Shenanigans On The "Jobs Bill"

So the House passed a "jobs bill" that was highly partisan, very liberal, and basically consisted of more government spending... stimulus II. They sent it to the Senate, who ignored it for a while. Then Scott Brown got elected, and the Senate decided they needed a more "balanced" bill. So they scrapped the House bill and Reid asked Baucus to come up with a "bipartisan" jobs bill. Massive spending disappeared and was replaced by tax incentives. The centerpiece was a provision to give businesses a $5,000 tax credit for each new employee hired.

And then Reid killed the Baucus compromise bill and replaced it with a smaller bill that was written by Democrats. Why? Because liberal Democrats were upset that the bill wasn't liberal enough.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32850.html

Members of the Senate Finance Committee unveiled a long-awaited bipartisan jobs bill Thursday morning — only to have it scrapped within hours by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The Nevada Democrat killed the bill after hearing complaints from members of his own caucus, who argued that Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) had gone too far beyond the core goal of job creation in order to win over Republican support.

Reid said his bill would include four basic provisions: Build America bonds, a small-business tax program that allows quick expense write-offs, a one-year extension of the highway act and a bipartisan tax-credit deal struck by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Nobody really believes that this bill will do much, if anything, to generate job growth. But then, as long as they LOOK LIKE they're doing SOMETHING, they really don't care if it is effective or not.


Reid's move stunned many Democrats.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32878.html

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid led colleagues and the White House to believe he supported a bipartisan jobs bill — only to scuttle the plan as soon as it was released Thursday over concerns it could be used to batter Democratic incumbents, according to Senate sources.

But as Baucus, Grassley and President Barack Obama were preparing to celebrate a rare moment of bipartisan Kumbaya on Thursday, Reid stunned a meeting of Senate Democrats by announcing he was scrapping Baucus-Grassley, replacing it with a much cheaper, more narrowly crafted, $15 billion version.

"Grassley and three to four Republicans would have voted for it, but all the other Republicans would have beaten the living s—t out of us [during the 2010 midterms], claiming the bill was too bloated," said a Democrat who supported Reid's decision, explaining the leader's logic.

Few felt as good about the decision: Republicans say the about-face will only add to an already poisonous partisan atmosphere, liberal Democrats think the bill is too small to do much good and the powerful negotiators of the bipartisan package were left embarrassed, demoralized and befuddled.

Aides to Baucus and Grassley said their bosses didn't know of Reid's decision when they unveiled their bill early Thursday – and expected it to have the leader's support.

Democrat Blanche Lincoln really ripped Reid for his highly partisan action.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32903.html

"Most Americans don't honestly believe that a single political party has all the good ideas. We're not going to accomplish anything until we start governing from the center. I hope the majority leader will reconsider.

It's unusual for a rank-and-file Democrat to publicly criticize her own caucus leader, but Lincoln is one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents in the Senate, which may be why she's pushing a more bipartisan jobs bill that was introduced by Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.).

Nancy Pelosi, whose huge spending-oriented bill was scrapped in favor of this dinky little proposal, was tepid at best about it.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32895.html

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered tepid praise for the scaled-down Senate jobs bill Friday, saying that her members "look forward to reviewing" the package.

The Senate bill, however, is a dramatic comedown compared with the $154 billion jobs package the House passed last year. The more limited, $15 billion bill Sen. Harry Reid introduced Thursday focuses far more on tax provisions — although he's promised to take up additional proposals later in the year.

Pelosi indicated in her statement that she'd like to see the "critical pieces" of her bill passed, including infrastructure investments, job training initiatives and funding for local governments.

In my personal opinion, if you want to know why the Democrats are doing so poorly at legislating is because they are fighting amongst themselves. They look fragmented and disorganized because they ARE fragmented and disorganized.

Which is good for this country.