Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Thursday that he has enough votes to pass a more than $900 billion stimulus bill out of the Senate.
Reid said he believes at least two Republicans of "good will" would support the Democratic-crafted package.
"Do we have the votes? We believe we do," said Reid, who expects a final vote on the package will be held on Thursday.(...)
Democratic leaders also cast doubt on an effort negotiated by centrists such as Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) to strip as much as $200 billion from the bill.
If this is true, it is great news.
In addition to the Democratic leadership's claims, I don't see any way that the Collins-Nelson cuts could have made it into the bill since the committee markups last week. No amendments have passed that include those cuts, at least yet. It is possible that the Nelson-Collins cuts will once again rear their head during the conference session between the House and the Senate, and perhaps some votes were secured by promising to make substantial cuts during the conference sessions. However, that is purely speculation on my part. Anyway, even if no promises were made, the conference session was always going to be a big fight, as Kagro X describes very well.
Maybe just a couple more days of arm-twisting was needed to pass the economic recovery plan at the $800 billion to $900 billion size. Perhaps we are about to score a big victory. Here is to hoping!
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