Pelosi Saves School Renovation Funds
I think people who saw the Senate’s watered-down stimulus as just a clever bit of rope-a-dope to set the “centrists” up for conference committee hijinks have been debunked. The pivotal Senators—the Ben Nelsons and Arlen Specters of the world—in whose hands lie the fate of filibusterable legislation are just genuinely committed to bad public policy. Still, the Senate bill was a lot better than nothing and the conference report is better than the Senate bill, largely thanks to Nancy Pelosi who continues to be the most underrated progressive leader in America:
House Democrats, angry over some cuts, particularly for school construction, initially balked at the deal and delayed a final meeting on Wednesday between House and Senate negotiators.
Democratic officials said Speaker Nancy Pelosi felt that Mr. Reid went too far by announcing a deal before it was vetted by her office and discussed by House members in an emergency caucus meeting, setting off the last-minute flare-up.
Ms. Pelosi said at a news conference that the delay helped House Democrats win some final concessions, including an agreement to let states use some money in a fiscal stabilization fund for school renovations. “There is no question that one of our overriding priorities in the House was a very strong commitment to school construction,” she said. “That’s still in the bill.”
Still, despite Pelosi’s best efforts a lot of good stimulative ideas were left out of this package and a lot of the topline dollar figure has been dedicated to an AMT patch that’s useless as stimulus. The administration and the House Democrats still know what these good ideas are, and as best I know they still think they’re good ideas, and I think it’s important that they find ways to work some of those ideas into the regular budget process.
41 Responses to “Pelosi Saves School Renovation Funds”
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February 12th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Great, school construction. Because that’s the problem with America’s k-12 education, not enough school buildings.
February 12th, 2009 at 9:52 am
She’s such an annoying shrew. What a joke.
February 12th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Well one good thing in putting these items in the regular budget is that such bill cannot be filibustered. You need at least 50 + 1 to pass it.
February 12th, 2009 at 10:01 am
I wonder if aid to the states (perhaps the most insane and idiotic of the Nelson cuts, although I realize there’s some stiff competition there) can be passed separately later, after one state after another announces huge layoffs of teachers, cops, and all the other things Republicans described as alarmism.
February 12th, 2009 at 10:15 am
I keep telling people they shouldn’t lump Pelosi together with Reid. I won’t even talk about tactics because the two houses run so differently, but she’s significantly more progressive than Reid. Perfect, no. Better than any realistic alternative, you better believe it.
I see we have a troll who thinks construction projects magically get done without employing anybody. How quaint.
February 12th, 2009 at 10:19 am
I don’t think it’s going to take too many more fights like this one for Speaker Pelosi and President Obama to start kicking Majority Leader Harry Reid’s ass in conference and tell him to go back and make the GOP filibuster popular legislation. Reid and Schumer are predisposed to roll over for comity’s sake. Pelosi is predisposed to pass good progressive legislation. I don’t think Pelosi is going sit on her hands for too long so Senators can all smile at each other in the halls.
February 12th, 2009 at 10:20 am
i love how we heard nothing about AMT, but tons about fish barriers. way to run PR, dems!
February 12th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Fred and Myles would have had no qualms were this money designated for Baghdad. Indeed, I’m sure they haled all of the $150 billion continuing resolutions that sailed through the House and Sentate between 2004 and 2007.
February 12th, 2009 at 10:25 am
As Matt well knows it is absolutely critical that Obama got less than he wanted in this stimulus bill. It’s rope-a-dope and we are the fall guys & gals.
Pass the KY because this is his out when two years from now we all are still taking it in the rear paying off our Masters’ bad bets.
And is just under 800 BILLION$$$ really that much too little for the Left’s social engineering projects? Remember that we will be hearing for the next two years about how much more we have to steal from our kids; Krugman already has a year’s worth of columns on his laptop.
Having said that I think it only fair that the newly empowered “progressives” get their fair shot at screwing up America.
If only because they will be doing most of the bleeding.
February 12th, 2009 at 10:39 am
I don’t think it’s going to take too many more fights like this one for Speaker Pelosi and President Obama to start kicking Majority Leader Harry Reid’s ass in conference and tell him to go back and make the GOP filibuster popular legislation.
Certainly hope you are correct. However I note this morning that my wonderful senator always working for the people of Maine has managed to get whistleblower protections stripped from the final bill. Word from TPM is that Reid didn’t have the balls to take her on (surprise, surprise).
February 12th, 2009 at 11:20 am
According to the story I read on CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/11/stimulus.plan/index.html) the question wasn’t whether or not to spend the money, but whether the money was going to be spent on under state stabilization or Title 1 which would require the money go to schools in most economic need.
February 12th, 2009 at 11:22 am
She’s such an annoying shrew. What a joke.
Myles, this blog is for discussing important current political events, with an occasional dither by Matt.
You want the Cool Girls Petty Gossip and Lip Gloss Comparison Lounge, which is another blog, entirely.
February 12th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Yes, the most underrated progressive. She is truly a slightly larger person among midgets. She is the unarguably the least weak of the truly wimpy.
This woman presided over a congress that endorsed (both actively and implicitly) American torture, illegal detention and war crimes. A true Progressive hero.
February 12th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Wow, Phaedrus, what kind of security clearance do you have, that you know what Nancy Pelosi said during consultatory briefings by the White House and Pentagon?
Oh, right. None. You don’t.
February 12th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
I like Nancy Pelosi.
Quick, name that sound:
*thwupp. thwupp.*
Give up?
That’s the sound of Harry Reid’s testicles sucking up into his abdominal cavity because a Republican looked at him funny.
February 12th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Joe, I’m sure that History will look kindly on Nancy when it is revealed that, when it became clear to her that the US was torturing and shredding the constitution, she gave the White House and the Pentagon a good scolding behind closed doors.
Why do Democrats keep defending people who had the power to stop torture and bring the perps to justice, but chose not to?
February 12th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
I don’t see how Reid deserves any criticism over the stimulus. That he got the thing through the Senate as quickly as he did is reasonably impressive, and that he had to agree to some stupid things to get it through is more about Collins and Nelson being idiots than anything that is Reid’s fault.
February 12th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
The Democratic leaders don’t seem so spineless when you replace the word “Republicans” with the phrase “Republicans and their allies in the corporate news media”.
February 12th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
It’s my understanding that if it were not for Nancy Pelosi, Social Security would have gone into the stock market.
That’s a chilling thought right now.
February 12th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Phadrus,
You do realize that Pelosi became Speaker in January 2007?
The minority in the Senate can still do a lot, as the house Reps have been learning the minority in the house might as well spend all their in their tiem in their office playing Solitaire for all that they can accomplish
February 12th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
In our small California school district, we are facing a $2 million cut from a $35 million budget — the equivalent of 34 teachers in a district where there is no ‘fat.’ Those cuts mean the end of class size reduction, the end of a 7 period day in the high school and middle school, double-sized ESL classes, and almost no high school electives (just the r R’s, m’am!).
YES: The district does need funding for buildings. We have no space for students at the high school, and 40 students in calculus classes.
Every penny will matter and will make the difference between our kids getting a decent education or being droned-at in packed classes.
February 12th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Your point, Eric, seems to be that Nancy Pelosi has only had two years to put a stop to torture and return us to the rule of law. Before that all she could have done is use her influence and media outlets to castigate and raise awareness, condemn war crimes and promise justice. Yes, you’re right, her hands were tied. Damn the system that kept those Dems from performing all those tasks for which they are duly elected and swear to perform.
February 12th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Funding School Building and Renovation is kind of a hammer when some places the education system really needs a wrench. I think building projects are decent for stimulus (although why does stimulus have to go through construction workers?) Aren’t there any great IT projects such as fixing the White House email system that could employ some developers? Some “Dev Ready” jobs?
Anyway, in Seattle, we’re in the middle of a series of building projects we already paid for, but we are facing severe budget cuts in TEACHERS and STAFF… Doesn’t keeping a teacher employed count as a job? Maybe the school funding could spread out a bit to include other types of employment besides just concrete pourers and electricians.
February 12th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
I agree that Speaker Pelosi did as best she could (god knows the House version was far superior than the Senate version), but as a local school board member, I beg to differ that we now “get” school construction/improvement (i.e., capital) dollars in the compromise version.
As I understand it, they folded this into the (reduced, thanks to the Senate “centrists”) amount for state stabilization $. Given how our operating budget is imploding, there’s no way we would choose to put money into capital projects rather than our operating budget. Here in Oregon we’re faced with cutting an already short school year a few weeks- and that’s in this year’s budget. Next year, a combo of shorter year, layoffs, and program cuts.
In short, the final version made it look like they supported school construction, but in reality it is unlikely the money will go to that since we are so desperate for operating $.
We missed a huge opportunity to not only create jobs in various building trades but improve our children’s learning environments (and thus achievement) for generations to come.
Thanks so much, Senate “centrists.”
February 12th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Wow, maybe my curriculum won’t be determined by the weather any more!!! Awesome!!! maybe we can have HEAT in the HALLS and in the bathrooms!!!Awesome!!! Maybe my students will stop bringing BLANKETS to wrap around themselves to stay warm!!! Maybe we can get hot water in the teacher’s break room so we can wash our hands and lunch dishes — hey, think we can get a faculty bathroom so we don’t have to squat down on the kiddie toilets? Yeah Fred, this stuff has an impact on learning. It really does. Want to help? buy a few boxes of Kleenex and give them to any teacher you know.
February 12th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Phadrus,
You do realize that Pelosi became Speaker in January 2007?
He not only knows that, he also knows that the content of the briefings, including the existence of programs, was classified information that could be easily traced to her.
He knows these things.
He just doesn’t care.
February 13th, 2009 at 2:12 am
School construction and repairs also have an important secondary effect. All construction larger than a backyard toolbin starts as a bank loan. For fiscal reasons, even if you don’t need one, nowdays you get one and collateralize it with other money in the bank until the loan is covered by other means (purchase, rent, etc.). By now all the construction in the process is about to finalize and none of the usual players wants to risk their money until things are starting to pick up again. Only one place can self-fund construction projects at this time: the Feds or other Government projects (via Fed money). There are hundreds of years of institutional memory (both in how to do things well and also in what wastes time, money and effort, not to mention what kills people and/or maims and sickens them) that would have to slowly and painfully be recovered if we stop doing most construction for months and/or years.
February 13th, 2009 at 3:17 am
It’s my understanding that if it were not for Nancy Pelosi, Social Security would have gone into the stock market.
She certainly did a lot of awesome stuff to keep that from happening. That was some awesome party unity in the House, and it came at the darkest moment.
We should start some kind of ‘Werecreatures for Pelosi’ group.
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