Lawmakers Wrangle Over Costs of Stimulus Package

JIM LEHRER:

Senate Democrats pushed hard today for more votes on an economic stimulus bill. Prospects for passage improved, with efforts to cut more than $100 billion from the proposal.

NewsHour congressional correspondent Kwame Holman has our lead story report.

KWAME HOLMAN:

The name of the game under the Capitol Dome all day was "how to get to 60 votes." That's what it will take to get past any procedural hurdles and pass the bill.

By midday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sounded a note of confidence. In an off-camera briefing, he said, "Do we have the votes? We believe we do. We believe we can find two Republicans of goodwill and hold all 58 Democrats."

While Reid touted the bill's chances, a bipartisan group of more than a dozen senators met behind closed doors. They hoped to pare the price tag from $920 billion to something closer to $800 billion.

The effort was led by Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Republican Susan Collins of Maine. They met with President Obama at the White House yesterday.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, R-Maine:

The president made a very strong case yesterday to me for a package of sufficient size to jolt the economy. We don't want a package that is too small because that will end up just wasting money. On the other hand, we're very leery of having an enormous package that would not be necessary and would just boost the federal deficit.

SEN. BEN NELSON, D-Neb.:

Whatever you have in there, you want it to be as robust and stimulus as you can — you can have it, so that it's not just a spending bill. And a lot of items that are solid public policy items that can be in other locations because they're not as stimulative, although very good, can be put in other — we're scrubbing that out and keeping in that that we think is the stimulative.

KWAME HOLMAN:

But a number of Republicans called for a sweeping rewrite of the entire bill. On the Senate floor, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham took note of the bipartisan group's efforts.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.:

If you believe this is a good process to spend $800 billion, we're on different planets. We're literally making this up as we go, Senator. If this is such a good process, why are 16 senators meeting in a corner trying to figure out how to keep this thing from stinking up with the public?

KWAME HOLMAN:

Arizona Republican John McCain and others moved to put that sentiment into action. McCain's alternative cost $421 billion, nearly two-thirds in the form of tax cuts.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-Ariz.:

We have strayed badly from original intent of creating a situation in America to reverse the terrible decline and economic ditch we find the American economy in, to the point where we have had policy — spending programs and policy provisions which have nothing to do with stimulating the economy and creating jobs.

KWAME HOLMAN:

But Democrats rejected any attempts to scale back the bill that drastically. Their number-two in the Senate, Dick Durbin, accused Republicans of splitting hairs over the spending provisions.

SEN. DICK DURBIN, D-Ill.:

I've listened carefully and measured and added up their arguments against these measures. And it turns out that, if I could do this in a symbolic way, that their measures account for one page, one page of this bill. You listen to the things that they list, that they find so objectionable, they account, in dollar terms, to about one page of this bill.

KWAME HOLMAN:

Other provisions were approved that added to the bill's cost and could garner more votes for the final product.

Two such changes to the bill were adopted last night. One, by Georgia Republican Johnny Isakson, grants a $15,000 tax credit to homebuyers at a cost of $19 billion. The other loosened the "buy American" mandate that stimulus projects use domestic iron and steel. President Obama had expressed concern that the original language could spark a trade war.

Mr. Obama pressed again today for Congress to move swiftly, first, on the op-ed page of this morning's Washington Post. He returned to his theme later during a visit to the Energy Department.

U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:

Now, I believe that legislation of such magnitude as has been proposed deserves the scrutiny that it has received over the last month. I think that's a good thing. That's the way democracy is supposed to work.

The time for talk is over. The time for action is now, because we know that, if we do not act, a bad situation will become dramatically worse. Crisis could turn into catastrophe for families and businesses across the country.

KWAME HOLMAN:

The president will try to keep the pressure on Congress at a prime-time news conference on Monday night. He wants the final bill on his desk by mid-month.

JIM LEHRER:

And we have back-to-back interviews with major players in the stimulus discussions. Jeffrey Brown talks first to a top administration official.