A Few Important Notes About the Stimulus

by Stephan Tawney on February 7, 2009

As disheartening as the news was yesterday that 3 RINOs had switched to support the Pelosi-Reid-Obama Debt Act of 2009, the fight isn’t over even if the Senate passes this crap sandwich soon.

After the bill is passed it will have to go to conference, where members from both the House and the Senate will argue over its contents. Keep in mind that the Senate will actually pass a different bill, a more expensive bill, than the House did. Jake Tapper and George Stephanopoulos are told by Senate sources that not all Democrats are pleased with the “compromise”. And that’s just in the one legislative body. Both chambers will have to come to a compromise before the bill can be sent back to be debated and voted on again.

The more you give one side the less the other side tends to support the bill. If you end up appeasing liberals by placing more pork back into the legislation, you risk turning off the three RINOs who agreed to support it in the “compromise”. Reid, Obama, and Pelosi are going to have to walk a fine line between pissing off their own caucuses and pissing off the Republicans they need/want to support the bill.

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As for the cost of this monstrosity, no one seems to know what the final total will be. Reid says nearly a trillion; Roll Call says between $780 billion and $826 billion; Fox says $811 billion; the AP says $780 billion; the AFP says $837 billion; Politico says $800 billion; and CQ says $827 billion. So anywhere between $780 billion and $837 billion…without adding in interest. For something that may or may not stimulate the economy within the next half-decade. Craptastic.

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The Senate vote is expected to take place on Sunday, though the real Senate Republicans are trying to keep it from coming up. Stay tuned for that disaster.



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