WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he is confident Republicans will come around to support the final version of his economic recovery legislation.
Obama said Sunday that he would like Republicans to eventually support the $819 billion bill that passed the U.S. House last week without a single GOP vote. Obama says he expects some Senate Republicans to vote for it when it heads to them this week.
“I am confident that by the time we actually have the final package on the floor, that we are going to see substantial support [from Republicans],” he said. “People are going to see that this is a serious effort. It has no earmarks [and] we’re going to be trimming things out that are not relevant to putting people back to work right now.”
However, he says the important thing is that the bill passes, not the tally by party vote.
Obama also told NBC's Matt Lauer during a live pre-Super Bowl interview that his administration would announce plans to spend the second $350 billion of a bank bailout after Congress deals with the separate economic recovery plan.
