Senate Passes Stimulus, Let the Battle Begin

The Senate passed the stimulus today, I just heard the news and I am literally sitting on a bus while writing this. Technology is an amazing thing, I can surf the internet while on a moving bus.

Anyway, the vote was 61-37, the same three GOP senators that voted for cloture voted in favor of the bill. Those three would be Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and Arlen Specter. To be honest I don’t know much about Specter or Collins, but I do know that Snowe is a more left-leaning republican, after all she’s from Maine. I’m not calling her a liberal, but she’s certainly no conservative.

Either way, the Senate bill was a massive $838 billion while the House bill only stood at $819 billion (I never thought I’d use the word only in front of a number that large). Nancy Pelosi just said yesterday that she wasn’t happy with all of the provisions in the Senate bill, and now the two chambers have to reconcile their differences and come up with a bill before Presidents Day Weekend.

Let’s hope that the House republicans stand their ground on this battle and continue to oppose this massive waste of money. But the final fate of this bill lies in the hands of the Senate GOP, and so long as the three musketeers continue to vote for the stimulus we conservatives have little hope of it dying.

–jb