This diary last night states that the vote on the stimulus bill in the Senate will take place on Monday. It's not true. The vote is to take place on Tuesday, thus further delaying the passage of this crucial bill. I don't feel any sense of victory here, after having read in the New York Times what was taken out of the bill.
Reid caved in to the Nelson-Collins cuts to state-based education, funding of science research, and other items that help stimulate the economy. The bill's cost is now to be $780 billion, with more than $350 billion in tax cuts. Hell, they even scaled back President Obama's tax cuts for the middle class, and they're now to be phased in at lower income levels. And kept in those silly tax breaks for purchasing a home and a car, which does absolutely nothing to stimulate the economy other than keeping people in debt.
Even Mr. Obama’s signature tax cut for middle-class Americans was scaled back as part of the deal. Under the new plan, tax credits of up to $500 for individuals and $1,000 for couples would begin to phase out at lower income levels than first proposed, saving the government $2 billion.
The biggest cut, roughly $40 billion in aid to states, was likely to spur a fierce fight in negotiations with the House over the final bill. Many states, hit hard by the recession, face wrenching cuts in services and layoffs of public employees as they struggle to comply with laws requiring them to balance their budgets.
...
In addition to the large cut in state aid, the Senate agreement would cut nearly $20 billion proposed for school construction; $8 billion to refurbish federal buildings and make them more energy efficient; $1 billion for the early childhood program Head Start; and $2 billion from a plan to expand broadband data networks in rural and underserved areas.
These people just don't get it. They just don't get why state aid is so important, at a time when state budgets are being stretched to the breaking point, schools are crumbling with students huddling in unheated classrooms with no air conditioning, and saving the country billions of dollars in energy costs from federal buildings.
However, Speaker Pelosi does get it.
“These cuts are very damaging — [the House bill] was put together very carefully. ... The funding goes directly to school districts, they are stimulative because they maintain jobs instead of cutting jobs.”
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The speaker, who spent early Friday huddled with Democratic governors, reiterated her strong opposition to increasing tax cuts. In January, she convinced Obama to decrease the tax cuts in the package from about $300 billion to about $250 billion.
The new Senate cuts, if passed, “will do violence to the future,” said Pelosi, who is also pressing a reluctant Obama to repeal Bush administration tax cuts for the wealthy before they expire at the end of 2010.
After the Senate passes their cockamamie stimulus bill on Tuesday, it goes back to the House where they'll thrash out a conference agreement. We need to contact each member in that conference and ask them to restore the state-based aid for education, science funding, and other items that help stimulate the economy. Also, we need to ask them to take out those stupid tax cuts and breaks for buying a home and a car. The sausage-grinding process of forging a legislative consensus doesn't stop when it reaches the conference committee, it continues, and once the agreement has been reached, it goes back to the House where they'll vote on it and it goes back to Obama.
We also failed in this. We didn't act until it was too late to support President Obama in this stimulus bill, and watched with horror all the Republicans on television, crowing their talking points with a visible lack of Democrats on television. The Democrats also failed in this. They didn't get their act together on this. Also, the White House could've pushed harder on this stimulus bill by not ceding so much in the name of "bipartisanship" which didn't work in this instance. They've now learned a very hard lesson that it doesn't work.
Hopefully we can bear the right kind of pressure on the conferees, and force them to reinstate the level of funding that was taken out in the Senate due to the Blue Dog Nelson and his sweet Republican amour, Collins. What's even worse is that the Blue Dogs now know they can exert pressure on the White House, and pare down any legislation they don't like, or else their caucus won't hold together with the Democrats, and risk the bills to Republican opposition and eventual failure.
In any case, back to the coffeepot to brew some more coffee and get some bread toasted with jam and butter. It's going to be a long day.