By Albert N. Milliron, Editor Politisite.com, Iron Mill Interactive Media, Inc.
Many Americans heard that a bipartition compromise on the stimulus bill had been reached today. Well the word Bipartition is a bit of a stretch. There were originally six Republican senators working on a compromise deal. One by one each walked away from the process as they became aware that there was little the new, spirit of bipartition Obama Administration was willing to negotiate. In the end three Republican Senators, two from Maine Senator Collins, and Senator Snowe Remained along with Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter. The compromise package was touted as a massive reduction in spending down to 780 Billion dollars. By the time the press release were all out to the major news networks that number had risen to 805 Billion, then by the late evening the number had risen to 840 billion. When it would all be said an done. The number of the compromise and spending cuts would rise above the number they were working with.
Political commentators, pundits, and everyday politicos began asking about the compromise bills text. Inquiring when it wold be available for reading. Like the false campaign promises about being a bipartition and transparent presidency there is no text for anyone to read. In fact, the bill is probably not even to be found in writing on the Hill.
Today, Senator Collins was very close to walking away from the process giving the GOP the potential to filibuster the bill as no one is sure what it contains. Since the vote for cloture would be close, talk is going around that Senator Ted Kennedy is going to be wheeled in to cast his vote to make the potential for filibuster to fade with one vote needed by Republicans.
So If you would like to read the new bill, you can’t. Nor can anyone. The only folks who know what it contains is President Obama and Rob Emmanuel, Olympia Snow, and Arlin Specter. Welcome to the age of Openness, Transparency, and Bipartisanship.
A side note, 65 thousand petitions arrived on the Hill with Senator Jim De Mint who is admittedly against the stimulus package. The petitions that arrived are against the stimulus plan. The Phones at the Capital have been overflowing with most Senators mailboxes full. The Bill has only 37% support by the American people. But for Democrats, they have made it clear that they have won and they are writing the Bill. That they have done which brought no Republican voting for the House Bill and potentially only 3 republicans in the Senate.
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Now that there is news of a compromise reached between the Senate Democrats plus GOP Senators Susan Collins and Arlen Specter, the obvious question is: can we read the compromise bill text?
Short answer: no! As of now, no text has been released, and it is highly likely that as of Friday evening, it doesn’t even exist. Our sources on the Hill indicate that “it is probably just a bunch of numbers scratched on a napkin right now.”
We are of course eagerly awaiting the post-napkin version of the compromise, and will get it posted here as soon as it becomes available.
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