Suicide Watch Is Half Over

The hammer has been cocked:

The House of Representatives today passed a massive fiscal stimulus bill aimed at resuscitating the U.S. economy, approving it on a largely party-line vote of 246 to 183.

Seven Democrats joined 176 Republicans in voting against the bill. One member voted present, and three did not vote. No Republicans voted in favor of the package.

In its latest cost estimate, the Congressional Budget Office put the price tag of the stimulus plan at $787.2 billion over 10 years, a slight drop from the $789 billion that lawmakers said it would cost after it was approved by House and Senate negotiators.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), minutes before what she called a "historic vote," told the chamber, "There is a great deal of apprehension in our country about our economy. . . . What we need now, though, is not fear; it's confidence." She said that "in sharp contrast to the do-nothing approach" of Republicans, the bill would create jobs for many of the 3.6 million people who have been thrown out of work since the recession began more than a year ago.

She also quoted Abraham Lincoln a day after his 200th birthday and urged her colleagues to act in a unified fashion to help lift the nation out of the recession.

"We're all in this together," she said. "Let us think that our hands are being held, and our hands are being pushed, by all of the American people who want us to vote for them."

But in a key symbolic rejection of that bipartisan reach, Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.), a freshman who holds the seat once held by Lincoln, said he would vote no. Schock attended yesterday's event at Caterpillar's headquarters in his district, where President Obama pledged that the plan would save jobs at the construction company's plants. But afterward, Schock said in today's debate, "Not one employee at that facility approached me asked me to vote for this bill." He said more than 1,000 employees contacted him to ask that he oppose the bill.

Wrapping up the House debate, Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), the minority leader, said Republicans understand that "the American economy needs help" and that Congress must act now. "But a bill that was supposed to be about jobs, jobs, jobs has turned into a bill that's all about spending, spending, spending," he said.

Holding up the more than 1,000-page bill, Boehner declared that "not one member of this body has read" the legislation since it was printed last night. Then he theatrically dropped it on the floor, producing a loud thud. Calling the bill "bad policy that will drive up the debt," he said, "This is the epitome . . . of what I came here to stop."

The Senate is expected to vote later today.  Will they pull the trigger, or holster the weapon...?

There's my two cents.