Senate “Moderates” Cut 1 1/4 Million Jobs from Stimulus Bill

[babylonsister]

Senate “Moderates” Cut 1 1/4 Million Jobs from Stimulus Bill
By: Ian Welsh Saturday February 7, 2009 12:31 pm


Great Depression Bread Line

The bottom line on the changes demanded by "centrist" gang of four Senators Collins, Specter, Lieberman and Nelson is that the compromise Senate bill will create about 728,143 fewer jobs less than the House bill. This is a back on the envelope figure and very rough, but if anything it should be a slight underestimate. If you compare the compromised Senate Bill to the pre-gang Senate bill, it comes out to 1,271,000 fewer jobs.

Friday night during the stimulus debate Senator Ben Nelson (D-Neb) said that:

"Our plan pares back a very substantial amount of money that we believed didn't belong in the bill. Didn't belong in a bill that was designed to fix our economy called a stimulus package.

Now if we looked at these proposals many of them will work well in a budget or in another bill.

But we just didn't think that they deserved to be in this particular bill which was about jobs, jobs, jobs. Now if we ask taxpayers to support it as we are, they deserve to get the biggest bang for their buck. The remaining plan will generate new jobs, save jobs and expands job opportunities all across America as it also boosts our economy."

Clearly, Ben Nelson doesn't know what he's talking about. Worse than that, White House Press Officer Robert Gibbs then congratulated Nelson and co. for gutting the bill:

On the day when we learned 3.6 million people have lost their jobs since this recession began, we are pleased the process is moving forward and we are closer to getting Americans a plan to create millions of jobs and get people back to work

Here are the assumptions and the math.

more...

http://firedoglake.com/2009/02/07/senate-moderates-cut-1-14-million-job-from-stimulus-bill/

[NC_Nurse]

1. Why are they getting away with this shit? They are all over the media going

on about how big the bill is, but you hardly see any Dems on defending and explaining the size of it.

:wtf:

[stray cat]

2. Didn't they also cut 100 billion dollars or more

[dysfunctional press]

3. is it too early to start thinking about a strong candidate for 2012...?

this administration is going down, the pugs and the moderates will see to that.

[Diane R]

4. Go away.

[dysfunctional press]

9. mark my words.

nt

[sandnsea]

5. Money that would create jobs

doesn't belong in a stimulus bill that's all about jobs, jobs, jobs.

Well alrighty then.

[high density]

6. So we do like we do for wars

Just pass supplemental budgets as the need for more spending comes along.

[Oregone]

7. Krugman: Appeasing the centrists

Atrios is right, though I’d put it a bit differently: centrism is a pose rather than a philosophy. And to support that pose, the centrists are demanding $100 billion in cuts in the economic stimulus plan — not because they have any coherent argument saying that the plan is $100 billion too big, not because they can identify $100 billion of stuff that should not be done, but in order to be able to say that they forced Obama to move to the center.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/appeasing-the-centrists/

Good points regarding "centrism" as a philosophy

[davidinalameda]

8. "many of them will work well in a budget or in another bill"

why does anyone have a problem with this statement

take what we can get now and fight another day

[jwirr]

13. Because our budget does not take effect for 2 years after we approve it.

Too little too late.

[davidinalameda]

14. tell that to the millions who will lose jobs it this bill in some form isn't passed

you may be able to stand on principals but those who this bill will help don't have that luxury

[jwirr]

16. You are the one who wanted to know why we objected to taking these

things out of the bill and putting them in the regular budget. What I said says nothing about not wanting the bill to pass - I want it to pass with as much help as we can keep in it.

[davidinalameda]

20. and that's what they're doing

trying to pass it with as much help as they can

[tabbycat31]

10. take the 100 billion out of the tax cuts

and keep the jobs. The rich can pay their fair share.

[jwirr]

11. That is the way to frame it because that is what the effect will be. When

they say that some of the things they cut are regular budget items what they are not telling us is that budget will not be in affect for another 2 years. We need the jobs NOW.

[Ichingcarpenter]

12. "Moderation, in a case like this, is a sort of treason”

“Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice”
Thomas Paine

“I know that many have been taught to think that moderation, in a case like this, is a sort of treason”
Edmund Burke

Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
Barry Goldwater




The moderates or centralist don't get it

[Greyhound]

18. They never have and they still don't. They're not moderates anyway, n/t

they're republiks with some issues over how far their party has gone over to the religious nuts.

[jimshoes]

15. I don't know how you call that bi-partisan when

basically 4 republicans put it together.

[ProSense]

17. These are proposed cuts. The Senate still has to vote on them

What does that all mean? It means that there will be a cloture vote on the Collins-Nelson (NE) amendment at 5:30pm Monday, February 9. On Tuesday at 12:00 o’clock, the Senate will vote in relation to the Collins-Nelson (NE) Substitute amendment with a 60-vote threshold. If the amendment is agreed to, the Senate would proceed to passage of the bill.

link

I doubt it'll be voted down, but you never know.

[slipslidingaway]

19. Kick for later n/t