Senate passes stimulus bill - just

Wednesday, February 11. In a close vote yesterday, the US Senate passed Barack Obama's controversial economic stimulus plan. After a week's wrangling, the eventual $838bn bill gained the support of only three Republican senators enabling it to go through by 61 votes to 37 - just passing the 60 mark needed in the 100-member Senate.

Before Obama can sign the bill into law, the version passed last night will have to be reconciled with the version that scraped its way through the House of Representatives without the backing of a single Republican governor.

The President has said he wants the finalised bill on his desk to sign by next Monday. Where the first version of the bill devoted more money to spending on school-building and federal medical programmes, to appease Republicans the Senate version pledged to use funds to allow further tax cuts.

The passing of the bill will come as a relief to Obama's allies who have spent a considerable amount of time attempting to cajole and bully Republican senators into supporting the plan. An advertising campaign (below) that ran this week states: "Our economy in crisis. Millions out of work. That’s why 80 per cent of Americans support a plan like President Obama's to create jobs. But Republican leaders? They’re 'just saying no'… Republican leaders are playing politics instead of doing what's right."

Writing for the New Republic, Noam Scheiber says that despite what it looks like, Obama has had his own way with the stimulus plan. "For weeks now, Obama has soared above the fray – inviting dour-looking Republicans to the White House for cookies and patiently hearing them out on Capitol Hill. To the average voter, Obama has been earnest and conciliatory while the Republicans have been cynical, self-serving, and puerile. Which, if the past is any guide, is precisely the moment he’ll start playing hardball."

Scheiber suspects that Obama's team will now spend the next few days tinkering with the package and most likely removing the Republican-influenced tax cuts and reinstalling the spending on schools and hospitals.

For the Daily Beast, Tina Brown hopes that Obama will now ditch his apparent obsession with bipartisanship. "It’s time for him to recognise that overrated concept as what it was: a campaign theme designed to sharpen the contrast between his own reassuring serenity and the Republicans' crazed, kill-'em-all negativity. It worked – but now the election’s over," she says.

FIRST POSTED FEBRUARY 11, 2009