When Congressional lawmakers return to their districts this week, they are likely to get an earful from their constituents on the nearly $787 billion stimulus passed Friday. The bill, which cleared Congress with just three Republican votes, lacks strong public support and in some districts people are downright livid. If members get a big enough drubbing, it could make it more difficult for congressional Democrats to pass a massive “omnibus” spending package scheduled for debate upon their return in late February.
“I would be hard pressed to find anyone around here who is in favor of the stimulus,” said Scott Voorhees, who hosts a midday radio talk show in Nebraska and has fielded many angry calls about the package.
In the coming week, House Democrats have scheduled more than 750 events around the country for lawmakers to sell the stimulus as a package that will create or save 3.5 million jobs and cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans.
“I will head home and look constituents straight in the eye and say the federal government is on your side in providing support during this time and making key investments in the future,” said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., whose state has been hit particularly hard by the economic recession.
While public opinion of the stimulus has risen slightly this week, there is still sizeable opposition. The latest Gallup Poll shows 59 percent of respondents favor passing the stimulus and 33 percent oppose it.
For people like Hal Collins, a Troy, Ohio, pizza shop manager, a stimulus bill sounds like a good idea, just not the one Congress passed.
“For $13 a week?” Collins, 57, asked, referring to estimates of how much more take-home pay the average taxpayer would receive with the stimulus package. “I’m opposed to it. I just think they are trying to ram something down our throats. Just like the last bailout, which they rammed down our throats without even looking at it.”
Congressional lawmakers are keenly aware of the spending fatigue felt by many voters, which will make it more difficult for them to come right back to Congress in late February to vote “yes” on more spending.
“It’s a hard sell for them politically,” said Matt Lloyd, a top aide to House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence, R-Ind. “If you add up the cost of the stimulus, the TARP and the omnibus, we are looking at trillions of dollars.”
Congress never completed the 2009 appropriations bills that run the government, instead funding federal operations through March with a stopgap measure that holds spending to last year’s levels. In two weeks lawmakers will vote on an omnibus bill that would cover all government spending until the end of the fiscal year at an increased level and cost that has yet to be disclosed.
After tackling that legislation, lawmakers will likely have to vote on yet another spending bill aimed at rescuing banks. Congress has already agreed to release a second $350 billion installment for the Troubled Asset Relieve Program aimed at rescuing the financial sector and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has signaled he will need more money to stabilize the situation.
Brendan Daly, a top aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said most Democrats are receiving praise and positive press in their home districts over their “yes” votes on the stimulus.
Daly said it is the Republicans who are in real danger for voting against it.
“People know the economy is hurting,” Daly said. “Republicans are basically acting like Herbert Hoover and saying ‘let’s do nothing.’ ”
