Porkulus must die! (For the children.)
Posted on 02/06/2009 8:18:36 AM PST by SmithL
Washington - Any hopes for bipartisan cooperation that President Obama once harbored crashed on Capitol Hill just three weeks into his presidency as Senate leaders strained Thursday to pass his $900 billion economic stimulus bill with the minimum necessary number of Republican votes.
After threatening to meet through the night and warning that the financial markets could crash in the morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said a bipartisan group of 16 senators would look for more spending cuts in the bill today.
Even getting all the Democratic votes is touch-and-go. Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who is working on an alternative plan with a dozen colleagues on both sides, said "I told them I'd have a tough time voting for it." Asked if he had threatened a no vote, he said, "As a governor, I never said I'd veto. I just vetoed."
Any Democrat voting against Obama on his first major legislative initiative to battle what he called a "catastrophic" problem would deal a body blow to his presidency before it gets fully under way.
Senate Republicans have followed their House colleagues into full partisan warfare against the stimulus program. Attacking narrow pieces of the bill - from payments to Filipino war veterans to aid for honeybees - as wasteful spending and proposing wholesale substitutes that would slash taxes instead, a largely unified GOP has battered public perceptions of the president's initiative.
The stance sets up bigger and fiercer battles to come on even more contentious issues just around the corner.
They include a new and potentially very expensive bank rescue as soon as next week and a solution to the housing crisis soon after that, not to mention the most contentious issue of all: health care.
Although Democratic leaders seemed confident...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Straining for votes? I thought Dingy Harry had it all wrapped up?
Stop with the fear mongering dingy harry...
Markets are up today you a-hole. Maybe wall street isnt so keen on the porkulus bill after all.
Too bad exlax won’t work on their brains...
“After threatening to meet through the night and warning that the financial markets could crash in the morning,”....
Fear mongering, Reid?.....You big turd!
I called Susan Collins office and they claim she doesnt know how she is going to vote. I think Freepers should get call her office.
I heard Newt Gingrich talk on the radio and he said that there should be NO HURRY and more straight talk with the President in the White House to get things right. So far, the hammer and sickle are what O has used to drop on us taxpayers!
yup
Any Republican Senator who votes for this stimulus bill, should be frog marched into the shark infested waters off the coast of Florida.
If you want to see just what this leftist pay off stim bill means for your area, see it at:
Click on your state and pick your town.
You will see whay no Republican should vote for this bill.
With a 58 vote caucus, I think the minimum necessary number of Republican votes is zero.
Who besides McCain is included in the gang of 16?
I just tried calling again. They say her mailbox is full.
http://www.stimuluswatch.org.
Click on your state and pick your town.
Wow. That's nothing BUT a load of pork.
Hey...how come Houston isn't getting any doorbells? We need doorbells, too. ;-)
That is right Comical those nasty Republicans are a bunch of obstructionists.
For the good of the nation how could Republicans possibly obstruct hundreds of millions of dollars waste and pork here hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and pork there.
Answer me this Comical retards if a trillion in spending is good for the nation why wouldn't ten trillion dollars be better.
What? Because anyone with an IQ higher than a Comical employee knows this is all Democrat lipstick on a pig.
Weak-kneed Sen Graham points with obvious pride how he stood up to those conservatives in his party.
Mister Graham(nesty)'s faux-fiery rhetoric is firing for effect before he wobbles and leads the GOP SURRENDER.
Go ahead Lindsey Graham, COMPROMISE your principles just like always when you COMPROMISE on the Democrat Sweepstakes victory.
OTOH, Snow, Spector and Martinez.
First fun in years for republicans. Out Bush, in Pelosi, “I love you Nancy” you luney lib! You derailed Obama presidency in 2 weeks.
Hey Reid, the Stock Market went up.
Wall Street traded higher on Thursday after the economic data came out not as bad as expected earlier. The retailers Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Macy's Inc. reported betterthan- expected monthly sales. Wal-Mart's January sales bet Wall Street's forecasts after the chain drew shoppers focused on necessities like groceries. Macy's, which this week said it would reduce its work force by 7,000 jobs, raised its full-year forecasts. The retailers' reports helped investors to overcome the bad news from the labor market. The initial jobless claims rose to 626 thousand and the factory orders fell for the fifth straight month in December. The good news is that the productivity rose by 3.2 % in the fourth quarter, more than twice what analysts expected. On corporate news, the largest computer networking equipment producer Cisco Systems Inc. rose despite lowering its revenue forecast. Cisco, added 2.3 % to 16.21 dollars a share. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley led the rally in the financial sector that lifted Bank of America Corp. from a 24-year low. Goldman Sachs rose 4.9 % to 92.24 dollars a share. Morgan Stanley climbed 6.5 % to 23.43 dollars per share. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. advanced more than 3 % after January sales exceeded analyst estimates. Broader stock indicators also rose. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1,64% to 845,85 and the Nasdaq composite index rose 2,06% to 1,546,24.
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