House and Senate negotiators yesterday reached what USA Today is calling a "tentative deal" on an stimulus package "to boost the economy and create or save 3.5 million jobs." Negotiators "trimmed $29 billion from the $819 billion House version of the stimulus by slashing spending and reducing tax cuts." The AP says the President "won money for two other administration priorities -- information technology in health care, and 'green jobs' to make buildings more energy-efficient and reduce the nation's reliance on foreign oil."
The Chicago Tribune reports "the small cadre of moderate Republicans who supported the $838-billion Senate bill -- Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania said...they will support the compromise agreement." The Financial Times says the support of the "moderate Republican and Democratic senators" was "critical." Fox News' Special Report showed Specter saying, "The Republican moderates were able to see to it that more than $100 billion was cut from this program." The Christian Science Monitor, The Hill, and the Washington Post also report this aspect of the story.
McClatchy says this morning "the final compromise was largely shaped by two forces: The White House, represented at the bargaining by" White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel "and moderate GOP senators." The Hill says "if anyone's fingerprints are on the nearly $800 billion economic stimulus package being sorted out in Congress this week, they belong to Emanuel."
In his Washington Post column, David Broder writes "it was probably a lucky break for the administration that Rahm Emanuel was also around to work the House."
Stories about the agreement led all three network newscasts last night. ABC World News reported, "Getting agreement in the Congress for anything, much less something this large, so quickly, is remarkable. The bill is expected to be on the President's desk by or before next Monday, his original deadline." The CBS Evening News said Obama "certainly did not get everything he wanted. For example, the bill falls short by billions on health care and education." NBC Nightly News reported, "The full amount now is $789 billion. There's $275 billion worth of tax relief for Americans in there, $150 billion worth of new building, infrastructure. The states will get $54 billion divvied up."
The Washington Post says "many details of the package remained elusive last night, but initial calculations showed that the bill includes $282 billion in tax breaks, including a temporary fix to the alternative minimum tax and a new tax credit for home buyers, although it was drastically reduced from the Senate-passed version." The Wall Street Journal reports that "the cost of the package dwarfs the nation's military budget and exceeds the cost of the entire Iraq war since the invasion of 2003." The New York Times calls the bill "the most prominent display yet that" Democrats "now fully control Washington." More coverage is found in The Politico, Roll Call, The Hill, the AP, The Hill, and AFP.
Obama Had To Call An Angry Pelosi CNN's Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull reported House Speaker Nancy Pelosi " was enraged for a period of time today," when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "announced that the deal was done, but the House Democrats felt like they hadn't agreed to it yet." The President "himself had to get on the phone at one particularly touchy point during the day to talk to...Pelosi." The New York Times reports that after the "last-minute flare-up," Pelosi "said at a news conference that the delay helped House Democrats win some final concessions, including an agreement to let states use some money in a fiscal stabilization fund for school renovations."
The Washington Post, the Boston Globe and The Politico report the story. Pelosi was interviewed on the CBS Evening News, where she said she "would like to have seen more of an emphasis on job creation. I don't think there's any doubt that the House bill created more jobs. But this bill will create 3.5 million jobs, and three weeks ago we weren't even on this path."
Media sources note that the announcement Wednesday that congressional leaders have reached a deal on the economic stimulus package sets the stage for President Obama's first major victory but one that also offers some lessons for his young presidency. On its front page, the New York Times refers to a "quick, sweet victory for the new president, and potentially a historic one." Still, it was "hardly a moment for cigars." Obama "prevailed, but not in the way he had hoped. His inability to win over more than a handful of Republicans amounted to a loss of innocence, a reminder that his high-minded calls for change in the practice of governance had been ground up in a matter of weeks by entrenched forces of partisanship and deep, principled differences between left and right." USA Today reports Obama "learned several things about his new job" during the stimulus debate, "Republicans may be down, but they're not out. ... Friends, as well as foes, can cause trouble."
On MSNBC's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, John Harwood of the New York Times and CNBC said, "We shouldn't underestimate the magnitude of this early victory" for Obama. To "get an $800 billion stimulus package in your first couple weeks in office, that's not bad for a start for Barack Obama." On CNN's The Situation Room, Gloria Borger said "if you look at the broad sweep of history," the Obama Administration is going well: "When you go back to President Bill Clinton, he had trouble getting a stimulus package passed six or seven months into his term. And that was $16 billion." On CNN's The Situation Room, Stephen Hayes of The Weekly Standard said, "We've been talking tax problems with his cabinet nominees. We've been talking about other bumps in the road that I think, collectively, make it look like a very rocky beginning."
On CNN's The Situation Room, correspondent Jessica Yellin said Obama's "difficulty communicating these first two weeks he was in office about the stimulus made many very angry, especially House Democrats -- really angry with him. And that's a problem he's going to have to deal with going forward with these next legislative battles."
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Steven F. Hayward of the American Enterprise Institute says that "rather than making a compelling case for his economic policies," President Obama "has resorted to curt rebuffs." Obama and "his team would be well advised to put aside the imperious FDR model and study Ronald Reagan's first 200 days in office. The contrast is instructive." In a "50-page, detailed blueprint for their first six months in office," the Reagan transition said "establishing a new governing philosophy, in other words, would require sustained public argument -- something for which Reagan had an abiding instinct."
Obama, Biden Promote Stimulus On The Road President Obama and Vice President Biden visited potential public works construction sites in Virginia and Pennsylvania, respectively, to underscore the effects of the economic stimulus plan before Congress. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports Gov. Timothy M. Kaine joined Obama "at a construction site in Fairfax County yesterday to make the case for quick action on the economic-stimulus package." Kaine and Obama "met at the site of the Fairfax County Parkway, which local officials have been trying to complete for 20 years." The Washington Post notes that ""it was unclear whether the dusty construction site of the Fairfax County Parkway, where Obama and Kaine...stood yesterday, would qualify for help" under the bill.
The Carlisle Sentinel reports on its Website that the Vice President "toured the Route 34 Bridge over the Conodoguinet Creek in North Middleton Township...before speaking at the State Capitol on the need to invest in infrastructure." The Harrisburg Patriot-News (PA) reports that in his speech, "Biden gave a strong pitch for the overall stimulus bill, saying in will create jobs and increase investments, including road and bridge improvements and the extension of jobless benefits." The Washington Times reports, "It may not have been punishment for predicting that his boss' economic stimulus plan stands a one in three chance of failure," but Biden "on Wednesday found himself in this little town playing a backroom at the Speaker K. Leroy Irvis Office Building."
Obama Confident In Stimulus Plan Black Enterprise.com interviewed President Obama, who said, "Obviously we have some enormous challenges but I'm very confident about the team that I've put in place. I think the economic recovery and reinvestment package that is working its way through Congress is one critical component of an overall recovery package." Obama added he was "confident that if we handle this properly that we can use it as an opportunity to put our economy on firmer footing for the long-term."
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday appeared before the Senate Banking Committee to defend his financial rescue plan before skeptical senators. Despite a White House defense, the plan continues to get negative treatment in news and opinion articles. In a news article, the AP reports the "bomb of a bailout intro could make things tougher later on for the administration." President Obama and "his top financial officials will be picking up the pieces and filling in the blanks in the sprawling bailout overhaul package in the coming days. And lawmakers and market professionals suggested Wednesday that the bad early reviews from Wall Street and Capitol Hill could complicate winning public and market confidence along the way."
The Hill reports the White House "said Wednesday that Secretary Geithner's "plan for the second round of last year's TARP money contained plenty of details and should not be judged harshly because it sent markets spiraling after it was announced Tuesday." CNN's The Situation Room reported Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was "facing tough questions about Tuesday's rollout of the bank bailout plan, a day that saw the stock market plunge by nearly 400 points." The AP reports Gibbs "downplayed a 4 percent decline in the Dow Jones industrial average, a 382-point drop that coincided with" Geithner's rollout. USA Today reports Geithner's "plan landed with a thud on Wall Street, where stock markets dived as traders decided the proposal simply did not deliver the details and direction needed."
The Washington Post reports as "senior senators demanded more details yesterday about how the government's new financial rescue package will work," Secretary Geithner "told them that the time he is taking to work out the specifics will make for a better plan and prevent missteps." CNN's The Situation Room reported lawmakers "told Geithner they expect the Administration to ask for more money after it spends the remaining half of that $700 billion bailout. Geithner left the door open to that possibility, that he would have to come back and ask for more." Fox News' Special Report reported, "The markets turned on Geithner for his lack of specifics before a Senate committee. The Secretary said for now, at least, complexity is the enemy of clarity."
The AP reports Senators pressed Secretary Geithner "without success to reveal how much more money the federal government would have to inject into the financial system to improve lending and reverse the escalation of mortgage foreclosures." The Wall Street Journal also reports the story.
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The AP reports that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) has been tapped to deliver the national GOP response to President Barack Obama's "first speech to Congress. Obama plans to speak to a joint session of the House and Senate on Feb. 24 about the problems facing the nation," and The Hill adds that Jindal "is considered by many in the GOP as an attractive candidate to challenge Obama in 2012."
A Strategic Vision poll of 1,200 likely Florida voters taken February 6-8 shows Gov. Charlie Crist (R) would hold a wide opening lead if he were to enter his state's Senate contest. Crist leads Rep. Ron Klein (D) 58%-24%; he leads Rep. Kendrick Meek (D) 60%-26%; and he leads Pam Iorio (D) 57%-29%. He also dominates the GOP primary, topping his nearest competitor, Rep. Connie Mack IV (R), by 38 points.
The Washington Post reports the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs yesterday passed a bill 11-1 "that would give the District its first full seat in the House of Representatives, sending it to the full chamber for a crucial vote expected in the next few weeks or months," with only Sen. John McCain (R) voting no. The New York Times adds that "with a strong Democratic majority in both houses, supporters of the measure are hopeful -- particularly because President Obama, a co-sponsor of the 2007 bill, has said his stance is unchanged."
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The Hill reports that "GOP strategists acknowledge just keeping" Al Franken (D) "from filling the seat formerly held by" Norm Coleman (D) "could have legislative benefits." The Hill adds that "as Democrats stand at 58 votes in the Senate to Republicans' 41, the majority has to find an extra GOP vote among a dwindling pool of party moderates."
The New York Post reports that New York AG Andrew Cuomo's (D) "call for competence in state government yesterday raised eyebrows and led" New York Gov. David Paterson (D), "still smarting from the Caroline Kennedy fiasco, to be asked if he thought Cuomo was gearing up to challenge him." Cuomo said in a speech "that having honest politicians in government was a 'good place to start,' but that more was needed. 'There's a second concept called competence, called performance, and I want to introduce the topic of operational reform,' said Cuomo. 'Yes, the system shouldn't be corrupt. The system should also be competent.'"
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Jay Leno: "Prosecutors have asked a Federal judge to send...Marion Barry," the former mayor of Washington, DC, "to...jail for failing to file tax returns for the eighth time in nine years. Hasn't paid taxes for eight years straight." So for Barry, it's "either jail or a cabinet position in the Obama Administration. Either one."
Jay Leno: "Well, today, the heads of the eight largest banks testified before Congress. Bank CEOs in a room full of politicians -- they had to flip a coin to see who's going to tell the first lie."
David Letterman: "I hate to be critical this early into the new Administration, but I don't know if this Timothy Geithner is the guy for the job. He may not be up to it. Turns out, he thought the Treasury Secretary...was in charge of buried treasure."
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