Collins having say on stimulus

The predictions that Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican, would play a key role in the Senate bridging the two parties is coming to pass.

Collins has been summoned to meet this afternoon at the White House with President Obama about the stimulus plan, a Collins aide told the Associated Press.

With the blessing of Democratic leaders, Collins is working with other moderate senators including Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, to cut spending in the plan to get it in a form that would draw broad, bipartisan support.

Republicans oppose much of the spending included in the $819 billion version approved by the House last week without a single Republican vote. Obama is hoping to get some GOP backing in the Senate.

The president used an announcement of new limits on executive pay at firms receiving federal aid to press again today for quick action on the stimulus plan.

"A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession, a less robust recovery, and a more uncertain future. Millions more jobs will be lost. More businesses will be shuttered. More dreams will be deferred."

He hit back at criticisms of the plan from Republicans, which he said "echo the very same failed economic theories that led us into this crisis in the first place – the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can ignore fundamental challenges like energy independence and the high cost of healthcare."

"I reject those theories," he added, "and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change. So I urge members of Congress to act without delay. No plan is perfect, and we should work to make it stronger....Let’s not make the perfect the enemy of the essential. Let’s show people all over our country who are looking for leadership in this difficult time that we are equal to the task."