Pelosi Asks Senate To Tread Lightly On Stimulus Deal

The House will pass the $150 billion economic stimulus package today, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi is already worried about whether the Senate will make a mess of her delicately negotiated deal.

The Senate Finance Committee has released a significantly larger economic package, with more business tax breaks, unemployment insurance and rebates for senior citizens. But the Senate proposal would get rid of the House-proposed income cap on tax rebates, meaning upper income tax payers would get $500 or $1000 checks in the mail from Uncle Sam.

Pelosi (D-Calif.) warns that this would undermine the idea that the stimulus package should be targeted to lower and middle class people. She says that in previous stimulus legislation, upper income people simply put their rebate checks in the banks and did little to help economic growth.

"We hope a focus on middle income and low income people is maintained by the Senate," Pelosi said at her weekly press conference Tuesday morning.

Under the House bill that will see a vote today, individuals making up to $75,000 a year would get $600 and households making up to $150,000 a year would receive $1,200, plus $300 per child. These income caps were a critical part of negotiations between Pelosi and the White House, since she sacrificed social welfare proposals like unemployment insurance in order to get a deal done.

House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), went further Monday night, saying the Senate was "on thin ice" and getting rid of income caps could derail the entire deal.

The Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Max Baucus (D-Mont.), also wants to add a 13-week extension for unemployment, but Pelosi said unemployment insurance benefits could be approved at a later point this year and might not be needed on this particular stimulus deal.