Big stimulus win by Obama…

WASHINGTON, Feb 13, 2009 (AFP) – The US House of Representatives has passed a 787-billion-dollar plan to salvage the broken US economy, setting the stage for the Senate to follow President Barack Obama to reap a big win.

Final Senate approval was expected around 10:30 pm (0330 GMT Saturday), leaving it up to Obama to sign the bill he has called “only the beginning” of his emergency plan to halt the slide in US growth.

The president’s Democratic House majority powered the bill to a lopsided 246-183 victory, but not one of his Republican critics broke ranks to support the measure despite his repeated appeals.

And just three moderate Republicans were expected to join the Democrats — normally 58 votes, but cancer-stricken Senator Ted Kennedy was out ill — to push the measure above the 60-vote threshold needed to ensure Senate passage.

Shortly after the House vote, Obama, bound from the White House for his hometown of Chicago, turned to reporters with a grin and a thumbs-up.

The new president had set a February 16 target date for the package — a blend of tax cuts, aid to the financially distressed and investment in infrastructure, education and energy that he says will save or create 3.5 million jobs.

But the victory was bittersweet, as lawmakers were voting on a compromise stimulus plan that was smaller than Obama had requested, and most Republicans rebuffed his appeals to join Democrats in approving the bill.

“This isn’t Monopoly money. It’s real. It adds up, and it has to be paid back, by our children and by their children,” said Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Obama told business leaders in a speech at the White House that finishing the legislation was critical but warning that much remained to be done to bolster the US economy.

“Passing this plan is a critical step, but as important as it is, it’s only the beginning of what I think all of you understand is going to be a long and difficult process of turning our economy around,” Obama said.

The president vowed more action to thaw frozen lending and repair the distressed housing sector, saying quick, comprehensive action was needed “to truly address this crisis” — a paralyzing recession that has cost millions of jobs.

“Today, with final passage of this bill, we start putting Americans back to work,” House Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said.

Republicans blasted the plan as bloated with wasteful government spending and lacking in tax cuts — the party’s traditional cure-all for economic woes — and bemoaned the borrowed money to finance it.

“This bill is loaded with wasteful deficit spending on the majority’s favorite government programs. We need jobs, not mountains of debt to be paid by our children,” said the number two House Republican, Eric Cantor.

The Senate vote began at 5:30 pm (2230 GMT), but was to stay open to allow Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown to return from a memorial service for his late mother in Ohio, and aides expected him to reach the chamber at 10:30 pm.

At 8:10 pm (0110 GMT), Brown was the only senator not to have voted.

The legislation, a product of hard-fought negotiations this week, allocates 120 billion dollars to infrastructure spending, including monies for highways, trains and expanding broadband Internet access.

It also features nearly 20 billion dollars for renewable energy and 11 billion to modernize the US electrical grid — steps former vice president Al Gore warmly endorsed weeks ago as a major downpayment on Obama’s strategy for fighting climate change.

The bill includes tax cuts — expected to benefit 95 percent of US families — and tens of billions of dollars for extending unemployment benefits, bolstering healthcare for the least well-off and funds to help cash-strapped states avoid cuts in services like education.