GOP Blocks Key Part of Obama Jobs Bill

04 November 2011 |permalink | email article

With Senate minority leader Mitch (No) McConnell leading the charge, on Thursday the body shot down another component of President Obama’s $447 billion jobs bill. With a stalemated Congress lawmakers fumble through motions in a lackluster legislative effort to spur growth the reality is each party wants to blame the other for its failure to act.

The measure needed 60 votes to move to a full debate but all 47 Senate Republicans joined by Democrats Nelson of Nebraska and Independent Lieberman to kill the measure, which would have been funded with 0.7 percent surtax on those making more than one million dollars a years. Even though Obama said the bill was paid for and was the kind of common-sense proposal that would have sailed through in the past Republicans opposed it because it included tax increases.

With jobs legislation stuck lawmakers are awaiting the outcome of a bipartisan super committee on debt reduction aimed at cutting at least $1.2 trillion from the nation’s debt over the next decade – a proposal which needs to be backed by a majority of its 12 members.  But the committee remains at an impasse, with a Nov. 23 deadline looming. Should it remain With Senate minority leader Mitch (No) McConnell leading the charge the Senate Thursday shot down another of President Obama’s $447 billion jobs bill. With a stalemated Congress lawmakers fumble through motions in a lackluster legislative effort to spur growth when the reality is each party wants to blame the other for its failure to act.

With jobs legislation stuck lawmakers are awaiting the outcome of a bipartisan super committee on debt reduction aimed at cutting at least $1.2 trillion from the nation’s debt over the next decade – a proposal which needs to be backed by a majority of its 12 members.  But the committee remains at an impasse, with a Nov. 23 deadline looming. Should it remain automatic cuts in domestic discretionary spending and defense spending would go into effect – but not until 2013.

California Notebook

Gov. Jerry Brown could face a major problem in the next fiscal year. Assembly budget officials expect the Golden State to face a deficit of about $5 billion to $8 billion next fiscal year, higher than the $3.1 billion the governor projected, according to a legislative memo obtained by the Sacramento Bee. The memo doesn’t explain why Assembly officials believe the deficit may be larger than once projected, Worse case scenario: if experts decide by mid-December that the state will fall at least $1 billion short of the $4 billion mark, the state must impose “trigger: cuts to social services and possibly education depending on the shortfall.
Quotable

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward, quite of late, was asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” about Herman Cain’s comments that some observers interpreted as Cain not knowing that China has nuclear weapons. Woodward quipped, “That’s not a surprise.” Policy issues like that are not [Cain’s] focus…it’s not clear what his focus is.”

“His presidential bid was meant to be a lark, likely a gambit to increase speaking fees and book sales…It was, at its very core, a preposterous premise…But like the Duchy of Grand Fenwick in the Peter Sellers film, “The Mouse that Roared,” Cain found himself triumphant against all odds. “We are surprised we’re doing so well so fast.” Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank on the Herman Cain crack-up.

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