House OKs $819B stimulus bill in win for Obama

[RantinRavin]

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

[texastoast]

1. Stimulus for the people, I hope, instead of the jetset banks?

The gall of Citicorp.

[DesertFlower]

2. not 1 republican voted

for it. so much for bipartisanship.

[tomhayes]

3. Wow, that's hugely surprising

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.

[Siwsan]

5. They're a bunch of petulant, partisan bastards

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

[RaRa]

6. I hope history repeats itself

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

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

7. My father put it well -

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

[Honeycombe8]

13. Just the opposite, IMO. The Repubs won. They got a more conservative bill...

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?

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

15. Wrong Spot

[Life Long Dem]

26. They'll increase it in the senate

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.

[lolly]

22. Lesson--don't reach across the aisle

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.

[damntexdem]

4. How many Republicans voted for it? How many is "a few"?

How many Democrats voted against it?

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

8. No republicans voted for it. Eleven democrats were against it. nt

[Shiver]

9. My count is 27 dems against it

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

[DesertFlower]

10. i hope so too. nt

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

11. I got my number from the AP story on MSNBC.

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.

[Honeycombe8]

12. CSPAN had the "nay" Dem votes as 11. They should be ashamed. nt

[Shiver]

14. OpenCogress.com has it at 27 Dem Nays

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

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

16. Clerk's Office confirms 11 Democratic Neas. They are:

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

[Hope And Change]

17. Thanks.

[Hyper_Eye]

18. This is not the sort of thing I wanted when I cast my vote for Parker Griffith

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.

[groundloop]

19. Well, at least it passed the House

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.

[MilesColtrane]

21. CBS is reporting that Obama may have won some support for this from a few Senate Republicans.

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.

[gorfle]

20. any tax rebates in it?

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

[Robbien]

23. Nope. All the tax cuts are for businesses

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.

[Zynx]

24. I really don't think that's true. Unless they completely dismantled the personal tax credits.

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

[Robbien]

25. They turned them into a Earned Income Credit program

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.

[Zynx]

27. That, in the aggregate, is quite a bit of money to lower income individuals.

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.

[Robbien]

29. Of the $819B bill, a total of $145 goes to EIC over a two year period

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.

[Zynx]

39. No. States get about 40%.

That goes to needy individuals and schools.

[Abq_Sarah]

30. The business tax cuts

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.

[Mojorabbit]

31. I am upset

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.

[Robbien]

33. Which is why I keep calling it

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.

[superconnected]

28. My stimulus package would have highly taxed goods made with out-of-the-country-labor

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.

[Zhade]

32. Fuck you, repukes.

YOU LOSE.

[Hannah Bell]

34. $2666 for every man, woman & child. Just hand out the cash. $11K = family of 4.

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

[gorfle]

35. Is that what we are getting?

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

[depakid]

36. Krugman: Aren’t you glad that Obama watered it down and added ineffective tax cuts

so as to win bipartisan support?

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

[muriel_volestrangler]

37. Could they amend it in the Senate to get rid of the concessions?

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.

[depakid]

38. Yes they could- to add even more self-defeating 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.

[karynnj]

40. The AMT was added by both Democrats and Republicans

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