Swine Influenza And Senator Susan Collins

Swine Influenza
Originally uploaded by cdc e-health

GOP Wields More Influence Over the Stimulus Bill - The Wall Street Journal

February 5, 2009[...]
After meeting with Mr. Obama, Sen. Collins expressed concern about a number of spending provisions, including $780 million for pandemic-flu preparedness. "I have no doubt that the president is willing to negotiate in good faith, that he wants to have a bipartisan bill," Sen. Collins said.

The move to scale back the package came as Mr. Obama made a pitch for quick action. "No plan is perfect, and we should work to make it stronger," said Mr. Obama, who separately met Wednesday with two other centrist senators. "But let's not make the perfect the enemy of the essential."

It is unclear how far Sen. Collins's plan will advance, or how much appetite the Senate will ultimately have for sizable cuts in the package. But the effort dramatizes the fluid nature of debate this week. Other Republicans have successfully pulled the legislation in the opposite direction: Amendments they pushed would add billions of dollars to the budget of the National Institutes of Health, while creating tax breaks to encourage auto purchases.