The Discerning Texan
-- Edmund Burke
Friday, February 06, 2009
Porky Pigs Win? UPDATED
Could it be: Snowe, Voinovich and Specter? (Whoever it is, I am giving money to their opponent next cycle... assuming I still have any to give...)"They've Cut A Deal With Three Of Our Guys" [Byron York]
Just got off the phone with an influential Republican senator. I asked how things stood with the stimulus, and he answered instantly, "They've cut a deal with three of our guys. They're delaying us from offering amendments. I suspect that as soon as they've got it written, they will offer it as an amendment, vote on it, and that will be it." He didn't have details on what the deal might be, but most Republicans seem to suspect it will involve relatively small cuts — and very little change in the price tag of the bill from the House version — that will be touted as a major bipartisan compromise. My senator suspects — hopes? — that no more than four Republicans will vote for the bill.
This will stimulate nothing. Except the calls for more stimuli. Now there really may be a depression. I hope these are the only three Republican votes it gets (House OR Senate). It's their bill; let them reap the whirlwind for the consequences that are almost surely to come.
I have a headache. I gotta go now.
UPDATE: Krauthammer brings down the hammer in The Fierce Urgency of Pork.