$26.1 Bn Aid Bill Approved
A new state aid bill has been signed into law:
Just hours after winning final House approval, President Barack Obama Tuesday quickly signed into law Tuesday evening a $26.1 billion fiscal aid package to help state and local governments avert a new round of layoffs this fall.
Included is $10 billion to preserve teaching jobs in the new school year, and $16.1 billion to help states cover their Medicaid payments for the first six months of 2011. More than past stimulus efforts, the bill pays for itself through a combination of tax reforms and often painful spending cuts, and the choices represent a new “common sense” message which Democrats hope will help them with voters in November.
“My voters are rational voters. If it’s paid for OK,” said Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-Va,). “While the other side wasn’t looking, the ground has shifted yet again and I think people want to hear more than `No, absolutely no.’ And remember everybody’s affected directly by their local government.”
Indeed, after dire predictions that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was taking a great gamble when she called the House back from its summer recess to act on the bill, the unity shown by her Democrats on the 247-161 vote was exceptional.
Republicans peppered the debate with repeated references to “bailouts” or a “government utopia” of reckless big spending. “What part of broke doesn’t this Congress understand,” said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) with sarcasm.
But the stampede of nervous moderates never happened, and all but three Democrats stood with the package in what became an almost party line vote that dramatized the genuine divide between the two sides over government’s role in today’s economy.
