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  3. Moving far more quickly than many had thought likely or possible, lawmakers

Moving far more quickly than many had thought likely or possible, lawmakers

游客2023-08-12  56
问题     Moving far more quickly than many had thought likely or possible, lawmakers in the 10-member House-Senate committee announced the agreement after less than 24 hours of negotiations. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: "Like any negotiation, this involved give and take, and if you don’t mind my saying so that is an understatement."
    The agreement drops the total to $789 billion, while both Senate and House-passed measures exceeded $800 billion. A combination of low and middle income tax cuts, making up about 35 percent of the bill, and domestic spending, its supporters say it meets President Barack Obama’s goal of creating or saving as many as 4 million jobs.
    Susan Collins of Maine was among only 3 moderate Senate Republicans who joined the Democratic majority there. She says money trimmed from the bill reflects an effort to focus it more sharply to help the economy. "It is a fiscally-responsible number that reflects our efforts to truly focus this bill on programs, and policies and tax relief that will help turn our economy around, create jobs and provide relief to the families of our country," she said. Collins also pointed out the agreement increases spending on infrastructure projects, more than $150 billion in the proposed measure.
    Republican opponents kept up their criticisms, primarily that the measure contains untargeted spending and not the right level of tax relief. House Republican leader John Boehner voiced disappointment with the agreement, repeating his assertion that the measure will not create jobs quickly enough. "It appears that 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," he said.
    But Senator Arlen Specter, another moderate Republican who worked with Democrats, said action was required. "This is obviously a very difficult vote in view of the large deficit and national debt which we have, but I believe it is indispensable, that strong action be taken," he said.
    White House aides, including Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, joined in the negotiations on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers behind the agreement hope a final conference report will be ready in the next 2 days that the House and Senate will vote on. Approval would send the legislation to President Obama for signature.
    An eventual Senate vote is expected to mirror earlier results in which majority Democrats, with help from the 3 Republicans, achieved the 60 votes needed to overcome any procedural block. It remains to be seen how a vote will turn out in the House, where no Republicans supported a House-passed measure, but where Democrats hold a strong enough majority to pass measures easily. House Republican leaders declined to predict Wednesday how many in their party might support final legislation. [br] Arlen Specter most probably thought that _____.
选项 A、some senators would become undetermined in the process of voting
B、the economic problems should be solved immediately
C、deficit and national debt shouldn’t have been neglected
D、the measures in the agreement would not be as effective as expected
答案 B
解析 第5段提到了Arlen Specter认为“必须采取行动”，再结合上下文可知他认为必须立刻采取行动解决经济问题，因此选B。Specter虽提及a very difficult vote，但原文并没有指出这是因为参议院在投票时犹豫不决，因此A不正确；文中虽出现了deficit和national debt这些字眼，但Specter没提及不能忽视这些，故排除C：D文中没有提及。
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