Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Democrats trying to send President Barack Obama a compromise stimulus plan within the next few days face demands for more spending cuts from lawmakers critical to pushing the bill through Congress.
At least three senators who supported the measure want cuts producing a package that would cost less than the $838 billion bill the Senate passed yesterday or the $819 billion legislation approved by the House last month.
The demands may prove pivotal because the Senate plan cleared a 60-vote procedural threshold this week by a single vote. Democrats say they expect a compromise plan would also need 60 votes.
The compromise proposal “has to be under $800 billion,” said Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat. “It’s not just me who believes that; there are some Democrats who believe that and our colleagues from the Republican side as well.”
He said he voted for the $838 billion package only to get it off the Senate floor and into negotiations with the House.
A spokeswoman for Senator Susan Collins, one of three Republicans who supported the stimulus bill in the chamber, said the Maine lawmaker agrees with Nelson. Another Republican backing the Senate bill, Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter, said on MSNBC that he wants the compromise plan to total less than $800 billion.
Delay Possible
The call for a lower price tag may delay getting stimulus legislation to Obama. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said congressional negotiators may not be able to come to an agreement by the end of the week.
“I don’t know what Steny’s talking about,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat. Reid also said he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met yesterday with Obama to discuss a compromise. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Budget Director Peter Orszag met behind closed doors with Democrats about a plan.
Reid said lawmakers wouldn’t leave for their scheduled recess next week without completing work on the bill. “We need to get this done as fast as we can,” said Reid.
The competing House and Senate measures differ on several provisions, including the parameters of the income group targeted for a payroll tax cut, whether to provide sizable tax cuts to the housing and auto industries, how much aid to provide state governments and how much to spend building schools.
Dispute Over Cuts
A group of more than a dozen senators that included Nelson, Collins and Specter forced Democratic leaders to strip more than $100 billion from a previous draft of the bill before allowing it to come to a vote. Pelosi said last week she opposed many of the cuts agreed to in the Senate and would seek to have them restored.
Nelson countered yesterday that “material changes to the bill threaten its passage when it comes back” to the Senate after the compromise talks. Asked about the opposition among House Democrats to the Senate’s spending cuts, Nelson said, “If they can come over here and find three other Republicans” to vote for the legislation, then “they can probably put anything in it they like.”
Pelosi indicated yesterday the stimulus plan may end up smaller than what either chamber approved. “Usually you go to conference and split the difference between the two houses,” she said. “That may not be case here.”
Car Buyers’ Break
One of the casualties in the compromise talks may be an $11 billion amendment approved by the Senate last week that would temporarily allow new car buyers to write off from their income taxes the interest on their loans and the local sales taxes on their purchase. Senator Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat who sponsored the amendment, said yesterday she is concerned the proposal may be deleted from the final bill.
“The problem now is not the idea, but it is the politics,” Mikulski said on the Senate floor. “Let’s get the White House on our side. Let’s get the House of Representatives on this side. Flood not the streets, but flood them with phone calls.”
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, questioned the proposal. He said “all of that seems pretty bizarre to me” and “very expensive.”
Obama, 47, has used high-profile appearances this week to prod lawmakers to quickly complete their work on a stimulus bill. He continued that effort yesterday during a campaign-style stop in Fort Myers, Florida.
“Creating jobs and turning this economy around is a mission that transcends party,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting. “When the town is burning, you don’t check party labels. Everybody needs to grab a hose.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, attacked the stimulus plan as fundamentally flawed, saying he doubted it would do much to boost the economy.
“We’re taking an enormous risk, an enormous risk, with other people’s money,” McConnell said before yesterday’s passage of the Senate bill. “The president was right to call for a stimulus, but this bill misses the mark. It’s full of waste, we have no assurance it will create jobs or revive the economy. The only thing we know for sure is that it increases our debt.”
No comments:
Post a Comment