Senior Republican senators warned on Sunday their party was unlikely to back President Barack Obama's economic stimulus bill without changes to cut waste and to ensure the nearly $900 billion package promptly boosts the faltering U.S. economy, according to Reuters. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he doubted the economic stimulus bill can pass the Senate in its current form. He said the bill needs to "put lead on the target immediately" with a specific focus on the housing sector and tax relief. "If we're going to spend anywhere near this ... it needs to be timely, temporary and targeted," he told CBS's "Face the Nation". "Let's fix housing first. That's what started all of this," the Kentucky senator said of a recession triggered by the U.S. housing sector meltdown that has spread economic gloom around the world and has cost millions of American jobs. The Senate is expected to take up consideration of the Democrats' stimulus bill this week after the House of Representatives approved a smaller $825 billion bill last week without the support of a single Republican. Congress is rushing to meet a mid-February deadline set by Obama for enacting the legislation aimed at lifting the economy out of a 13-month-long recession. Some of the controversial projects in the huge U.S. economic stimulus package are seen as valuable bargaining chips in winning support from skeptical Republicans. The No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Richard Durbin of Illinois, said Democrats were open to Republican amendments to the stimulus package. "We've said to them, 'We're open about this. Come to us with your ideas, if you want to make changes and offer amendments,'" Durbin said on "Fox News Sunday". Another top Republican, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, said he saw support for the stimulus bill eroding and said "major structural changes" were needed to win Republican support. "You have to start from scratch and reconstruct this," Kyl, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, told "Fox News Sunday." Senate Democrats were receptive to amendments to boost infrastructure spending and to impose stricter oversight of the $700 billion bailout program for banks and Wall Street known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, The House bill was estimated to cost $825 billion, but might be closer to $819 billion when accounting for its future impact on the deficit. The Senate bill, with different tax components, would come close to $900 billion.
