I have C-SPAN2 on in the background, and it sounds like they are debating the “compromise” amendment. 

Recently-elected Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE) is speaking on the floor of the Senate.  He said that a town in his state removed funding from the bank for a shovel-ready project, years in the making, because the town believed it would be able to get stimulus money for that project instead.  I’m sure his story is not the only one. He also said he didn’t know that bipartisanship only meant two Republicans would be invited out of the more than 40 available.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is now speaking and says this bill is about “jobs, jobs, jobs.”  Baloney. She’s also blaming the bridge that fell in MN on lack of maintenance, which we know is not true — it was a design flaw. I can’t watch much more of this. He’s going through how the Great Depression happened.

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) is up now (1:42 PM ET).  He says his state is very affected by housing bust, and that Republicans tried to put in a regulator over Fannie / Freddie, but it was denied by a party-line vote.  Now he’s going through how the Great Depression came about, and how we got out of it.  Arguing that tax RATE cuts actually grow the tax revenue. 

He said that tax revenue grew under Bush, but spending outpaced it.  Then, he blamed Congress for allowing it to happen, heh.  He says that Geithner will bring another $500B TARP.  He says the omnibus bill still needs to be passed, and so does the military reauthorization.  He’s got a “$3 Trillion Spend-o-meter” chart that looks like a thermometer gauge filling up.  He’s got all of the upcoming spending bills stacked on top of the old ones, and that adds up to $3T.  He postulates that other countries will stop buying T-bills because they will become risky. 

He says we shouldn’t spend just to spend.  He argues against Obama’s “spending is stimulus” argument from the other day.  He’s bringing up the Japanese stimulus bills from the ’90s with another chart — calls them the “lost years.”  Chart shows how unemployment went up right along with spending.  Good chart.  He also blames bad monetary policy, which he hopes we aren’t doing.

He point out that only ONE copy of the “compromise” bill exists, and NO ONE has been allow to see it (ed: And they expect a vote on MONDAY!?!).  He says the price tag for each job created in this bill is $600,000. He’s going through the “wish list” of city mayors that want money.  He points out that the stimulus in Japan was a lot of spending on roads and bridges to nowhere.  He believes in infrastructure spending, but it needs to be targeted, and they need to take their time.

He says if they started in a bipartisan fashion, instead of bringing a Democrat-written bill to the floor, they could have gotten it right because neither side has all the right ideas.

Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) is up now.  He’s congratulating the “several Republicans” who stepped up to the plate to work with “us.”  He says they heeded the calls for urgency and are willing to work. He says Republicans are blaming Obama for misrepresenting tax cuts and failed ideology.  He starts the blame Bush mantra, tax cuts for the rich, yada yada.  Their solution is the “make work pay” tax credit for working families. 

He says he thinks what Obama meant by “failed ideology” is that Bush created massive debt ($5T to $10T) over his 8 years when surplusses were expected, and Bush created this hole.  He also says Bush’s economic policies have hurt the middle class.  He says the analysts have blamed the economic collaps on lack of regulation by Bush.  Now, Obama and Congress are trying to fix the problems they inherited, and he praises the B.O.R. 3 again.

He says they are focusing on stopping foreclosures.  He also says they are going to help the states, so they don’t contribute to the country’s downfall. 

Now, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is up (2:10 PM ET).  He says there are economic laws that cannot be denied.  First, there’s no free lunch — debts have to be paid.  He warns of inflation because of unfettered printing of  money.  He puts up a quote from Larry Summers from Jan ‘08 that says that stimulus, like medicine, could be misadministered and that any stimulus should be targeted and temporary.  He has several more charts with quotes from Summers from ‘08 about how stimulus can be bad if done incorrectly.  He quotes the CBO data that many have seen. 

More charts with quotes from Dems.  He says that we have all kinds of legislation in the bill that would normally go through the committee process and hearings and public debate, but they have been stuffed into this bill without anyone being able to scrutinize it.  He says there are many programs in the bill that they don’t understand will require yearly spending, not just temporary spending in this one bill.

He warns of the speed being asked.  He recalls being told they needed to pass TARP one night before the Asian markets opened, and only half of that money has even been spent.  He says this bill did not go to appropriations committees and other normal committees.  He talks about the next $500B TARP request on its way.  He says this spending is all OUTSIDE the budget.

He says McCain’s $400B bill was better, and he supported it.  McCain’s bill had more money for infrastructure.  He worries about this bill being ramrodded through.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) is up (2:20 PM ET).  She’s talking about how great it is to be there on a Saturday to talk about solutions to these problems. She’s proud of the efforts of the Senate, and that Obama gave them a good beginning and the House made improvements, and so will the Senate.  She’s talking about the choices in life.  (ed: I’ve noticed the D’s use lofty happy language, and the R’s are using facts).  She says she’s proud of her “bipartisan” colleagues over and over. Talks about the choices as to how to spend the money. She keeps saying “work together.” 

She says they need to be patient and have only “timely, targeted, and temporary” items in the bill. She talks about all the things that will be on the agenda in the future, but they need to find a solution to the crisis now and get it right and work in a bipartisan way.  (ed: ugh!).  She says the bill is almost balanced between tax cuts and spending.  She hopes the members of the Senate won’t give up and “torture themselves” with what has been done in the past. 

Now, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is up (2:29 PM ET).  He wants to add more business tax relief, because there is only $21B going mostly to larger corporations.  He says there is very little for small businesses.  He wants to eliminate capital gains on the sale of stock in small businesses and upstarts that is held for five years.  He keeps saying that this was part of Obama’s campaign. 

I can’t keep up anymore — kid waking up.  If anything big happens, I’ll let you know.

Hah — Sen. Grassley says he has the “audacity to hope” that his small biz amendment is “change they can believe in.” 

He’s going on about the Medicaid provisions, and how the states are getting billions of dollars MORE to states than they need just so they can add more people to the rolls.  Calls it “stealth care.”  Mentions the House has been working on a bill to allow people to stay on employer health care for 35 years after getting fired and have taxpayers foot the bill.  Quotes a WSJ article.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) is up (2:53 PM ET).  He LOVES the Senate, LOVES the individual Senators, and because of that love, he’s concerned about the partisanship he’s seeing. He’s giving examples of extraordinary bipartisanship he’s seen. He is citing Reagan and Tip O’Neil regarding Social Security. His other example is after 9/11 when all came together and sang “God Bless America.”

He is at least recognizing that bipartisanship is not just having the BOR 3.  Again with the 42% tax “cuts” baloney.  He’s upset that they had to cut $110B out of the bill in order to get the BOR3, and they still don’t have “unity.” OMG! He says that his friend, the Senator from GA, who got an amendment put in the bill to up the tax credit for buying a house, still won’t support the bill, err, cloture.  He says we have an “economic cardiac arrest on the horizon” then quotes the Bible.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D- WV) is up (3:04 PM ET).  He says this bill HAS been through committee, at least his section has been through his committee, and they spent 12 straight hours on it.  He says they aren’t voting on something five years in the future, but something now, so it’s not fair to call it a $1.2T bill.  Calls the 42% in tax cuts “enormous” and more than Democrats tend to do, but since they are targeted toward the middle class and small business, they can stomach it.  He says that the Bush tax cuts did not create the amount of jobs like this bill would (ugh!).  He says he wants to do the right thing by the American people, and if spending $700B – $800B is what will do it, then they have to do it. 

He says that when government intervenes, it is not always wasting money, but sometimes it is.  He then says it is sometimes wasting money when Wall Street gives out bonuses and goes to spas.  Priceless!  (House Dems are at a spa retreat RIGHT NOW on the taxpayer dime). 

He says that the Republicans are disciplined in slowing things down in the Senate, better than the people on “his side.”  He then says it does no good for anyone to vote against this bill because it will create hope.  He says if he had his way, he would REQUIRE every American to give TWO YEARS out of his / her life to devote to America, and the poor people need to be SUBSIDIZED TO VOLUNTEER, even though it would be expensive.  Calls voting against the bill “an act of cruelty” against suffering Americans.

And with that, debate has ended.  Many interesting quotes here, especially from the Dems.