by Mark Silva
$900 billion and climbing.
The economic stimulus package has clocked in with a new price tag in the Senate - more than $900 billion - with the addition of tax breaks for car-buyers and medical research. It came out of the House at $819 billion.
The tax-break aimed at revving up the auto industry - allowing most car-buyers to claim an income tax deduction for sales taxes paid for new cars and loan interest payments - cleared the Senate by 71-26. It could mean a savings of $1,500 on a $25,000 car, at a cost to the government of $11 billion over a decade.
"Just as we need to get the housing market going, we need to get auto sales going," says Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.
A $6.5 billion boost in research funding for the National Institutes of Health, pushed by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), pushed the price tag above $900 billion.
The package could get more generous today, as the Senate continues work:
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) is seeking a tax credit of up to $15,000 for anyone who buys a home this year - up from $7,500 in the current plan. The cost: $18.5 billion.
Yet some are looking for ways to trim the cost.
And unlike the House, where the president's first run at a stimulus plan passed without a single Republican vote, senators understand that they will need a little help from their Republican friends to get a bill out of the Senate.
"It goes without saying if it's going to pass in the Senate, it has to be bipartisan," says Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Majority Whip.
The Associated Press contributed.
Comments
Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?
A. Only a smidgen
Posted by: Inky | February 4, 2009 11:23 AM
And that isn't even counting the $300 billion cost of the interest we'll all have to pay on the loans that will finance this pork.
Total cost, now more than 1 trillion dollars. For lots of pork, and very little stimulus.
No wonder the latest Rasmussen Poll shows that the majority of Americans oppose the Obama/Democrat bill.
Posted by: "Dissent is Patriotic" | February 4, 2009 11:34 AM
Awe how sweet, a Republican Senator wants to give a tax credit to anyone who buys a home in this miserable economy. Who can afford to buy a home during this credit crunch? Why rich people that's who. Will they be buying primary residences? Nope just buying a second or third home as investment property to increase their rich portfolio. Republicans will do anything to put taxpayer money in rich peoples pockets. Count on it.
Posted by: mark marx | February 4, 2009 1:14 PM
Right on Inky! I like Biden; "is this a joke?" Hopefully the Pork, Union, and Reelection Act will crash and burn. From its ashes will arise a decent stimulus package.
Note to lefties: Mr. Craig, Obama's counselor, has altered your rendition, interrogation, and Gitmo policy. Obama's grand changes are hollow rhetoric, as there are new classified waivers. Obama has waivers for every new policy so what exactly is the policy? Only the one to appease you lefties. Better do your homework, the bus has run over ya'll and you didn't even know it. That is "cool"!
Posted by: Bubba Porter | February 4, 2009 1:32 PM
Right on Inky! I like Biden; "is this a joke?" Hopefully the Pork, Union, and Reelection Act will crash and burn. From its ashes will arise a decent stimulus package.
Note to lefties: Mr. Craig, Obama's counselor, has altered your rendition, interrogation, and Gitmo policy. Obama's grand changes are hollow rhetoric, as there are new classified waivers. Obama has waivers for every new policy so what exactly is the policy? Only the one to appease you lefties. Better do your homework, the bus has run over ya'll and you didn't even know it. That is "cool"!
Posted by: Bubba Porter | February 4, 2009 1:32 PM
Don't get me wrong-
What you say could happen if our Liberal American News Media would get on this issure like they did THE CABINET TAX CHEATS.
Posted by: Inky | February 4, 2009 2:21 PM
I still find it amazing how the GOP continues to be able to con some of the blue collar Americans (mostly in the south) who always parrot their calls for more tax cuts. Apparently they don't have an internet connection or they only listen to Druggy Rush and Faux News because if they ever read the fine print they'd notice that when the GOP talks tax cuts they're talking about tax cuts for the wealthiest 1-2% of Americans, Big Corporations and Big Oil.
They've become used to blaming others. The Repuglican leadership (Rush, Faux News etc) is very, very skilled at identifying scapegoats so that almost all of their blue collar supporters have someone else to blame for their soory state of affairs i.e.: "liberals, tax-and-spend Democrats, hippies, communists, immigrants, gays". It's an easy way to avoid facing reality. - "Gay people drove my property values up! And Mexicans took my 50.00 per hour lettuce-picking job from me! And the Demoncrats take all my tax money and use some of it for THINGS I DON'T NEED! And the hippies made us lose Vietnam! And the Communists...well...not sure what they did...and the liberals killed my cousin's baby after I got her pregnant! And the immigrants! How dare they have the chance to earn the same quality of life and hope for their childrens' future that I have for me and my family"!
Most of the average GOPer's still haven't figured out that wealth doesn't ever trickledown to them.
It's like a shell game to the Repuglican leadership, using diversionary tactics to steer the people away from seeing the real problems. Unfortunately for them, they're starting to lose that game nowdays.
Posted by: hola | February 4, 2009 2:35 PM
Yes indeed....We should try giving tax cuts to the rich. Then we should invade Iraq.
Posted by: bill r. | February 4, 2009 2:57 PM
hola and bill r, you both help and some serious help. I love the way you intentionally (I hope!) misspelled words hola. Real cute. FOX doesn't distort the facts, NBC, MSNBC , New York Times and others do, but of course you don't see that. You see/hear only what you want to see/hear. Please make coherent statements or opinions not whinning declarations.
Posted by: JohnD | February 4, 2009 4:59 PM
JohnD,
I hope you are being sarcastic with your post. FOX does distort the facts, as does ever other media outlet. YOU are only seeing/hearing what you want. Try doing some of your own research and watching/reading multiple sources before coming to a conclusion. You can't only listen to O'Reilly and Hannity and expect to know the truth.
Posted by: MR FACE | February 4, 2009 5:48 PM
Please make coherent statements or opinions not whinning declarations.
Posted by: JohnD | February 4, 2009 4:59 PM
...
Look everyone! It's another whiny declaration from Little Johnny.
Posted by: hola | February 4, 2009 5:55 PM