Sununu Votes for Final Version of Senate Stimulus Plan
SUNUNU
Union Leader
Matt Negrin
Boston University Washington News Service
7 February 2008
WASHINGTON — Sen. John Sununu was one of a handful of Republicans on whom some Senate Democrats had been counting to support their proposed stimulus package Wednesday. But when the roll was called, Sununu denied Democrats his support and accused them of heaping cumbersome additions onto an economic bill whose passage both parties have been urging.
Senate Democrats fell one vote short in bringing to a vote a package that had snowballed over several days into a bundle of tax cuts, unemployment benefits and care for seniors and veterans totaling more than $200 billion over two years.
The Senate on Thursday passed a trimmed-down version of Wednesday’s proposals, as members of both parties overwhelmingly supported payments to 20 million seniors and 250,000 disabled veterans. Pressured by House Democrats, Senate Democrats dropped from the bill benefits for the unemployed and heating assistance for the poor. Sununu joined 80 other senators in voting for the bill.
The one vote needed to reach the 60 votes necessary to move the package forward could have come from a few Republican senators thought to have favored some of the bill’s provisions, according to the AFL-CIO. One of those senators was Sununu, who gave biting criticism of Democrats’ add-ons that he said would have stalled the legislation.
Although the New Hampshire senator supported Democratic provisions covering more than 250,000 disabled veterans and 20 million seniors in the economic package, he decried efforts to benefit oil, natural gas and coal companies through tax cuts. He also said that while he supports increased home heating assistance to poor families, it was “disgraceful” of Democrats to slip funds for the popular program into the bill at the last minute.
Sununu voted against the Finance Committee’s proposals to tack on dozens of projects to benefit various industries. “Had it not been for this wheeling and dealing, we would have already passed an economic growth package,” he said in a statement.
Earlier this week, the senator had called for the stimulus bill to be passed swiftly, criticizing senators’ “pet projects” for adding weight to legislation he said is necessary for a boost in the shaky economy.
Sununu was thought to have favored Wednesday’s package because of his support of low-income heating assistance, said Bill Samuel, the AFL-CIO government affairs director. New England relies on oil heating in the winter more than any other part of the country. In the Granite State, 32,581 families benefited from fuel assistance last year.
“He has every reason to be for it because of the situation in New Hampshire,” Samuel said.
“I never told anyone I was going to support the bill,” Sununu said of the original Senate Democratic plan, adding that he supported Thursday’s final vote because the provisions for certain industries’ companies were dropped.
Sununu had voted against his party and the Bush administration before. In December 2005, he helped block reauthorization of major portions of the Patriot Act. Arguing that the act would override some civil liberties, Sununu quoted Benjamin Franklin: “Those that would give up essential liberties in pursuit of a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security.”
New Hampshire’s other Republican senator, Judd Gregg, voted Wednesday against the Democratic stimulus package as well, citing the $200 billion tag as too expensive and a burden to the deficit. He suggested creating jobs and “economic investment” as an alternative.
On Thursday, Gregg voted against the slimmed-down version that the Senate approved and sent on to the House.
On the floor, Gregg blasted Senate leaders for trying to “assert some prerogative” by complicating the stimulus package with an additional $44 billion.
“A lot of that package was basically baggage being thrown on a train with absolutely nothing stimulating the economy in the short run,” he said, “including tax breaks for the wind industry and coal industry.”
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