Compromise on Stimulus Reached, Valued at $780 Billion

Despite the wrestling and grappling, it seems that Senators may have come to an agreement on the stimulus package by United States President Barack Obama.

So far, trying to get the economic stimulus bill passed through both houses of Congress has been perhaps the first major domestic challenge by United States President Barack Obama. This had also brought Obama at odds with Republicans in Congress. The bill passed through the US House. However, there were no GOP votes on board. Now, it is on the floor of the United States Senate. In a developing report on CNN, it seems that Senators have reached a deal on the stimulus and will vote later tonight. So far, the size of the stimulus package has been trimmed down to $780 billion. This is a significant change from the original $900 Senate bill. So far, over $100 billion has been shaved off from the stimulus bill. GOP Senator George Voinovich of Ohio was not on board. He left the talks. At the end, there are only four GOP Senators left in the talks. So far, Senate Democrats only need two or three votes from the GOP. That should give Democrats the “Magic 60” in that respect. However, GOP Senator Susan Collins of Maine and GOP Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania said that it is not over yet. They are involved in the talks with Senate Democrats. While a compromise has been reached, there are still plenty of GOP Senators not on board with the idea. Under this comprise, there have been a good number of significant cuts. There were many closed-door meetings today in this respect. Again, many Republicans still have criticisms to the stimulus package. Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts may come and vote on the economic stimulus bill. As the US Senate works to come up with a final version of the bill, Obama and VP Joe Biden are campaigning for support of the bill. However, nothing is final yet. What will the end result be? We will have to wait and find out. They plan to vote on it tonight. Perhaps there will be more to this developing story tonight in respect to the stimulus bill.