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Deal Trims Stimulus Package

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The Associated Press

Published: February 7, 2009

WASHINGTON - With job losses soaring nationwide, Senate Democrats reached agreement with a small group of Republicans Friday night on an economic stimulus measure at the heart of President Barack Obama's plan for combating the worst recession in decades.

"The American people want us to work together. They don't want to see us dividing along partisan lines on the most serious crisis confronting our country," said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of three Republican moderates who broke ranks and pledged their votes for the bill.

Democratic leaders expressed confidence that the concessions they had made to Republicans and moderate Democrats to trim the measure had cleared the way for its passage. No final vote was expected before today or Sunday.

Democrats put the cost of the measure at $780 billion, including Obama's signature tax cut of up to $1,000 for working couples. Much of the new spending would be for victims of the recession, in the form of unemployment compensation, health care and food stamps.
Republican critics said that the price tag was actually higher, and that billions were ticketed for programs that would not create jobs. Official cost figures were not yet available.

The agreement capped a tense day of backroom negotiations in which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, joined by White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, sought to attract the support of enough Republicans to give the measure the needed 60-vote majority. Democrats hold a 58-41 majority in the Senate, including two independents. Sixty votes are needed because the measure would increase the federal deficit.

Uncertain of the outcome of the talks, Democrats called Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., back to Washington in case his vote was needed. The Massachusetts senator, battling brain cancer, has been in Florida.

In addition to Collins, Republican Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Olympia Snowe of Maine pledged to vote for the legislation.

Whatever the price tag, the compromise marked a victory for the new president, who has veered between calls for bipartisanship and increasingly strong criticism of Republicans in recent days. And it indicated that Democratic leaders remain on track to deliver a bill to the White House by the end of next week.

Obama said further delay would be "inexcusable and irresponsible" given Friday's worst monthly unemployment report in a generation - 598,000 jobs lost in January.

Sen. Ben Nelson, a conservative Nebraska Democrat who had long advocated cuts in the House-passed bill, said, "We trimmed the fat, fried the bacon and milked the sacred cows."

He said the compromise included $350 billion in tax cuts that would reach 95 percent of all Americans.

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