Cash advances coming soon
Cash advances should be headed to states and programs soon. The only signature still needed on the economic stimulus package is the president’s.
The House of Representatives approved the bill with a 246-183 vote. At 10:48 ET, the Senate voted 60-38, barely passing the bill.
Cost cutting
The bill in its final form has been pared down to$787.2 billion. When the bill passed in the House the first time it carried a price tag of $819 billion. The Senate passed a version that would have cost $838 billion.
After the Senate approved its version, negotiators and lawmakers got together to reconcile the two versions, and the bill got smaller in the process. More than half the cost of the bill will go toward health care, infrastructure and infusing cash advances into state budgets.
Big ticket items
One of the main goals of the economic stimulus package is to create jobs. Obama says the bill will create or save 3.5 million jobs. He also said 90 percent of those jobs would be in the private sector.
Another big chunk of the bill will go toward tax cuts. About 35 percent of the total cost of the bill will be in the form of tax cuts. This includes individual tax cuts, business tax cuts and stimulus checks for people who don’t work.
Partisanship
Not a single Republican in the House voted for the bill. Eight House Democrats also voted against it. In the Senate, no Democrats voted against the bill, and three Republicans and two Independents voted for it.
The Senate had to put the vote on hold while a Democratic senator flew in from Ohio to cast his “yes” vote, bringing the total to 60, which was the exact number required for the bill to pass.
Obama campaigns for stimulus
While Congress hammered out the details, President Barack Obama visited cities such as Denver, Peoria, Ill., and Springfield, Va. He strongly urged Congress to pass the bill quickly.
It’s a pretty safe bet that the president will review the bill this weekend and sign it into law Monday, on President’s Day. Individuals, states and businesses should start seeing their cash advances soon.
It is certainly impressive how quickly that this bill was passed, and it has to be some kind of a record for an incoming President. There are a lot of portions in it that I’m not too sure about, and I don’t know if massive spending, which will increase an already staggering national debt, is going to get us out of this.
This is by far the best news I’ve heard so far (besides the “value meal” deals Starbucks may be shelling out soon). The nation is in desperate need of immediate financial assistance. I don’t get why many Republicans think this is not a necessary motion, the facts are obviously there. More jobs need to be created as soon as possible. It definitely is a good thing that 90% of those probable jobs will be based out of private sectors. People don’t really make as much working in government jobs.
Keep up the good work President Obama