Economy & Budget

Here's the latest talking point from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: The GOP, for its stalwart opposition to the stimulus bill, is becoming the anti-Barack Obama party.

This just came in from DCCC Chair Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.):

As a sharply partisan House voted 246-183 on Friday to pass the economic stimulus plan, the blogosphere was already atwitter with reaction to the bill that has dominated headlines all week.

And, perhaps unsurprisingly, opinions on the blogs, often an early barometer of conventional wisdom, reflected how their ideological congressional allies voted.

Liberal blogs applauded the passage and lambasted Republicans for their stalwart opposition. Left-wingers also bemoaned President Barack Obama

Companies that use algae to reduce carbon emissions celebrated a small change to the stimulus bill that allows them access to a small slice of a $1.52 billion pie for carbon reduction efforts.

Elizabeth Moeller, a lobbyist at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, had feared her client, Ternion Bio, would be shut out of federal grant money to support projects that reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants and other emitters.

The 2007 Energy Security and Independence Act, which established the programs some of the stimulus money for carbon mitigation efforts would flow through, gave preference to projects that rely on Read more...

In impassioned remarks on the house floor as the final economic stimulus bill heads toward a final vote, House Minority Leader John Boehner kept up his criticism of the package.

Here is ProPublica's breakdown of the final stimulus bill.

Comparisons to President Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression have been thrown around more than occasionally as lawmakers, pundits, and bloggers debate the merits of the economic stimulus package, but the longest-serving congressman in history gave fellow representatives a first-hand recounting of that era during floor debate in the House today.

"As a boy, I was a page in this building during the Great Depression," said Dingell, who worked as a page from 1938-43 and later took over his father's House seat in 1955 at the age of 29.

"Herbert Hoover became the most reviled president in history because he did nothing to anticipate the recession," Dingell said.

Dingell became the longest-serving representative ever on Wednesday when he eclipsed Rep. Jamie Whitten's (D-Miss.) 19,419 days in office.

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Rep. Dave Obey (D-Wis.), the chair of the House Appropriations Committee, just lashed out at his Republican counterparts for their charge that there is $30 million in the stimulus bill for saving mice in Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Depending on how you look at it, Sen. Judd Gregg

Days after polling that shows he may be vulnerable in 2010, Sen. Chris Dodd has signed on to write a book about the current financial crisis.

From Publishers Weekly:

Crown senior editor Sean Desmond has acquired a history of the congressional bailout of the financial markets by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd with Lary Bloom. Titled Thirteen Days: How the Financial Crisis Changed the Politics of Washington, the book will provide an intimate look at how, over the course of 13 days last September, a financial crisis led to panic and meltdown. Dodd, the chair of the Senate banking committee, will also describe how he and others acted swiftly to try to save the American economy. Crown has world rights via Esther Newberg and will publish this June.

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A day after releasing a radio ad attacking Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) for missing a vote on the bailout, MoveOn.org has blasted an email to its Texas members to fund raise off of it.

Dear fellow Texas MoveOn member,You're not going to believe this.

In the midst of an economic crisis caused largely by Wall Street greed, our senator skipped this week's vote on the stimulus plan so he could meet with Read more...