Few GOP Votes Expected To Back Senate Stimulus Package
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- It is looking increasingly unlikely that many Republican lawmakers are going to vote for the economic-stimulus package when it comes to the Senate floor next week.
In the House vote on its version of the legislation Wednesday, not a single Republican supported the majority’s version of the economic-recovery plan.
Barring a major reworking of the plan by Senate Democrats to assuage Republican concerns that the bill includes too much federal-government spending and not enough in the way of tax cuts, a vote in the Senate looks like it will have a similar outcome as the House one.
Senate Democrats continue to publicly urge Republicans to ultimately support the legislation.
“I am confident that we’re going to have Republican support on this bill,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, R-Nev., said Thursday. “If we don’t, it’s not our fault for trying.”
At the same time, Democrats said they won’t bend to the calls for an overhaul of the bill to win the minority’s support.
“Is it a failure if it doesn’t get 80 votes - absolutely not,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. “It’s a failure if it fails. To totally eviscerate the package to get 80 votes and have a package that doesn’t work, that is not where we’re going to go.”
Schumer was referring to the 80-vote goal set by President Barack Obama for the level of support he hoped to achieve for the stimulus package in the Senate.
About 10 Senate Republicans spoke out against the plan at a press conference Thursday.
“If there is not a change in attitude as this legislation moves forward, unfortunately it is going to be the American people who are going to suffer as a result of the Democrats’ partisanship,” said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., the second- ranking Republican in the Senate.
He was flanked by Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, a close adviser to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who said that he, too, planned to oppose the bill.
“I’m going to vote against this package, because it’s not going to work,” said Bennett. “It needs to be refashioned around the realities of this problem and not simply recycling the theories of past problems.”
Given the size of their majority, assuming every Democrat votes for the package, the majority will only need the support of at most three Republicans to pass the recovery legislation. If Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who is battling cancer, returns for the vote, that number drops to two.
Both Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, Republicans of Maine, voted in favor of the bill in committee, and their support could be enough to win the day.
Senate Democrats are likely to allow Republicans plenty of amendments on the floor when debate on the stimulus legislation begins early next week. That will enable them to say they are allowing a full and open debate on the package.
Republicans are pulling together a package of housing measures they hope to introduce, the highlight of which is a government-guaranteed 4% mortage rate for a two year-period for both home buyers and those seeking to refinance.
Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and John Ensign, D-Nev., are working on a amendment to open a yearlong window to U.S. multinationals seeking to bring foreign-derived profits onshore at a lower income tax rate.
But without the backing of a sizable number of Democrats, these and any other Republican-led changes to the package would likely be unsuccessful.
“I don’t think that’s what the president had in mind when he asked for a bipartisan approach,” said Kyl. By Corey Boles, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
