Stimulus, Gagging And Your Tax Rebate Check

ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf reports: If you needed some idea of how muddled ideas for the stimulus plan have gotten in the Senate, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today told reporters that one provision in a stimulus proposal offered by a fellow Democrat made him want to gag.

Democratic Sen. Max Baucus offered his plan yesterday as an alternative to the bipartisan stimulus hashed out between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Bush. It would do away with an income cap that Pelosi and House Minority Leader John Boehner had agreed on ($75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for couples).

Baucus argues that seniors on fixed incomes are excluded in the House bill and they should get some stimulus too.

But along with including seniors, Baucus’s plan would give checks to people making hundreds and even millions of dollars each year.

Reid, while he said yesterday in a statement that he "strongly supported" Baucus’s attempts to find a bipartisan solution, today said the idea of sending Warren Buffett a tax rebate check is "causing me to want to gag."

Regardless of whether he’ll lose his lunch, Reid said he will continue to support Democrats in the Senate who want to tinker with the delicate balance reached in the House.

"There are 51 democratic senators, without exception, who think this package should be made better. That means we need to find 9 Republicans who think this package needs to be made better," he said, alluding to the fact that Democrats need 60 votes to get anything done in the Senate.

Reid said he has received letters from 15 Senators, including some Republicans, asking for additional funding to be put in the stimulus package.

There have been requests for everything from food banks and food stamps to infratsructure development and housing bonds.

"We have some really difficult decisions here to make," Reid said. "Its clear to me where all 15 letters I received from senators. Every one of them is a good idea. When you lump them all together, it becomes a pretty big package."

Republicans in the Senate, however, were talking about "the need for speed."

"This is not a time to get into some kind of testing of wills between the two congressional bodies. This is a time to show that we can rise above partisanship, do something important, and do it quickly," argued Sen. Mitch McConnell.

For their part, Reid and Baucus agree that speed is essential and they think that Senate tinkering with the stimulus package is not going to slow things down. They still hope to have a bill passed before President’s Day.