Top Senate Republican says gov’t should deal with debt instead of more stimulus spending

July 31st, 2009 GOP: Give 'kick in pants' to stimulus bridge workWASHINGTON — A top Republican congressman says the government needs a "kick in the pants" to get federal stimulus money focused on repairing dilapidated bridges. Rep. John Mica, the senior Republican on the transportation committee, said he's frustrated that states are spending so much on routine paving and not focusing on shoring up tens of thousands of bad bridges.

June 28th, 2009 Obama adviser not ready to back a second stimulusWASHINGTON — A senior White House adviser said Sunday the economic stimulus has not yet "broken the back of the recession" but set aside calls for a second massive spending bill. Republicans, meanwhile, called spending under way a failure.

May 14th, 2009 Obama defends his stimulus packageRIO RANCHO, N.M. — President Barack Obama says if the government hadn't stepped in to help, the economy would have gone into a tailspin.

May 2nd, 2009 GOP: Obama's first 100 days all spending, taxingWASHINGTON — Republicans say President Barack Obama's first 100 days in office can be summed up in three words: spending, taxing, borrowing. In the party's weekly radio and Internet address, Rep.

February 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Louisiana's Indian American Governor Bobby Jindal is expected to offer a spirited criticism of the Democrats' stimulus plan while stressing on the need to forge bipartisanship in Washington during the official Republican response to President Barack Obama's address to Congress. 'Democratic leaders say their legislation will grow the economy.

February 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US House of Representatives Friday approved the $787 billion stimulus package, an unprecedented attempt by the American government to aid the country's economy. The package was approved by a vote of 246- 83 but with no Republican support.

February 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Judd Gregg, a Republican senator picked by US President Barack Obama as commerce secretary in his cabinet, withdrew his nomination Thursday. Gregg made the announcement in a written statement, citing that he and Obama have 'different set of views on many critical items of policy'.

February 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Wall Street rose as the US Congress reached an agreement on an economic stimulus plan of tax cuts and spending designed to pull the country out of its worst recession in decades. The leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives ironed out differences in separate versions of the stimulus bill and knocked the total price tag down to $789 billion.

February 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US lawmakers reached a compromise deal Wednesday on a record economic recovery package, which could allow the plan to pass both houses of Congress before the end of the week. The Senate and House of Representatives ironed out differences in separate versions of the stimulus bill and knocked the total price tag down to $789 billion, including a mixture of tax cuts and government spending projects to pull the US out of its worst recession in decades.

February 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Racing against the clock to meet President Barack Obama's Monday deadline, Congressional leaders have struck a deal on a $789 billion stimulus plan after scaling down the versions passed by both houses. 'The difference between the Senate and House versions we've resolved,' Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters Wednesday.

February 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - With three moderate Republicans joining the Democratic majority, an $838 billion economic recovery package has cleared the Senate in a 61-to-37 vote, setting the stage for tough negotiations with the House on a final bill. Only three Republicans - Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter - Tuesday voted for the bill that provides roughly $293 billion for tax relief and $546 billion for spending measures.

February 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US Senate spent much of Saturday debating the economic stimulus package on which lawmakers had reached a compromise a day earlier in a bid to pull the United States out of recession. A bipartisan group of senators put forward a tentative deal late Friday on a $780-billion recovery plan.

February 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A bipartisan group of US senators put forward a compromise Friday night on a massive and unprecedented economic stimulus package that likely had enough votes to pass the Senate. The tentative deal was on a $780-billion recovery plan and was expected to be put to a vote over the weekend.

February 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Faced with mounting job losses, Democratic and Republican senators have struck a deal to pave the way for the approval of a trimmed down $780 billion dollar economic recovery package to prevent the economic crisis from turning into a catastrophe, as President Barack Obama put it. The deal, announced on the Senate floor Friday night, followed two days of tense negotiations with Obama dispatching his chief of staff to Capitol Hill to reassure senators in his own party and called three key Republicans to applaud them for their patriotism.

January 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - As he discussed his $825 billion stimulus package for the US economy with Congressional leaders President Barack Obama at one point curtly told opposition Republicans: 'I won.' Citing sources familiar with the conversation, the Politico, a publication focusing on Congressional politics, said the exchange Friday arose as top House and Senate Republicans expressed concern to the president about the amount of spending in the package. Obama listened to Republican gripes about the stimulus package, but he also left no doubt about who's in charge of these negotiations, it said citing the exchange.