No matter what the final bill looks like, the most valuable result of this entire process may just be a new awareness on the part of our well meaning President that Republicans see talk of bi-partisanship as weakness and appeasement.  [You know the minute he left their caucus meeting that the guffaws and catcalls broke out. How many of them said out loud: "What an idiot!"]

For at least the next four years everytime the minority disagrees with Obama, which will be on virtually every issue, they will scream "what happened to bi-partisanship"?

If we end up with a much weaker bill than Barack envisioned, but with a President who has had to evolve in his thought process, it will bode well for the next few years.  Were he to get everything he wanted and falsely believed that bi-partisanship now ruled, issues like EFCA to Universal Health Care may have suffered. 

I'd rather his nose be bloodied early on in the stimulus debate (an issue which can always be revisited in the form of a new high speed rail/highway/infrastructure bill, for example) than have him capitulate on other more seminal issues that we need passed to fundamentally change America.

Remember, we no longer have a President where if the bill doesn't pass (or was vetoed) the issue had to go away until the next election.  When April rolls around and the unemployment rate hits 9%, with a little leadership from the old campaign version of Barack, we can get even more far reaching stimulus passed.

Senate OKs $15,000 tax break for homebuyers

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Wednesday night to give a tax break of up to $15,000 to homebuyers in hopes of revitalizing the housing industry, a victory for Republicans eager to leave their mark on a mammoth economic stimulus bill at the heart of President Barack Obama's recovery plan.

The tax break was adopted without dissent, and came on a day in which Obama pushed back pointedly against Republican critics of the legislation even as he reached across party lines to consider scaling back spending.

I know it's heresy to say a good idea can come from a Republican, and it may not survive to the conference report, but if we don't stop the drop in home prices, all the stimulus in the world will go for naught.

I say: Go Patty Go! Double it! Triple it!

"A move by Patty Murray, D-Wash., to add $25 billion in infrastructure projects is first in line as the Senate begins thrashing through dozens of proposed changes to the sprawling $885 billion measure."

And on the flip side: If we don't fix housing the stimulus plan will be for naught. Why haven't Democrats been pushing these ideas?

"Officials said the GOP was coalescing behind a proposal designed to give banks an incentive to make loans at rates currently estimated at 4 percent to 4.5 percent. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were seized by the federal government in September, would be required to purchase the mortgages once banks have made them to consumers.

Officials said loans to credit-worthy borrowers on primary residences with a mortgage of up to $625,000 would qualify, including those seeking to refinance their current loans.

Separately, Republican officials said they intended to press for a $15,000 tax credit for home buyers through the end of the year. Current law permits a $7,500 tax break and limits it to first-time home buyers."

When pondering all of the bluff and bluster of the Senate Republicans, including John McCain, remember that conference reports cannot be filibustered.  

The Senate was never going to pass the House version unaltered in any event.  Let those morons in the Senate Minority propose all their amendments, vote them up or down, get a bill passed and sent to conference.  In conference, which will be controlled by Democrats, take out all of the Republican tax cuts; put back in all the desirable provisions; and send the new conference report back for up or down approval in each house.  It will pass easily.