WASHINGTON — With the economy still spiraling downward and the political landscape in flux, the Senate on Monday opened debate on an $885-billion stimulus plan that faces bipartisan questions about whether it spends too little on housing and infrastructure and too much on other things.
President Obama's ambitious plan is headed for more than a week of robust debate in the Senate, where it faces a stronger possibility than it did in the House of winning at least some bipartisan support. Not a single Republican voted for the House version last week.
Senate Republicans will propose a panoply of amendments to make the bill more palatable -- including moves to strip out spending they consider inappropriate in an economic stimulus bill. One target: $75 million to help people quit smoking. Such changes, if accepted, could win support for the plan from conservative Democrats such as Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, as well as Republicans. Both groups want to keep the program focused on short-term job creation.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suggested that Obama also believes the bill could be focused more sharply -- or that the president is at least open to compromise. "Republicans agree with President Obama that we should trim things out that don't put people back to work," McConnell said as he opened debate.
To increase the bill's focus on problems in the housing market, members of both parties are considering liberalizing and expanding a tax credit for first-time home buyers that was approved last year in other legislation but had little immediate impact.
Under the reformulation being discussed, the credit would be doubled, to $15,000, and it would not have to be repaid, as the earlier measure required.
The home-buyer provision reflects a seeming paradox: While Republicans and conservative Democrats complain that the bill's price tag is too high, the Senate is likely to produce a bill significantly more expensive than the House's $819-billion version.
The Obama administration is keen on getting the bill passed as soon as possible, not only to speed relief to the economy but to avoid having the stimulus plan become entangled in another, far more difficult and divisive issue: new action to shore up the still-unstable financial system.
The possibility that at least two of the nation's biggest banks may be in danger of collapse could force the administration to ask Congress for another eye-popping bailout -- running to at least hundreds of billions of dollars.
