Okay, so Krugman's no fan of the Senate version. Really. He thinks the stimulus package needs to be twice as big and more focused on government spending. And, he's pretty harsh on Barack. Yikes.
Krugman does like the House version a little better. So does Speaker Pelosi. In this LA Times article, she's quoted as saying that the Senate's changes were "very damaging."
So, I guess that leads to the conference, and my questions to those of us who've worked closely with conference committees--namely, Bridget. Do we know who's on the committee yet? How likely does it seem that the House Dems will be able to restore some of the measures cut by the Senate?
4 comments:
We won't have an official list of conferees until after the Senate passes their bill. But the main negotiators will include congressional leaders (Pelosi, Reid, to some extent McConnel and Boehner) and the chairs/ranking members of the Appropriations and tax/entitlement committees. The dingbats in the Snowe/Collins/Nelson group will be involved as well, officially or not.
Oh yeah, and not sure how easy it'll be to restore cuts. Collins is digging in on no more than $800 billion, if others in her crew feel the same way, any restoration of cuts would mean trimming other pieces. There's also a sense that Obama is okay with the Senate plan, so unclear how hard he'll push to get any cuts restored.
All of this combined with the fact that Congress and the Administration really want to get this done by Friday leads me to believe that what passes in the Senate will be pretty darn close to the final package.
Or I could be completely wrong, and the vote on the Senate package will give the Sen moderates the ability to say they improved the bill, even if some stuff gets added back in during conference.
So the cliffs notes version of my response: I don't know.
Thanks for the analysis. Here's hoping that Pelosi and her crew are fierce in the conference.
So now that it seems that the 3 moderate repub dingbat senators got their way over the house dems, what are your thoughts?
I really, really, really, really am not sure.
4 years from now, whether the economy is booming or in a deep depression, it will be difficult to assign credit or blame to this plan, no?
Strange days indeed.
Oh, hey, Bridget, I wonder if this headline I recently read is relevant to you and your troubadour of a spouse?:
"Love The Art, Hate The Artist: Is There A Correlation Between Being A Creative Genius And An Insufferable Lout?"
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