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Bob Basso author of “Common Sense” plays the role of Thomas Paine to ignite the fire of change in America. Patriotism and Pride for America lead Thomas Paine to help take back America!
Are any of them running on their healthcare accomplishment?
Has one of them made a campaign of their stimulus vote?
Does even one Democrat wish to be tethered to Barack Obama?
So what’s the deal? They must be running on something; is their message clear?
The way DC is spending on a scale never before seen makes me wonder if when 2012 gets here if we will have any money left to have an election. From failed stimulus, and bailouts to junk science we are throwing more money away the the history of the Country. Just this year Obama has spent more then Bush’s first 3 years in office and the year is not over yet.
One trillion dollars in new federal spending to "stimulate" the economy and what do the American people get? more per month in their paycheck.
Putting more debt on the backs of my children is not my idea of stimulus Mr. Obama
Now go ahead and report this FAIR question. Every question about Obama I post gets censored.
First Amendment R.I.P.
“I will sign this legislation into law shortly,” the president says in his radio address.
Reporting from Washington — President Barack Obama, winning a $787-billion stimulus for an ailing economy within his first month in office, today called the measure “a major milestone on our road to recovery.”
The president plans to swiftly sign the measure approved late Friday night by the Senate, following its passage by the House earlier in the day – clearing Congress largely along party lines.
“I will sign this legislation into law shortly,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address this morning, “and we’ll begin making the immediate investments necessary to put people back to work doing the work America needs done.”
Although Obama had courted Republicans to support the plan, it passed the House on Friday by 246-183 without a single Republican vote, and it passed the Senate by 60-38 with the help of just three Republican senators. Republicans have denounced the president’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as too laden with big spending and too short on tax relief.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R- Alaska), delivering the Republican Party’s radio and Internet response to the president today, said: “Republicans have been supportive of a stimulus plan all along. Yet, over the past few weeks, a serious difference of opinion has emerged over what an economic recovery plan should include. Democrats, it seems, settled on a random dollar amount in the neighborhood of $1 trillion and then set out to fill the bucket.”
The votes capped a week in which Obama had traveled through four states in the promotion of his plan – from Elkhart, Ind., where unemployment has passed 15 percent, to Fort Myers, Fla, where the economy has taken a tough toll on the housing market, to Springfield, Va., where work is underway on a new parkway serving a national security facility, and to East Peoria, Ill., where the Caterpillar company has laid off workers but hopes to rehire them with federal help.
“This week, I spent some time with Americans across the country who are hurting because of our economic crisis,” Obama said today. “Families losing the homes that were their stake in the American Dream. Folks who have given up trying to get ahead, and given in to the stark reality of just trying to get by.
“They’ve been looking to those they sent to Washington for some hope at a time when they need it most,” the president said. “This morning, I’m pleased to say that after a lively debate full of healthy difference of opinion, we have delivered real and tangible progress for the American people.”
The stimulus approved by Congress will save or create more than 3.5 million jobs, he said, reiterating a promise that was central to passage of the plan.
“This is a major milestone on our road to recovery,” the president said this morning, “and I want to thank the members of Congress who came together in common purpose to make it happen.”
The measure provides money for road-building and new bridges as well as schools and expansion of Broadband networks to rural communities. It offers money to computerize healthcare records as well as for alternative energy generation with wind-powered turbines and insulation for a million homes.
It also extends and boosts federal unemployment benefits and pumps more money into the federally and state-funded Medicaid for low-income and disabled Americans.
And it provides an estimated $280 billion in tax relief.
“Some fear we won’t be able to effectively implement a plan of this size and scope, and I understand their skepticism,” Obama said today. “Washington hasn’t set a very good example in recent years. And with so much on the line, it’s time to begin doing things differently …”
The White House is establishing a website, www.recovery.gov, to track the spending.
“This historic step won’t be the end of what we do to turn our economy around, but the beginning,” he said. “The problems that led us into this crisis are deep and widespread. Our response must be equal to the task.
“For our plan to succeed, we must stabilize, repair, and reform our banking system, and get credit flowing again to families and businesses,” the president said. “We must write and enforce new rules of the road, to stop unscrupulous speculators from undermining our economy ever again. We must stem the spread of foreclosures and do everything we can to help responsible homeowners stay in their homes.”
Looking ahead to his proposal of a new federal budget for 2010, the president notes that the accrued national debt has doubled in the past eight years – indeed the act passed by Congress raises the authorized ceiling on the federal debt to $12 trillion.
It’s necessary, Obama said today, “in order to jumpstart our sick economy. But our long-term economic growth demands that we tame our burgeoning federal deficit; that we invest in the things we need, and dispense with the things we don’t. This is a challenging agenda, but one we can and will achieve.”
The nation “will prove equal to this task,” he said. “It will take time, and it will take effort, but working together, we will turn this crisis into opportunity and emerge from our painful present into a brighter future.”
Congress pushes historic economic rescue package to the finish line. Senate expected to vote on Friday evening.
In a 246 to 183 vote largely along party lines, the House of Representatives on Friday passed a $787.2 billion economic recovery package that was drawn up, amended and negotiated in record time.
No Republicans voted for the bill, while seven Democrats voted against it. When the House voted on its own version of a stimulus bill a few weeks ago, no Republicans voted for that measure and 11 Democrats had also voted against it.
U.S. Senate passes stimulus plan
The bill passes 60-38, with three GOP votes in favor. The House voted 246-183 to approve it earlier today. Obama is expected to sign the bill soon.
The U.S. Senate approved $787 billion in spending and tax cuts to boost the ailing economy, sending the emergency stimulus legislation to President Barack Obama, who is expected to sign it into law.
Providing the first approval of a disputed $787-billion stimulus plan that President Obama is demanding from Congress in hopes of reviving a stalled economy, the House today voted 246 to 183, divided largely along party lines.
“This legislation can be summed up in one word: jobs,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said at the close of a House debate that showcased a continuing fissure between Democrats in control of the House and Republicans opposed to the massive government spending that is the core of the stimulus bill. “I never thought I’d see the day when we had an opportunity to do so much . . . so great . . . for the American people.”
House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) complained: “The bill that was supposed to be about jobs, jobs, jobs has turned into a bill that is all about spending, spending, spending.”
In a House sharply divided by this fractious debate, only seven Democrats opposed the measure and no Republicans supported it.
With the president maintaining that more than 3 million jobs can be created or saved with the plan, the overwhelming majority of Republicans who oppose it complain that it places unrestrained spending, and debt, ahead of tax relief that could offer more help.
“The historic scope of this bill is matched by an unprecedented transparency . . . so the American people can see how each dollar is invested,” Pelosi said. “It is in sharp contrast to the do-nothing approach that some want us to take here.”
“When you look at some of the spending in this bill, it will do nothing about creating jobs,” Boehner said. “I hope this bill works, I really do, for the good of our country. But my concern is that the plan as outlined will not do what we want it to do.”
The Senate today was debating the same compromise hammered out between Senate and House Democratic leaders with the support of a few Senate Republicans, with leaders holding out hope for a vote tonight. Obama was expected to sign it quickly.
The measure, in somewhat larger form, had cleared the House in its first version without a single Republican vote. The Senate had approved its first take on the plan with the help of just three Republicans — yet still some Republicans were complaining that the package should not be painted with a bipartisan veneer.
“In the Senate, Republicans were consulted, that’s a very positive thing, but we were never invited to the negotiating table,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). “When Republicans offered ideas, they were generally rejected. There were few exceptions.”
“This bill was written by the speaker of the House,” said Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.), accusing Pelosi of ramming “an ill-conceived, wrong-headed . . . spending spree” through the chamber without input from the GOP. “The principles of democracy are being compromised here, today, now. The American people deserve better. . . . Our founding fathers deserved better.”
The debate today did not pass without some rancor. A Republican accused leaders of inserting money for “a rat” in San Francisco — funding for an environmentally sensitive area — drawing an angered response from Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, who held the telephone-book-thick bill aloft and challenged the debater: “It’s not in there . . . show it to me . . . show it to me.”
“This country faces the greatest crisis we’ve seen, in terms of our economy, since the ’30s,” Obey told the House. The housing market has collapsed, the automotive industry is in trouble, and interest rates have been pushed as low as they can go, he said. “The only bullet left is fiscal policy, so what we are trying to do with this bill is save and create several million jobs.”
“Guess what — this bill isn’t perfect,” Obey said. “The worst thing people can do in this town is to believe their own baloney. . . . Supporters of this bill are inclined to overstate its possibilities — and opponents are inclined to trash it.”
The 1,071-page measure was posted on a congressional website Thursday night, allowing lawmakers just a few overnight hours to read it before debate on the House and Senate floors today.
“Not one member has read this,” Boehner said.
The stimulus plan, carrying a price tag of $787 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office, calls for $281 billion in tax cuts, $308 billion in spending funded by the appropriations committees and $198 billion in spending for programs such as unemployment assistance, Social Security benefits and added money for states to help with Medicaid for low-income and disabled Americans.
Republicans have fought for more tax relief and less spending, but, Boehner complained, “all the talk we’ve heard about bipartisanship . . . has gone down the drain.”
Obama to Unveil Plans to Stem Foreclosures Next Week
Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama will give more details on his proposals to deal with the housing crisis with a speech next week in Arizona, his spokesman said.
Obama expects to sign the $787 billion stimulus law on Feb. 16 or 17, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, and then will make a two-day trip to Denver and Phoenix to talk about the next steps in his strategy to revive the U.S. economy.
The president will “outline a plan to stem home foreclosures” in an address on Feb. 18 in Arizona, Gibbs said at his regular briefing for reporters. He refused to give details.
Obama has said his advisers are working on a plan to address declining home prices and a rising tide of foreclosures. Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley have agreed to suspend foreclosures until next month and signaled a readiness to help the Obama administration craft a housing plan to modify mortgages for troubled borrowers.
Gibbs said the action by the three institutions is “consistent with” what the president believes should be part of the housing policy. In refusing to give more specifics of the administration plan, Gibbs warned against building up “an unreasonable series of expectation based on leaks” from officials who aren’t involved in discussions.
Foreclosures
U.S. foreclosures reached 274,399 in January, the 10th straight month in which more than a quarter-million filings were processed, RealtyTrac Inc., the Irvine, California-based provider of real estate data, said in a statement yesterday.
Obama will be laying out his plans in Arizona, which had the third-highest rate of foreclosures in January — one in 182 housing units — after Nevada and California.
Obama’s plan is intended “to ensure that the 10,000 Americans each day that have their homes foreclosed on and the millions more that are barely getting by are protected,” Gibbs said. The amount of aid likely will be in line with previous administration statements, he said.
Obama has pledged to commit money toward housing relief, using $50 billion to $100 billion from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program enacted last year.
Loan Modifications
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said in a speech today in New York that the administration wants to accelerate loan modifications for distressed homeowners and change the bankruptcy system for foreclosures.
One proposal involves using government money to subsidize interest rate reductions for struggling borrowers, according to a person briefed on the discussions.
The House passed the stimulus legislation 246 to 183 as Gibbs was speaking. The Senate is set to follow with final passage this evening. Because of paperwork that needs to be done, the legislation likely will reach the president’s desk “no earlier than Monday,” Gibbs said.
Obama has said the stimulus is one part of his strategy for the economy, the others being action to stabilize the housing market and a strategy to shore up the financial industry.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner already has announced a plan to inject fresh government capital into some of the nation’s biggest financial institutions, establish a public-private partnership to buy as much as $1 trillion of banks’ bad assets and start a credit facility with the Federal Reserve of as much as $1 trillion to promote lending to consumers and businesses.
After his trips to Colorado and Arizona, Obama plans his first journey as president outside U.S. borders with a visit to Canada. Gibbs said the economy will be a major topic. In April, Obama will make stops in Europe around a North Atlantic Treaty Organization conference and a meeting of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing countries, Gibbs said.
WASHINGTON — Moving with lightning speed, Congress and the White House agreed Wednesday on a compromise $790 billion economic stimulus bill designed to create million jobs in a nation reeling from recession. President Barack Obama could sign the measure within days.
“More than one-third of this bill is dedicated to providing tax relief for middle-class families, cutting taxes for 95 percent of American workers,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at a Capitol news conference where he was joined by moderates from both parties whose support is essential for the legislation’s final passage.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Reid’s partner in negotiations over more than 24 hours, initially withheld public approval in a lingering dispute over federal funding for schools. But her spkesman, Brendan Daly, said more than two hours after Reid’s announcement, “We are moving forward with this legislation, which will create or save more than 3 million jobs.”
Obama estimated 3.5 million in his own celebration of the agreement. He said it would “get our economy back on track.”
The emerging legislation is at the core of Obama’s economic recovery program, and includes help for victims of the recession in the form of expanded unemployment benefits, food stamps, health coverage and more, as well as billions for states that face the prospect of making deep cuts in school aid and other programs.
Another provision will mean a one-time payment of $250 for millions of beneficiaries who receive Social Security, Supplemental Security Income and veterans pensions and disability, according to officials.
The measure also preserves Obama’s signature tax cut _ a break for millions of lower and middle income taxpayers. Wage-earners who don’t make enough to pay income taxes would get a reduction in the Social Security and Medicare taxes they pay.
The president also won money for two other administration priorities _ information technology in health care, and “green jobs” to make buildings more energy-efficient and reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign oil.
The bill “will be the beginning of the turnaround for the American economy,” predicted Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the independent from Connecticut.
Republicans couldn’t have disagreed more.
“It appears that Democrats have made a bad bill worse by reducing the tax relief for working families in order to pay for more wasteful government spending,” said Rep. John Boehner of Ohio.
The events capped a frenzied 24-plus hours that began at mid-day Tuesday when the Senate approved its original version of the bill on a party-line vote of 61-37. Reid, Pelosi and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel plunged into a series of meetings designed to produce agreement in time for Obama to sign the bill by mid-month.
Pelosi was conspicuously absent from Wednesday’s news conference in which members of the Senate announced the agreement. But moments later, Reid arrived in her office, and the two talked by phone with Emanuel, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Officials had said previously that one of the final issues to be settled was money for school modernization, a priority for Pelosi as well as Obama and one on which they differed with Collins and other moderates whose votes will be essential for final Senate approval.
There also was last-minute disagreement about a House proposal that could direct education funds to schools even if a state’s governor didn’t approve, they said, a squabble that one official said related principally to South Carolina.
Stocks moved higher in the moments after Reid stepped to the microphone just outside the Senate chamber. The Dow Jones industrials, which plunged 382 points on Tuesday, rose 51 points for the day.
Obama has been campaigning energetically for the legislation in recent days, saying it was essential to avoid turning what is already the worst economic crisis in a generation into a catastrophe.
As if to underscore the urgency, he said a few hours before the agreement was announced that machinery giant Caterpillar Inc. plans to rescind some of the 22,000 layoffs the firm recently announced _ once the stimulus is signed into law.
Scaling back the bill to levels lower than either the $838 billion Senate measure or the original $820 billion House-passed measure caused grumbles among liberal Democrats, who described the cutbacks as a concession to the moderates, particularly Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who are under pressure from conservative Republicans to hold down spending.
Working to accommodate the new, lower overall limit of the bill, negotiators effectively wiped out a Senate-passed provision for a new $15,000 tax credit to defray the cost of buying a home, these officials said. The agreement would allow taxpayers to deduct the sales tax paid on new car purchases, but not the interest on loans for the same vehicles.
School construction was a problem apart from all others.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, told reporters that $6 billion would be set aside, and officials said it could be spent only on repair and modernization work, a limitation designed to appease the moderates.
But officials said House Democrats were holding out for as much as $9 billion.
With numerous demands for the funds in the bill, lawmakers worked to satisfy competing demands.
A Senate-passed provision to give $10 billion to the National Institutes of Health for research _ a favorite of both Harkin and Specter, appeared likely to survive.
Moving with lightning speed, the Democratic-controlled Congress and White House agreed Wednesday on a compromise $790 billion economic stimulus bill designed to create millions of jobs in a nation reeling from recession. President Barack Obama could sign the measure within days.
“More than one-third of this bill is dedicated to providing tax relief for middle-class families, cutting taxes for 95 percent of American workers,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at a Capitol news conference where he was joined by moderates from both parties whose support is essential for the legislation’s final passage.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Reid’s partner in negotiations over more than 24 hours, initially withheld her approval for more than two hours in a dispute over federal funding for school construction. She said the delay had been worth it: “We had to make sure the investment in education” was in the bill.
Earlier Wednesday, Evening News anchor Katie Couric asked Pelosi if she had been too partisan during the process, but the speaker defended the House version of the stimulus package that passed without one Republican vote.
“We have strong philosophical difference in the Congress,” Pelosi said. “This isn’t inner party bickering, this is major difference of opinion on philosophy, on how our country should go forward. We reject the failed Bush administration economic policies which got us where we are today. The proposals that the Republicans put forth were more of the same. We will not go back.”
Obama, who campaigned energetically for the measure, welcomed the agreement in a written statement that said it would “save or create more than 3.5 million jobs and get our economy back on track.”
The emerging legislation is at the core of Obama’s economic recovery program, and includes help for victims of the recession in the form of expanded unemployment benefits, food stamps, health coverage and more, as well as billions for states that face the prospect of making deep cuts in school aid and other programs.
Another provision will mean a one-time payment of $250 for millions of beneficiaries who receive Social Security, Supplemental Security Income and veterans pensions and disability, according to officials.
The measure also preserves Obama’s signature tax cut – a break for millions of lower and middle income taxpayers. Wage-earners who don’t make enough to pay income taxes would get a reduction in the Social Security and Medicare taxes they pay.
The president also won money for two other administration priorities – information technology in health care, and “green jobs” to make buildings more energy-efficient and reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign oil.
The bill “will be the beginning of the turnaround for the American economy,” predicted Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the independent from Connecticut.
But embittered Republican leaders said the deal is exactly the wrong prescription for the economy, reports CBS News correspondent Chip Reid.
“I’m very disappointed,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. “It appears they made a bad bill worse.”
The events capped a frenzied 24-plus hours that began at midday Tuesday when the Senate approved its original version of the bill on a party-line vote of 61-37. Reid, Pelosi and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel plunged into a series of meetings designed to produce agreement in time for Obama to sign the bill by mid-month.
Pelosi was conspicuously absent from Wednesday’s news conference in which members of the Senate announced the agreement. Moments later, Reid arrived in her office, and the two talked by phone with Emanuel, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Officials had said previously that one of the final issues to be settled was money for school modernization, a priority for Pelosi as well as Obama and one on which they differed with Collins and other moderates whose votes will be essential for final Senate approval.
Originally, Pelosi and House Democrats wanted a new program dedicated to school construction, but Collins held firm against that. In the end, the agreement added money to a State Stabilization Fund, with the additional provision that governors may use some of the money for modernizing school buildings but not building new ones.
There also was last-minute disagreement about a House proposal that could direct education funds to schools even if a state’s governor didn’t approve, they said, a squabble that one official said related principally to South Carolina.
Stocks moved higher in the moments after Reid stepped to the microphone just outside the Senate chamber. The Dow Jones industrials, which plunged 382 points on Tuesday, rose 51 points for the day.
Obama has been contending daily that the plan is essential to avoid turning what is already the worst economic crisis in a generation into a catastrophe.
As if to underscore the urgency, he said a few hours before the agreement was announced that machinery giant Caterpillar Inc. plans to rescind some of the 22,000 >layoffs the firm recently announced – once the stimulus is signed into law.
Public support for the stimulus may be growing. A new USA Today-Gallup poll put backing at 59 percent this week, up from 52 percent in early January.
Scaling back the bill to levels lower than either the $838 billion Senate measure or the original $820 billion House-passed measure caused grumbles among liberal Democrats, who described the cutbacks as a concession to the moderates, particularly Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who are under pressure from conservative Republicans to hold down spending.
Working to accommodate the new, lower overall limit of the bill, negotiators effectively wiped out a Senate-passed provision for a new $15,000 tax credit to defray the cost of buying a home, these officials said. The agreement would allow taxpayers to deduct the sales tax paid on new car purchases, but not the interest on loans for the same vehicles.
With numerous demands for the funds in the bill, lawmakers worked to satisfy competing demands.
A Senate-passed provision to give $10 billion to the National Institutes of Health for research – a favorite of both Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Specter, appeared likely to survive.
The Senate has approved the $838 billion stimulus bill, which has solid Democratic support but is backed by only three Senate Republicans.
“That’s good news,” President Obama said of passage when told about it during a town hall meeting in Fort Myers, Fla.
But he also noted: “We’ve still got a little more work to do.”
The bill now faces what could be contentious negotiations with the House, which passed a different version of the legislation, one that includes fewer taxes and more spending than the Senate version.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., vowed to send a finished bill to Mr. Obama’s desk “as soon as possible.”
Just three Republicans helped pass the plan on a 61-37 vote and they’re already signaling they’ll play hardball to preserve more than $108 billion in spending cuts made last week in Senate dealmaking. Mr. Obama wants to restore cuts in funds for school construction jobs and help for cash-starved states.
Those cuts are among the major differences between the $819 billion House version of Mr. Obama’s plan and a Senate bill costing $838 billion. Mr. Obama has warned of a deepening economic crisis if Congress fails to act. He wants a bill completed by the weekend. (Read more about what’s next.)
Differences have to be worked out but both bills include tax cuts for almost all working Americans, vast new spending on building new roads and bridges, investing in new energy projects and clean fuels, aid to financially strapped states and help for the unemployed including higher benefits and help in paying premiums to keep their health insurance, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss.
The three Republicans who voted for the package are Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. They joined all Democrats and Independents Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
CBS News correspondent Chip Reid reports that in case his vote was needed, Ted Kennedy interrupted treatment for a brain tumor to be on the Senate floor, where he was greeted by Robert Byrd, his friend of more than 45 years.
Mr. Obama’s choice to be commerce secretary, Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, did not vote, keeping his commitment not to participate in Senate business or votes while his confirmation is pending. All other Senate Republicans voted against the bill.
There is also a vacant seat in the Senate due the ongoing recount battle between Al Franken and Norm Coleman in Minnesota.
Not a single Republican voted for the bill in the House.
“I’m reticent to get into the negotiating,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday. “I will tell you this, the president is willing to do whatever it take with Democrats or Republicans to get something on his desk.” He said the American people need the help “right now.”
Meanwhile, the Treasury Department announced an enormous plan to strengthen ailing banks.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who was spelling out new bailout details for the nation’s lenders, said in remarks prepared for the announcement, “Right now, critical parts of our financial system are damaged.
That plan includes a public-private partnership of over $1 trillion to help strengthen banks. Added to the congressional stimulus plan, which aims to get Americans spending again, the total of the combined efforts could easily pass $2 trillion.
Geithner said the bailout plan would lead to “cleaner and stronger” bank balance sheets by imposing tough new standards and using government and private incentives to get the banks lending again. (Read more on the plan.)
Tuesday afternoon, CBS News Producer John Nolen reports, Reid led a preliminary meeting in his office to discuss where things stand with the stimulus bill.
Three representatives from the White House were present: Chief Of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Congressional liaison Phil Schiliro and Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag.
The Senators present included Reid, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, Lieberman, and Collins and Snowe, two of the Republicans who supported the bill.
Around 5:00 PM, Emanuel and Reid went to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office for about 25 minutes. They then returned to Reid’s office to continue meeting.
In total, Emanuel has already been in discussions on Capitol Hill for almost four hours.
There is not yet word on when the stimulus conference will hold its first official meeting.