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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: combjelly who wrote (453807)	2/3/2009 2:55:56 PM
From: tejek	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1572719

"Only in the Republican party can dumbos get ahead like this. " I think it will be the trend. I expect the next few elections to sprout more Joe the Plumbers, Steve the Mechanic, Bruce the Hairdresser... Well, ok. Maybe not the last one. In other words, they will make their campaigns look like a TV show for 3 year olds. Nothing would surprise me. The fact that Palin is the favored presidential candidate for 2012 says it all.

To: combjelly who wrote (453807)	2/3/2009 3:15:36 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1572719

U.S. Senate begins amending $885 bln stimulus bill Tue Feb 3, 2009 6:37pm GMT By Richard Cowan and Jeremy Pelofsky WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday began debating possible changes to an $885 billion economic stimulus bill with lawmakers pushing ideas ranging from more money for domestic construction projects to different tax cuts and a new mortgage subsidy for homebuyers. "We have a lot to do in just a little bit of time," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has not yet tried to put a limit on amendments, but wants to pass the measure by Friday. President Barack Obama hopes legislation to jump-start the ailing economy will be on his desk for signing into law by mid-February and there appeared to be strong public support for Congress to act. According to a new public opinion survey by Gallup, 75 percent of Americans want Congress to pass an economic stimulus bill. But the public was divided over whether major changes should be made in bills moving through the House and Senate. The Senate is debating a somewhat different version of a bill that was passed by the House of Representatives last week without any Republican support, despite Obama's call for bipartisanship. The House bill would cost around $819 billion over several years, nearly $70 billion less than the Senate because of different tax components. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters, "I think the objective is to have a bill of less than $900 billion." Senate Democrats will need at least two Republican votes to clear possible procedural roadblocks in the 100-member Senate, and they expect to get them. Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington state Democrat and member of the Senate leadership, offered an amendment that would devote an additional $25 billion for road, bridge and other construction projects, along with upgrading water and sewer facilities. The bill already contained $27 billion for highway investments. Murray said her proposal would create 655,000 jobs. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who supports the additional money, said, "I worry this package is tax-cut heavy and doesn't do what it should do" to create enough jobs in an economy that is seeing rising unemployment. REPUBLICANS PUSH TWO-PRONGED PLAN But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, complained about "wasteful spending" and called on the Senate to embrace a two-pronged Republican plan. It would provide cheap, 30-year fixed mortgages, at around 4 percent to homebuyers to help the hard-hit housing sector. It also would cut income tax rates for workers earning up to $67,900, whereas the existing legislation would provide up to $1,000 in tax credits to families. "This simpler, targeted plan gets at the root of the problem, which is housing. And it puts money in people's pockets immediately," McConnell said. Democrats had been hoping the Obama administration would tackle the housing crisis in an existing financial industry bailout program and not necessarily in the economic stimulus bill. The Democrats' economic stimulus bill would require that iron and steel used in construction projects funded by the measure be manufactured in the United States, angering major U.S. trading partners. Prospects for the provision, which is backed by organized labor, suffered on Tuesday when Hoyer told reporters, "I think the concerns are justified." Continued... uk.reuters.com