay taxes. These are welfare checks that are called tax cuts."

Scary?
You better believe it. The Democrats are making Freddy Krueger look like a reasonable nice kind of fellow.

This week the Senate will debate on the stimulus program.
Hope the ones who support their Democratic party are going to be happy with the results...


Heres some more "stuff" that isn't what I would call *happy news*
http://therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/it%e2%80%99s-not-going-to-be-ok/

February 02, 2009 "TruthDig" — The daily bleeding of thousands of jobs will soon turn our economic crisis into a political crisis. The street protests, strikes and riots that have rattled France, Turkey, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Iceland will descend on us. It is only a matter of time. And not much time. When things start to go sour, when Barack Obama is exposed as a mortal waving a sword at a tidal wave, the United States could plunge into a long period of precarious social instability.

[Teresa]

Obama Fires at GOP: I Reject Their Stimulus Theories

Thursday, February 5, 2009 10:13 AM

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama fired the sharpest warning of his young presidency at Republicans who are mustered against his$ 900-billion stimulus plan for the plunging economy.

Obama has sought to build bipartisan support for his massive dose of tax cuts and infrastructure spending designed to waken dormant consumption and create between 3 million and 4 million jobs.

But he showed the first sign of impatience Wednesday, bringing up twice what Democrats say are discredited economic policies of president George W. Bush, which they contend helped cause the worst economic crisis since the 1930s.

"In the past two days, I have heard criticisms of this plan that, frankly, echo the very same failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis in the first place," Obama said, before signing a children's health insurance bill.

He took aim at the "notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems" and warned against the idea that the economic crisis could be tackled with "half steps, and piecemeal measures and tinkering around the edges."

Obama also faulted unnamed opponents he said believe "that we can ignore the fundamental challenges like the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and country to thrive."

"I reject these theories, and by the way so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change," the president said, in his most edgy partisan language in his two weeks in office.

Republicans, using the stimulus showdown to test the new president's power, did not give Obama a single vote when the package passed the House last week and complain it lacks sufficient tax cuts and is too expensive.

Obama's defeated presidential election foe, Sen. John McCain, welcomed the president's bipartisan attitude but complained it had not produced substantive negotiations on the makeup of the bill.

"No bill is better than this bill, because it increases the deficit by over a trillion dollars," Senator McCain told CBS News, a day after Democratic leaders sent signals that they did not yet have the votes to pass the measure.

"It has so many programs in it that create no jobs whatsoever and it has no provisions to put us on the path of a balanced budget, once our economy has recovered."

While sending public warnings to Republicans, Obama also courted centrist senators from both parties, calling three to the White House to discuss what Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson said were at least $50 billion in cuts.

The president "realizes that some of the pieces of this package need to come out for a variety of reasons because it will take that sort of scrubbing to get the votes on board to pass the package," Nelson said.

Two Republican senators from Maine, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, also met Obama to discuss proposed changes to the bill.

"He recognizes that some of the provisions that were added in the House and some in the Senate as well do not belong in the bill," Collins said.

Moderates on both sides are concerned that the bill contains spending on projects that might be worthy, but are unlikely to stimulate demand: Collins, for example, complained about $8 billion inserted in the measure to upgrage State Department technology.

In the Senate itself, a long sheaf of amendments to the bill were set to come up for a vote, including McCain's attempt to strike out a "Buy American" clause, which U.S. trade partners have branded as protectionist.

"I've got an amendment to try to kill it," McCain told AFP shortly after introducing the measure.

The EU and Canada fiercely have attacked the "Buy American" clause, warning it could start a global trade war.

The measure bars the use of any of the more than 900 billion dollars being debated in the Senate to buy steel, iron or other manufactured goods from abroad for infrastructure construction projects.

A narrower version of the clause, popular in states suffering gravely from the economic downturn, was included in the House bill.

Congressional sources said Wednesday it was still too early to say whether the stimulus plan would come up for a vote by the weekend.

Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate have warned that the congressional recess due to start at the end of next week will not happen unless a joint bill is agreed and sent to Obama.