Replies to post #495686 on Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[fuagf]

Republicans kill Senate jobless aid measure
By ANDREW TAYLOR (AP) – 34 minutes ago

WASHINGTON — Republicans on Thursday defeated Democrats' showcase election-year jobs bill, including an extension of weekly unemployment benefits for millions of people out of work more than six months.

The 57-41 vote fell three votes short of the 60 required to crack a GOP filibuster, delivering a major blow to President Barack Obama and Democrats facing big losses of House and Senate seats in the fall election.

The rejected bill would have provided $16 billion in new aid to states, preserving the jobs of thousands of state and local government workers and providing what White House officials called an insurance policy against a double-dip recession. It included dozens of tax breaks sought by business lobbyists and tax increases on domestically produced oil and on investment fund managers.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs accused Republicans of blocking a commonsense economic package aimed at helping Americans suffering in the recession. "The president has been clear: Americans should not fall victim to Republican obstruction at a time of great economic challenge for our nation's families," Gibbs said in a statement. "The president will continue to press Congress to pass this bill and bring this relief that's critical to our economic recovery."

The demise of the bill means that unemployment benefits will phase out for more than 200,000 people a week. Governors who had been counting on federal aid will now have to consider a fresh round of budget cuts, tax hikes and layoffs of state workers.

"This is a bill that would remedy serious challenges that American families face as a result of this Great Recession," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the chief author of the bill. "This is a bill that works to build a stronger economy. This is a bill to put Americans back to work."

The bill had been sharply pared back after weeks of negotiations with GOP moderates Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine. The most recent version, unveiled Wednesday night, contained new cuts to food stamps and scaled back the state aid provision to allow Democrats to claim the measure was fully paid for except for the unemployment insurance extension.

That didn't move Republicans like Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

"It adds new taxes and over $30 billion to an already staggering $13 trillion dollar national debt," said McConnell.

Only one Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, voted with Republicans. Another, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, did not vote.

After the Senate vote, the House passed by a 417-1 vote a measure to reverse a 21 percent federal fee cut imposed last week on doctors providing care to seniors on Medicare. That measure was one of the most important contained in the now-dead catchall bill, but it was broken out and passed separately by the Senate last week.

The House's move sent the stand-alone Medicare fee fix to Obama for his signature.

Democrats hope that political pressure from voters outraged about the cutoff of jobless benefits averaging $300 a week and from business groups seeking renewal of longstanding tax breaks might eventually revive the bill.

The latest version of the measure contained a variety of provisions sought by lawmakers in both parties, anchored by the jobless aid and dozens of tax cuts sought by the business groups. It would add $33 billion to the deficit — down from the $80 billion deficit impact of the measure when it came to the floor two weeks ago.

The catchall measure included farm disaster aid, $1 billion for a youth summer jobs initiative and an extension of a bond program that subsidizes interest costs for state and local infrastructure projects. It would levy a new tax on investment fund managers but extend tax breaks such as lucrative credits that help businesses finance research and develop new products, and a sales tax deduction that mainly helps people in states without income taxes.

The death of the measure meant that more than 200,000 people a week would lose their jobless benefits because they would be unable to reapply for additional tiers of benefits enacted since 2008. People seeking the popular homebuyer tax credit would be denied a paperwork extension approved by the Senate last week. And state and local governments would lose subsidies on bonds they issue to finance infrastructure projects.

It included $4.6 billion to settle a long-running class-action lawsuit brought by black farmers against the Agriculture Department for discrimination and another by American Indians involving the government's management and accounting of more than 300,000 trust accounts.

By the end of this week, more than 1.2 million people will have lost their jobless benefits since
a temporary extension expired at the beginning of the month, according to Labor Department estimates.

Thirty states had been counting on federal support to help balance their budgets for the fiscal year beginning next week since a $24 billion version had earlier passed both House and Senate. Without the money, governors warn they'll have to lay off tens of thousands of workers.

Crestfallen Democrats tried in vain to win support from moderate Republicans Snowe, Collins and Scott Brown of Massachusetts. They voted in March to defeat a filibuster.

"The debt is out of control," Brown said. "Since I did that last time, the debt's at over $13 trillion and rising."

The bill had long been considered a must-pass measure, but the political sands had shifted since it was first passed in March. That vote came in the wake of a political scalding for Republicans after Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., blocked a short-term extension of jobless aid.

In the interim, however, the debt crisis in Europe and growing anxiety on deficits and debt
among voters turned Republicans against the legislation, even though it was cut considerably.

Most of the measure — except for a six-month extension of jobless benefits for people who have been out of work for more than six months — was financed with offsetting tax increases or spending cuts. Congress has always approved additional unemployment benefits as a deficit-financed emergency measure.

Democratic leaders said they bent over backwards to accommodate demands by Republicans for a smaller measure. Among the cuts revealed Wednesday was a more than $10 billion cut from last year's stimulus bill, mostly by paring back food stamp benefits by about $11 a month per beneficiary.

"They asked to have it reduced, we did it," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. "They asked to have it paid for, we did it."

Just before the vote, Snowe said she opposed the measure because of new taxes on small businesses. She said Democrats had gone back on an offer to delete a tax provision aimed at small businesses that shelter income as dividends exempt from payroll taxes.

Snowe said the measure was drafted too broadly and would have ensnared businesses that were not abusing the system.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gBPaHA8wyvhZsKWPW8Uxp30QpfqgD9GHVPM01

[BullNBear52]

There is an easy way to fix this problem.

For every job that is outsourced by American corporations tax them for the loss of tax revenues, FICA, Fed and state taxes.

You ship a job overseas that was based in the US you will be required to make up for the lost revenue in taxes.

The pain won't be too bad because remember they won't be paying the salary and benefits for the employee. Just the taxes that would have been withheld and the employer taxes.

Why should we be giving companies federal tax credits for hiring employees but not penalizing them for shipping jobs overseas at the same time?

[StephanieVanbryce]

The Republican Party has ignored the American Dream with its legislative block.

Voting Down the American Dream



Latest news from the Senate: In the face of our current recession, Republicans have decided to firmly oppose pursuit of the American dream.

With a vote on the horizon, the sun seems to be setting on Democratic hopes for a Jobs Bill. By opposing this bill, Republicans are overtly denying Americans the ability to put this crushing recession behind them so that we can begin to pull ourselves out of our debt, secure employment, and get back on the track to achieving our American dreams.

Even despite all the cuts to the bill that have certainly weakened its effectiveness, its passage is a crucial step toward recovery. By including state aid, the bill would not only help mitigate devastating budget cuts to state-funded education, preventative care, and other programs that are essential to our future preparedness, it would each dollar in this jobs bill was even more effective than stimulus spending could have been. With state aid, the money for job creation in this bill can be used for NEW jobs, instead of being used to desperately plug sinking state budgets. State aid puts us on a flatter playing field–gives people the potential to recover. It gives more Americans the opportunity to be innovative, entrepreneurial, hard-working contributors to America’s recovery.

Further, though deficit hawks like to justify their opposition to smart spending by likening it to generational theft, young people in America will likely be the most injured by failure to pass jobs legislation. Unemployment amongst young people has consistently exceeded other age groups, with the unemployment rate for 16-19 year olds at approximately two and a half times the national average over the last few months. Millennials, like myself, also face crushing student loan debt, leading to credit card debt and an unstable foundation during our first years as wage earners. Finally, over our lifetimes, we have the most to lose. The lower wages that we earn now will follows us for decades. On the aggregate, we will be poorer, unable to save as much money for retirement, less prepared to our children’s education, and less capable of investing in our communities, our ideas, and our futures. My generation–the largest ever to grow up in America–is talented, innovative, engaged, community-minded, and struggling. New job opportunities, extended unemployment benefits to finance our ongoing job hunts, and state aid to ensure continued investment in our preparedness is not generational theft. I promise you.

Bottom line: Despite allegations by Republicans and deficit hawks, the jobs bill is simply not a contribution to America’s debt. It is a crucial investment in the country’s fiscal future. I thought fiscal health was a priority of both parties? What about innovation? An American’s ability to pursue the American dream? The right of workers to use their labor to feed their families? Something about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…?

http://www.newdeal20.org/2010/06/24/voting-down-the-american-dream-13320/

Thursday, 06/24/2010 - 10:37 am by Hilary Doe