StimulusBill.org

Article by David R. Sands and Sean Lengell from THE WASHINGTON TIMES

For a knockdown price of $787 billion, President Obama on Friday took possession of the $14.3 trillion U.S. economy.

With 176 Republicans once again united in opposition, the House of Representatives approved Mr. Obama’s massive stimulus package to revive the staggering economy on a vote of 246-183, with seven Democrats opposed and one Democrat voting present.

The Senate began voting in the evening, but kept open the critical vote to allow Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown to fly back from Ohio, where he was attending a memorial service for his mother. Mr. Brown was expected to be the critical 60th vote Mr. Obama needs to secure Senate passage of the bill, with just three of 41 Senate Republicans voting in favor.

The bill could be on Mr. Obama’s desk by Monday.

The congressional votes would give Mr. Obama a major policy victory less than a month into his administration, but at the cost of the bipartisan spirit the new president had vowed to pursue.

Mr. Obama last month talked of winning significant Republican backing for the centerpiece of his economic recovery plan, and congressional Democrats had spoken hopefully this week that at least a few Republicans would embrace the Obama plan.

With minimal Republican support for the administration bill, both parties have placed a massive political bet that will depend on whether the monumental program of spending increases, new programs, infrastructure projects and tax cuts is seen as ending the current deep recession.

In a telling sign of the distance between the two parties, Sen. Judd Gregg, the New Hampshire Republican who pulled out as Mr. Obama’s nominee for commerce secretary Thursday, voted against Mr. Obama’s plan Friday.

Asked for his reaction to House passage of the bill, Mr. Obama said “thumbs up” and indeed gave a thumbs-up sign as he left the White House with his family for a long weekend in Chicago.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs declined to respond directly to the news of the absence of Republican support in the House vote for the stimulus bill. But earlier in his daily briefing, Mr. Gibbs had said it was “silly” to talk of bipartisanship being dead.