Obama: Catastrophe coming if Congress doesn't act
WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans tried to push back against the ballooning size of President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan Wednesday, even as he warned that the financial crisis will turn into "a catastrophe" if the bill isn't passed quickly.
Obama summoned centrist senators to the White House Wednesday afternoon to discuss a plan to cut more than $50 billion in spending from the measure, which breached the $900 billion barrier in the Senate on Tuesday and appears headed higher.
Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, as well as Ben Nelson, D-Neb., have tentatively agreed to cutting more than $50 billion from the bill, a Nelson spokesman said, though details weren't yet available.
Their effort is central to building at least some bipartisan support for the bill, which has come under increasing attack for too much spending unrelated to jolting the economy right away.
Obama indicated he's amenable to changes.
"No plan is perfect, and we should work to make it stronger," Obama said at the White House Wednesday. "Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the essential. Let's show people all over our country who are looking for leadership in this difficult time that we are equal to the task."
The cost of the plan expanded past $900 billion after the Senate on Tuesday added money for medical research and tax breaks for car purchases. An effort to add $25 billion more for infrastructure projects—which narrowly failed to advance—is likely to be revived.
The cost could go higher Wednesday if a tax break for homebuyers is made more generous.
Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., is pressing for a tax credit of up to $15,000 for everyone who buys a home this year, at a cost of about $20 billion. The pending measure would award a $7,500 tax credit only to first-time homebuyers.
Taken together, the developments prompted a scolding from the Senate's top Republican.
"At some point, we're going to have to learn to say no," said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "If we're going to help the economy, we need to get a hold of this bill. And making it bigger isn't the answer."
The president rejected some criticisms of the plan: that tax cuts alone would solve the problem, or that longer-term goals such as energy independence and health care reform should wait until afterward.
In remarks at the White House, Obama argued that recalcitrant lawmakers need to get behind his approach, saying the American people embraced his ideas when they elected him president in November.
But Republicans have focused the debate on questionable spending in the bill, pushing down its popularity with complaints about items such as money to combat sexually transmitted diseases, fix problems with the Census and combat the flu.
Some Democrats are griping as well. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., a big critic of the measure, told a Nashville radio station that he "got some quiet encouragement from the Obama folks for what I'm doing.... They know its a messy bill and they wanted a clean bill."
Obama has sought each day to ratchet up the pressure on lawmakers, bringing different supportive groups to the White House, scheduling a series of TV interviews, even traveling to a charter school to tout one portion of the bill.
"A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession, a less robust recovery, and a more uncertain future," Obama said in his prepared remarks.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1
I wonder where all the people are that claimed Bush used fear tactics to move popular opinion are...
This bill is so full of pet projects and pork, it smells like shit.
Although, the $15K tax credit could change my mind about buying a home this year.
Originally Posted by Seran-the Current Retard Champion
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-- (PB Agrees with me).
