McCain's "Plan" Gets Voted Down in Senate

3.6 million jobs lost since the recession began.

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Meanwhile, progress has been made on the stimulus. Senators say they've cut $100 billion:

A bipartisan group of moderate senators reached a deal Friday to cut about $100 billion from the $937 billion stimulus package, a development that could win enough GOP support to get the 60 votes needed to pass the bill, the group's Democratic leader said.

"The hope is we'll pick up two more Republicans, and if we're able to do that then I think we'll have sufficient numbers to get a vote and pass the alternative," Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., told reporters as he walked into a meeting with other Democrats. MSNBC

Still, some republicans aren't missing what they perceive as an opportunity to take their swats at Obama. Today, Mitt Romney, as if he matters, says Obama's off to a rocky start. Seems to me Obama has done more in two weeks than Bush's two terms. I don't know how these guys think.

Mitt Romney says it’s “been a good year” since he dropped out of the GOP nomination fight, but, he says, “I wish I would have won the nomination, and won the presidency.”

In an interview with TIME magazine, Romney said the man who won the presidency, Barack Obama, “is off to a rocky start.” CNN

Earlier today, Newt Gingrich took a whack at Obama too.
John McCain has been a thorn. But his "plan," that mostly consisted of a year-long payroll tax cut, was voted down by the Senate. McCain seems to forget that he lost for a reason.

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona attempted to replace the president's package with one that cost about half as much and included more tax cuts; his effort failed by a vote of 57-40. McCain said what was happening in the Senate is "not bipartisanship." NPR

McCain says there hasn't been bipartisanship but he started a lame petition to derail the stimulus. That was real productive.
But there are some fruitful republicans:

The newest loss of 600,000 jobs reported today should provide some impetus for passage of a stimulus, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, says -- suggesting that Congress is on track to get a bill to President Barack Obama by next week.

Grassley says the report from the Labor Department showing today that unemployment rose to 7.6 percent last month has put pressure on lawmakers to act quickly.

"A week from now, we're going to be gone," Grassley says on Bloomberg TV's Political Capital with Al Hunt, which airs tonight at 7:30 pm EST. By next week, Grassley says, "we ought to deliver a stimulus package" to Obama, Grassley said. "I just hope it's the right one." Swamp

Obama's new economic advisory board:

The White House Economic Recovery Advisory Board, led by a former Federal Reserve chairman, Paul Volcker, and modeled after the foreign intelligence board created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, includes advisers from business, labor and academia. NYT

Other members:

The group includes Jeffrey R. Immelt, chairman of the General Electric Company, and James W. Owens, the chairman of Caterpillar Inc., which announced last week the layoff of 20,000 jobs. William H. Donaldson , a former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, will also serve, along with Roger W. Ferguson Jr., the president of T.I.A.A.-CREF, and Martin S. Feldstein, a Harvard University professor, who was the chief economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan.

The group includes two labor officials: Richard L. Trumka of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and Anna Burger of the Service Employees International Union. The board, which will meet for two years, will be guided by Austan D. Goolsbee, an economic adviser to the president. NYT