The Senate will be voting on the stimulus package sometime later today. Will the Republicans filibuster (which the Democrats can't stop)? Will the stimulus pass? There are four Republican senators who, last night, did not vote for Jim DeMint's alternative stimulus bill: Susan Collins (ME), George Voinovich (OH), Arlen Specter (PA), and Olympia Snowe (ME). Those four may be the deciding factor in the vote. In the meantime, some centrist Senators (including some of the four mentioned above) are working to strip some spending from the bill to make it more palatable to their more conservative friends. These include a lot of things that most liberals were pretty excited about:"Among the initiatives that could be cut are $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, $14 million for cyber security research by the Homeland Security Department, $1 billion for the National Science Foundation, $400 million for research and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, $850 million for Amtrak and $400 million for climate change research."I've heard that the Congressional switchboard has been lighting up with calls against the stimulus plan at a rate of 100 to 1. So, should you be interested in this passing (with or without the aforementioned spending), and especially if you live in Maine, Ohio, or Pennsylvania, you should give a call (202) 224-3121 (it's been busy all day, though). Should you be interested in it not passing, people seem to be doing the work for you, but feel free to add your voice to the choir.Image via Natalie Dee. It is the first image that appears in a Google image search for "stimulus" (with SafeSearch off).
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