Pelosi: No Sleep Till Stimulus

That Nancy Pelosi sure is a slave driver!

The House speaker told colleagues Thursday that they’re not going home for their regular mid-February recess until they finish their homework. That homework, of course, is the entirely necessary economic stimulus package, which still has to be hammered out and sent to the White House for the soon-to-be-president’s final approval. And whatever the House does, the Senate likely will follow suit.

And, really, who can blame her? The economy’s in the toilet, people are wondering what happened to all that bailout money we spent to get things moving and there seems to be no end in sight. In fact, we learned today that 524,000 jobs were lost in December alone. That’s frightening. Plus, in his big economic speech Thursday, Barack Obama essentially told lawmakers to plan on all-nighters until they can finalize his $775 billion plan.

"I know the scale of this plan is unprecedented, but so is the severity of our situation. We have already tried the wait-and-see approach to our problems, and it is the same approach that helped lead us to this day of reckoning," Obama said. "That’s why I’m asking Congress to work with me and my team day and night, on weekends if necessary, to get the plan passed in the next few weeks."

But don’t expect smooth sailing. Senate Democrats complained that the president-elect’s plans aren’t ambitious enough and should focus more on creating jobs and rebuilding the nation’s energy infrastructure, rather than cutting taxes. Despite her determination to get the job done, Pelosi may go head-to-head with Obama on the Bush-era tax cuts. She wants them repealed "as early as possible," but Obama’s now saying that because the economy is so bad, he may just allow them to expire.

"Put me down as clearly as you possibly can as one who wants to have those tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans repealed," said Pelosi, who thinks that the $250,000 income threshold may be a good place to start raising taxes.

Before they talk stimulus, though, the House will debate the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, aimed at assuring women equal pay for equal work. This was a big talking point for Obama on the campaign trail. Let’s hope Congress can get moving fast on that one. Because, frankly, it’s about time.