Big Fuss Over Down-Sized Jobs Bill
Feb 23rd, 2010 | 10 responses
Senate Republicans have the Democrats so spooked with the threat of filibusters that a scaled down $15 billion jobs bill from an original $85 billion to help get thousands of Americans back to work while millions remain on the dole is being spun by both sides as a major victory.
That’s like shooting beebees at a tank.
And, wouldn’t you know the new kid on the block, Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, cast the vote that turned four other Republicans to vote against the filibuster 62-30 allowing an up and down majority floor vote Wednesday.
It amazes me of all the fuss. This thing is a can of peanuts compared to a much broader approach brewing in the House. Merging their two bills will be a piece of work. Now that compromise will be awesome, by comparison.
Just listen to the crowing from both parties.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. — “Today, jobs triumphed over politics.”
President Barack Obama — “The American people want to see Washington put aside partisan differences and make progress on jobs, and today the Senate took one important step forward in doing that.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R- Kentucky – “Millions of Americans want to get back to work. That’s why Republicans will offer ideas that will make it easier for businesses to hire new workers. Those ideas should be considered, too.”
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. — “I hope this is a beginning of a new day here in the Senate.”
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine – “We have to demonstrate outside the Beltway and to Americans that we need to move forward initiatives that are going to benefit small businesses and individuals in a tough economy.”
Brown — “It is the first step in creating jobs, not only for the people of Massachusetts but for the people of the country.”
After Brown’s vote, other Republicans that followed were Senators Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, George V. Voinovich of Ohio and Christopher S. Bond of Missouri. Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska was the lone Democrat vote in favor of the parliamentary roadblock.
Keep that up Sen. Brown and your supporters might convince the skeptics you’re the real deal.
And, what’s the big deal?
An unknown number of shovel-ready construction jobs to repair America’s decaying infrastructure. The bill would infuse billions into the nation’s highway construction fund.
The provision would allow businesses to write off up to $250,000 in capital investments in 2010 rather than depreciating the costs over time. It is projected to cost the government $35 million over 10 years. About $13 billion would give companies who hire unemployed Americans an exemption from paying payroll taxes on those workers through the end of this year. It also provides a $1,000 tax credit to employers who keep new workers on the payroll for at least for 52 weeks.
During yesterday’s debate, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., declared “Enough with the political games,” believing his Republican colleagues still were toying with the Democrats. That is before the Republicans faked him out of his jock strap. His caucus was prepared to call repeated votes to force Republicans to explain why they were balking at the measure they supported.
As I said. The Republicans have spooked the Democrats and got them in their cross-hairs. Bang. Bang.
Only in American politics can a band aide serve the purpose of a tourniquet.
10 Responses to “Big Fuss Over Down-Sized Jobs Bill”
As if the public should require even more evidence that congress is out of touch. What a bunch of clowns.
If the Democrats had not turned the Porkulus Bill into a give-away for their union friends and other political paybacks, perhaps there would be more willingness to 'spend big'.
The fact we are to the point that $15B is now considered unworthy of being spent is really quite remarkable. The other fact that is being ignored is most of the supporters are calling this 'a good first step'.
What another wild, crazy concept. Let's allocate a very large sum of money, but not ALL the money some want to spend, and then see what next steps are warranted. Sounds vaguely like prudence, but I have to admit I have a hard time believing Congress is capable of that under any circumstances.
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“If the Democrats had not turned the Porkulus Bill into a give-away for their union friends and other political paybacks, perhaps there would be more willingness to 'spend big'. “
…
“Jenkins, look! The subject, who previously has poutraged over Democrat desire to pass a HC reform bill before tackling employment issues, is trying to blame GOP recalcitrance on a JOBS bill on Democrats.”
“We've succeeded, Goldthwaite; we've successfully managed to turn a human being into a perfect automaton!”
Brown is the new McCain. He's being groomed to fill the role of luring in unwary moderate dems and independents. He's going to serve as the poster-child for “why your state should vote republican instead of democratic”. Dems need to really kick some butt now because the only thing they have to offer voters is action to balance the slimey appeal this new McCain will have.
Part of the nature of this bill may be just the wallowing the Dems are doing right now, after their failures last year and mainstream repudiation of them. To regain respect they have to scale down what they were doing before. (That includes their first big fizzle, the badly done earlier stimulus.) Is this bill and example of too much scaling-down? They could just be still jittery and muddled. (Such an approach to health care reform would be welcome as well as overdue given their misconduct there.)
“We've succeeded, Goldthwaite; we've successfully managed to turn a human being into a perfect automaton!”
Well Igor, with a little bit of tweaking and reconciliation, we can turn him into a perfectly good monster.
Careful, we need to get him toilet trained ASAP.
“'We've succeeded, Goldthwaite; we've successfully managed to turn a human being into a perfect automaton!'”
I thought people like John Kenneth Galbraith or Noam Chomsky had told us that already (advertising).
“Brown is the new McCain.”
I don't share your view that Brown is something like a Trojan Horse and pleasant figurehead alternative to Obama for the Dems, who is fully appropriate, functional, and stronger than Brown probably could ever be, Sil, but it's interesting, as I noted elsewhere. (I don't view the “RINO” as an evil kind of Potemkin-village false front or Trojan Horse marketing ploy that I viewed the post-1994 “Third Way” campaign of the Democrats — they really do have the problem of convincing people they are safe and sane.)
I had joked that Brown might be Romney's VP choice, but it's eerie that Romney has now joined Palin in endorsing John McCain in his contest against J.D. Hayworth. This is the same kind of endorsement in the same kind of race as when George W. Bush supported Arlen Specter (a well-known RINO who should have been a Democrat years ago, as should Collins and Snowe, etc.) against Pat Toomey. (In the latter case, it was an example of “compassionate conservative” Bush, where “compassion” is a deliberate euphemism for a liberal big-spending- and big-government-friendly set of views and tendencies.)
Well, Brown might now really be a currently-superficial VP candidate in 2012 and a marketing ploy, but you'd have a deeper joke on hand in viewing the current Palin and Romney endorsements as, yes, a “safe and sane” appeal.