(Updated) Call Senators and Reps Now on Stimulus Package

Update: The Senate voted to invoke cloture on the $829 billion Nelson-Collins substitute amendment to H.R. 1, the economic stimulus package, with Ted Kennedy making an appearance on the floor to vote in favor. Only three Repubs -- Collins, Snowe and Specter -- voted aye. All Dems voted for cloture. The final, pre-conference vote on the bill itself is set for 11 AM MST tomorrow. President Obama will hold a press conference tonight at 6:00 PM MST on the stimulus. The word is he wants more education spending in the bill.
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Paul Krugman again:

What do you call someone who eliminates hundreds of thousands of American jobs, deprives millions of adequate health care and nutrition, undermines schools, but offers a $15,000 bonus to affluent people who flip their houses?

A proud centrist. For that is what the senators who ended up calling the tune on the stimulus bill just accomplished.

... All in all, the centrists’ insistence on comforting the comfortable while afflicting the afflicted will, if reflected in the final bill, lead to substantially lower employment and substantially more suffering.

But how did this happen? I blame President Obama’s belief that he can transcend the partisan divide — a belief that warped his economic strategy.

... Mr. Obama’s postpartisan yearnings may also explain why he didn’t do something crucially important: speak forcefully about how government spending can help support the economy. Instead, he let conservatives define the debate, waiting until late last week before finally saying what needed to be said — that increasing spending is the whole point of the plan.

As always, read the entire column by Krugman. And then call Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall and Congressmen Martin Heinrich, Ben Ray Lujan and Harry Teague and urge them to push for repairing the damages wrought by Republicans and a handful of Dem trickle-down believers in the Senate. Here's a list of their phone numbers (pdf).

Here's a list of cuts in the Senate deal engineered by Senators Ben Nelson and Susan Collins. When you call, please be clear that you want ALL the cuts to be reinstated. Anything less will make the stimulus bill inadequate to the task at hand.

Once the stimulus package is passed in the Senate, which will probably take place tomorrow, it goes back to the House. The House can accept it as it, amend it and send it back to the Senate or vote to convene a conference committee to iron out the differences. Due to pressures to act quickly, it's expected that the conference committee option will be approved.

Here's what's happening on the stimulus today and in the next few days:

Today the Senate will debate the stimulus generally, as well as the Collins-Nelson (NE) package, which will be offered as an amendment. Under the terms of a unanimous consent agreement entered late last night, this is the last amendment permitted during consideration of the bill (H.R. 1), and no votes are expected today. Debate will run from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST today. Majority Leader Harry Reid filed for cloture on the amendment, and by unanimous consent the vote on cloture has been scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Monday, with post-cloture debate time to end at noon on Tuesday. At that point, we'll be clear for a vote on passage of the bill and a motion to go to conference with the House.

The bill will be subject to a point of order due to its deficit spending, but the point of order can be waived by a 3/5 vote of the Senate. So that means passage would ultimately have required 60 votes whether Republicans filibustered or not.

Here are some of the education cuts that "centrists" are so proud of:

• $100 million for distance learning
• $1 billion for Head Start/Early Start
• $5.8 billion for Health Prevention Activity
• $600 million for Title I (No Child Left Behind)
• $16 billion for school construction
• $3.5 billion for higher education construction