In response to news that Ben Nelson won’t vote for a stimulus package that differs much from the “compromise” he brokered:
The House bill, in addition to being more stimulative, is also cheaper. So if Pelosi wins in conference, and Arlen Specter drops out, the question is whether Snowe and Collins and, I suppose, Nelson, will accept a slightly higher spending to tax cut ratio (about two-thirds vs the current 55-or-so percent) in exchange for a stimulus bill that’s even leaner than their peculiarly stitched together plan.
If not, that pretty much obviates their main pretense for their “compromise”–that the Senate bill had become too expensive–and demonstrates, for all intents and purposes, that they were only ever concerned with a). showboating, and b). making the legislation more regressive. This is what I’ve suspected all along, of course, and I also suspect that the media will continue to fawn over them, even if their once-veiled opportunism becomes totally naked.