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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
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