Replies to post #92920 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[wbmw]

Democratic jobs bill advances past GOP filibuster

HGE, you might be encouraged by this article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100223/ap_on_bi_ge/us_congress_jobs

WASHINGTON – A bipartisan jobs bill cleared a GOP filibuster on Monday with critical momentum provided by the Senate's newest Republican, Scott Brown of Massachusetts.

I never would have thought, given some of his comments during the election, but this is good news. He was also joined by 4 other GOP'ers to vote in favor of cloture (the two Maine (R) Senators, of course, and 2 others I hadn't heard of).

You might also like this part: :-) :-) :-)

The bill featured four provisions that enjoyed sweeping bipartisan support, including a measure exempting businesses hiring the unemployed from Social Security payroll taxes through December and giving them another $1,000 credit if new workers stay on the job a full year.

Though employers seldom make hiring decisions based on tax breaks, economist Mark Zandi says the measure could potentially create 250,000 new private-sector jobs. That's less than 4 percent of the 8.4 million jobs lost in the recession.