Democrat on bipartisan team says deal reached to cut $100 billion
WASHINGTON – A bipartisan group of moderate senators reached a deal Friday to cut about $100 billion from the $937 billion stimulus package, a development that could win enough GOP support to get the 60 votes needed to pass the bill, the group’s Democratic leader said.
“The hope is we’ll pick up two more Republicans, and if we’re able to do that then I think we’ll have sufficient numbers to get a vote and pass the alternative,” Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., told reporters as he walked into a meeting with other Democrats.
President Barack Obama, meanwhile, tried to apply pressure, calling days of delay “inexcusable” and announcing trips to Indiana and Florida next Monday and Tuesday to push for passage. On Thursday, the White House announced Obama would hold a primetime press conference on Monday night.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat who is also part of the bipartisan group, said Republican resistance continued to center on the cost and the precedent of Obama’s stimulus plan.
Some Republicans are against the notion of having the federal government take on responsibilities that historically have been handled by the states, she said. “They’re arguing about the precedent we’re setting of the federal government beginning to do things like school construction,” she said.
Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican and the other bipartisan team leader, circulated a roster proposing $88 billion worth of net cuts from the measure. She proposed eliminating money in the bill for K-12 education while boosting funding for Pentagon operations, facilities and procurement by $13 billion. Collins is one of just three to five Republican targets Democrats hope to attract to breach the critical 60-vote barrier, though some in the group, such as Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., were said to be balking.
If a compromise on trimming the bill cannot be reached — or if it will not fly with Democratic loyalists — the alternative for Senate Democrats to try to ram the measure through with just a few Republican supporters, such as Olympia Snowe of Maine.
McCain: Stimulus is socialist
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., took to the Senate floor Friday to argue that the federal government is not as efficient in spending money as the private sector.
“This is something that has been absolutely clear for years. And it’s the reason we don’t have socialism in this country,” he said. He cited a report from the Congressional Budget Office, which noted growing government debt would crowd out private investment.
The CBO report, released Wednesday, estimated that the stimulus bill “would reduce output slightly in the long run. … The principal channel for this effect is that the legislation would result in an increase in government debt. … In economic parlance, the debt would ‘crowd out’ private investment.” But the CBO said that the Senate bill would help create jobs in the short term: by the fourth quarter of next year, it would increase employment by 1.3 million to 3.9 million jobs, CBO estimated.
Delay ‘inexcusable,’ Obama says
Obama on Friday decried as “inexcusable and irresponsible” the delay of his economic recovery legislation, noting that an estimated 3.6 million Americans had lost their jobs since the recession began.
Obama’s remarks, delivered while naming of an outside economic team of advisers, were some of his most direct and pointed in support of the massive economic package that the Senate was considering on Friday. Obama acknowledged the plan was not perfect and pledged to work with lawmakers to refine the measure, which he called “absolutely necessary.”
“But broadly speaking, it is the right size,” Obama said. “It is the right scope. … It will take months — even years — to renew our economy. But every day that Washington fails to act, that recovery is delayed.”
The president named his economic team of advisers as the nation dealt with more bad news in the unemployment report for January. Employers slashed payrolls by 598,000, the most since the end of 1974, catapulting the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent. The rate is the highest since September 1992.
“These numbers demand action. It is inexcusable and irresponsible to get bogged down in distraction and delay while millions of Americans are being put out of work. It is time for Congress to act,” Obama said. “That’s 3.6 million Americans who wake up every day wondering how they are going to pay their bills, stay in their homes, and provide for their children. That’s 3.6 million Americans who need our help,” he said.
World is watching,’ Senate leader says
Earlier Friday, the Senate Democratic leader expressed optimism about the prospects for the package.
“The world is waiting to see what we’re going to do in the next 24 hours,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. He said a vote on the Senate bill by Friday evening was possible.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told reporters that some of the proposed cuts would be “painful” for Democrats in the area of education and money to states, raising the question of just how many Democrats would support the amendment.
Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the GOP is ready to support a bill, “but we will not support an aimless spending spree that masquerades as a stimulus.” He added: “Putting another $1 trillion on the nation’s credit card isn’t something we should do lightly. We need to get a stimulus. But more importantly, we need to get it right.”
Fiery oratory
Obama pleaded with House Democrats on Thursday to reject delaying tactics and political gamesmanship and work with the Senate to get a bill. In the campaign-like speech, the president also ridiculed Republican criticism of the legislation.
“We can’t embrace the losing formula that says only tax cuts will work for every problem we face; that ignores critical challenges like our addiction to foreign oil, or the soaring cost of health care, or falling schools and crumbling bridges and roads and levees. I don’t care whether you’re driving a hybrid or an SUV — if you’re headed for a cliff, you’ve got to change direction,” Obama said at the retreat in Williamsburg, Va. He dismissed at least one GOP complaint about the bill.
“So then you get the argument, well, ‘this is not a stimulus bill, this is a spending bill.’ What do you think a stimulus is? That’s the whole point,” he said to laughter from House Democrats. A roster of $88 billion worth of cuts was circulating, almost half of which would come from education grants to states, with an additional $13 billion in aid to local school districts for special education and the No Child Left Behind law on the chopping block as well. Some $870 million to fight the flu was among the first items to go.
The massive measure is a key early test for Obama, who has made it the centerpiece of his fledgling presidency. Obama embraced the moderates’ efforts, saying he would “love to see additional improvements” in the bill. The bill still contains a “Buy American” protectionist measure that drew strong criticism from major U.S. trading partners including Japan, Australia and Canada.
In the face of warnings by Obama that such rules could cause trade wars, the Senate has agreed to specify in the bill that U.S. international trade agreements should not be violated. It rejected, however, an effort by McCain, Obama’s opponent in last year’s presidential campaign, to remove the stipulations altogether.
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WASHINGTON – CIA Director nominee Leon Panetta assured senators Thursday that the Obama administration will not send prisoners to countries for torture or other treatment that violates U.S. values as he contended had occurred during the Bush presidency.
Panetta, testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, later acknowledged that he does not know specifically what happened in the secret program allowing so-called “extraordinary rendition.” CIA Director Michael Hayden has said that the Bush administration moved secret prisoners between countries for interrogation and incarceration, separate from the judicial system, fewer than 100 times.
Panetta said that President Barack Obama forbids what Panetta called “that kind of extraordinary rendition — when we send someone for the purpose of torture or actions by another country that violate our human values.”
“What happened I can’t tell you specifically,” he said later, “but clearly steps were taken that prompted this president to say those things ought not to happen again.”
Rendition has been used by U.S. presidents for several decades; Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., said the Clinton administration used it 80 times. However, Panetta said the difference is whether the prisoner is transferred to another government for prosecution in its judicial system or for secret interrogations that may lead to torture.
Panetta said renditions that send individuals to other countries to face prosecution are appropriate.
“Having said that, if we capture a high-value prisoner, I believe we have the right to hold that individual temporarily, to debrief that individual and to make sure that individual is properly incarcerated so we can maintain control over that individual,” he said.
While the Obama administration is turning its back on some Bush administration practices, Panetta said there is no intention to hold CIA officers responsible for the policies they were told to carry out. CIA interrogators who used waterboarding or other harsh techniques against prisoners with the permission of the White House should not be prosecuted, he said.
The Bush White House approved CIA waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning, for three prisoners in 2002 and 2003. The CIA banned the practice internally in 2006. Obama has prohibited harsh interrogation techniques going forward.
But Panetta said if interrogators went beyond the methods they were told were legal, they should be investigated.
“We can protect this country, we can get the information we need, we can provide for the security of the American people and we can abide by the law. I’m absolutely convinced that we can do that,” he said.
Panetta said he would come to the job with a list of questions he wants the CIA to be able to answer, including the location of Osama bin Laden and when and where al-Qaida will next try to attack the U.S. He also said he wants to increase intelligence gathering and analyses on potential problems with Russia, China, Africa and Latin America, as well as the effects of the unfolding economic crisis.
“Our first responsibility is to prevent surprise,” he said.
The former White House chief of staff under President Clinton and ex-congressman from California has extensive experience in government but little in intelligence gathering or analysis. He told the committee that he has asked former CIA chiefs_ notably former President George H.W. Bush — how to compensate for that shortcoming.
“They all told me to listen carefully to the professionals at the agency but also to stay closely engaged with Congress,” Panetta said. “I am a creature of Congress.”
Panetta acknowledged that he has little professional intelligence experience. But, he added: “I know Washington. I know how it works. I think I also know why it fails to work.”
For intelligence expertise, he said, he would retain the top four officials now at the CIA, including Deputy Director Steven Kappes. He promised not to meddle in day-to-day intelligence operations.
“I anticipate focusing primarily on ensuring policy and procedure is handled correctly, rather than intervening personally in the details of operational planning or the production of individual pieces of analysis,” he said. “But let me assure you, the decisions at the CIA will be mine.”
He promised to root out any “yes men,” saying: “I would encourage dissent. I always have.”
Panetta also told the committee that he would brief the entire House and Senate intelligence committees as much as possible, rather than just its top members. He said the Bush administration abused that practice.
“Too often critical issues were kept from this committee,” he said.
One of those issues, according to the senators, was the information that the CIA last October recalled its top spy in Algeria because he allegedly raped two women. The committee only learned of the action from news reports this week.
Panetta said Congress should have been informed last fall, and he said the CIA officer should not only have been called back to Washington but fired immediately.
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Latest breach came during morning rush hour near Collinsville, Illinois
COLLINSVILLE, Illinois – Pranksters in at least three states are messing with electronic road signs meant to warn motorists of possible traffic problems by putting drivers on notice about Nazi zombies and raptors. And highway safety officials aren’t amused.
The latest breach came Tuesday during the morning rush hour near Collinsville, Ill., where hackers changed a sign along southbound Interstate 255 to read, “DAILY LANE CLOSURES DUE TO ZOMBIES.”
A day earlier in Indiana’s Hamilton County, the electronic message on a board in Carmel’s construction zone warned drivers of “RAPTORS AHEAD — CAUTION.”
And signs in Austin, Texas, recently flashed: “NAZI ZOMBIES! RUN!!!” and “ZOMBIES IN AREA! RUN.”
Officials in Illinois are concerned the rewritten signs distract motorists from heeding legitimate hazards down the road. The hacked sign on Tuesday originally warned drivers of crews replacing guardrails.
“We understood it was a hoax, but at the same time those boards are there for a reason,” said Joe Gasaway, an Illinois Department of Transportation supervisory field engineer. “We don’t want (drivers) being distracted by a funny sign.”
Authorities haven’t figured out how pranksters access the signs. Gasaway believes the Illinois sign was changed remotely, and Austin Public Works spokeswoman Sara Hartley suspected the hackers there cut a padlock to get into the signs’ computers.
Some Web sites, such as Jalopnik.com, have published tutorials titled “How to Hack an Electronic Road Sign” as a way to alert security holes to traffic-safety officials. Jalopnik urges its readership of 2.6 million a month not to put its lesson to practice.
“Hacking generally is about showing where there are holes in security systems, and I think this is a great example of that,” the site’s editor-in-chief, Ray Wert, told The Associated Press by telephone Wednesday. “I’m sure there are all sorts of ways to use that information in a way that’s inappropriate, but we’re trying to make clear this is an issue that needs to be confronted by traffic safety and transportation officials.”
Wert said he had no immediate plans to take down Jalopnik’s how-to guide.
In Illinois, tampering with an official traffic control device is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $250 fine — half what a culprit might have to pay in Texas if caught. If convicted in Indiana, a culprit faces up to a year in jail and $5,000 in fines.
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WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama is open to making “nips and tucks” to a massive economic stimulus plan but is happy with the overall package and wants it passed urgently, a top aide said Tuesday.
“America can’t wait. We need to turn this economic decline around and this package is essential to doing that. So the first order of business is to make sure that it gets enacted,” said senior White House adviser David Axelrod.
Axelrod sidestepped questions on whether Obama, in talks with top Democrats at the White House late Monday, had pressured them to do more to bring Republicans on board.
“We want as many votes for this package as we can possibly get — Republican, Democrat, but the key obviously is to pass it,” the aide told reporters.
“I think he’s very pleased with the direction in which we’re moving. Obviously there are going to be nips and tucks along the way,” Axelrod said amid Republican pushes to completely overhaul the measure.
“But I think the thing he stressed throughout is we need to move with deliberate speed here, every day we see new statistics that speak to the need and those statistics reflect people’s lives — I mean, jobs, families who have a great deal of concern — and so you know he wants this to move forward.”
Axelrod declined to specify what areas Obama hoped would be changed, saying only “no piece of legislation is perfect, this is a very complicated one, and you can point to small things.
“But in the main, he’s happy with the direction it’s taking,” said the aide.
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(CNN) — The Senate passed its economic recovery package Tuesday, setting the stage for what could be a bitter battle with the House as the two chambers try to reconcile the differences between their versions of the plan.