Obama welcomes Senate compromise on stimulus
The economic package, which is expected to pass in the Senate on Tuesday, differs sharply with the House version.
President Obama welcomed the Senate compromise on a stimulus plan Saturday and exhorted Congress to hurry to finish work on the legislation that he had originally hoped to sign on his first day in office.
Despite Obama's plea during his weekly radio address, the week ahead promises more haggling over the package. The Senate is expected to pass its version Tuesday, but then leaders must reconcile sharp differences with the House's bill on a number of issues.
The Senate proposal protects millions of taxpayers from the bite of the alternative minimum tax while slashing the amount of aid to ailing states for education spending and school construction that the House included in its plan.
Lobbyists and lawmakers were gearing up for a fight this week on other remaining differences. That could make it difficult for House and Senate negotiators to meet Obama's revised goal of having a measure in place for his signature by the Presidents' Day break, which begins next weekend.
Obama sounded the theme of urgency Saturday. "Legislation of such magnitude deserves the scrutiny that it's received over the last month, and it will receive more in the days to come," he said. "The scale and scope of this plan is right. And the time for action is now."
The president singled out the 16,000 estimated job gains that would result in Maine, whose two Republican senators, Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe, broke ranks to cut a compromise deal with Democrats.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) also pledged to support the bill, and Democrats hope to pick up a few other Republicans when the final vote comes.
The Senate convened a rare Saturday session to debate the compromise forged Friday.
Among the most difficult cuts for the White House and its liberal allies to accept was the elimination of $40 billion in aid to states, money that economists say is a relatively efficient way to pump up the economy by preventing layoffs, cuts in services or tax increases.
"It reduces a number of highly stimulative items like state fiscal relief . . . and largely substitute for it some large tax cuts that are highly ineffective as stimulus," said Bob Greenstein, founder of the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "So your net result is a bill that gets significantly less bang for the buck."
