Republican senators echoed McConnell, calling for the Senate to move forward with the House-passed bill and warning that the measure risked being overloaded. “If you start adding, it’s hard to stop adding” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).
However, even some Republicans, including Sens. Olympia Snowe (Maine) and John Sununu (N.H.), who both sit on Finance, are calling for additions to the House bill, such as the extension of unemployment benefits.
McConnell stopped short of saying that Senate Republicans would unite behind the House bill. “A significant majority of my caucus thinks that Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi [D-Calif.] and [Minority] Leader [John] Boehner [R-Ohio] did a pretty good job,” he said.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) sought to calm fears that the Senate would derail the stimulus deal, reminding reporters that Baucus’s proposal to lift income caps was an effort to gain GOP support. “We have to find out what has bipartisan support,” Durbin said. “And the reason he took the caps off was to build bipartisan support. So let’s see what happens.”
Baucus defended his proposal, predicting the full Senate would approve the package and arguing that overall it is still simpler than the House bill. He warned his colleagues not to add other provisions, notwithstanding his own tweaking of the House legislation.
“The real question is the degree to which other provisions are added, frankly,” he said. “I do not want it loaded up with lots of other provisions.”
Under the House plan, rebates of $300 to $1,200 would go to millions of lower and middle-income taxpayers, as well as to workers who aren’t on the income tax roles. Baucus would grant $500 rebates for people who report at least $3,000 in income, including Social Security payments.
|
