National voices

Senate shouldn't tinker with economic stimulus deal

Senate Democrats are eagerly tossing the House leadership under the bus by provoking a confrontation with the White House over the economic stimulus package.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other high-ranking House Democrats put aside partisan differences with the Bush administration last week to hammer out a quick deal designed to head off a recession. The plan includes rebates of $600 or $1,200 for many individuals and couples who paid income taxes, and many who did not. ...

But the Senate is poised to lard up the stimulus and revive provisions on which House Democrats compromised with the president. ... Instead, Democrats in the upper chamber are seeking to increase the size of the package by -- among other things -- adding an expansion of unemployment benefits and making many more people eligible to receive "rebates" who didn't pay any income taxes at all. ...

Adjusting the income caps to ensure more members of the middle and upper-middle class are eligible may be warranted. But any more tinkering than that in the Senate would be counterproductive.

LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, JAN. 31

Fans of the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees can exhale now. Johan Santana, arguably the most dominant left-hander in baseball since Sandy Koufax, won't be pitching for either team next season.

The Yankees and Red Sox had for two months made an all-too-public display of their interest in acquiring the two-time Cy Young Award winner from the Minnesota Twins. But it was the New York Mets, given little chance of winning the Santana sweepstakes, that quietly made an offer the Twins couldn't refuse. ...

Sports experts say he could help turn the Mets into one of the most dynamic teams in baseball for years to come. If he lives up to the hype, local cable companies might have to reconsider their decision to not carry Mets games.

HARTFORD COURANT, JAN. 31

Though no bids or offers have been made, Delta Airlines is talking merger with both United Airlines and Northwest Airlines. This means air travel likely could get even worse before it gets better. ...

Mergers today represent a search for efficiency.

You achieve efficiency if you can operate with fewer people or get more work out of the people you have, and when crude oil has been costing $100 a barrel all the airlines are under tremendous pressure.

With the nation's major airlines filling 80.5 percent of their available seats in the first 10 months of last year, it's hard to see where new efficiencies are going to come from, but the airlines should be allowed to try if they think they can make a deal. Any move by Congress or government agencies to block a merger could be a slow death sentence for one or more of the companies, barring a collapse in the price of oil. ...

BOSTON HERALD, JAN. 24