Pressure (4.00 / 2)

It isn't pressure on the House Democrats we need, it is pressure on Collins, Specter, Snow and Nelson.  According to reports this morning they want the bill less than $800b, which is strange as they voted for something bigger than that, already.  This could be an opening, though, as one could make the total size smaller while actually making it better; step one, drop the AMT change, which does nothing.

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by: Mark Matson @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 15:52:15 PM UTC

And the homebuyer credit (4.00 / 1)

That Homebuyer credit is useless, expensive and wrong-headed. It's a big ticket item and would make lots of room to put a lot of that school construction and state aid back in.

Conduct your own interview of Sarah Palin!

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by: fwiffo @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 16:07:42 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

at least the previous incarnation (4.00 / 1)

At least the previous incarnation was for 'first time' buyers and was repaid by the home owner over time.

This one is just terrible.

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by: lutton @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 16:44:13 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

AMT is staying no matter what, tragically -- (4.00 / 2)

all the reports say so.

it's just appalling that these 4 Senators are still being empowered by Obama to hurt us even more than they already have.

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by: amberglow @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 16:18:49 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Bummer (0.00 / 0)

It's not a huge loss in itself, because it's something done every year at some point to kick the can down the road, but sticking in the stimulus plan is a way to artificially inflate the price tag and therefore crowd out actual stimulus projects.

Conduct your own interview of Sarah Palin!

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by: fwiffo @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 16:25:12 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

How are they being empowered (0.00 / 0)

by Obama?? Obama made the initial mistake of including tax cuts before negotiating, but once that was done we were all at the mercy of the moderate republicans, including Obama. All the reports suggest that he wants to put the cuts back in, so if anything he's on the side of the democrats in congress.  

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by: ai002h @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 16:46:27 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

by Rahm at Obama's direction -- (0.00 / 0)

... White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel attended the final meetings in Reid's office last night to work out lingering differences. Before Emanuel arrived, Collins said, Democrats were advocating $63 billion in cuts. "Then Rahm got involved, and a much better proposal came forward," she said. ...

" the group backed away from a confrontation that threatened to kill the legislation altogether after White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel weighed in to urge Democrats make a final round of concessions."  ...

--

http://firedoglake.com/2009/02...

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by: amberglow @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 16:54:47 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

and now we see that "final round of concessions" wasn't final at all -- (4.00 / 2)

as per today's reports of those empowered demanding the cutting the total cost even more than before.

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by: amberglow @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 16:56:35 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

"Basically it is whatever Obama wants," said one House staffer. (0.00 / 0)

http://www.politico.com/news/s...

... Driving them -- and the entire process -- is Obama himself. In the last 24 hours the president has stepped forward to put his stamp on the package and defuse intra-party wrangling while also putting new options on the table including scaling back his own tax cuts.

"Basically it is whatever Obama wants," said one House staffer.  ...

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by: amberglow @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 20:02:20 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

It effectively (4.00 / 2)

reduces the real stimulus by 70 Billion.

Of all the changes the Senate made, this is the one that infuriates me the most.

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by: fladem @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 17:09:53 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

They got it (4.00 / 2)

Personal tax cuts dropped from $500 to $400; tax cuts for married couples dropped from $1,000 to $800.  Total stimulus reduced to $790 billion.  The freakin' Maine ladies and their two lousy votes win again.

Jim Martin, we miss you bad.  Same goes for Al Franken.  Then we could tell those Mainers, "Hit the road, Jack."

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by: David Kowalski @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 16:55:30 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

The inability to pressure Collins and Snowe (4.00 / 1)

is quickly becoming the single biggest barrier to getting progressive legislation.

It occured to me last night that Maine's power right now is akin to the power Iowa and New Hampshire have in the primary process.  We need a serious and sustained effort to build a network in the state of Maine capable of putting real pressure on Collins and Snowe.  

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by: fladem @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 17:13:48 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

are any of these restorations higher priorities than others? (4.00 / 2)

I'm guessing state aid should be right near the top.  Not laying off or delaying hiring new cops, firefighters, sanitation people, and other municipal and state workers seems like a no-brainer to me.

Philadelphia has already cut some fire services (although no layoffs occured in that first salvo) and is looking to cull the ranks of the police dept by not hiring new cops to replace officers who leave the dept or retire.  Trash pickup is also in the crosshairs.

What else in the list of cuts ranks high on the attention list?

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by: lutton @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 16:09:46 PM UTC

Yeah (4.00 / 1)

That seems like the biggest one IMO. School construction is big too, because it's an easy sell to your average American, it's strong stimulus, it's pretty fast and it's a pretty big dollar figure. I'd like to see the COBRA subsidy for the unemployed get restored to something closer to the house level of funding, as well as food stamps (which has one of the best multipliers and also, you know, feeds people.)

Things like the NSA and NASA funding are things I'd really like, but the realist in me knows we won't get everything, and they're not top priority.

Conduct your own interview of Sarah Palin!

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by: fwiffo @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 16:22:11 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Do Republicans have the standing to vote against the conference report? (0.00 / 0)

With the public polling still running in favor of the stimulus bill, would the GOP Senators risk stalling the thing now that many Americans consider it 'passed?'

What kind of effect would that have?

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by: lutton @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 16:15:12 PM UTC

& Pelosi's caving, as usual -- (0.00 / 0)

from that bloomberg article --

...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." ...

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by: amberglow @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 16:21:06 PM UTC

transit (4.00 / 1)

Does anyone know whether House Dems will make any effort to restore increases in mass transit funding back in the bill? Or has that pretty much been ruled out?

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by: LeftistAddiction @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 16:29:30 PM UTC

Dept of Defense losses, Homeland Sec gains (0.00 / 0)

Interesting to see the senate stripped almost six billion dollars from Def. Dept facilities but created almost five billion dollars in spending in a new Homeland Security section.

Homeland security spending is such a boondogle and lacks appropriate oversight.  They probably see it as a place where money can just be siphoned off for pet projects and contractors.

Between DHS and DoD, I'd lean towards giving the money to DoD.

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by: lutton @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 16:40:23 PM UTC

"Steal from the Poor to Give to the Affluent" (4.00 / 2)

on the propublica comparison --

http://emptywheel.firedoglake....

 

ProPublica has done a comparison of the House and Senate stimulus packages. It shows, in striking fashion, how much the Grassley-Isakson-Coburn-Collins-Bad Nelson bill skews spending away from the poor--the most stimulative kind of spending, since these people need this money badly and would spend it right away--to the upper middle class:  ...

The Senate bill put in $117 billion in new tax cuts for individuals--more money than the entire $97 billion they give for those items ProPublica classifies as "Aid to Low-Income Families."

....

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by: amberglow @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 16:48:09 PM UTC

"package will pare back Democrats' proposed spending on education and health programs in favor of tax cuts" (0.00 / 0)

Deal Struck on $789 Billion Stimulus -- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02...

... In the end, the agreed-upon package will pare back Democrats' proposed spending on education and health programs in favor of tax cuts that were needed to win Republican votes in the Senate. ...

Despite intense lobbying by governors, the final deal slashed $35 billion from a proposed state fiscal stabilization fund, eliminated $16 billion in aid for school construction and sharply curtailed health care subsidies for the unemployed.

In driving down the total cost of the stimulus bill - from $838 billion approved by the Senate and $820 by the House - legislators also sharply reduced proposed tax incentives for buyers of homes and cars that held huge public appeal. Senator Collins said getting the final number to under $800 billion was more than symbolic; it meant "a fiscally responsible number," she said.

But the final bill retained a $70 billion tax cut that would spare millions of middle-class Americans from paying the alternative minimum tax in 2009, which some Democrats decried as wasting a large chunk of the bill on something that would do little to lift the economy and that Congress would have approved regardless of the recession. ...

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by: amberglow @ Wed Feb 11, 2009 at 20:42:07 PM UTC