Influential Senate Dem Questions Party Support for Stimulus Bill

[bijou]

An influential Senate Democrat said Friday that it's unclear whether President Obama's $819 economic stimulus bill will win enough support to pass in the Senate.

"I don't even know how many Democrats will vote for it, as it stands today," Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., told FOX News.

Nelson, a moderate Democrat, is famous for gathering lawmakers from both sides of the aisle in a so-called "Gang of 14" to avert a shutdown of the Senate over judicial nominations. He is seeking a similar bipartisan effort to improve the stimulus bill.

Lawmakers are unhappy that the bill, passed by the House on Wednesday, contains billions of dollars for programs that arguably won't spark much job growth.

"What I'm hoping to do is bring together a bipartisan group of Republicans and Democrats and offer changes that will attract others and improve the bill," he told FOX News. "People want this to succeed."

Asked how many Republicans he can get to vote for the bill, Nelson said he didn't even know how many Democrats would vote for it.

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Poor Obama. 

[Karin]

I count no chickens before they're hatched, but this is one of the best things I've read in a few days.  Just the fact that the entire country hasn't turned into Obama Stepford wives is somewhat encouraging. 

[bijou]

I count no chickens before they're hatched, but this is one of the best things I've read in a few days.  Just the fact that the entire country hasn't turned into Obama Stepford wives is somewhat encouraging. 

You're right, it won't make any difference in the short term, but if he can't even have a honeymoon with his own party then it makes the future a little brighter.

[Chris_]

I count no chickens before they're hatched, but this is one of the best things I've read in a few days.  Just the fact that the entire country hasn't turned into Obama Stepford wives is somewhat encouraging. 

The new fuhrer will not be pleased that his every utterance is not accepted as Sacred Law.

[Splashdown]

Screw the senate. Obama's (PBUH) word is law. That Constitution is "fundamenally flawed" anyway. Just chuck the thing. Obama's the one with the mandate. Right? Right?

/DUmmie mode.

[Tess Anderson]

That ghey stimulus package is in trouble because the public outcry against it is getting louder and louder. Nelson fancies himself as a "centrist" with a populist bent, so it make sense he's getting cold feet at the enormity of the bill. I think something under the guise of economic stimulus WILL be passed by this Congress, just to save face for their dear leader, but it will be way scaled down. God Bless Rush Limbaugh.

[Airwolf]

There are somethings I have never liked about Ben Nelson but he has mostly voted as a conservative type of Democrat .