Stimulus Deal Reached, What is in the Bill?

Some Senate Democrats are unhappy, too. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, says there is just not enough money in the bill for school construction.

"Every school in America will get 10,000 bucks if they're lucky," Harkin said, guessing that might be enough to buy two energy efficient windows. "And what's that going to do for them?" he asked. "We're trying to add new heating facilities. We're trying to add renovations. And doing it by formula doesn't do it."

Harkin says he'd ultimately vote for it, but he doesn't like the concessions made to get the support of the moderate Republicans.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a former Republican congressman from Illinois, told ABC News' Jake Tapper today that House members "like to be in the room when these things are put together. And they haven't been."

And that was evident as some House leaders openly expressed their disappointment. House leaders John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Eric Cantor, R-Va., said they had been kept in the dark about the negotiations.

"From everything I'm hearing about the so-called deal, I'm very disappointed," Boehner said. "It appears they have made a bad bill worse by reducing the amount of tax relief for American families and small businesses and adding more wasteful Washington spending."

Cantor asked: "My question is, what is the majority trying to hide?"

One member of the conference committee who did not attend the closed-door meeting, Rep. Jerry Lewis, the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement: "In the dead of night, Democrat congressional leaders and White House officials negotiated the almost trillion-dollar stimulus legislation without a scrap of public scrutiny or bipartisan involvement. I have never before in my 30 years in Congress seen such secrecy and blatant lack of regard for the American public. This begs the question: If the Democrat majority is so proud of this stimulus legislation, what are they hiding from?"

Democratic congressional leaders and White House officials huddled in Pelosi's office until after midnight Tuesday night, attempting to come to a final agreement. But the California Congresswoman was not present at Wednesday's proceedings. White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was a major player in the meetings and was present on Capitol Hill today during the negotiations. - ABC News Story

Do we really know what is in this new bill? I read here that the Democrats are mad because each school would only get $10,000, only enough for new windows, what is that gonna do? Well I say ask the President, he says winterizing will cut energy costs and the work of putting them in would add jobs. That is the sales pitch we got about Winterization.

Why are the President and the Democrats hiding this bill and doing it behind closed doors in the dead of the night? I could of swore that Candidate and President Elect Obama said that there was going to be more transparency. Is this what he calls transparency? WOW! We were sold a bill of goods and given the praverbial shaft.