Free Republic

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is leading the fight to push President Barack Obama's economic-stimulus plan through the chamber by week's end. He's also working to make sure that his home state of Nevada benefits from the nearly $900 billion plan. Mr. Reid, a Democrat, is pushing a proposal that would help finance improvements at Las Vegas's McCarran International Airport, and he's backing what could be a multibillion-dollar incentive for Las Vegas casinos and a broad range of corporations to buy back their debt.Efforts by Mr. Reid and other Republican and Democratic senators to add home-state provisions to the stimulus...

Republicans in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday unveiled their own, cheaper economic stimulus package focused on tax cuts, pushing back against an $885 billion Democratic plan they say encourages too much new spending. As the Democratic-controlled Senate began thrashing out possible changes to the rescue package President Barack Obama has sought, Republicans indicated they may play hardball ahead of a vote that will require at least some Republican support. "The American people are beginning to figure out what this package is, that it's not a stimulus package it's a spending package," said Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who lost...