A version of the stimulus bill passed the Senate today with a final vote of 61-37. Three GOP Senators broke with the majority and voted with Senate Democrats: Susan Collins (R-ME), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Arlen Specter (R-PA).
But House Republicans may not be so friendly. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that the bill “fails the test as to what a stimulus package ought to be.” He also claims that only three House Republicans were in favor of the bill – not terribly good odds, considering that President Obama hopes to have a final bill on his desk on Monday.
While there isn’t much difference between the final price tags of the House and Senate bills, there are significant distinctions between the make up of the two packages. The House version favors Democrat-friendly education and state aid packages, while the Senate includes a number of additional tax cuts. The discrepancies total billions of dollars.
The challenge will be to find somewhere to meet in the middle. That won’t be easy.
At least one GOP political action group is threatening action for a “yes” vote. Scott Wheeler, Executive Director of The National Republican Trust PAC, has stated, “Republican senators are on notice. If they support the stimulus package, we will make sure every voter in their state knows how they tried to further bankrupt voters in an already bad economy.” Ouch.
And the Senator from my own state of Pennsylvania has thrown down the gauntlet by saying, “My support for the Conference Report on the stimulus package will require that the Senate compromise bill come back virtually intact including, but not limited to, overall spending, the current ratio of tax cuts to spending, and the $110 billion in cuts.”
Democrats will have to compromise because it’s clear that they need some GOP support to pass a final version of the bill. A total of 60 yes votes are needed for the bill to pass: Democrats only have 58 votes. However, many Democrats are resistant to the idea of cutting spending in areas like education and infrastructure. Republicans insist that spending has to be significantly reduced in order to win their support.
President Obama, calling out Democrats and Republicans, has said that Congress needs to “break out of some of the ideological rigidity and gridlock that we’ve been carrying around for too long.” He urged Congress to “act without delay in the coming week to resolve their differences and pass this plan.”
I’m not sure that’s going to happen. Taxpayers are not largely in support of the plan – and Congress is not enjoying a high approval rating. I’m guessing that negotiations will be slow and painful rather than swift and easy. Your guesses?
I’m not sure what House Democrats have to gain by prolonging negotiations — there’s a lot of overlap in the two versions, and prolonging negotiations just keeps the news cycle parked on this bill. House Democrats should focus on appeasing Snowe and Collins, and get this thing passed ASAP. That said, good luck to Nancy with herding her cats.