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Jamie Dupree's Washington Insider

Posted: 7:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 26, 2009

Obama Looks For GOP Votes 

By Jamie Dupree

President Obama will make two stops to see Republican lawmakers in the Congress today, as he meets with House and Senate members, urging their support for his economic stimulus legislation.

As of now, he's not going to get too many votes.

"I think almost all of my Republican colleagues at this point will oppose it," said House GOP Leader John Boehner. 

"There is too much wasteful spending and the plan in our view won't do what it is intended to do - create jobs and preserve jobs in America."

President Obama has talked a lot about bipartisanship in recent weeks and he does clearly want GOP votes. 

I mean, who would have thought this plan would have tax CUTS in it instead of tax increases?  That clearly was an overture to the Republicans.  But it hasn't produced much good will.

"How will billions spent on school snack programs and repairs to the Smithsonian Institution stimulate the economy?" asked Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC.)

There's another GOP vote that's not going to Obama.

What Democrats want is a huge majority voting for this in the House tomorrow, so that GOP Senators might jump on board as well.

But I don't think Obama is going to get that type of big support anytime soon.

As for the GOP pushback on this bill, frankly, they seem to be a bit flat-footed.

If I could spend a couple of hours over the weekend spitting out all kinds of data on what is in the spending portion of the bill, then so could some Republican staffers in the Congress.

But I haven't seen much of that in the papers or on the internet.  And my Inbox hasn't been stuffed with GOP blathering about this bill.

Maybe the fire just isn't in the belly right now. 

 
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