The Senate has passed President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus bill with a smidgen of Republican support — but Round Three could be the most difficult stage yet, as the Senate and House try to reconcile differences that some on each side consider irreconcilable. Or are they?
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.
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.
So now the Senate and House have to come up with a bill that both chambers can approve — and have it on Obama’s desk for signing on Monday, Presidents’ Day. But there are storm clouds ahead:
Republicans feel they’ve found their niche and clearly aren’t supporting the bill. One theory: they feel it probably won’t work anyway so by opposing it they’re setting themselves up to run in 2010 as the antidote to the failed policies of the Big Government Obama Administration (most likely not mentioning the Big Government Bush Administration).
Some economists think the stimulus is crucial and a start. Some think it won’t do much good. Conservative writers quote some who say it’s best to do nothing. Partisanship? It now seems as high as the stock market is low today after learning of the administration’s latest bailout plan — the biggest drop since after the announcement of the December bank plan.
President Obama wants the legislation on his desk by Presidents Day, which is next Monday. But before that can happen, the House and Senate must iron out their differences and come to an agreement on a final version of the bill.
Staffers started negotiations even before the Senate voted on the package.
The price tags of the two bills are roughly the same: the House bill is $819 billion and the Senate’s is $838 billion. The composition, however, is different. See what’s in the bills »
The House version includes more spending on education and aid to states, totaling about $100 billion.
The Senate’s bill includes more in tax cuts, including $70 billion to patch the Alternative Minimum Tax. The tax was intended to target the wealthy, but now hits many middle-class families. Video Watch senators pass the bill »
The Senate version of the bill also makes changes to the president’s signature middle-class tax cuts. Obama had campaigned on tax breaks for those making $75,000 or less. The Senate version provides tax breaks for individuals making $70,000 a year or less or for couples making $140,000 a year or less. That’s different than the $150,000 in the House bill.
CNN cites some other differences as well. Meanwhile, the New York Times points out that this next stage is a highly significant test:
But the competing bills reflect substantially different approaches. The House puts greater emphasis on helping states and municipalities avoid wide-scale cuts in services and layoffs of public employees, while the Senate cut $40 billion of that type of aid from its bill.
The Senate plan, a tentative agreement reached late Friday between Democrats and three moderate Republicans, focuses more heavily on tax cuts, provides far less generous health-care subsidies for the unemployed and lowers a proposed increase in food stamps. To help allay Republican concerns about cost, the Senate proposal also scales back President Obama’s signature middle-class tax cut.
At the same time, the Senate plan creates $30 billion in tax incentives to encourage Americans to buy homes and cars within the next year.
Republican opponents continued to rail against the stimulus plan on the Senate floor in a rare session Saturday, even though it was unlikely they would have the votes to stop it.
The negotiations in Congress will test whether Democrats, who think they won a mandate in November to pursue their goals, are willing to give up some of their favored long-term policy initiatives to win over more Republican votes. It also will test whether any but the most moderate Republicans are willing to support the Obama administration.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who was in Williamsburg, Va., on a retreat with her fellow House Democrats on Friday, called the emerging Senate cuts to the stimulus program “very damaging” and said she was “very much opposed to them.” But after the Senate reached its deal, Pelosi expressed resolve to complete the legislation in the days ahead.
Obama got the news while in recession battered Fort Myers, Florida...receiving it with two (half) jokes amid some (scare) bipartisanship:
The president interrupted his question-and-answer session with the residents of Fort Myers to deliver the news, saying: “I just want to announce that the Senate just passed the economic recovery plan. That’s good news. That’s good news.” A burst of applause provided a dramatic moment, as though the president could make things happen on cue.
“You know why it passed? They knew I was coming down to Fort Myers,” Mr. Obama said, laughing along with the crowd. “They said, we don’t want folks in Fort Myers mad at us.”
One half joke.
Mr. Obama did not mention that the legislation passed with only three Republican votes and it moves to the House with significant differences that must be reconciled before he can sign it into law.
Finding bipartisanship in Washington has proven to be an elusive challenge during the opening weeks of Mr. Obama’s term, which was one of the key reasons the president traveled to Florida on Tuesday to showcase a leading Republican supporter of his economic stimulus plan: Gov. Charlie Crist.
“Mr. President, welcome to Fort Myers, Florida!” Mr. Crist said, beaming as he stood at Mr. Obama’s side. “This is not about partisan politics, it’s about rising above that.”
The political marriage of Mr. Obama and Mr. Crist seems to serve both men well – for the moment, at least – as Mr. Obama is trying to build bipartisan support and Mr. Crist is trying to demonstrate to residents of Florida that government help is on the way and he is there to help facilitate it.
But he was not joined by any Republican members of Congress. As the president flew here aboard Air Force One, he was asked why there were no Republicans on the plane. He said with a smile, “We couldn’t find any that wanted to go with us.”
Second (half) joke.
But humor often mirrors reality.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.