The "compromise" version of the stimulus bill from the Senate is now available.  Our coalition partners at ReadtheStimulus.org have posted the PDF version, plain text, and have parsed it into a searchable database. 

The "compromise" process can be very roughly broken down like this:

• House passes $819 billion bill
• Senate takes bill, adds about $100 billion making it $920 billion
• Senate agonizes over compromise, finds around $93 billion to "cut" and claims bipartisan victory and fiscal responsibility in introducing an $827 billion bill

That's about $8 billion more than what the House sent to the Senate, and with the support of just 3 Republicans (Sens. Snowe, Collins, and Specter from what we've heard--call them, MoveOn is!) it is a stretch to call it bipartisan.  At least no more so than the bipartisan opposition to the bill in the House which had 11 Democrats voting against it. 

Our current understanding is that Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is going to have the vote Monday night around 5:30.  That will be just 42 hours after he made it available--not much time for the Senate or the people to read the 800-plus page bill. 

In response, FreedomWorks, along with many of our allies, have published an open letter to Sen. Reid and President Obama asking them to allow 5 days for public review of the bill that would be one of the largest shifts of control over the American economy to Washington in American history. 

We didn't pick a 5 day viewing period out of thin air.  President Obama said during his campaign that, in order to bring more transparency to the legislative process, he would post legislation online for 5 days before signing.  Unfortunately, he has already broken this promise, but we hope he, Sen. Reid, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi will use this opportunity to make good on it.