Purple People Vote

Not only has public opinion polls shown a dramatic drop in public approval for the stimulus, but CNN reports that the phone lines on Capitol Hill are jammed with calls from angry voters.

The recent debate over the nearly $900 billion economic stimulus plan and revelations of tax problems by three Obama administration appointees have voters angrily jamming phone lines on Capitol Hill to air their frustrations to their elected representatives.

Their reactions are putting pressure on Congress and benefiting watchdog groups on both sides of the political aisle.

Capitol operators tell CNN Radio that phone lines have been jammed for the past two weeks, sometimes prompting busy signals.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, said calls on the sweeping stimulus plan jumped from eight during all of January to hundreds a day now.

In a sampling of 12 Senate offices, half had so many messages that their voicemail boxes were full.

Senator Lindsey Graham is also upset with the way President Obama has handled the bill, citing a lack of leadership…

Republican senators and congressmen have been reluctant to direct any criticism at the president since his inauguration. They mostly have fired shots at Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, saying they have obstructed the bipartisan process Obama sought.

But Graham broke that practice after Obama granted a round of interviews defending his plan Tuesday and wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post Thursday in which he warned of disastrous consequences if Congress does not pass the stimulus bill.

“Scaring people is not leadership. Writing an editorial that if you don’t pass this bad bill we’re going to have disaster — we’ve had enough presidents trying to scare people to make bad decisions,” Graham said.

“I like President Obama, but he is not leading. Having lunch is not leading … and doing TV interviews is not leading.”

With a number of moderates from both parties trying to cut the waste from the stimulus bill and voters upset with the amount of government waste in this bill, the Senate still defeated an ammendment to cut wasteful spending.  There is still no coherent defense for all the waste included in this stimulus package, as consequently support for this package continues to erode.