With their vote on a motion to proceed, the Senate avoids even a real debate on the jobs bill. The BBC:

Forty-six Republican senators joined with two Democrats to filibuster the $447bn (£287bn) bill.

Democratic support for the bill wavered this week, as several Democrats said they would vote for moving the bill forward, but against the bill itself.

Republicans opposed the measure over its spending to stimulate the economy and its tax rise on millionaires.

Joe Nocera today, in a column arguing that this time, it really is different on a paper from the New America Foundation entitled The Way Forward: Moving From the Post-Bubble, Post-Bust Economy to Renewed Growth and Competitiveness:

How can we break this cycle? Like most mainstream economists, Alpert, Hockett and Roubini roll their eyes at the calls for immediate government deficit reduction, which led to the creation of the supercommittee. Reducing government spending in the short term will only make things worse.

Instead, they believe that this is perhaps the best time in recent history for the government to take on a sustained infrastructure program, lasting from five to seven years, to create jobs and demand. “Labor costs will never be lower,” says Hockett. “Equipment costs will never be lower. The cost of capital will never be lower. Why wait?” Their plan calls for $1.2 trillion in spending — not all by the government, but all overseen by government — that would add 5.2 million jobs each year of the program. Alpert says that current ideas, like tax cuts, meant to stimulate the economy indirectly, just won’t work for a problem as big the one we are facing. Indeed, so far, they haven’t.

You don’t have to be all that cynical to believe Republicans will allow nothing of the sort to pass.