"Parties Stand Tough on Stimulus" (CQ). Filibuster unlikely?

[chill_wind]

That's my take from here, anyway:

QQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
Jan. 29, 2009 – 10:05 p.m.
Parties Stand Tough on Stimulus
By David Clarke, CQ Staff

(...)

Senate Democratic leaders said Thursday that they hope Republicans will support the economic stimulus bill (S 1) headed to the floor next week, but they are not prepared to agree to major changes at this point.

“To totally eviscerate the package to get 80 votes and have a package that doesn’t work, that is not where we are going to go,” said Charles E. Schumer , D-N.Y.

Meanwhile, a group of Senate Republicans echoed many of the complaints of their House counterparts, arguing that the stimulus package in its current form spends too much taxpayer money without doing enough to generate jobs and get the economy back on track.

They complained that they’ve been effectively shut out of the legislative process, with several Republican additions and changes to the bill rejected in committee. And they said they held little hope of winning changes on the floor.

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl , R-Ariz., said the package will not be effective because “we didn’t have the input into this that we needed.” He said Republicans would be “offering amendments” and exploring “whatever parliamentary opportunities are available to us.”

Kyl did not say Republicans would try to block the bill. And Tom Coburn , R-Okla., said “We want a bill that’s going to work — if we filibuster it, then we’re not going to get what we want.”

A filibuster would be difficult to sustain in any event. Democrats currently control 58 votes, and Olympia J. Snowe , R-Maine, voted for the tax portion of the bill that came out of the Finance Committee this week.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003021240&cpage=1

“If they’re not going to vote for it, let’s go with a plan that we think is going to work.”

The Massachusetts Democrat and 2004 president candidate suggested tossing some of the tax provisions in the stimulus that the GOP requested. “Those aren’t job creators immediately, and even in the longer term they’re not necessarily. We’ve seen that policy for the last eight years,” he said.

- John Kerry

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3713050



So let's do this. We're in a position of pure strength. Go big and and go big decisively, President Obama! Listen to your better Democrats, like John Kerry. Listen to the Pete DeFazios. Listen to advice of the liberal economists: Let's get the best bill we can- now. Keep the drunk Republican malpractitioners and the Chicago Boy ideologues completely away from this crashcart. We need the epinephrine in big enough doses, pretty fast. The economy is deteriorating faster every day-we may not have too many more shots left before we are flatlined. President Obama, we Won. Remember?