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The compromise between House and Senate negotiators on fiscal stimulus was "reached at lightning speed," according to CBS' Chip Reid. ABC anchor Charles Gibson, a onetime Congressional correspondent, told This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos that he found the 17 days from start to finish "remarkable…I must express some amazement." Yet the precise elements of the $789bn bill were still not crystal clear.
Tax cuts: NBC reckoned the tax cut total at $275bn while ABC's number was $280bn. CBS merely called it 35% of the package. You do the math: $276bn.
Federal spending: CBS and NBC agreed that $150bn will go to infrastructure spending. ABC lumped infrastructure in with other federal spending and came up with a $311bn total.
Direct payments: ABC put the total to states, municipalities and individuals at $196bn; NBC included only $54bn in payments to states; CBS had much larger state payments--at fully one third of the package or $263bn.
Both CBS' Reid and ABC's Stephanopoulos agreed that just three lawmakers--Senate Republicans Susan Collins, Arlen Specter and Olympia Snowe--dictated the terms of the House-Senate compromise. CBS' Reid reported that the trio "largely controled the discussions and forced Democrats to cut spending by more than $30bn," mostly from healthcare and education. ABC's Stephanopoulos observed that Congressional Democrats "realized pretty quickly that they had no choice but to basically agree to the demands of those three."
CBS anchor Katie Couric interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was pleased anyway, claiming that 90% of the House's original proposal is to be found in the final legislation. Couric asked Pelosi if she had been too partisan during the stimulus debate and Pelosi paid Republicans the implied compliment that their opposition had been principled: "We have strong philosophical differences in the Congress. This is not interparty bickering. This is major differences of opinion on philosophy, on how our country should go forward."
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