DENVER -- Online, on the phone and on the streets, Coloradoans are closely following the debate over the stimulus plan.

Former Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain has created a Web site petition urging Washington politicians to reject the plan.

Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado is getting up to 100 calls a day from his constituents. Bennet was named to replace Ken Salazar in the Senate last month, so this is the first time his office has been heavily lobbied by voters.

Senate moderates worked to cut tens of billions of dollars from economic stimulus legislation Thursday in hopes of clearing the way for passage as the government spit out grim new jobless figures and President Barack Obama warned of more bad news ahead.

With partisan tensions rising, a Republican alternative with higher tax cuts and far less spending than the administration favors was defeated on a pure party-line vote, 57-40. Other GOP attempts to make significant changes in the bill appeared doomed, as well.

"The time for talk is over. The time for action is now," declared Obama as the Senate plodded through a fourth day of debate on the legislation. He implored lawmakers in both parties to "rise to this moment."

Obama added he would "love to see additional improvements" in the bill, a gesture to the moderates from both parties who were at work trying to trim the $920 billion price tag.

Increasingly, the events that mattered most were not the long roll calls on the Senate floor, but the private conversations in which the White House and Democratic leaders sought -- either with the support of a large group of centrist lawmakers or without them -- to clear the bill at the heart of the president's recovery program.