You’ve heard it again and again on TV as the President travels around the country to campaign for 2012 sell his “jobs” bill: the Republicans are to blame for not passing it “right now.”
(zero)bama even went all patronizing, and said he’d “break it down into smaller pieces, so the Republicans could understand it.” They did already understand it, and just because it’s a smaller piece of excrement, it doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. So, it’s interesting to note that Senate Democrats jumped on board with the Republicans to stall the latest attempt to pass a piece of the “jobs” bill. (from the PJ Tatler):
After halting President Obama’s entire $447 billion jobs-stimulus bill last week, the Senate blocked a $35 billion slice of the package in a late-night filibuster vote Thursday that highlighted the lingering questions among both parties over the White House’s plans.
The 50-50 vote fell 10 short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill, and saw two Democrats and one independent join with all 47 Republicans in sustaining a bipartisan filibuster.
“Four out of every five Americans who would pay higher taxes are small business owners. That doesn’t sound like a jobs bill to me,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, Tennessee Republican.
Minutes later the Senate also blocked Republicans’ counter-proposal, which would have repealed a requirement that would have withheld 3 percent of payments from all government contractors beginning in 2013 — something all sides say is burdensome, but which they can’t agree on how to pay for.
The bill came much closer to seeing action, falling just three votes shy of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster. Ten Democrats joined with all Republicans in the chamber to try to advance the bill.
