Posted on 02/05/2009 12:15:29 PM PST by lewisglad
Debate Continues on Amendments to Stimulus Bill Today
Senators continue debate on amendments to H.R. 1, the economic stimulus package. Law- makers have approved amendments to the bill that raises the estimated cost over $900 billion
Vote to be expected after 3PM Eastern time
Chamblis better watch his step too. He is on shaky ground.
McCain’s major flaw is his desire to be “fair” at all cost.
Gads...Levin up!
He has been a rat so long, he looks like one...lol
McCain is up...I think he is going to tell us who ate the strawberries
McCain up trashing Zero’s porkulus bill now.
Baucus can’t have much time left, they were supposed to start the amendment votes like 5 minutes ago.
I believe McCain wants to be “accepted by all sides” and is afraid to look like one of those “Conservative Republicans”.
It was a character flaw in the end.
What I love about Sarah Palin is that she knows what she believes and she will stand up and fight for it no matter who says what.
I doubt McCain’s amendment even gets 38 votes.
I think Collins just voted “yes”.
Stimulus Good News and Bad News [Mark Hemingway]
Just spoke to a Republican source in the Senate. The good news is, according to the source, “We have the momentum to either stop the bill or at least lay it at Democrats’ feet.” The source thinks that Reid may have as many as three Republican votes, and while that may be enough to pass it, that’s hardly bipartisan cover. The bad news? “We’re shooting ourselves in the foot right now by trying to help the Democrats out to improve the bill. It’s a Keynesian policy and it’s not going to work and just tweaking it around the edges and adding a few good provisons and taking out a few of the bad — the core of this bill takes the country in the wrong direction.”
Here’s what the source thinks is going on right now: “It certainly seemed that after the Democrats had their kumbaya moment yesterday at their retreat that they must have just said, ‘we’ve taken enough hits, they’re killing us out there, this is a public relations nightmare. We’d better lock arms and get this bill passed before Friday. We can’t allow to this to hang out any longer and support is going to dwindle.’ Reid got his guys in line and decided they’re going to power through this. They’re going to pass it one way or the other. I’m just looking right now and I have eight [Republican] amendments yesterday that were all rejected yesterday after they came back from their retreat.”
If Republicans want to kill the current stimulus package or otherwise make it a more reasonable bill, the key might be finding a way to prevent a vote before the weekend. If they’re lucky, support keeps trending down as more detailed questions about the bill continue to be asked.
02/05 03:08 PM
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWQ5YzBiZjA4MDU1MjMwZGM0NTVhMjU0ZDQ4ODk2NDA=
Out of 300 Amendments to the Stimulus Package Only 20 Have Been Considered [Mark Hemingway]
[Note: This is being reposted due to technical issues]
According to this Republican release:
Just to give everyone a snapshot of the real debate that has occurred on the largest spending bill in history, as of 2pm today:
* 315 amendments have been filed
* 20 amendments have been considered
* 9 amendments have been adopted
* 11 amendments were rejected
* 14 are currently pending
This is a 736 page senate bill, rushed through committee with no hearings, and could pass after being on the floor for less than one week.
Based on where we are today, about 90% of the more than 300 amendments have not received consideration.
After the jump a breakdown of the 20 amendments that have been considered, as well as the 14 amendments currently pending:
Here are the only 9 amendments that have been adopted:
Dorgan Amdt #300
To clarify that the Buy American provisions shall be applied in a manner consistent with United States obligations under international agreements.
AGREED TO VOICE VOTE at 8:31 PM, 02.04.2009
Cardin Amdt #237
To amend certain provisions of the Small Business Investment Act of 1958, related to the surety bond guarantee program.
AGREED TO VOICE VOTE at 6:24 PM, 02.04.2009
Harkin Amdt #178
To provide an additional $6,500,000,000 to the National Institutes of Health for biomedical research.
AGREED TO VOICE VOTE at 8:55 PM, 02.03.2009
Bond Amdt #161
To provide $2,000,000,000 from the HOME program for investment in the low income housing tax credit projects.
AGREED TO VOICE VOTE at 7:22 PM, 02.04.2009
Murray Amdt #110
To strengthen the infrastructure investments made by the bill.
AGREED TO RECORD VOTE at 1:00 PM, 02.03.2009
Coburn Amdt #109
To strike the $246 million tax earmark for Hollywood production companies.
AGREED TO RECORD VOTE at 4:54 PM, 02.03.2009
Isakson Amdt #106
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide a Federal income tax credit for certain home purchases.
AGREED TO VOICE VOTE at 6:24 PM, 02.04.2009
Mikulski Amdt #104
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow an above-the-line deduction against individual income tax for interest on indebtedness and for State sales and excise taxes with respect to the purchase of certain motor vehicles.
AGREED TO VOICE VOTE at 5:14 PM, 02.03.2009
Landrieu Amdt #102
To ensure that assistance for the redevelopment of foreclosed and abandoned homes to States or units of local government impacted by catastrophic natural disasters may be used to support the redevelopment of homes damaged or destroyed as a result of the 2005 hurricanes, the severe flooding in the Midwest in 2008, and other natural disasters.
AGREED TO UNANIMOUS CONSENT at 10:30 PM, 02.04.2009
Here are the 11 amendments that have been rejected:
Martinez Amdt #159
To reduce home foreclosures, compensate servicers who modify mortgages, and remove the legal constraints that inhibit modification, and for other purposes.
WITHDRAWN UNANIMOUS CONSENT at 7:01 PM, 02.04.2009
Specter Amdt #101
To provide an additional $6,500,000,000 to the National Institutes of Health for biomedical research.
WITHDRAWN UNANIMOUS CONSENT at 8:55 PM, 02.03.2009
McCain Amdt #278
To reimplement Gramm-Rudman-Hollings to require deficit reduction and spending cuts upon 2 consecutive quarters of positive GDP growth.
RULED OUT OF ORDER at 7:22 PM, 02.04.2009
Cornyn Amdt #277
To reduce income taxes for all working taxpayers.
RULED OUT OF ORDER at 8:25 PM, 02.04.2009
Inhofe Amdt #262
To appropriate, with an offset, $5,232,000,000 for procurement for the Department of Defense to reconstitute military units to an acceptable readiness rating and to restock prepositioned assets and war reserve material.
RULED OUT OF ORDER at 7:44 PM, 02.04.2009
Bunning Amdt #242
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to suspend for 2009 the 1993 income tax increase on Social Security benefits, and for other purposes.
RULED OUT OF ORDER at 8:31 PM, 02.04.2009
DeMint Amdt #168
In the nature of a substitute.
RULED OUT OF ORDER at 6:41 PM, 02.04.2009
Boxer Amdt #112
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow the deduction for dividends received from controlled foreign corporations for an additional year, and for other purposes.
RULED OUT OF ORDER at 8:55 PM, 02.03.2009
McCain Amdt #279
To prohibit the applicability of Buy American requirements in the Act to the utilization of funds provided by the Act.
NOT AGREED TO RECORD VOTE at 8:52 PM, 02.04.2009
Thune Amdt #238
To ensure that the $1 trillion spending bill is not used to expand the scope of the Federal Government by adding new spending programs.
NOT AGREED TO RECORD VOTE at 7:01 PM, 02.04.2009
Vitter Amdt #179
To eliminate unnecessary spending.
NOT AGREED TO RECORD VOTE at 6:24 PM, 02.04.2009
Here are the 14 amendments currently pending:
McCain Amdt #364
In the nature of a substitute.
Boxer Amdt #363
To ensure that any action taken under this act of any funds made available under this act that are subject to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) protect the public health of communities across the country.
Dodd Amdt #354
To impose executive compensation limitations with respect to entities assisted under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Ensign Amdt #353
In the nature of a substitute.
Harkin Amdt #338
To require the Secretary of the Treasury to carry out a program to enable certain individuals to trade certain automobiles for certain new automobiles.
Barrasso Amdt #326
To expedite reviews required to be carried out under the National Environment Policy Act of 1969.
McCaskill Amdt #236
To establish funding levels for various offices of inspectors general and to set a date until which such funds shall remain available.
Dorgan Amdt #200
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for the taxation of income of controlled foreign corporations attributable to imported property.
Thune Amdt #197
In the nature of a substitute.
DeMint Amdt #189
To allow the free exercise of religion at institutions of higher education that receive funding under section 803 of division A.
Dodd Amdt #145
To improve the efforts of the Federal Government in mitigating home foreclosures and to require the Secretary of the Treasury to develop and implement a foreclosure prevention loan modification plan.
Feingold Amdt #140
To provide greater accountability of taxpayers’ dollars by curtailing congressional earmarking and requiring disclosure of lobbying by recipients of Federal funds.
McCaskill Amdt #125
To limit compensation to officers and directors of entities receiving emergency economic assistance from the Government.
Inouye Amdt #98
In the nature of a substitute.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWNmYzFiNGNiMjlhMGFiYzg0MDM5OWU1ZTViOWYxM2E=
300 amendments.
Maybe they will just kill it with an avalanche of procedures.
==
Reid may try to sneak a vote with the understanding they will add the good ones later in to the final print.
He tried that kind of shenanigan on the 2nd attempt of the amnesty bill.
No Word on What ‘Improvements’ Obama Wants to See in the Stimulus
Obama said earlier today that he wanted to see “additional improvements” to the stimulus bill, without saying what those improvements were. A short while ago, Mara Liasson of NPR pressed Robert Gibbs on what those were.
Gibbs wouldn’t say.
This is a point I wanted to make earlier. Folks objected to the $100 million for new sod on the mall. Folks objected to the funding for family planning. Folks objected to the “Buy American” provision risking a trade war. Each time, Obama saw that the critics had a point, and reached out to Congressional Democrats to get them out of the bill or, in the case of “Buy American,” water it down. And we ought to give Obama a smidgen of credit for saying, “no, no, no.”
But now we’re on to other areas of spending, like digital TV coupons, a new polar icebreaking ship, new computers for the Department of Agriculture, $78 million to repair two agency headquarters—stuff that may or may not be wasteful, but that pretty clearly is stretching the definition of “stimulus.”
This inability to get Obama to say what kind of changes he sees as improvements and which ones he dismisses as “bickering” reminded me of Jen Rubin’s comments about how we’re witnessing a bit of Obama’s “cool”/calmness/passivity. The President seems frustrated at how the debate is going in Congress, but if he wants to speed it along, he has to start addressing the specific objections to what’s in the bill.
Obama is saying, simultaneously, “the time for talk is over” and that he also wants to see the bill improved. The message is, “I want additional efforts to improve it, but stop debating and pass it.”
02/05 03:00 PM
http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmIwZTYxMjVmMmYyMmViMzljNWIwNTg1MTkxNzY5YzQ=
I think Snow just changed her vote to Yes (for McCain’s amend) - they must have hit the number to kill it and now she’ll say she was with the smart folks on this one.
McCain amendment to replace Porkulus with Porkulus-halved
is defeated
40-57
3/5 not voting in the affirmative, the amendment fails.
57 - 40 DEAD...
Per FoxNews, by yesterday morning, their calculations had the bill at $905 billion.
By this morning, with new additions, it was at $925 billion.
From his spokesman, Jim Manley:
expects the final vote for cloture to be just north of 60, and notes that Senator Chuck Schumer at a pen-and-pad briefing this morning "acknowledged for the first time that eighty votes is done and we're just trying to get it out of the Senate."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.