Final stimulus vote in Senate imminent; Update: 57 yeses, three Dems still to vote
posted at 5:10 pm on February 13, 2009 by Allahpundit
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The bomb’s set to drop at 5:30 p.m. 60 votes or bust, right? Wrong: Sherrod Brown’s in Ohio for his mother’s funeral and will be flying in later, which is why Reid’s planning to hold the vote open for hours after it’s done. If they get to 59 at 5:30, Brown will make it official tonight; if, in a surprise show of backbone, one of the centrists defects and they land at 58, presumably there’ll be a mad scramble to fly Teddy in from Florida. He’s scheduled to miss the vote — for now.
While we wait, here’s ProPublica’s line-by-line breakdown of what’s in the bill. Or, if you want just the dirty bits, try this. Live coverage is online at C-SPAN2, as usual.
Update: Because the vote’s being held open for Brown, we’re not going to get a final tally for hours yet. But Collins, Specter, and Snowe have all voted yes, and needless to say, no Democrat’s going to torpedo The One’s moment by switching. The deed is done.
Update: As of 6:20 p.m., there are 57 yes votes in the books with Bayh, Gillibrand, and of course Brown yet to show and add theirs. Done deal.
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Don’t forget that the House voted UNANIMOUSLY that the bill would be out in public for 48 hours before the vote.
Never in my life have I seen such blatant lying and open contempt for truth.
INC on February 14, 2009 at 12:15 PM
Maybe conservatism is dead in the republican party and we need a new movement?
csdeven on February 14, 2009 at 12:20 PM
If you haven’t read Kimberly Strassel’s WSJ article that’s running through the Hot Air headlines, you should.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123448441005079959.html?mod=rss_opinion_main
BuckeyeSam on February 14, 2009 at 12:21 PM
Fox is reporting that Trade war language was still in the bill… just watered down a bit…
Had a feeling it still was…
Romeo13 on February 14, 2009 at 12:23 PM
It’s not as if we won’t get assistance from most of those countries. The rest could be taken care of with the weight of our own military.
What good is that money if you can’t hide?
sethstorm on February 14, 2009 at 12:23 PM
Don McLean’s “American Pie” song has finally come to life…
Wyznowski on February 14, 2009 at 12:36 PM
I didn’t see anything there that led me to believe that those were Steele’s comments…but:
“However, at some point, it is not politically attractive to filibuster or stop the stimulus”
If it is really Michael Steele writing that, the Republican Party is dead. He will be able to use this sort of reasoning for any bill the Democrats dream up because they won’t likely be pushing through anything this indefensible in a long time.
When Steele says he wants a “big tent”, it means he wants more Republican Senators who would vote for bills like this one. How could it not mean that?
Get used to the words “not politically attractive” because I suspect that Steele will be using these words often to excuse his inaction and lack of principles.
Buddahpundit on February 14, 2009 at 12:53 PM
It doesn’t actually work that way, as sympathetic as I am to the idea of deporting the illegals. As you remove workers from the system, the number of jobs goes down. The same mistake was made in a particular European country in the 1930’s.
The unemployment numbers are because wages aren’t as flexible as the rest of the market (oh, and because of the minimum wage).
Count to 10 on February 14, 2009 at 3:02 PM
“[Republicans are] downright giddy with their obstructionist tactics. “Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban,” bragged Rep. Pete Sessions (Texas), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. “And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person’s entire processes.”
So on one hand we’ve got a president and congressional majority who are heeding the urgent desire of working Americans to kick-start the economy, and on the other, we’ve got a rump minority that patterns itself after guerrilla jihadists who tried to send their country back to the 10th century.”
HA!
getalife on February 14, 2009 at 3:57 PM
Ahhh, so witty. But it would have more mileage if I thought that the fans of the “stimulus” actually, you know, knew what’s in it.
ddrintn on February 14, 2009 at 4:38 PM
Not one more penny from my pocket….
LimeyGeek on February 14, 2009 at 6:15 PM
It won’t kickstart the economy you big dummy. :)
Also, why present this spending bill with all it’s new regulations, programs, and special interest pork as anything other than a crass political move? This is far from a stimulus, you know it as well. I will pray for you sir, the truth is not your friend.
True_King on February 14, 2009 at 7:34 PM
Little do all the Gen X’er’s who voted for BHO know that they have been punked by this socialist crap sandwich, and they will be spending a majority of their working lives paying it off. Wake up baby, the jokes on you! It isn’t going to be the baby boom generation paying off this debt, but YOU! How do you like wealth distribution NOW suckers? You sowed the ice, now harvest the wind.
djtnt on February 14, 2009 at 9:34 PM
What? They’re going to be getting an extra 13 bucks a week!!! For a while!!! Yayyyyyy!!!! (Those that work, anyway.)
ddrintn on February 14, 2009 at 11:47 PM
Why do I feel like the only one who is noticing that almost every item of this “stimulus” bill, and even the very premise thereof, is unconstitutional based upon the enumerated powers spelled out in Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution? Why do I feel like the only one who recognizes that we’ve lost our Constitutional Republic to the calls for Democracy, hence a socialistic oligarchy? I would feel otherwise if “conservatives” would actually look to the Constitution before looking to whichever pragmatist considerations Democrats dictated to them. If only Republicans would seek to preserve their namesake…
Send_Me on February 15, 2009 at 12:11 AM
The Cloward-Piven Strategy of Orchestrated Crisis
Capt-Dax on February 15, 2009 at 8:08 AM
A small portion of all American jobs would be lost due to higher workers’ wages. Fewer jobs isn’t a problem, it’s the jobs to people ratio that is important and booting the illegals frees up ( same as “creates” ) a heck of a lot more jobs than even the Democrats claim will be created by the trillion dollars they are stealing from us. And those would be real jobs, not temporary New Deal jobs.
The stimulus bill is the “illegal alien job protection bill”. Not only are they forcing the illegals on us, they are making us pay for the bullet.
Buddahpundit on February 15, 2009 at 1:18 PM
test
CrusaderRabbit on February 16, 2009 at 10:43 PM
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