Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D- Nev., said that the Senate would vote tonight on its version of President Obama’s $447 billion economic stimulus package.
Though the legislation has no chance of gaining the 60 votes necessary to break a filibuster, Democrats are hoping they can at least get 51 “yes” votes so that they can claim a majority of the Senate supports the plan and that Republicans are blocking it. Yet even that lower threshhold remains uncertain at this point.
According to the Hill’s whip count, three Democrats are “leaning no,” while a fourth, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, is expected to miss the vote. Of course, public whip counts should always be taken with a grain of salt because holdouts are often won over in the runup to a big vote, and the pressure will be on Democrats to avoid delivering an embarassing rebuke to Obama.
Reid has set a series of three votes starting at 5:30 tonight that will culminate with the stimulus vote.
