House OKs $819B stimulus bill in win for Obama

Source: Yahoo

WASHINGTON – In a swift victory for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House approved a historically huge $819 billion stimulus bill Wednesday night, filled with new spending and tax cuts at the core of the young adminstration's revival plan for the desperately ailing economy. The vote was 244-188.

"We don't have a moment to spare," Obama declared at the White House as congressional allies hastened to do his bidding in the face of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

The vote sent the bill to the Senate, where debate is expected to begin as early as this week on a companion measure already taking shape. Democratic leaders have pledged to have legislation ready for Obama's signature by mid-February.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/obama_economy

The gall of Citicorp.

for it. so much for bipartisanship.

You think that after they got whipped in the elections that at least a single Republican would have crossed over to the ideas that won the closest thing to a mandate we've had in 20 years.

Next up we have to make the senate republicans actively fillibuster, not just threaten.

And, they're being exposed as such. Hopefully they'll get a hard and angry response from their constituents.

the same thing happened with Clinton's budget which the repubs swore would destroy our economy. Yeah, things really sucked in the 90s! :sarcasm:

"Good. This'll show them they're not the big dogs in town anymore, so either get on board or get the fuck out."

by getting parts taken out, and tax cuts added. And they didn't even have to commit to vote for the bill!

What a deal! They got the bill they wanted, and their necks aren't on the block, as they criticize in the coming months "how it's not working." When it DOES help in some manner, they'll just say, "Well, it's the tax cut part that's helping, that the Repubs insisted on being in the bill."

What a deal for the Repubs! And 11 Dems went along with them, too! With Dems like that, who needs Repubs?

Where 3 Republicans have been crossing over. Olympia Snowe, George Voinovitch, and believe it or not, Judd Gregg. Who has voted with the Democrats in 6 of the 7 votes so far.

You'll get bitten.

And we did. In a sense, the Republicans won, because they coerced Obama and the Democrats into taking out or reducing important provisions, and into giving more tax breaks to people who don't need them--all for nothing.

Hope somebody learned a lesson about "compromise" here.

How many Democrats voted against it?

I hope I'm looking at the wrong site...

I'm trying to get onto the Clerk's website now to double check the numbers, but I guess a lot of people had the same idea as me since I keep timing out.

So does the Washington Post. I'm still trying to figure out if I'm looking at the wrong vote.

1. Boyd
2. Bright
3. Cooper
4. Ellsworth
5. Griffith
6. Kanjorski
7. Kratovil
8. Minnick
9. Peterson
10. Shuler
11. Taylor

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll046.xml

I was looking for someone who could help our district in the new congress and work with the new congress to provide for good legislation. If I wanted an obstructionist I would have voted for Wayne Parker. I am very disappointed right now.

And exposed the House repubs for the morons they are.

Is there any indication the Senate repubs might try a filibuster? If they do I just hope Harry actually has the balls to make them stand up and read out of the phone book for two weeks straight.

Whether that will be enough to crack the 60 vote threshold to prevent an attempted filibuster remains to be seen.

The President invited some of the potential Reps leaning toward yes to the WH tonight to ply them with food and booze.
If the charm offensive doesn't work against them, I hope Obama can get his version of the LBJ "corner and lean" going on these dunderheads.

So will we get a check again like last time? I could use another $1200.

and almost $100 mil in pork for the GOP.

Funny. This bill is a GOP wet dream and the GOP got the Dems to pass it with no GOPers voting in favor. Since tax cuts never work, this bill has a slim to non chance of helping stimulate the economy.

So all the blame for this GOP friendly stimulus bill will go entirely to the Dems who were the only ones to vote for it.

That would have been a dramatic change. Those amounted to about $120 billion if memory serves me correctly.

just an upgrade to the current EIC. So if you are single, have at least one kid and are working at a minimum wage job, you get a bit more money. Otherwise there is nothing in the bill for you.

The EITC is a tremendously powerful program that has had a meaningful effect on the standard of living for low income earners. I would not poo-poo additional money that goes that way.

So less than 20% of the bill goes to individuals, otherwise businesses get the rest and, oh yeah, a few potholes in the road get filled.

That goes to needy individuals and schools.

Are pretty much a joke. I've spoken to over a dozen other business owners in my town and there's nothing there that will help us. It seem geared more towards large businesses than small businesses.

that I saw on tv that there is only 500 mil for green energy. That is nothing when you consider the size of the bill. Same with infrastructure. There will have to be another stimulus bill in a few months cause I don't think this one is going to do enough to help. I hope I am wrong.

a stimulus plan which basically fixes a few potholes in the road.

There is really nothing in this bill to stimulate the imagination much less the economy.

and would have severely cut h1 visas and any monies for companies who moved their facilities out of the country but still sell goods back to us.

Ah, and I'd have been disbanding nafta, capping the credit and banking industry rates, and regulating like hell so those CEO's would go to prison next time they sucked funds out of a company while it was failing instead of giving them a "stimulus". But, that's just me.

YOU LOSE.

or just give it to the bottom of the income distribution, in which case, $22K.

Is that what they are doing in this package? I could use another rebate check.

so as to win bipartisan support?

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/zero-lower-bound/

I suspect they won't attempt such a thing :( , but since the article talks about Senate Republicans inserting an amendment about the AMT, it's presumably possible for Senate Democrats to restore the contraception support and get rid of the 'watering down' tax cuts.

Senate Committee Approves Stimulus Tax Cuts

http://www.webcpa.com/article.cfm?articleid=30584

It's also possible to restore family planning funds- or to funnel more into job creation (as opposed to pandering to Republicans) -but that would seem to require more fortitude than the Senate leadership has.

Menendez was the Democrat and either Hatch or Grassley (my memory vague) was the Republican.