Washington (CNN) -- Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked the No.1 item on the president's congressional "to-do-list," refusing to allow a vote on a bill that would give tax breaks for companies that "insource" jobs to the U.S. from overseas while eliminating tax deductions for companies that move jobs abroad.
In voting against the bill, Republicans raised both substantive and procedural problems with the measure. The bill fell four votes short of the 60 needed to bring it to debate, with 42 voting against it. Four GOP senators -- Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Dean Heller of Nevada -- voted in favor of the bill.
With job creation the top issue this campaign season, and outsourcing being blamed as a big contributor to the high unemployment rate, Democrats saw the bill as an election-year winner. Sponsored by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, who is running for reelection, the bill made it to the top of the "to-do list" for Congress President Barack Obama unveiled earlier this year.
The Bring Jobs Home Act would provide a 20% tax break for the costs of moving jobs back to the United States and would rescind business expense deductions available to companies that are associated with the cost of moving operations overseas. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, had warned Democrats before the vote that his party would want to amend the bill -- possibly with hot-button issues like repealing the health care reform law or extending the Bush-era tax cuts for all income levels. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, responded that those amendments were not germane to the bill and he would not allow votes on them.
That door swings both ways, the Dems have blocked so many of the bills that the Reps have tried to put up for a vote so this doesn't surprise me. Call it payback.
That door swings both ways, the Dems have blocked so many of the bills that the Reps have tried to put up for a vote so this doesn't surprise me. Call it payback.
So many bills??? How about blocking the same bill 34 times... the repeal of ObamaCare.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
How about the oil pipeline bill that would also have created jobs.
AGAIN: THE PARTY OF NO!
On June 6th, the Senate opened debate on the Economic Development Revitalization Act of 2011, a bill to reauthorize and expand a long-running and consistently successful job-creation agency, the Economic Development Administration. The EDA has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support, and this reauthorization bill was introduced with bipartisan co-sponsorship and passed out of committee without any dissent from Republicans. But after two weeks of debate, the bill was unanimously filibustered by Republicans and has now been pulled from the floor.
Like the last jobs bill to die in the Senate, the bill was bogged down and ultimately killed by dozens of controversial and unrelated amendments that were submitted to it. Senate rules do not require amendments to be germane to the bill they are submitted to, so individual senators can choose to use any bill to force a vote on any of their pet issues. By the time the EDA bill was killed, 99 amendments had been submitted, and the list read like an overview of current hot-button political topics. The amendments included everything from raising the debt ceiling, to repealing health care reform, repealing financial regulatory reform, expanding offshore oil drilling, and more.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
That door swings both ways, the Dems have blocked so many of the bills that the Reps have tried to put up for a vote so this doesn't surprise me. Call it payback.
Payback?
Wow, you are one f*cked up individual to think it's OK the harm America, and Americans, just as long as your team gets a little payback. Seriously,what the f*ck is your major malfunction?
Oil pipeline that was going to create jobs? Oh wait, you're serious, let me laugh even harder. More domestic drilling permits have been issued in the last 3 years, than 8 years prior, but the oil industry is sitting on those permits. http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2.....-drilling-21290.html
That pipeline, was to bring Canadian oil to the gulf for transport overseas, risking the water supply for a good portion of our food supply, in the process. You are essentially advocating helping the Canadian oil industry, not the United State's. The amount of jobs that pipeline would yield, are a drop in the bucket in comparison, no matter which BS TV commercial you choose to fall for. My personal favorite is that it will revive the US steel industry, because we need them to make the pipes.
Oh that's right, you think that jobs will be created by the tax cuts for "the job creators". Well those tax cuts have been in place for 30 years now, so, where are the jobs?
The Republican plan, as outlined by the acting head of the Republican Party, Druggy Rush:
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Oh that's right, you think that jobs will be created by the tax cuts for "the job creators". Well those tax cuts have been in place for 30 years now, so, where are the jobs?
America is $15 Trillion in debt and trillions more in future obligations. THEY AREN'T COMING BACK! Not until AFTER the collapse. Companies that can, will keep their productive assets outside of America. I don't care WHAT "jobs bill" or "stimulus bill" congress passes. There is structural debt that has to be paid, and those people with assets aren't coming back to pay it.
The unions were for the project only the radical left environmentalist were opposed, off shore drilling and also opening up some of the oil reserve lands would also have created good paying jobs. Remember the Obama ban on all oil drilling in the gulf that put a lot of people out of work not just in the oil drilling but supply businesses as well. You only want to talk about all the bills that the Reps blocked but the ones the Dems blocked we can't mention.
Lawmakers have sent only 54 bills to President Obama so far this year, making it one of the least productive sessions on record. Most of the new laws are trivial.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
How long has it been since the country has had a budget? Obama had control of both houses for 2 years and still no budget but we got a lot of stimulus, plenty of joblessness, a barely alive economy, and a lot of failed green companies. We did get Obamacare, that most don't like, and a huge amount of debt and a future of high taxes to pay for it. This country doesn't need bills, Obama just uses executive orders to do what ever he wants.
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