CBS Evening News: Senator Collins meets with Obama

from tonight's CBS Evening News:

Politico: Obama courts moderate senators on stimulus

from Manu Raju at Politico:

Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), whose support is critical for the fate of the economic stimulus package, told President Obama Wednesday that billions of dollars of programs would need to be slashed from the bill in order to win bipartisan backing.

Emerging from a White House meeting, the two senators said they believed Obama was open to making changes to the bill, which has become the new president’s first big test in Congress. The senators – both moderates whose votes would help the Senate hit the critical 60 vote threshold on the stimulus -- met separately with the president on Wednesday afternoon....

Collins said she raised concerns over provisions that would do little to stimulate the economy, citing spending to upgrade facilities and information technology at the State Department, addressing pandemic flu spending and boosting cybersecurity. She called on such measures to go through the regular appropriations process, and she said the president acknowledged that some provisions added by lawmakers “do not really belong in the bill.”

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AP: U.S. Senators From Maine To Meet With President Obama

from the Associated Press, via WMTW:

Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins will meet with President Barack Obama on Wednesday.

The meeting comes as centrists in both parties seek to clear away spending items that won't jump start the economy right away.

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Press Herald: Maine Senators at center of stimulus negotiations

from Dieter Bradbury at the Portland Press Herald:

U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe are playing key roles as the Senate struggles to fashion an economic stimulus package that enjoys bipartisan support.

The two Maine Republicans, moderates with a willingness to work with Democrats, are deeply involved in negotiations to shape a bill that blends tax cuts and targeted spending.

They will meet with President Obama in the White House today as part of a group of senators summoned to discuss the stimulus. Both agree that a stimulus is needed, but both have expressed concerns about the $819 billion bill passed by the House last week.

Snowe and Collins said the House bill, and the $885 billion Senate version drafted by Democratic leaders, include spending provisions that would not boost the economy. They said they wanted to see a more streamlined, amended proposal with spending targeted to quick economic benefits.

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Susan Collins and Ben Nelson on CNN's State of the Union

The Moderate Voice: Collins, Nelson work on Bipartisan Stimulus Bill

from Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice:

... there is some good news today – besides it being Super Bowl Day:

A Democratic Senator and a Republican Senator have been working all weekend trying to remove sticking points from the House bill so that a compromise bill can be presented that’ll have better chance of being passed than the bill in its current form.

The Senators: Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. Their goal: to remove all the little pet projects that even a head of cabbage knows don’t really qualify as stimulus and to get the bill centered on what most Americans had hoped would emerge...

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