Which Senators Are In the Collins-Nelson Gang?

by: Chris Bowers

Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 14:15


It has been widely reported that Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) are working on stripping public spending from the stimulus bill before it passes the Senate. The good news is that the amount of spending they have removed from the bill has come down from the originally reported $200 billion to $78 billion (although the exact size of the cuts is still up in the air). That is still a lot of spending cuts but, as Elena Schor reports, "the Nelson-Collins cuts have become the best hope for getting the recovery plan over the finish line." That seems pretty much undisputable right now.

Given this situation, I want to know the names of the twenty or so Senators, most of whom appear to be Democrats, that are members of the Collins-Nelson gang (emphasis mine):

Collins and Nelson are working together to draft a bill that could cut as much as $200 billion in questionable items from the stimulus package. It's a work in progress with no hard numbers or details just yet on which things would be eliminated. We're told there are more than 20 other senators working on this effort.

It appears that these twenty or so Senators are actually running the government right now, so I think we need to know who they are.

We were promised greater transparency in government over the next four years. As such, I say we start by having someone produce a list of the people who are actually running the government.

I am going to spend the rest of the afternoon trying to figure this one out. If you have any information on the matter, please provide it in the comments.

Update: There are apparently 18 Senators in the group. David Kowalski makes the catch:

The Washington Post says there are 18 (and they met with Obama).  It only names four: Snowe, Collins, Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu and hints at three others (Specter, McCain, Baucus).  This group, especially the Democrats, are afraid to step into the daylight.

A good start.

Update 2: Lieberman (I-CT), Bayh (D-IN) and McCaskill (D-MO) also involved (pardon the source). That makes 7.

Further, it is highly likely that Conrad (D-ND, given his public reservations about the bill, and Specter (R-PA) and Voinovich (R-OH), given their voting patterns on the stimulus, were also involved. That would make 10. Specter and McCain are also strong possibilities, given the implications of some of the stories on this subject. That would make 12.
Chris Bowers :: Which Senators Are In the Collins-Nelson Gang?

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Which Senators Are In the Collins-Nelson Gang? | 23 comments
The good news... (0.00 / 0)
I really expected this to go the other way. When I heard there was a "gang", and that they were trying to cut $200 billion, I expected that number to get worse. It also looks like the notion that they were going to make the stimulus 1:1 tax cuts to spending also went out the window, thank FSM.

Conduct your own interview of Sarah Palin!
Maybe there's a good side (4.00 / 2)
A different narrative: Senate "moderates" claim there's $200 billion in wasteful spending in the stimulus. Obama asks for details, and the number comes down to $100 billion. Obama calls their bluff, and it turns out they've only got $77 billion - and it's for EDUCATION.

Latch onto this. When push comes to shove, all that "wasteful spending" we've heard about for decades turns out to be ... YOUR CHILDREN'S ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.

If Obama can make a strong statement against tax cuts, he should damn well seize the opportunity to kill off "fiscal conservativism" and "moderates" once and for all: if being a moderate means not valuing teachers, everyone needs to become a card carrying liberal.

... (0.00 / 0)
I mostly agree with what you're saying with just a couple of points to think about.

Is it possible that some of the education spending might be better employed in a bill specifically about education?  For one, I have a college age daughter who receives a Pell grant so I am very interested in the P grant fate, but raising them will not create any jobs which is what this bill is supposed to be about, right?

I absolutely back the state aid, especially for education.  All the crap unfunded education mandates sent to the states and adding the general economic mess will only lead to massive funding problems for our schools.  I doubt there are ANY Senators that when push comes to shove will defund our schools but there may be other things in the bill, like the Pell grant stuff, that don't directly save or create jobs that they might decide could be cut.

If nothing else call Congress and ask what exactly is being considered for cuts and who exactly is doing the considering.  Then we know who and what we're dealing with rather than all the supposition.

Just a thought.  

[ Parent ]
Maybe a bit of an oversimplification... (0.00 / 0)
In some ways, yes... these 18 Senators are running the government... but that's only because there are about 35-36 somewhat automatic "No" votes on the Stimulus and 45-50 somewhat automatic "Yes" votes on it.  If Democrats hadn't won several more seats there may be less people in that group, but less automatic "Yes" votes, meaning that this bill would probably just get a lot shittier.
If they're complaining about the part that's not a stimulus (0.00 / 0)
then why not cut the UPPER CLASS TAX CUTS??!!!!!!
nelson backs off cuts? (4.00 / 1)
huffpo claims nelson has backed off making cuts?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
the hill-nelson cuts a no go (4.00 / 1)
the hill also says the cuts from nelson are a no go
http://thehill.com/leading-the...
[ Parent ]
White House pressure on Nelson? (4.00 / 1)
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/b...

Ezra Klein thinks Rahm may actually be earning his paycheck today.

[ Parent ]
But TPM says the reverse. (0.00 / 0)
The list is constantly changing -- and as an aide to Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) told me, now comes closer to $100 billion in cuts. Senate Democratic leaders suggested during a press briefing this afternoon that they were open to making targeted cuts, although Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) opened his remarks by saying that every $100 billion "we lop off" the bill represents jobs left un-created and un-filled.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo...

Update: The Huffington Post reports that a different Nelson spokesperson says they're backing off these cuts, which seems at odds with what the other spokesperson said above.

Update II: Weirder and weirder. The spokesperson who I spoke with just got back to me again and confirmed that these cuts are being discussed right now. Apparently the person who spoke to HuffPo was merely saying that they've been being discussed for a few days and aren't definite. So these cuts are still very possible.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov....

[ Parent ]
McCain???? (0.00 / 0)
Well, that's interesting, considering what an ass he's been recently...

REID: Voting against us was never part of our arrangement!
SPECTER: I am altering the deal! Pray I don't alter it any further!
REID: This deal keeps getting worse all the time!
Excellent Chris. (0.00 / 0)
It looks to me that President Obama will come out of this severely weakened.  Oh, they'll declare victory, and there wil be diaries declaring victory on dkos (there already is one and there has been no vote).  Yes, Obama and 15-dimensional chess.

But the reality is that power lies with blue dogs and Republicans.  

You can kiss health care reform and EFCA good bye if Nelson and Collins can dominate.    

? (0.00 / 0)
If this $800 billion stimulus passes, then Obama - who had called for an $800 billion stimulus - will have been severely weakened?
[ Parent ]
If Obama came out with a strong statement (4.00 / 2)
latching onto the fact they're proposing to cut EDUCATION, he would come out stronger.

Every school board in the country is looking at possible school closures. This funding can prevent some of that. Any politician who can be characterized as wanting to close your children's schools should be doomed.

[ Parent ]
Conrad's likely a member (4.00 / 1)
His complaints about the stimulus spending put him in the likely category.

Bill Nelson, Kohl, Feinstein, Bingaman, Tester, Johnson, the Arkansas pair, Warner and Rockefeller seem to me to be the most likely fellow conspirators, but it's never easy to tell.

Forgotten Countries - a foreign policy-focused blog

I smell a Lieberman somewhere in there, too (0.00 / 0)
But Kohl? Really?
[ Parent ]
Moderate in a bad way (0.00 / 0)
Big on corporate spending, less so on anything else. Generally mediocre and always seems to be suck at exactly the wrong time.

I could be wrong, as I'd previously thought he was a member of the Gang of 14, and he apparently wasn't. But he's certainly in the right part of the Democratic caucus for us to be worrying about him.

Lieberman could be a problem, but this bill has very little in the way of national security or foregin policy implications. That's where he tends to dick around, and I'd also expect him to be grandstanding more if he were a problem.

Forgotten Countries - a foreign policy-focused blog

[ Parent ]
Transparency (0.00 / 0)
First, you were promised transparency by Obama not Congress.  You want to start a grassroots action move, use this and get Congress to open their books so we really KNOW who's running the government rather than the constant second guessing.

Second, speaking of running the government we all bitched for years about how Bush circumvented or outright ignored the concept of a three branched government.  If Obama is standing back and not trying to shove what HE wants down Congress's and the country's throat, is it possible that he truly believes in divided government and that Congress actually DOES have a role to play in this mess and that Congress should be allowed to hash out their own power structure, problems WITHOUT the heavy hand of the Executive branch all over them?

Think about what we were dealing with just over two weeks ago.  How far have we come in changing the way we were governed (lorded over) for the past eight years in a short two weeks?

I'm not thrilled with everything Obama has done so far but for the sake of all the gods can we try to not react so reflexively ALL the time and maybe put a little overview thought into what we spread all over our new media avenues?

Just a thought.

I'm lookin real close - (0.00 / 0)
and I don't see a reflexive reaction anywhere in Chris' post.

I do see an effort to identify the current key players on the stimulus legislation. Is that effort what you object to?

[ Parent ]
Jim Webb (0.00 / 0)

Webb's part of the group: http://www.politico.com/blogs/...

The Hill said that (4.00 / 3)
Mel Martinez was part of the group.

http://thehill.com/leading-the...

And Jim Webb basically said the same
http://www.politico.com/blogs/...

These articles ID a few more
http://www.easybourse.com/bour...
http://www.reuters.com/article...
http://www.foxnews.com/politic...
http://www.philly.com/inquirer...

(Bayh, Michael Bennett, Jeanne Shaheen, Mark Warner, Mark Udall, Joe Lieberman, Clarie McCaskill, Kent Conrad and Voinovich)
So we've got these so far.

Confirmed:
Ben Nelson
Susan Collins
Mary Landrieu
Olympia Snowe
Mel Martinez
Jim Webb
Evan Bayh
Michael Bennett
Jeanne Shaheen
Mark Warner
Mark Udall
George Voinovich
Clarie McCaskill
Joe Lieberman
Kent Conrad

Rumored:
Arlen Specter
John McCain
Max Baucus

So if the rumored three are right and the 18 number is correct we've IDed most of them. However the last story I posted said that their are 14 Democratic senators in the group so their is probably more then 18 in the group overall. I'd strip McCain out of the group. Tom Carper seems to be a likely addition, other Senators I can think of are Hagan and the Ark 2 although their comments seem to be very favorable.

But there is the bulk of the list up there.  

John McCain: Beacuse lobbyists should have more power

Just read (4.00 / 2)
the full comment about the 18. Pretty clear that Collins, Snowe, Martinez, Specter and Voinovich are the five R's. Further we have confirmation that the following Democrats are among the 13.

Ben Nelson
Mary Landrieu
Jim Webb
Evan Bayh
Michael Bennett
Jeanne Shaheen
Mark Warner
Mark Udall
Clarie McCaskill
Joe Lieberman
Kent Conrad

So we are only missing two. Most likely and rumored candidates

Max Baucus
Tom Carper
Tim Johnson
Blanche Lincoln
Mark Pryor
Jon Tester
Herb Kohl

Anyone from one of those states want to call them up?

John McCain: Beacuse lobbyists should have more power

[ Parent ]
What about Bill Nelson - Florida? (4.00 / 1)
He often votes with Ben Nelson (when they do it, I call it a "full Nelson".
[ Parent ]
Called my Senators (0.00 / 0)
no position stated from either Boxer or DiFi

John McCain <3 lobbyists
Which Senators Are In the Collins-Nelson Gang? | 23 comments
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