The Nation’s leaders are in for the fight of their lives as the Senate passes their own stimulus bill.
This week the Senate approved their $838 billion dollar stimulus plan with a vote of 61-37. The Senates bill differs from the stimulus package passed in January not only in the size of the package it wants to give, $19 billion more dollars than the House, but also in how the package will be used.
In the Senate bill, if passed, will be used towards stress tests for banks, creating a “bad bank” to help rid the country of “some of the toxic assets clogging up banks’ balance sheet and considerable resources aimed at reducing the rate of mortgage foreclosures” as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
On the other side of the coin is the House of Representatives and their bill. The House’s stimulus package focuses on giving money to state governments for education budgets and offering greater financial assistance to people who have lost medical insurance because of job loss.
The differences of the bills give some indication of how either part wants the money spent, and before the end of this week the two will meet to hammer out a finale plan that the president will sign into law.
Though as promising as an idea that may be, the Senate and House are reluctant to give up on much of anything in their bills. For the Senate the ideas of straightening out the bank crisis to fix the economy, meanwhile the House totes their bill as a way to create more jobs for Americans.
With both sides opposing the other’s bill so strongly, this reporter predicts a fight on Capitol Hill where the fate of the bills are not as much on the line as the fate of the country and the common man.
"I just don't know," said University of Memphis student John Calmers, age 20, of Millington. "Both packages have good things and bad things, but in the end I think it is going to be a big head ache for the government and worse for the average American."
With the Senate and the House meeting this week, Americans should expect a bill to be placed on the President's desk by the end of the week.
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I heard that the Senate has already approved its bill as well. Now comes the hard part - getting the House and Senate to agree on the same thing. I disagree that it will be a bad thing. The nation needs help now, and this is at least something. It's easy to be against things, but more difficult to stand for something.
ReplyDeleteActually, the bill that has been passed is a combination of the two. The House and the Senate were to come up with a stimulus PLAN. They each came up with a unique and different plan but there was to be only one plan sent to the President's desk from congress. Obama is going to sign the bill and the stimulus package will go into work. Apparently there wasn't too much of a battle as I had imagined. The plan will cost I believe somewhere in the neighborhood of $788 BILLION dollars. This will put the nation's deficit back into the shape it was before World War 2. There is a general feeling around smaller communities that have been hit just as hard of "where are we getting the money to do this kind of thing".
ReplyDeleteThe nation needs help but is throwing money at the problem really going to help us?
Perhaps letting these CEO's and their companies fail will teach a lesson to them and anyone else who messes with the American public. Then again alot of these people have friends in politics who are watching their backs. Like I said in my other blog, if we hit the bottom there is nowhere to go but up.