Listening to Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), the minority whip, the prospects for bipartisan support for the stimulus package appear dim.AP:
Kyl said he has not started counting votes, but “I see support for this legislation eroding.”
“I think the more people around the country see it, the angrier they get because it’s very wasteful,” Kyl said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Kyl argued that the current bill does little to actually stimulate the economy, and wastes millions on, among other things, World War II Filipino Veterans who live in the Philippines, more than 30 new government programs, and a new $500 tax rebate—despite last year's rebate doing little to stimulate the economy.
“I think you have to start from scratch and reconstruct this,” Kyl said.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday the massive stimulus bill backed by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats could go down to defeat if it's not stripped of unnecessary spending and focused more on housing issues and tax cut.
The Senate version of the bill, which topped out at nearly $900 billion, is headed to the floor for debate. The House bill totaled about $819 billion and earned no Republican votes, even though it easily passed the Democratic-controlled House. At some point lawmakers will need to compromise on the competing versions.
McConnell and other Republicans suggested that the bill needed an overhaul because it doesn't pump enough into the private sector through tax cuts and allows Democrats to go on a spending spree unlikely to jolt the economy. The Republican leader also complained that Democrats had not been as bipartisan in writing the bill as Obama had said he wanted.
"I think it may be time ... for the president to kind of get a hold of these Democrats in the Senate and the House, who have rather significant majorities, and shake them a little bit and say, 'Look, let's do this the right way,'" McConnell said. "I can't believe that the president isn't embarrassed about the products that have been produced so far."
IF OBAMA SIGNS THIS CRAP SANDWICH INTO LAW HIS PRESIDENCY IS TOAST, OVER, KAPUT.NEARLY EVERY SINGLE DEM I TALK TO THINKS THE BILL SUCKS:
IT HAS TOO MUCH OL' TIME LIB SPENDING AND NOT ENOUGH AID TO FINANCIAL AND REAL ESTATE SECTORS, AND MOST OF THE CRAP IS FOR 2010-2011, WHICH EVERYONE AGREES IS TOO DAMN LATE TO DO ANY GOOD.
IF OBAMA SIGNS THIS CRAP SANDWICH INTO LAW HIS PRESIDENCY IS TOAST, OVER, KAPUT. IF IT FAILS HE'S TOAST, TOO.
*******UPDATE: YORK AT NRO AGREES:
... the Republican critique of the bill, as passed by the House, has taken hold among some moderate Democrats — or, at least, they share many of the Republicans' reservations. Those Democrats simply will not support the bill if it comes up in the Senate in the same form in which it passed the House. They want to see a lot — a lot — of spending taken out of the bill, spending that they might actually support were it in a normal appropriations bill but which they believe has no place in the stimulus package.ANY WAY YOU SLICE IT, OBAMA IS GONNA LOSE HIS FIRST BIG LEGISLATIVE CONTEST!
... there's no doubt that the zero-GOP support in the House vote was a real morale booster. But some Republican strategists are pivoting to more emphasis on the GOP's own stimulus proposal. They've had a good time ridiculing the crazy spending in the House bill, and they will keep doing it — because nearly all of that crazy spending is still in there — but they want to push hard on the pitch that the GOP has a better plan to deal with the economic crisis.
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