Senate Republicans (including Grassley) fail to block stimulus

The Senate is on track to pass the deeply flawed compromise stimulus bill Tuesday after a motion to invoke cloture passed by a 61-36 vote today. (To overcome a filibuster in the Senate, 60 votes are needed for a cloture motion.)

All Senate Democrats, including Tom Harkin, voted yes, joined by Republicans Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Arlen Specter. Two Senate Republicans did not vote on the cloture motion, and all the rest, including Chuck Grassley, voted no.

Last week Grassley said he would vote for the stimulus bill if it included a provision on low-cost mortgages. Looking here I couldn’t find any sign that the amendment Grassley supported made it into the Senate version, so I assume it did not. I will call the senator’s office tomorrow to double-check.

According to Kagro X, a great side-by-side comparison of the House and Senate stimulus bills is here, but I couldn’t make that work on my browser.

The stimulus was the main topic of Barack Obama’s first prime-time news conference as president tonight. Click that link for some highlights.

About the Author(s)

desmoinesdem

  • Ho Hum

    Thank goodness I am a Personalist Anarcho-Collectivist.

    The idea that one must depend on the government to sustain all life on mother earth is just, well… icky.  

    • Mr. desmoinesdem is reading a novel

      you would enjoy: World Made By Hand (by James Howard Kunstler).

      You’d be king of the neighborhood in that future world!

      • The Future is not what you expect...

        However, having grown up in rural Iowa’s Amish country this novel does not speak to any foreseeable future, darnit, but rather makes me wax nostalgic for my past. And of course I would be king of that neighborhood. Who else do you know that actually owns a complete and functional blacksmith shop?

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