Why does the GOP not understand that the people do not want more debt? Don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.  As a conservative, I don’t want any more debt. All we are doing is putting this country more and more in debt! I am begging all Republican Representative in DC to vote no on Obama’s so called stimulus plan. Should the Republicans vote yes or no?

Bob

 

Feb 1, 9:54 PM (ET)

By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL

WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday the massive stimulus bill backed by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats could go down to defeat if it’s not stripped of unnecessary spending and focused more on housing issues and tax cut.

The Senate version of the bill, which topped out at nearly $900 billion, is headed to the floor for debate. The House bill totaled about $819 billion and earned no Republican votes, even though it easily passed the Democratic-controlled House. At some point lawmakers will need to compromise on the competing versions.

McConnell and other Republicans suggested that the bill needed an overhaul because it doesn’t pump enough into the private sector through tax cuts and allows Democrats to go on a spending spree unlikely to jolt the economy. The Republican leader also complained that Democrats had not been as bipartisan in writing the bill as Obama had said he wanted.

“I think it may be time … for the president to kind of get a hold of these Democrats in the Senate and the House, who have rather significant majorities, and shake them a little bit and say, ‘Look, let’s do this the right way,’” McConnell said. “I can’t believe that the president isn’t embarrassed about the products that have been produced so far.”

For his part, Obama said he is confident Republicans will come around to support the final version of the legislation. He and Vice President Joe Biden will meet with congressional leaders at the White House on Monday afternoon.

The president repeated what his top aides and officials have been telling reporters in recent days, that the final package would be close to its objectives – to save or create 3 to 4 million jobs – and Republicans would be able to back it.

“I am confident that by the time we have the final package on the floor that we are going to see substantial support, and people are going to see this is a serious effort. It has no earmarks. We are going to be trimming out things that are not relevant to putting people back to work right now,” Obama said.

However, he declined to predict how many Senate Republicans might switch parties. Biden, a former senior member of the Senate before his election, similarly declined to offer predictions last week in an interview despite his personal phone calls for former colleagues.

“Look, the important thing is getting the thing passed,” Obama told NBC’s Matt Lauer during a live pre-Super Bowl interview. “And I’ve done extraordinary outreach, I think, to Republicans because they have some good ideas and I want to make sure those ideas are incorporated.”

Obama also that his administration would announce plans to spend the second $350 billion of a bank bailout after Congress deals with the separate economic recovery plan.

Under Obama’s plan, strained state budgets would receive a cash infusion, projects for roads and other infrastructure would be funded, and “green jobs” in the energy sector would be created. In its centerpiece tax cut, single workers would gain $500 and couples $1,000, even if they don’t earn enough to owe federal income taxes.