The Senate has passed its version of the stimulus bill. After the Democrats secured the votes, Senator Charles Shumer asked Republicans to acknowledge the economic crisis, and "that they actually lost the election.”
The bill passed by a 61 to 37 vote margin. Three Republican senators did cross party lines to vote for the bill, including: Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Olympia Snowe (pictured here), and Susan Collins of Maine. Independents make up the largest majority of voters in Maine, a state that has been hit hard with job loss.
The Senate bill must now be reconciled with the House version that had more aid for states and local governments, along with fewer tax cuts. After the House-Senate conference committee comes up with a compromise bill, the debate and voting will happen again in both chambers.
Meanwhile, President Obama is holding a town hall meeting in Ft. Myers, FL. If you need a recap — positive spin included — the White House Blog is live blogging. Woah!
V.I.K
DSquared
Crave Maternity
I'm writing my congresspeople and telling them I favor the House version and I always vote.
1I think now what is an appropriate question. How long is it going to take the House and Senate to reach a compromise with the two versions? And then how long will they debate over it? Call me a pessimist, but I don't see anything getting done anytime soon.
2I am a little surprised Snowe voted for.
3Now let's listen in as UnDave pulls his hair out, lol.
4I posted a blog with an article Arlen Specter wrote in the Washington Post about why he voted for the stimulus. If you want to read, check it out here: http://teamsugar.com/group/2712177/blog/2797338
5I wonder if the fact that all three Repubs that crossed the isle are women is just a coincidence or not, especially when compared to the overall number of female senators. (sorry, too many social psych classes).
6It's an interesting point Zeze - a UN ambassador once said that in any peace negotiation he handled, he wanted women involved because they tend to be more practical in their concerns and approach and spend less time jockeying for position. He said Nelson Mandela felt the same way.
7I didn't realize Arlen Specter was a girl. I thought he was an old man.
Hypno - I don't have enough hair to be frivolessly pulling it out.
8LOL Dave, missed that completely....read Alren as Arlen as Arlene and totally went with it!
This is why people should have blatantly feminine or masculine name! Otherwise I make mistakes like that!
9ok....point proven, I did it again...
mean to say read Arlen as Arlene
Gosh, what happened to names like Charles and Jane!
10Okay, so I'm not the only one who presumed Arlen was male too. Ooops.
11He is male star...I read it as Arlene and assumed he was a she.
12I like Arlen Spector. He thinks for himself instead of voting with the party lines. Don't know much about the other two except that they are women apparently since no one's argued about them yet
13I'll give you that Arlen is a thinker, and he definitely thinks of himself, and not what is best for his state or country. I've given up "hope" that this bill will at least be delayed so members of congress can actually read all of the garbage that is piled in it.
14It's nice to see the republicans almost standing in solidarity for sound monetary policy. Hopefully they'll be able to "root out a few bad apples."
15Good thing you don't live in PA and cannot vote for Specter then. I myself have voted for him twice and plan to vote for him again.
16Steep sell off on Wall Street. People who watch markets know you can't fix a credit bubble with another credit bubble.
17I'm thinking Wall Street's slide was more a reaction to the bad bank Geithner discussed this morning.
18Geithner's plan is the same plan that we've been hearing forever. It had no specifics, and there is already a stress test in place. The FDIC does it. People on Wall Street were not surprised by anything Geithner discussed. It's more likely there was a lot of "buy on the rumor sell on the news" plays regarding the stimulus package. The fact that hardly anyone bought up these stocks shows a lack of faith in the long term.
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