Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

NoVaMoMe 2024: 06/08/2024
Arlington, VA
Details to follow


Texas MoMe 2024: 10/18/2024-10/19/2024 Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had for info





















« Just Another Toddler Smoking Cigarettes Video [dri] | Main | Where GOP senators stand on the spendulus bill (chad) »
February 07, 2009

Collins: I Might Vote Against the Final Spendulus if It Comes Back from Conference With Too Much Pork
UPDATE: Some Chance of a Rocky Reconciliation of Senate and House Bills

Nancy Pelosi only submitted a bill of $820 billion. Collins blessed an $827 billion bill. But, um, she's such a fiscal hawk she might vote against the final conference bill if it's even bigger.

Nancy Pelosi, big-spending liberal Democrat from San Francisco, wrote a cheaper, more prudent bill than the one "Republican" Collins crafted.

Puts it all in context.

I wouldn't hold out much hope Nancy Pelosi will get into a catfight with Collins and thus doom the bill. Besides, even if Pelosi adds back in $60 or $80 billion of her own Sears' Wish List of boondoggles, is Ms. Fiscal Hawk Susan Collins really going to balk at such a small mark-up in a $1.2 trillion dollar bill? I doubt it.

Thanks to CJ.

Hmm... Some Room for Trouble: One can hope for a bit of acrimony during the reconciliation process:

The Senate changes bring what had been a $920 billion package down to about $820 billion. Among the largest cuts: $40 billion from a $79 billion fund aimed at helping states preserve school funding as they try to balance their budgets. And negotiators cut in half $15 billion in "incentive grants" for states that meet certain goals for their initial education allotment.

"Education took a big hit here," said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.).

The compromise also would cut $5 billion from a plan to help unemployed workers pay for health-care coverage, reducing the amount the federal government would pay for COBRA premiums to 50 percent from 65 percent. And it would cut $2 billion from a plan to help critical-access hospitals computerize medical records.

A smaller number of changes would reduce the size of the Senate's tax package, including a $9 billion revision to a credit for investors in low-income housing and a $2 billion adjustment to the president's Making Work Pay credit that would eliminate the benefit for some taxpayers.

...

Negotiations with the House could also dramatically alter the package. While the bills in the two chambers are now likely to be similar in size, the Senate has increased the percentage of its legislation devoted to tax cuts. The biggest change is the addition of a $70 billion provision that would protect more than 24 million families from the alternative minimum tax.

House moderates oppose including the AMT provision in the stimulus package, arguing that the issue should be addressed in the regular budget process so that its cost can be offset by spending cuts or tax increases. But until yesterday, House leaders appeared willing to accept the provision, which was added at the urging of Sen. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa), the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

With AMT in and some of House Democrats' top spending priorities out, the package could become much more difficult for many House members to swallow, Democratic aides said. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said House Democrats will push hard to restore the Senate's deletions. That means, lawmakers said, that the overall cost would grow to around $900 billion to accommodate the AMT fix.

Said House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.): "I don't think much of what the Senate is doing."

The very liberal House caucus loves spending and abhors tax cuts. Will they choke on such things? Will they allow the tax cuts but force the spending back in to balloon the cost of the bill (even without debt service) up to $1 trillion or more?

One can only hope. And hope too that Collins and Snowe want primarily to be seen as willing to deal, and, having so shown themselves, will ultimately balk at a $1.5 trillion dollar pork bonanza.



digg this
posted by Ace at 05:54 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Program administratos.: "132 I wonder how many non illegals are signing up ..."

N: "Reminds me of Jim Carrey in the toilet when that s ..."

Red Turban Someguy - The Republic is already dead!: "It's only barely plausible. It is much more plausi ..."

N: "Some of the gangs actually have cult-religious stu ..."

Dr. Claw: "173 'If this is true and proved, then Putin wins ..."

Helena Handbasket: ">>> 181 >>> I am not defending Ukraine, but the un ..."

Vigo, Scourge of Carpathia, Sorrow of Moldavia: "What was will be! What is will be no more! ..."

Hairyback Guy: "not necessarily in that order, it might also be si ..."

N: "I'd bet the people implementing the program are th ..."

Helena Handbasket: ">>> 147 Visegrád 24 @visegrad24 Mar 26 Inter ..."

G'rump928(c): "[i]These migrants ARE Americans now - they're not ..."

Braenyard: ">>> I am not defending Ukraine, but the uncontroll ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64